Well this is strangely meta.
The Journal of Medical Ethics has recently released a study on facebook and doctors.
The abstract is pretty short but I'll shorten it even more. Most doctors are themselves. (Use their name/ personal photo) and most automatically decline "friend requests" from patients.
I think this is an interesting reflection on the doctor-patient relationship. The patient feels strong enough toward the doctor to "want to know more" about them and the doctor is aware of the "professional" image that needs to be maintained. Also, while you might want to be "best buddies" with the person that makes your life/death decisions. They might not want to think of you in that way.
And another thing. Would patients start to disrespect their physicians if they knew more about them?
I wanted to find a video of a scene from house but no goes.
In this episode of House MD I'm linking you too, a patient essentially blackmails Foreman into doing what he wants because he's found a picture of Foreman and Thirteen online.
Doesn't that just suck?
I actually have great difficulty in "friending" co-workers. I do it occasionally because it might be a way to get a quick contact if I need to swap days or have a work related question. However, I feel like I'm taking a huge risk. Having felt repercussions previously from co-workers learning more about me I put a lot of thought into accepting friend requests or not.
It's a shame and very telling that I cannot be completely honest.
I'm a very open person. I'm pretty honest on here, but even I'll tell you there's plenty I'm not saying.
I wish we could live in an honest world, but we can't.
People are mean, vindictive and judgmental.
I want to be honest with people, but the few times I have been it's always come back to bite me.
People are only "ok" with who you are as long as you're who they want you to be.
Thanks world.
(Wow, what a totally aside rant.)
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
By any other name
I love this.
It's now called "Integrative Medicine." Not Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Those are a bunch of quacks.
These people practice "Integrative Medicine."
To "push the envelope" on Integrative Medicine John McCalahan submitted a bit on a new reflexology practice he "invented" by positioning the homulculus over the buttock.
You can only imagine how that would be practiced.
He talks about the Jerusalem Conference on Integrative Medcine's response to this amazing bit of quackery in this article for the British Medical Journal.
They loved it.
They asked for a presentation.
He declined.
Sad face. I would have liked to have seen that. ;)
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Long time, no blog.
Yet again. It seems life gets to be too much for me and I do not have the time to write. That and I haven't been able to find too much cool stuff in the world that I feel like sharing with people.
I could always talk about running and how great that is. Or work and how much that sucks. Or life and how awesome I am but, alas. That is sure to be boring.
Instead what I have for you is a TIL.
(Today I Learned)
TIL frog bladders can migrate to foreign bodies in a frog, envelop the particle then pee it out. Self-induced kidney-stone?
How amazing is that?
Yet again. It seems life gets to be too much for me and I do not have the time to write. That and I haven't been able to find too much cool stuff in the world that I feel like sharing with people.
I could always talk about running and how great that is. Or work and how much that sucks. Or life and how awesome I am but, alas. That is sure to be boring.
Instead what I have for you is a TIL.
(Today I Learned)
TIL frog bladders can migrate to foreign bodies in a frog, envelop the particle then pee it out. Self-induced kidney-stone?
How amazing is that?
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Ice ice baby
I feel great.
I can be anything.
Sigh. Feels great. Just finished running 13.1 miles. HALF-MARATHON!!
Today's long run was scheduled to be 12 miles. I glanced down at that mile marker when it hit and thought, "Screw that. So close!"
I am on such an adrenaline surge right now. Wrapped that up, came home, took an ice-cold shower. (Thanks to advice from Runner's World) and am feasting on Sarah's quesadillas. NOM NOM NOM.
Why the ice you say? Wouldn't it be better to let your muscles cool down gradually? Feels a lot better to take that warm shower and relax and the data is kind of conflicting.
This talks about the best way to ice. But is it really best to ice post run? It's better than downing a lot of NSAIDs. The ice provides that anti-inflammatory effect without kidney and liver damage. Leaving my vital organs more prepared to deal with the post race after-party.
I don't think I'm hard core enough to try the
Nah, I'll just blast myself with water a bit cooler than comfort for about 2-3 minutes. After all, I am still a wimp at heart.
I can be anything.
Sigh. Feels great. Just finished running 13.1 miles. HALF-MARATHON!!
Today's long run was scheduled to be 12 miles. I glanced down at that mile marker when it hit and thought, "Screw that. So close!"
I am on such an adrenaline surge right now. Wrapped that up, came home, took an ice-cold shower. (Thanks to advice from Runner's World) and am feasting on Sarah's quesadillas. NOM NOM NOM.
Why the ice you say? Wouldn't it be better to let your muscles cool down gradually? Feels a lot better to take that warm shower and relax and the data is kind of conflicting.
This talks about the best way to ice. But is it really best to ice post run? It's better than downing a lot of NSAIDs. The ice provides that anti-inflammatory effect without kidney and liver damage. Leaving my vital organs more prepared to deal with the post race after-party.
I don't think I'm hard core enough to try the
First, I fill my tub with two to three bags of crushed ice. Then I add cold water to a height that will cover me nearly to my waist when I sit in the tub. Before getting in, I put on a down jacket and a hat and neoprene booties, make myself a cup of hot tea, and collect some entertaining reading material to help the next 15 to 20 minutes pass quickly.type of ice bath David Terry MD and ultramarathoner does.
Nah, I'll just blast myself with water a bit cooler than comfort for about 2-3 minutes. After all, I am still a wimp at heart.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Bugs.
Bats aren't bugs.
Now that that's out of the way I'll continue with my second point.
Haven't blogged in a while. My bad. So what?
I'm currently uploading the audiobook "Dawn of the Dreadfuls" It's a prequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Which is pretty much the only Jane Austin I can stand.
What does this have to do with bugs? Nothing, except it's the excuse I have to sit at the computer and blog whilst it uploads.
Onto bugs.
Simon Lee from University of Nottingham will make you a bug lover. Well, sort of.
MRSA.
If you're a health care worker you know how annoying this four letter "word" is. Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
Now that that's out of the way I'll continue with my second point.
Haven't blogged in a while. My bad. So what?
I'm currently uploading the audiobook "Dawn of the Dreadfuls" It's a prequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Which is pretty much the only Jane Austin I can stand.
What does this have to do with bugs? Nothing, except it's the excuse I have to sit at the computer and blog whilst it uploads.
Onto bugs.
Simon Lee from University of Nottingham will make you a bug lover. Well, sort of.
MRSA.
If you're a health care worker you know how annoying this four letter "word" is. Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
S. aureus is a lovely little bacteria. When gram stained looks like a little group of grapes, (or is it bunch of grapes?) When grown on blood agar plates it causes hemolysis thus resulting in gold little colonies and therefore the "Aureus" name. (Latin)
Try as I might I can't get the computer to release the italics. So you must pay VERY CLOSE ATTENTION.
The "drug of choice" for staph WAS the "cillins"
However, because of misuse of antibiotics, evolution, etc. Most gram-positive little buggers have grown resistant. MRSA is the name for the "bugs" that are resistant. Therefore requiring a much lengthier hospital stay with stronger antibiotics (and eventually leading to more resistant strains...) The Netherlands currently has the lowest MRSA rates. (just another reason to go orange) here's a bit on why/how.
Simply. Wash your hands.
But if that's too much for you. Squish some cockroaches and EAT THEIR BRAINZ!
It all comes back to zombies in the end.
This is where you'll like Simon Lee. He and his research team have identified 9 molecules in cockroach brains that have the bactericidal potential to give us the edge over MRSA. They killed over 90% of the bacteria without harming human cells in their initial tests.
Sweet action.
Try as I might I can't get the computer to release the italics. So you must pay VERY CLOSE ATTENTION.
The "drug of choice" for staph WAS the "cillins"
However, because of misuse of antibiotics, evolution, etc. Most gram-positive little buggers have grown resistant. MRSA is the name for the "bugs" that are resistant. Therefore requiring a much lengthier hospital stay with stronger antibiotics (and eventually leading to more resistant strains...) The Netherlands currently has the lowest MRSA rates. (just another reason to go orange) here's a bit on why/how.
Simply. Wash your hands.
But if that's too much for you. Squish some cockroaches and EAT THEIR BRAINZ!
It all comes back to zombies in the end.
This is where you'll like Simon Lee. He and his research team have identified 9 molecules in cockroach brains that have the bactericidal potential to give us the edge over MRSA. They killed over 90% of the bacteria without harming human cells in their initial tests.
Sweet action.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Well, WHO gives a report?!
Perspectives on the World Health Report.
Woohoo.
Working in the ER (but I'm sure it doesn't really matter) I hear a lot of disparaging remarks toward "Obamacare" and "Socialized Medicine." Usually it's from some WASP with a postive Cheetos' sign requesting pain medication because their stomach hurts after a night of binge-drinking.
Later when they're demanding to know how they're supposed to fill their prescriptions I smile sweetly and say, "How were you planning on filling your prescriptions?"
I find myself incredulous that we here in 'Merica are the only industrialized nation that doesn't offer a national health care plan. We're also pretty dang bad at taking care of people.
In 2000 we ranked 24th compared to similar countries.
Dang.
Sara Bennett at Johns Hopkins, and left the WHO in 2008, does a good job of pointing out the facts and gaps in the World Report.
Essentially, the WHO found that Health Care sucks. It sucks less if it's government run.
What I mean by sucks is poor care and high prices.
Similar to how I feel about McDonald's right now. (Seriously, you want to charge me $6 for that?)
But, as is pointed out, there's no magic bullet. It will take time.
Also, read the second blue box. It contains a lot of good questions Dr. Bennett doesn't think the WHO did a good job of addressing.
I find it painful that 20-40% of health care resources are wasted. That's a large percentage.
Here's another ouch from Wikipedia
Sigh. I used to hold my breath in college when I didn't have great health care that, somehow, within those years I would find out that I had somekind of disorder, or disease or disability and would then spend the rest of my life denied coverage for something that genetically I couldn't help.
If we were all living in the middle of nowhere this would be ok. But no. We are an advanced sort of animal. One that can form societies to aid and assist each other for the benefit of all. Atom, Molecule, Cell, Tissue, Organ, Organ system, Organism, Society.
That's what I have to say about that.
Woohoo.
Working in the ER (but I'm sure it doesn't really matter) I hear a lot of disparaging remarks toward "Obamacare" and "Socialized Medicine." Usually it's from some WASP with a postive Cheetos' sign requesting pain medication because their stomach hurts after a night of binge-drinking.
Later when they're demanding to know how they're supposed to fill their prescriptions I smile sweetly and say, "How were you planning on filling your prescriptions?"
I find myself incredulous that we here in 'Merica are the only industrialized nation that doesn't offer a national health care plan. We're also pretty dang bad at taking care of people.
In 2000 we ranked 24th compared to similar countries.
Dang.
Sara Bennett at Johns Hopkins, and left the WHO in 2008, does a good job of pointing out the facts and gaps in the World Report.
Essentially, the WHO found that Health Care sucks. It sucks less if it's government run.
What I mean by sucks is poor care and high prices.
Similar to how I feel about McDonald's right now. (Seriously, you want to charge me $6 for that?)
But, as is pointed out, there's no magic bullet. It will take time.
Also, read the second blue box. It contains a lot of good questions Dr. Bennett doesn't think the WHO did a good job of addressing.
I find it painful that 20-40% of health care resources are wasted. That's a large percentage.
Here's another ouch from Wikipedia
Spending on administration in Finland is 2.1% of all health care costs, and in the UK the figure is 3.3% whereas the U.S spends 7.3% of all expenditures on administration.I'm not a fan of administration. How is it that the UK administrators can get by with half of what US administration costs. So much damn red tape.
Sigh. I used to hold my breath in college when I didn't have great health care that, somehow, within those years I would find out that I had somekind of disorder, or disease or disability and would then spend the rest of my life denied coverage for something that genetically I couldn't help.
If we were all living in the middle of nowhere this would be ok. But no. We are an advanced sort of animal. One that can form societies to aid and assist each other for the benefit of all. Atom, Molecule, Cell, Tissue, Organ, Organ system, Organism, Society.
That's what I have to say about that.
Monday, November 22, 2010
So much to say. Part Two-Skepticon rant
What a FANTASTIC WEEKEND!!!
I drove home this weekend in support of my good friend JT and Skepticon.
Awesome, awesome weekend.
Sadly, I missed all the lectures on Friday. John didn't get out of school until 6, then we had a 4.5 hour drive. So we rolled in a bit late. However, much fun was had by all. Super Smash Bros on an N-64 at my "sister's" house made up for any of the missed information.
There was a bit of a debate about the message of Skepticon this year and I think the surrounding media did a terrible job of reporting what Skepticon is.
Most of the "reporting" I saw done titled it as an ATHEIST meeting. (Those godless, amoral, baby-eating atheists)
No, no, no amateurs.
I think by looking at the title you can kinda get the hint this was a SKEPTICs meeting.
Its like algebra. All A's are B's but does that make all B's A's? Maybe, maybe not.
Actually, no. Definitely not.
(Uh-oh, the rant-train is heating up!)
I will admit, looking at the published schedule you get the feeling this is a gods bashing event.
Presentations like, "Are Christians Delusional?", and "The Evaporating Jesus."
There are also things like, "Confrontation vs. Accommodation", and "Coming out Skeptical"
One of my favorites (Not submitted in time for publication in the schedule) was "How to ruin Christmas for everyone" it talked about Santa and other Christmas myths. (Like Krampus. You crazy Germans.)
Here's the part where I draw a giant target on my back and let you take aim.
I, unlike everyone else in the world, like to be right. I like to be right all of the time. I attempt to live an evidence-based life. I like to formulate hypothesis, collect data, and test things before I make a decision. I try to do this as often as reasonably possible. This is how I run, why I eat what I do, buy certain devices and electronics, arrange my furniture, the list can go on. However, I know that I am not stagnate, homeostasis is a fluid continuum. What is considered "correct" one day might have a better understanding in a few years. (See, solar system)
Side rant:
Ever hear how something was "scientifically proved"? I HATE this phrase. Hate it with a mad, burning passion. Someone who uses this phrase, has a very poor understanding of what science is. (It is a verb too, btw.) Science doesn't PROVE anything. Science shows correlation, science gives reasonable assumptions, science allows for positive extrapolations. It doesn't PROVE things.
Math PROVES things. (That's why science has theories and math has proofs.)
End rant.
So, there were several talks about religion at this "skeptics" meeting. There were also talks about UFOs, Haunted Houses, Evolution, Moral values. But, you're right. If you want to get down to the basis of everything. It was about beliefs. Because beliefs matter. They're the only reason anyone decides anything. Because they either believe it or they don't.
Why do skeptics obsess over religion the way they do? Because it permeates our society in ways that are simply unbelievable. People will reject obvious data in favor of religious beliefs. (Blood transfusion anyone?) I don't mean to play the emotion card but children die with simple medical conditions because of their parents beliefs. We are at war because of religious beliefs.
Augh, I cannot express my frustrations accurately enough.
If you have proof as to why you act a certain way then great, lets have it. If you don't, go find some. If you don't want to find any then don't expect me to believe you. I'm not going to stop you from whatever it is you want to do, but you can't control me without good evidence. I don't live my life without good evidence.
So why have I said all this? So the people who love me and might end up crying/having a fit because I attended an ATHEIST convention will realize, beliefs matter and they should be tested so you can know if you're right.
If you're wrong, you can change it.
Ps. I also saw James Randi. It was epic.
I drove home this weekend in support of my good friend JT and Skepticon.
Awesome, awesome weekend.
Sadly, I missed all the lectures on Friday. John didn't get out of school until 6, then we had a 4.5 hour drive. So we rolled in a bit late. However, much fun was had by all. Super Smash Bros on an N-64 at my "sister's" house made up for any of the missed information.
There was a bit of a debate about the message of Skepticon this year and I think the surrounding media did a terrible job of reporting what Skepticon is.
Most of the "reporting" I saw done titled it as an ATHEIST meeting. (Those godless, amoral, baby-eating atheists)
No, no, no amateurs.
I think by looking at the title you can kinda get the hint this was a SKEPTICs meeting.
Skepticism is an approach to accepting, rejecting, or suspending judgment on new information that requires the new information to be well supported by evidence. (wikipedia)If you just so happen to feel that there's not enough evidence for the existence of certain gods... Well, then, so be it, but being a Skeptic does not automatically make one an Atheist or Agnostic or a jelly-filled doughnut.
Its like algebra. All A's are B's but does that make all B's A's? Maybe, maybe not.
Actually, no. Definitely not.
(Uh-oh, the rant-train is heating up!)
I will admit, looking at the published schedule you get the feeling this is a gods bashing event.
Presentations like, "Are Christians Delusional?", and "The Evaporating Jesus."
There are also things like, "Confrontation vs. Accommodation", and "Coming out Skeptical"
One of my favorites (Not submitted in time for publication in the schedule) was "How to ruin Christmas for everyone" it talked about Santa and other Christmas myths. (Like Krampus. You crazy Germans.)
Here's the part where I draw a giant target on my back and let you take aim.
I, unlike everyone else in the world, like to be right. I like to be right all of the time. I attempt to live an evidence-based life. I like to formulate hypothesis, collect data, and test things before I make a decision. I try to do this as often as reasonably possible. This is how I run, why I eat what I do, buy certain devices and electronics, arrange my furniture, the list can go on. However, I know that I am not stagnate, homeostasis is a fluid continuum. What is considered "correct" one day might have a better understanding in a few years. (See, solar system)
Side rant:
Ever hear how something was "scientifically proved"? I HATE this phrase. Hate it with a mad, burning passion. Someone who uses this phrase, has a very poor understanding of what science is. (It is a verb too, btw.) Science doesn't PROVE anything. Science shows correlation, science gives reasonable assumptions, science allows for positive extrapolations. It doesn't PROVE things.
Math PROVES things. (That's why science has theories and math has proofs.)
End rant.
So, there were several talks about religion at this "skeptics" meeting. There were also talks about UFOs, Haunted Houses, Evolution, Moral values. But, you're right. If you want to get down to the basis of everything. It was about beliefs. Because beliefs matter. They're the only reason anyone decides anything. Because they either believe it or they don't.
Why do skeptics obsess over religion the way they do? Because it permeates our society in ways that are simply unbelievable. People will reject obvious data in favor of religious beliefs. (Blood transfusion anyone?) I don't mean to play the emotion card but children die with simple medical conditions because of their parents beliefs. We are at war because of religious beliefs.
Augh, I cannot express my frustrations accurately enough.
If you have proof as to why you act a certain way then great, lets have it. If you don't, go find some. If you don't want to find any then don't expect me to believe you. I'm not going to stop you from whatever it is you want to do, but you can't control me without good evidence. I don't live my life without good evidence.
So why have I said all this? So the people who love me and might end up crying/having a fit because I attended an ATHEIST convention will realize, beliefs matter and they should be tested so you can know if you're right.
If you're wrong, you can change it.
Ps. I also saw James Randi. It was epic.
So much to say. Part One-Work News
I really should post more often. If time allowed I would.
I have so many great things to talk about I'm not sure where to begin or what to leave out.
Sigh.
The last time I updated was a week ago.
A WEEK.
Way too much happens in the course of a week.
I think I'll break it up.
Boring bits are I worked. Three in a row always sets my blogging back. There's just not enough time for it all. Running, cleaning, blogging then out the door for work. I had been getting very aggravated at work. I was feeling very stagnate. Communication sucked, no one was getting along. Etc, etc. I knew I had three days and a meeting separating me from the weekend.
I really didn't want to go to that meeting.
I almost skipped. I'm allowed to miss 2.
Well, supposedly, I'm the secretary so me not being there would be very bad.
I was a good person and I went.
Amazingly, it was a great meeting, we voted on things, passed new ideas around, fixed our scheduling to match the patient census (moved nurses to where there were patients.) I left feeling like things were headed in a good direction. Woohoo.
There was an EVIDENCE BASED decision made. Yay!
Someone collected data about staffing vs. patient ratios and showed the need for a new position. We discussed, voted and viola! Moved the nurses to match the patient needs. I was so happy. Data makes me smile.
Since that meeting I have received several "invites" to be a part of an interview panel for a new ER director.
What? ME?
I'm one of nine people on a panel to interview the candidates. The HR director, our interim manager, our business manager, four charge nurses, and our trauma nurses' assistant. Then me. I'm so confused. I'm a 22 year old with a BSN that's only been a nurse 1.5 years and in this department maybe 4 months. What's going on here?
Oh well. I'll do it.
More on the nursing front. I took a general english/math test and wrote a timed admissions essay for my Master's program.
I began the math portion in a bit of a daze. I had not done basic algebra since Junior year of High School. I had questions on percentages and orders of operations. It had been such a long time... Funny how basic stuff like that can stump you if you haven't done it in a while. I had to think about whether to multiply first or divide. Silly me.
The essay had to be between 200-500 words and it was TIMED. Gasp. I was supposed to write a bit about something I've done that required determination and perseverance. I scribbled a bit about marathon training. Sounded pretty good.
I passed. Thank goodness. I knew I would do fine. It took about 2 hours for the entire thing.
Now I have to wait for my second phone interview next week.
Baby steps.
I will have my MSN.
I have so many great things to talk about I'm not sure where to begin or what to leave out.
Sigh.
The last time I updated was a week ago.
A WEEK.
Way too much happens in the course of a week.
I think I'll break it up.
Boring bits are I worked. Three in a row always sets my blogging back. There's just not enough time for it all. Running, cleaning, blogging then out the door for work. I had been getting very aggravated at work. I was feeling very stagnate. Communication sucked, no one was getting along. Etc, etc. I knew I had three days and a meeting separating me from the weekend.
I really didn't want to go to that meeting.
I almost skipped. I'm allowed to miss 2.
Well, supposedly, I'm the secretary so me not being there would be very bad.
I was a good person and I went.
Amazingly, it was a great meeting, we voted on things, passed new ideas around, fixed our scheduling to match the patient census (moved nurses to where there were patients.) I left feeling like things were headed in a good direction. Woohoo.
There was an EVIDENCE BASED decision made. Yay!
Someone collected data about staffing vs. patient ratios and showed the need for a new position. We discussed, voted and viola! Moved the nurses to match the patient needs. I was so happy. Data makes me smile.
Since that meeting I have received several "invites" to be a part of an interview panel for a new ER director.
What? ME?
I'm one of nine people on a panel to interview the candidates. The HR director, our interim manager, our business manager, four charge nurses, and our trauma nurses' assistant. Then me. I'm so confused. I'm a 22 year old with a BSN that's only been a nurse 1.5 years and in this department maybe 4 months. What's going on here?
Oh well. I'll do it.
More on the nursing front. I took a general english/math test and wrote a timed admissions essay for my Master's program.
I began the math portion in a bit of a daze. I had not done basic algebra since Junior year of High School. I had questions on percentages and orders of operations. It had been such a long time... Funny how basic stuff like that can stump you if you haven't done it in a while. I had to think about whether to multiply first or divide. Silly me.
The essay had to be between 200-500 words and it was TIMED. Gasp. I was supposed to write a bit about something I've done that required determination and perseverance. I scribbled a bit about marathon training. Sounded pretty good.
I passed. Thank goodness. I knew I would do fine. It took about 2 hours for the entire thing.
Now I have to wait for my second phone interview next week.
Baby steps.
I will have my MSN.
Monday, November 15, 2010
I am an amazing person.
Just thought that would make a great opening line.
I do things in runs. A few days ago (as I'm sure you've heard) I when on a run of breaking things.
the Wii, the garbage disposal, the dishwasher, the vacuum cleaner, the coffee pot. Wow. That was a good time.
Today my run is locking myself out of things.
I woke up and, as is my habit on Mondays went to the gym to workout and lift weights, after this I needed to fill, up on gas. So I dropped over to the gas station and pumped a few in. Upon completion I turn to see my keys sitting on the front seat of my LOCKED car.
It was approx 45 degrees and I was in shorts, laying on the pavement of the Shell station trying to find my hide-a-key. No luck. So I had to call John to leave class and come unlock my car. Thanks to both John and Sarah for understanding I am a dork.
Next up at work.
My PIN number and my assigned work password are 2 digits off from each other. I can never remember what two are different (ps. had this problem at the gas pump as well and ended up using my credit card instead) Well, at work I flubbed it up enough times to get locked out and had to call IT.
Thumbs up again.
Then I had a brief spell of getting stuck in the bathroom.
Just now I forgot my iPhone password and it has disabled itself.
My car, my work computer, the bathroom, my phone.
When I get on a roll I am amazing.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Tetris and PTSD?!?!
Wow.
John and Sarah have been playing Tetris a LOT recently to help relax after school. Now there's THIS to supplement their obsession.
It seems that the pathways for playing Tetris are very similar to the pathways that ingrain disturbing memories. (Maybe this is why russians are heartless...) So, this study showed that playing Tetris within 4 hours after an exposure to a disturbing movie resulted in fewer flashbacks compared to a group that played a quiz sort of program.
Here's the study with the control group that did nothing post "disturbing movie"
Again, Tetris helped reduce reported flashbacks.
My questions,
How old were these people?
(18-47 mean=23, all male) There's a big surprise. All males wanting to paticipate in a study involving video games and traumatic images?
Do you think that the fact that these were 23 year old males made a difference on whether or not they would be affected at all?
Maybe not, the control group was effected by the videos reporting intrusions a week after.
What if by playing Tetris they simply "forgot" the videos?
Nope, they tested for that. Both groups were about the same.
Playing Tetris can help you forget the bad, but remember the event. Wow.
So watch that scary movie, then grab an NES so you don't have nightmares.
Yesterday's post....
Receieved this in my inbox.
Science Based Medicine's Steven Novella reviews the recent publication of a meta-analysis of the use of vitamin E and it's effect on stroke.
(Wow, look at my use of hyperlinks!)
A meta-analysis is basically a review of all the research done on a particular topic that is then put into a table for easy assesment of data.
This showed that taking vitamin e supplements increase the risk of hemorragic stroke. That's the bleeding kind. The (in my highly valued opinion) the worse kind. An ischemic stoke is the kind where a clot is the cause of the problem. A clot is lodged in the brain and cuts off oxygen and kills the tissue. With these, you can receive "clot busting" medications and restore blood flow and oxygen and life gets all kinds of better. With hemmorragic stroke you bust through the blood vessel and blood rushes into the brain, distroying tissue and life sucks.
Vitamin E has antioxident properties and has been recommended for people with cardiac problems. However, here's the cavat. Read the last sentence. Don't take pills, eat your veggies.
Ok everyone, back on my soap-box.
EAT YOUR VEGGIES!
Phew, got that out of the way.
Science Based Medicine's Steven Novella reviews the recent publication of a meta-analysis of the use of vitamin E and it's effect on stroke.
(Wow, look at my use of hyperlinks!)
A meta-analysis is basically a review of all the research done on a particular topic that is then put into a table for easy assesment of data.
This showed that taking vitamin e supplements increase the risk of hemorragic stroke. That's the bleeding kind. The (in my highly valued opinion) the worse kind. An ischemic stoke is the kind where a clot is the cause of the problem. A clot is lodged in the brain and cuts off oxygen and kills the tissue. With these, you can receive "clot busting" medications and restore blood flow and oxygen and life gets all kinds of better. With hemmorragic stroke you bust through the blood vessel and blood rushes into the brain, distroying tissue and life sucks.
Vitamin E has antioxident properties and has been recommended for people with cardiac problems. However, here's the cavat. Read the last sentence. Don't take pills, eat your veggies.
Ok everyone, back on my soap-box.
EAT YOUR VEGGIES!
Phew, got that out of the way.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Tired of titles.
Wow,
Thanks for all the responses. I really was starting to think that I was just posting into the void. Hard to tell who, if anyone reads this. Now I know!
Thanks a lot!
Now I have the motivation to actually put forth effort (when time allows.)
Here's the news bits as far as my mind complicates it.
I picked up the book "Blind Faith." by Richard P. Sloan. It's a look at the current (2006 publication) blending of religion and medicine.
Hmmm, I'm sure you're all aware I'm currently working for the Catholic's at St. Vincents. One of my greatest aggravations is when I have to either wait or yell over the twice daily recited prayer or when people credit miracles for the hard work and training that the health care team puts forth. Anecdotal evidence of the effects of prayer on medical conditions is way overthrown by the research that debunks it.
It also deals with the emerging "science" neurotheology. I'm wondering how this will work itself out as "god of the gaps" has the tendency to get smaller and smaller as scientific research expands.
ANYWAY.
This pseudo-ties-in to this article.
The President announced the "early career" recognition award for some 85 scientists. Waahoo.
How does this tie-in? The beginning of this book deals with an issue very near and dear to my heart.
Science education.
Essentially, how the science education in our country sucks. Science education took a magnificent upswing after Sputnik was launched. This incident of fear was compared to the 9/11 attacks.
Sputnik was launched and all of a sudden America wasn't the best at everything. We were still earthbound. So money was put into science education and, bam, we got much better.
Funny how after 9/11 we got worse at science education back to the point that we're again arguing whether or not to teach ID. I sigh.
My speculation. Sputnik was more of an attack on our ideology of being smart. We were proven wrong because the Soviet Union beat us to space. 9/11 was an attack on our religion. So instead of turning to science we turned to prayer (National day of Prayer, what would our founding fathers say? Seriously?)
Maybe if we had more lighthouses...
Questions, comments, outbursts?
Thanks for all the responses. I really was starting to think that I was just posting into the void. Hard to tell who, if anyone reads this. Now I know!
Thanks a lot!
Now I have the motivation to actually put forth effort (when time allows.)
Here's the news bits as far as my mind complicates it.
I picked up the book "Blind Faith." by Richard P. Sloan. It's a look at the current (2006 publication) blending of religion and medicine.
Hmmm, I'm sure you're all aware I'm currently working for the Catholic's at St. Vincents. One of my greatest aggravations is when I have to either wait or yell over the twice daily recited prayer or when people credit miracles for the hard work and training that the health care team puts forth. Anecdotal evidence of the effects of prayer on medical conditions is way overthrown by the research that debunks it.
It also deals with the emerging "science" neurotheology. I'm wondering how this will work itself out as "god of the gaps" has the tendency to get smaller and smaller as scientific research expands.
ANYWAY.
This pseudo-ties-in to this article.
The President announced the "early career" recognition award for some 85 scientists. Waahoo.
How does this tie-in? The beginning of this book deals with an issue very near and dear to my heart.
Science education.
Essentially, how the science education in our country sucks. Science education took a magnificent upswing after Sputnik was launched. This incident of fear was compared to the 9/11 attacks.
Sputnik was launched and all of a sudden America wasn't the best at everything. We were still earthbound. So money was put into science education and, bam, we got much better.
Funny how after 9/11 we got worse at science education back to the point that we're again arguing whether or not to teach ID. I sigh.
My speculation. Sputnik was more of an attack on our ideology of being smart. We were proven wrong because the Soviet Union beat us to space. 9/11 was an attack on our religion. So instead of turning to science we turned to prayer (National day of Prayer, what would our founding fathers say? Seriously?)
Maybe if we had more lighthouses...
Questions, comments, outbursts?
Monday, November 8, 2010
Posting less and less.
Doing less and less.
Caring less and less
Receiving comments less and less.
You see, I am not like a sea monkey. I need more than light and water to survive. Replies, comments, and engaging in conversation about posts made, would be more than way appreciated. It would probably even remind me that people do tend to read this.
Unless they don't. Then, sigh.
I ran 8 miles. 8 MILES yesterday. That's fantastic for me! I only had a bit o' the asthma after and I think that's because getting home it was so dadgum cold.
Had a great weekend. Sarah stayed with us and we did... um... nothing. We played MarioKart, watched TV, and movies, ate lasagna and gave ourselves bedsores because we never got off the couch. Had a good refresher on Goldeneye 64. I used to play that all the time with Scott. This means when I go home I'm going to have to bring it and kick his ass like I used to. (Slappers only in the caves! Jk.)
Ps. If you need something quick and delightfully funny to watch I recommend The IT Crowd. Holy crap. It's on NetFlicks and, how do you say. Near perfect? It's British humor for one (big bonus in my book), about geeks (that's a second bonus with modifier), and only 20 minutes long (fantastic!) The one downside. There are only 3 seasons out and they only have 6 episodes a season. I was watching it thinking, Man if only I had a job where I got to sit in a basement with geeks all day. It'd be like highschool all over again, but I'd get PAID!
Wow, I wrote this at 8 this morning and NOW I'm posting it...
Doing less and less.
Caring less and less
Receiving comments less and less.
You see, I am not like a sea monkey. I need more than light and water to survive. Replies, comments, and engaging in conversation about posts made, would be more than way appreciated. It would probably even remind me that people do tend to read this.
Unless they don't. Then, sigh.
I ran 8 miles. 8 MILES yesterday. That's fantastic for me! I only had a bit o' the asthma after and I think that's because getting home it was so dadgum cold.
Had a great weekend. Sarah stayed with us and we did... um... nothing. We played MarioKart, watched TV, and movies, ate lasagna and gave ourselves bedsores because we never got off the couch. Had a good refresher on Goldeneye 64. I used to play that all the time with Scott. This means when I go home I'm going to have to bring it and kick his ass like I used to. (Slappers only in the caves! Jk.)
Ps. If you need something quick and delightfully funny to watch I recommend The IT Crowd. Holy crap. It's on NetFlicks and, how do you say. Near perfect? It's British humor for one (big bonus in my book), about geeks (that's a second bonus with modifier), and only 20 minutes long (fantastic!) The one downside. There are only 3 seasons out and they only have 6 episodes a season. I was watching it thinking, Man if only I had a job where I got to sit in a basement with geeks all day. It'd be like highschool all over again, but I'd get PAID!
Wow, I wrote this at 8 this morning and NOW I'm posting it...
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Nov 5
Funny isn't it? On my days off, when I have all the time I could possibly imagine, I rarely get on to make a post. Now, a day that I'm working. I squeeze and hurry my minutes so I can get on my computer to write a little rant and rave.
Not that I ever have much to say.
Had a bad time of the blahs descend on my house this week. John had a test and he and Sarah were very lethargic pre and post test. They kinda sat and stared at each other mostly. They were stares of "I don't want to live any more..." We did go to a Halloween party. Sarah and I got incredibly giggly then we all fell asleep. I know how to have a good time.
To get over the blahs I decided I would work on this "going back to school" project of mine. I gave me a funny feeling. I'm excited and nervous and can hardly wait. Except, I'm unsure of how to pay for it. When I went to college I didn't have to worry about payments. I had a scholarship. Now I've got to figure out all this when to pay who at what time and how much.
Arg.
Spent a great deal of time talking to my "sister" Kelly about all this mess. Then I spent a great deal of time talking to Spencer (I've never had someone go from vague acquaintance to best friend in under 3 days, but he did it.) This is actually remarkable. I have a phobia of phones. I don't think I've had a phone conversation that lasted more than 5 minutes since high school.
There's this constant feeling like I'm keeping the other person from doing something important. So it was nice to get to talk to these wonderful people. (Even though I kept Kelly from eating.)
As far as news goes, I finished my Zombie class and started a Cooking class from the Art Institute. Chop, chop.
Uhoh. Didn't give myself enough time.
Gotta run.
Not that I ever have much to say.
Had a bad time of the blahs descend on my house this week. John had a test and he and Sarah were very lethargic pre and post test. They kinda sat and stared at each other mostly. They were stares of "I don't want to live any more..." We did go to a Halloween party. Sarah and I got incredibly giggly then we all fell asleep. I know how to have a good time.
To get over the blahs I decided I would work on this "going back to school" project of mine. I gave me a funny feeling. I'm excited and nervous and can hardly wait. Except, I'm unsure of how to pay for it. When I went to college I didn't have to worry about payments. I had a scholarship. Now I've got to figure out all this when to pay who at what time and how much.
Arg.
Spent a great deal of time talking to my "sister" Kelly about all this mess. Then I spent a great deal of time talking to Spencer (I've never had someone go from vague acquaintance to best friend in under 3 days, but he did it.) This is actually remarkable. I have a phobia of phones. I don't think I've had a phone conversation that lasted more than 5 minutes since high school.
There's this constant feeling like I'm keeping the other person from doing something important. So it was nice to get to talk to these wonderful people. (Even though I kept Kelly from eating.)
As far as news goes, I finished my Zombie class and started a Cooking class from the Art Institute. Chop, chop.
Uhoh. Didn't give myself enough time.
Gotta run.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Brains?
Woah,
I just noticed my coffee was precariously balanced half on/half off the desk. Must correct this.
*Swig*
It's a wonderful Friday. I've cleaned the house, gone for a run and John's home taking a nap with the cat. It doesn't take much to make me content.
Found this good article from Newsweek (via Reddit)
What we really should teach kids in Science. I tend to agree with the author. I think that there should be a class to specifically set out to teach people how to think critically. I don't think we should be waiting until college level for this kind of education. I haven't yet, but next in my line up is this iTunes U class from Oxford on Critical Reasoning.
There's kind of a scare going on right now that soon we will be facing a war on science. In my opinion, a war on reason. There seems to be a feeling that science is a bunch of bull and scientists are liars. I find this frightening. If we can't trust a formula that was designed to rattle out truth, what's the point in anything?
I guess I get a little nihilistic if you take my science away.
Back to the positives. I think we should be teaching people how to think in schools. Not necessarily what to think. Of course we need to be teaching the facts and theories that we base our existence on, but don't we also need to be training people how to find these things out for themselves too? How are we going to build new sciences if we're just repeating old data?
You've got to give the man and fishing rod, not a fish!
So few people know how to analyze data. I myself am not very good at it, but it comes with practice. Most people are used to accepting things as fact or fiction based on who told it to them. This is why I don't watch the news. It's all about the bias of where it comes from.
Sure I fill my twitter feed and RSS with information sources that validate my current beliefs and thoughts, but I don't accept all my leads as facts. I try to look at the motivations behind publications.
Most of the time.
Here's a bit of fun.
Brain games from Cambridge.
I took the 12 pillars of intelligence test.
Meh, maybe I shouldn't share but, I'm in the 37%
Call it confirmation bias, but I feel this is fairly right. I know I'm not that bright, but I have a bit stronger visual memory than some.
I wasn't surprised at my inability to remember numbers. I'm terrible at numbers.
Most people are 7 +/- 2. This is why phone numbers are 7 digits long.
I can barely recall 5 numbers on a good day.
Give me more than 5 numbers to remember and chances are that I can't.
However the "select the color of ink, color spelled" test I rocked.
Fun times.
Speaking of brains, in my Zombies in Literature class I learned that the idea of brain eating zombies has only been around since this movie. 1985.
Return of the Living Dead introduced the brain eating zombie. The zombies eat brains because it relieves the pain of being undead.
It's weird how quickly the folklore of zombies has cropped up and changed so dramatically since the 1930s.
I just noticed my coffee was precariously balanced half on/half off the desk. Must correct this.
*Swig*
It's a wonderful Friday. I've cleaned the house, gone for a run and John's home taking a nap with the cat. It doesn't take much to make me content.
Found this good article from Newsweek (via Reddit)
What we really should teach kids in Science. I tend to agree with the author. I think that there should be a class to specifically set out to teach people how to think critically. I don't think we should be waiting until college level for this kind of education. I haven't yet, but next in my line up is this iTunes U class from Oxford on Critical Reasoning.
There's kind of a scare going on right now that soon we will be facing a war on science. In my opinion, a war on reason. There seems to be a feeling that science is a bunch of bull and scientists are liars. I find this frightening. If we can't trust a formula that was designed to rattle out truth, what's the point in anything?
I guess I get a little nihilistic if you take my science away.
Back to the positives. I think we should be teaching people how to think in schools. Not necessarily what to think. Of course we need to be teaching the facts and theories that we base our existence on, but don't we also need to be training people how to find these things out for themselves too? How are we going to build new sciences if we're just repeating old data?
You've got to give the man and fishing rod, not a fish!
So few people know how to analyze data. I myself am not very good at it, but it comes with practice. Most people are used to accepting things as fact or fiction based on who told it to them. This is why I don't watch the news. It's all about the bias of where it comes from.
Sure I fill my twitter feed and RSS with information sources that validate my current beliefs and thoughts, but I don't accept all my leads as facts. I try to look at the motivations behind publications.
Most of the time.
Here's a bit of fun.
Brain games from Cambridge.
I took the 12 pillars of intelligence test.
Meh, maybe I shouldn't share but, I'm in the 37%
Call it confirmation bias, but I feel this is fairly right. I know I'm not that bright, but I have a bit stronger visual memory than some.
I wasn't surprised at my inability to remember numbers. I'm terrible at numbers.
Most people are 7 +/- 2. This is why phone numbers are 7 digits long.
I can barely recall 5 numbers on a good day.
Give me more than 5 numbers to remember and chances are that I can't.
However the "select the color of ink, color spelled" test I rocked.
Fun times.
Speaking of brains, in my Zombies in Literature class I learned that the idea of brain eating zombies has only been around since this movie. 1985.
Return of the Living Dead introduced the brain eating zombie. The zombies eat brains because it relieves the pain of being undead.
It's weird how quickly the folklore of zombies has cropped up and changed so dramatically since the 1930s.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Bit o' blog...
For todays bit of blog...
More time spent at work.
I almost didn't go running today. Would have been my first slip on my new marathon scheduel. I woke up late, was already in the shower, telling myself I wasn't going to run this morning. Maybe I'd do it later, after work or something. Then I stopped myself. No. I knew I was lying. I wasn't going to run after work. It just didn't make sense. I would want to eat, and sleep. John would have to get up early for school and I wouldn't want to spend the 30 minutes I'd have with him on a treadmill at the gym. So I got myself out of the shower, dressed and went running. I had plenty of time and I knew it. I'm just used to having more time after my runs. Instead I only had 30 minutes or so. I was just being selfish wanting to sit around the house. I knew I would have regretted it had I acted the way I wanted to.
I wanted to act like lil cat. Lazy, lazy cat.
I listened to Point of Inquiry's podcast. It was a debate on how accomidating one should be on another person's views. Now I see myself as a very nice and accepting person, but as JT told me once. You don't let someone walk around believing 2+2=5. That's just mean.
Remember the old game, Lemmings? Where the little green haired guys would try to walk off of things to their death you had to stop them? (I LOVED that game, terrible at it, but good music)
Well, turns out it's all based on a LIE.
Lemmings don't commit suicide. (http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/lemmings.asp)
The lemming myth is based on a Disney film White Wilderness (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052389/) where footage was faked to show lemmings killing themselves by wandering off cliffs. (The movie was also filmed in Alberta, Canada not a native habitat to lemmings) Now lemmings don't kill themselves, but they do go through population crashes about every 4 generations and people have been unable to figure out why or how. Maybe they starve to death, maybe they're found by preditors, or maybe... they commit infantcide.
There's really not a lot of research on how the lemmings crash every 4 years or so. This is probably due to the fact that they burrow down deep to prevent having to hibernate in the winter. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemming)
Huh. So, yet again a myth of my childhood exposed. (See Lou Gerhig's disease post)
Today at work, two of the PA's and I laughed quite hard at this recent discovery of adrenal fatigue. (http://www.adrenalfatigue.org/)
This could be the replacement for the fibromyalgia catch-all! So, why this isn't really a diagnosis. There are several treatment options available as well as reading material.
Man, I've almost decided I need to take myself off of Science Based Medicine's RSS (http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/). I get too angry sometimes. Yet, again. It can be really funny to read these updates in the quackery.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Gloria's Playmate- Robbie the robot
Kids like robots and robots like kids (i.e. Robbie, thanks Mr. Asimov)
So now Javier Movellan from UC San Diego Machine Perception Laboratory has spent nearly 3 decades observing and influencing kids interactions with robots.
Babies are naturally drawn to things that look like faces. I remember reading during my OB rotation that babies will stare longer at dots that look like a face than not.
Wonderful artistry by me. Even now, I'm sure you're seeing that "non-face" as a poor man who has fallen upside down.
You and your brain. Trying to make sense of things.
In 1987, Movellan and his partner John Watson found out that, even if a robot doesn't look particularly human, if it interacts with the child the kind will treat it like a human. It will respond and follow it.
This makes me wonder, if facial recognition (as far as recognizing faces as faces) starts around 6 months, and stranger anxiety (recognizing unfamiliar faces as unfamiliar) happens about 2 years old. When does the uncanny valley come into play?
Recently (Well, last January) Movellan and his San Diego pals got in a bit of trouble for making a "robot baby."
I'm sure this has to do with the Uncanny Valley. There is a severe drop in our comfort level as something seems "almost" human.
No surprize that Zombie is at the bottom. Something that was human, maybe even someone you know, however, they are certainly NOT human now.
Watch this video and gauge your own reaction to the more "realistic" robots.
Of course it could be the creepy music they chose to play, too.
In my opinion, I have no fear of Isaac (my roomba) unlike my cat.
But the Speak and Spell voice will always creep me out.
I learned to spell just so I wouldn't be reprimanded by that evil evil device!
So now Javier Movellan from UC San Diego Machine Perception Laboratory has spent nearly 3 decades observing and influencing kids interactions with robots.
Babies are naturally drawn to things that look like faces. I remember reading during my OB rotation that babies will stare longer at dots that look like a face than not.
Wonderful artistry by me. Even now, I'm sure you're seeing that "non-face" as a poor man who has fallen upside down.You and your brain. Trying to make sense of things.
In 1987, Movellan and his partner John Watson found out that, even if a robot doesn't look particularly human, if it interacts with the child the kind will treat it like a human. It will respond and follow it.
This makes me wonder, if facial recognition (as far as recognizing faces as faces) starts around 6 months, and stranger anxiety (recognizing unfamiliar faces as unfamiliar) happens about 2 years old. When does the uncanny valley come into play?
Recently (Well, last January) Movellan and his San Diego pals got in a bit of trouble for making a "robot baby."
I'm sure this has to do with the Uncanny Valley. There is a severe drop in our comfort level as something seems "almost" human.
No surprize that Zombie is at the bottom. Something that was human, maybe even someone you know, however, they are certainly NOT human now.
Watch this video and gauge your own reaction to the more "realistic" robots.
Of course it could be the creepy music they chose to play, too.
In my opinion, I have no fear of Isaac (my roomba) unlike my cat.
But the Speak and Spell voice will always creep me out.
I learned to spell just so I wouldn't be reprimanded by that evil evil device!
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Ramble, bamble, zombie shamble...
It was another KELLY VISIT WEEKEND!!
The bits I remember were great fun. The bits I don't remember I'm told were fun too. Apologies to both Spencer and Scott who received the brunt end of the crazy. You boys are good friends. Please don't leave... no really.
Best part of the weekend? The MUD RUN!!
A costumed 5k topped off with 300 feet of mudpit.
There were some GREAT costumes there. Several Mario Parties, Pac-Man and the Ghosts, a Flock of lost sheep, 5-6 Brides, Oompa-Loompas, and Zombies. Lots and lots of Zombies.
We started out the race jogging along and a (what's the word for group of zombies?) herd of zombies were stumbling along next to us in the Romero fashion. Then, a blood-chilling shreak was loosed and SHAMBLE SHAMBLE SHAMBLE, those zombies blasted past everyone in a truly horrifying 28 days later sprint.
Then, someone dressed as a hunter (Well, I think it was a costume. Arkansas remember?) "shot" the zombie and he flopped over dead in the field.
Good times.
We dressed as "The Flash" mostly so we could wear men's underwear on the outside. When the lady at Target learned what we were doing she made us promise to bring back photos of how ridiculous we looked. Then gave me her work schedule. I think she was serious...
The bits I remember were great fun. The bits I don't remember I'm told were fun too. Apologies to both Spencer and Scott who received the brunt end of the crazy. You boys are good friends. Please don't leave... no really.
Best part of the weekend? The MUD RUN!!
A costumed 5k topped off with 300 feet of mudpit.
There were some GREAT costumes there. Several Mario Parties, Pac-Man and the Ghosts, a Flock of lost sheep, 5-6 Brides, Oompa-Loompas, and Zombies. Lots and lots of Zombies.
We started out the race jogging along and a (what's the word for group of zombies?) herd of zombies were stumbling along next to us in the Romero fashion. Then, a blood-chilling shreak was loosed and SHAMBLE SHAMBLE SHAMBLE, those zombies blasted past everyone in a truly horrifying 28 days later sprint.
Then, someone dressed as a hunter (Well, I think it was a costume. Arkansas remember?) "shot" the zombie and he flopped over dead in the field.
Good times.
We dressed as "The Flash" mostly so we could wear men's underwear on the outside. When the lady at Target learned what we were doing she made us promise to bring back photos of how ridiculous we looked. Then gave me her work schedule. I think she was serious...
The Cat's Paw
My blogging skills might take a turn for the terrible soon.
As time goes on and I'm adding mileage, my pre-work runs are going to get longer and my pre-work blogs shorter. Or they might vanish entirely. Good thing I only work 3 days a week.
So much to write about today. I hardly know where to begin!!
I think I'll start out with this.
Reflexology for Cats.
Lets not keep the pseudoscience and alternative quackery to ourselves. Get your pets involved too for a housewide experience! This author starts out by saying that the World Health Organization claims it's one of the fastest growing "natural therapies" in the world today. After 3-4 google searches using the search terms: World Health Organization, WHO, Alternative Medicine, and Reflexology (in all possible combinations.) I still couldn't find this claim. After searching the WHO website for reflexology and alternative medicine the only relevant article I could only locate was this.
A lit review bascially counting how many times articles on alternative medicines have been published over the years and how it shows an increase. However, reporting methods are vague so in the discussion the authors conclude, "Who knows?"
I never found this out and out claim from the WHO, but I did find several mentions of if by different websites on reflexology. (Um, citation please?)
Back to the cat.
Reflexology, a complementary or alternative medicine. Now before I get blasted with arguments of how it worked for your Aunt Bessie or whatnot. Let me give my (highly valued and greatly respected) opinion on SCAMS (So-called Complementary and Alternative Medicines per Dr. Mark Crislip) I guess it goes back to my homeschool/christian school days with Phil 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.
So, um. Test it. If it works, bring it on in. If it doesn't (Like the recent acupuncture issue.) DON'T CALL IT MEDICINE. Don't use it as a treatment. It's a scam. There's no evidence it will work or not. There's no reasonable belief anything will improve or change. Therefore it becomes a swindle. (Especially with how expensive medical care can be!)
Again back to the cat.
Heck, as this practitioner from the video suggests maybe I should reiki my coffee to give it more life energy!!
Sigh.
In other news, my sister came to visit and we had way more fun that can be added to this post right now.
Look for a ramble-bamble post on life later.
For now, you'll have to deal with the science rage.
As time goes on and I'm adding mileage, my pre-work runs are going to get longer and my pre-work blogs shorter. Or they might vanish entirely. Good thing I only work 3 days a week.
So much to write about today. I hardly know where to begin!!
I think I'll start out with this.
Reflexology for Cats.
Lets not keep the pseudoscience and alternative quackery to ourselves. Get your pets involved too for a housewide experience! This author starts out by saying that the World Health Organization claims it's one of the fastest growing "natural therapies" in the world today. After 3-4 google searches using the search terms: World Health Organization, WHO, Alternative Medicine, and Reflexology (in all possible combinations.) I still couldn't find this claim. After searching the WHO website for reflexology and alternative medicine the only relevant article I could only locate was this.
A lit review bascially counting how many times articles on alternative medicines have been published over the years and how it shows an increase. However, reporting methods are vague so in the discussion the authors conclude, "Who knows?"
I never found this out and out claim from the WHO, but I did find several mentions of if by different websites on reflexology. (Um, citation please?)
Back to the cat.
Reflexology, a complementary or alternative medicine. Now before I get blasted with arguments of how it worked for your Aunt Bessie or whatnot. Let me give my (highly valued and greatly respected) opinion on SCAMS (So-called Complementary and Alternative Medicines per Dr. Mark Crislip) I guess it goes back to my homeschool/christian school days with Phil 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.So, um. Test it. If it works, bring it on in. If it doesn't (Like the recent acupuncture issue.) DON'T CALL IT MEDICINE. Don't use it as a treatment. It's a scam. There's no evidence it will work or not. There's no reasonable belief anything will improve or change. Therefore it becomes a swindle. (Especially with how expensive medical care can be!)
Again back to the cat.
People may think that reflexology does not apply to cats because the paw is too small, it is too difficult to perform and/or generally not well tolerated. In my experience I have found that this is not the case. From my observation, many animal guardians unconsciously perform ear, face and paw reflexology because they know that it feels nice for their pets. Most people are largely unaware that they are affecting everything in the body through this simple gesture.So why not pay $50 to get a book telling how to do something you already do unconsciously? Maybe I'm too cynical and Spock would be a more well behaved cat (Ha.) If I practiced a little Reiki as he lounged around my house.
Heck, as this practitioner from the video suggests maybe I should reiki my coffee to give it more life energy!!
Sigh.
In other news, my sister came to visit and we had way more fun that can be added to this post right now.
Look for a ramble-bamble post on life later.
For now, you'll have to deal with the science rage.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Back!
After a long talk with one of my co-workers a few days ago I realized why I hadn't been myself recently. I haven't been as happy or energetic or much of anything. I had developed an incredible apathy for pretty much everything. I was miserable and infectious.
To remidy this problem I've begun marathon training again in earnest. So today was an "off" day so it was pretty easy start. I've been running between 3 and 4 miles every other day for the past 3-4 weeks so... I'm ready to tackle this again.
I had been training back in July, but gave up because I worked myself too hard at work. Not going to happen again. So excited. I began today with some weight training I found on one of my iphone apps.
140 days until the Little Rock Marathon.
This does fill me with excitement.
In other news. I had a great geek session with Tackett at work. This is very important. There are very few people my age or gender that I can geek out with (Tackett isn't either but finding SOMEONE to talk to can be very difficult.) I had been having a difficult day and he and I spent nearly 15 minutes discussing zombies, video games, books, podcasts. Sigh, I felt so much better.
It did alert to me to the fact that I hadn't had a conversation with someone one (other than John) about things that interested me in over a month.
Transitioning into my sister is coming to visit again!
This is probably the last time I had a good conversation with someone, so she's coming back!!
I guess this is the interesting bit for today. Here's an actor that I think puts a TON of work into his movies. Christian Bale
Check this out
American Psycho 2000
The Machinist 2004
Batman 2005
How do you go from 2004-2005 without a lot of work.
That's very impressive, and a little creepy.
Augh, I should eat something before work. I don't get a break until 5pm for lunch...
Oh, fake ebola!
To remidy this problem I've begun marathon training again in earnest. So today was an "off" day so it was pretty easy start. I've been running between 3 and 4 miles every other day for the past 3-4 weeks so... I'm ready to tackle this again.
I had been training back in July, but gave up because I worked myself too hard at work. Not going to happen again. So excited. I began today with some weight training I found on one of my iphone apps.
140 days until the Little Rock Marathon.
This does fill me with excitement.
In other news. I had a great geek session with Tackett at work. This is very important. There are very few people my age or gender that I can geek out with (Tackett isn't either but finding SOMEONE to talk to can be very difficult.) I had been having a difficult day and he and I spent nearly 15 minutes discussing zombies, video games, books, podcasts. Sigh, I felt so much better.
It did alert to me to the fact that I hadn't had a conversation with someone one (other than John) about things that interested me in over a month.
Transitioning into my sister is coming to visit again!
This is probably the last time I had a good conversation with someone, so she's coming back!!
I guess this is the interesting bit for today. Here's an actor that I think puts a TON of work into his movies. Christian Bale
Check this out
American Psycho 2000
The Machinist 2004
Batman 2005
How do you go from 2004-2005 without a lot of work.
That's very impressive, and a little creepy.
Augh, I should eat something before work. I don't get a break until 5pm for lunch...
Oh, fake ebola!
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Go to class FREE card.
I just love Open University.
I know I'm a geek because the thought that I can take free Yale and MIT classes gets me more excited than the prospect of free cupcakes.
I just signed up for a class explaining the influence Zombies have had on literature. Awesome.
This of course is in addition to the Astronomy, Microbiology and New Testament classes I've already signed up for.
See, I'm learning useful things as well.
I went a little bezerk on cleaning today. I'm sitting in a nearly empty living room. The only things still here are couches and TV (which I'm not allowed to move by myself, seeing as how my height equals it's screen size)
I've been working on my Spanish again. I'm feeling a lot better about my abilities. Not great, but better. Maybe in a couple of years I might consider myself bilingual. Sigh, lifelong dream to speak more than one language. Then I can turn my sights on all those other languages I feel are important. I would really like to speak German, more than Spanish. However, currently, Spanish has greater application to my life. I actually NEED to speak Spanish, while I would simply like to speak German. Meh, we'll see.
Had a review class for the CEN last night. This test would certify me as an emergency nurse (and be really cool) I am so excited and nervous to take this test. Every once in a while I look around at my life and see how I've progressed toward these little arbitrary goals I set for myself. It's kinda scary sometime for me to realize how old I am getting, based on how I'm progressing through these life events.
Boring, prattling, life-update post.
I'll browse the internet for a bit and find something interesting later.
For now,
I'm making nachos.
I know I'm a geek because the thought that I can take free Yale and MIT classes gets me more excited than the prospect of free cupcakes.
I just signed up for a class explaining the influence Zombies have had on literature. Awesome.
This of course is in addition to the Astronomy, Microbiology and New Testament classes I've already signed up for.
See, I'm learning useful things as well.
I went a little bezerk on cleaning today. I'm sitting in a nearly empty living room. The only things still here are couches and TV (which I'm not allowed to move by myself, seeing as how my height equals it's screen size)
I've been working on my Spanish again. I'm feeling a lot better about my abilities. Not great, but better. Maybe in a couple of years I might consider myself bilingual. Sigh, lifelong dream to speak more than one language. Then I can turn my sights on all those other languages I feel are important. I would really like to speak German, more than Spanish. However, currently, Spanish has greater application to my life. I actually NEED to speak Spanish, while I would simply like to speak German. Meh, we'll see.
Had a review class for the CEN last night. This test would certify me as an emergency nurse (and be really cool) I am so excited and nervous to take this test. Every once in a while I look around at my life and see how I've progressed toward these little arbitrary goals I set for myself. It's kinda scary sometime for me to realize how old I am getting, based on how I'm progressing through these life events.
Boring, prattling, life-update post.
I'll browse the internet for a bit and find something interesting later.
For now,
I'm making nachos.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Spectroscopy? There's an app for that.
When I was in high school, cell phone pretty much only played "snake." I got a phone when I
started driving (I had a fairly unreliable car) and used it to call my parents and John. No pictures, few games, not really any ringtones. I lost it on the band trip. Etc. Pretty common cell phone history. Also common was the inevitable law do not use your phone in class. It cannot be visible. If it rings or vibrates it gets taken away.
Well fine, like anyone would/could call me in class. Like there were any cool games on my phone anyway. My calculator on the other hand was awesome. Mario, Wolfenstein, a few various card games my friends wrote. I even wrote a simple textbase adventure game. Then Joseph wrote a music making program and we couldn't play with our calculators in class anymore.
Back to cell phones.
Someone has realized the ubiquitous and usefulness of these now highly advanced gadgets, Alexander Scheeline made a cameraphone spectrometer. It's available here.
Just another way to let people know how accessible science is.
I know there are apps for everything. There's even a great debate about allowing students to use cellphone apps for...well... everything. However, when I look around the nurses' station at work and see all the docs and nurses looking things up, checking drug interactions, and researching unusual conditions I think, why don't we allow students to do this? Professionals do it. I think we should be training people how to use apps and google to the best ability. Those are real life skill sets we should be training people in.
We don't have to have the periodic table memorized anymore. It can go anywhere.
started driving (I had a fairly unreliable car) and used it to call my parents and John. No pictures, few games, not really any ringtones. I lost it on the band trip. Etc. Pretty common cell phone history. Also common was the inevitable law do not use your phone in class. It cannot be visible. If it rings or vibrates it gets taken away.Well fine, like anyone would/could call me in class. Like there were any cool games on my phone anyway. My calculator on the other hand was awesome. Mario, Wolfenstein, a few various card games my friends wrote. I even wrote a simple textbase adventure game. Then Joseph wrote a music making program and we couldn't play with our calculators in class anymore.
Back to cell phones.
Someone has realized the ubiquitous and usefulness of these now highly advanced gadgets, Alexander Scheeline made a cameraphone spectrometer. It's available here.
Just another way to let people know how accessible science is.
I know there are apps for everything. There's even a great debate about allowing students to use cellphone apps for...well... everything. However, when I look around the nurses' station at work and see all the docs and nurses looking things up, checking drug interactions, and researching unusual conditions I think, why don't we allow students to do this? Professionals do it. I think we should be training people how to use apps and google to the best ability. Those are real life skill sets we should be training people in.
We don't have to have the periodic table memorized anymore. It can go anywhere.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
MONOPOLY!
I'm a sucker for McDonald's Monopoly.
No really. It's terrible because I don't really like their food, just the game pieces. I have such great memories of playing Monopoly with my Dad, the real game as well as McDonald's version.
It's Monopoly time again and, vegetarianism on hold, I've eaten every meal there thus far.
My husband told me to enjoy my epic plunge into fatness.
Oh, I will.
I even went back to McDonald's after the box containing my Big Mac didn't have pieces on it. Yep, I'm that person.
So far I've won a breakfast sandwich.
No really. It's terrible because I don't really like their food, just the game pieces. I have such great memories of playing Monopoly with my Dad, the real game as well as McDonald's version.
It's Monopoly time again and, vegetarianism on hold, I've eaten every meal there thus far.
My husband told me to enjoy my epic plunge into fatness.
Oh, I will.
I even went back to McDonald's after the box containing my Big Mac didn't have pieces on it. Yep, I'm that person.
So far I've won a breakfast sandwich.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Evidence of things not seen.
I can get a lot done when I have nothing to do.
Here's the proof of John's fall break.
Saturday- Watched House season 6, ate a pizza and made a penguin
Sunday- Watched Scrubs, and painted some minis for Last Night on Earth
Monday- I can't say I remember...
Tuesday-Had sushi with Sarah and Vito, watched zombie movies, played zombie board games and watched A Bit of Fry & Laurie.
Wednesday-Beat Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Climbed Pinnacle Mountain
GAME REVIEW:
Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
Yes, its a scary game. I recommend to play it as prescribed, with headphones and all the lights off. You can't "fight" any of the bad guys, you have to run and hide from them. If you see them, your sanity goes down, if you're in the dark too long your sanity goes down, if anything "creepy happens" your sanity goes down. When your sanity is low the screen is all wonky, fuzzy, and you can't control your character as well. Makes for running from the bad guys really difficult. You have to solve puzzles and wander around this Prussian castle to figure out who you are and why you're being held hostage. There are these undead monsters all over the place that kill you pretty quick, plus weird creepy things like pulsating pink goo that takes over certain rooms and whispering flashbacks of screaming and sounds of torture. The puzzles are not that difficult to figure out (pull some levers, mix some potions) and the game is pretty linear. The graphics are great and yes the game is graphical. No one wears clothes. I don't get it. The corpses I'm ok with them being naked but the main boss? Uh, well old wizard men opening portals to other worlds are normally clothed in the other games I've played. However, it worked. I was ok with it.
I don't want to give the plot away just in case you decide to play it. It's a good game with good graphics and a very small development team that did a great job. Get on Steam and buy Amnesia, but I recommend you have a friend to call when you can't get to sleep at night.
The cat has chewed through the last power cord for the iphones. So... can't up or download anything anymore. I have to email my pictures to myself...Sigh.
Also the Wii won't read discs and the DVD player broke. I don't know what I've done but the tech-gods are angry at me. I guess I didn't kill enough frogs...
Well, there's always the NES with Adventures of Lolo.
My husband has been reading me reddit posts for a while now.
This one is actually a good question.
What's the best thing from your childhood that you can't indulge in now because you're a stinkin' adult?
I'd say trying to get from one side of the room to the other without touching the floor. That was the BEST game ever! I would even try to get from the basement to my room (the attic) as a child, man, it would get tricky in the kitchen, that china cabinet was not too sturdy... Climbing on the furniture, taking huge leaps, man, it was great.
I guess I could do that now but the layout is all wrong. My mom was MUCH better at designing obstacle courses out of furniture. ;)
Monday, October 4, 2010
Its a good day.
It's fall break for John. Which means we've been doing NOTHING since I got off work 11pm Friday.
I take that back.
We've watched the entire 5th season of House and the 1st season of Scrubs. I made a penguin out of a glove and painted some minis for our Last Night on Earth Zombie game. We've also played with little cat and had an extensive water fight that ended up soaking the bathroom and each other.
It's been good and it's only Monday.
I did have to wake up at 5 to get to the hospital though. Today was the first day of my pilot study and I wanted to make sure the shift huddles started well.
Nobel Prize for Medicine goes to.... Robert Edwards for his work on invitro fertilization. I'm sure you all know what this is, so I won't go into detail. It just seems sad to me that there is such a lag time between discoveries and the recognition for them. I guess we have to "wait and see" if a discovery is really as important as it seems before we get around to awarding people for it. I say this because the man is pretty old now, not in great health, and his partner (who probably would have shared the prize) has already died.
The ethics section on Wikipedia's IVF thread is very interesting. Sometimes I think people make up issues where they don't exist just so they can hear themselves speak. Such as the Catholic Church's argument that IVF is a separation of the marital act and therefore an immoral way to conceive children. It opposes "Natural Law," (to which my husband griped, "If it couldn't happen then it WOULDN'T happen.")
This brings up an interesting (and I feel unrelated point, but I'm going there anyway.) in the current book I'm reading (Hitler's Scientists) the argument is made that scientists are there to discover and explain things. They should not be morally bound or ethically responsible for how their discoveries are then utilized. There are so many comic book villains suffering from this it's not even funny.
Then there are real people.
So what's the thing? Invent and let others use to destroy? Or keep it to yourself and hope no one else figures it out? You can't control how people use your data. Maybe we should all just curl up in little balls and hide inside so no one can discover anything and no one can cause harm.
On the other hand, how will we ever learn to do good? How can we learn what feels good if we never get hurt?
Wow, too deep for 2:15 on a Monday...
I say knowledge is power. Do the most good for the most people. I don't think scientists can figure out every possibility that their discoveries can be used for. What if they mean well, but it is utilized for bad? Who gets the fault? He guy who invented the gun or the one holding it? Come on now. But, I know things are not that black and white.
How did we get from the Nobel Prize to Oppenheimer? The guy never won a Nobel Prize.
This does remind me of the time in high school when I memorized all the Nobel Prize winners, years and contributions. Phew. Like I said, I like to stalk scientists. Especially dead ones.
Also, a clown was just voted into office in Brazil. It seems he won, by a lot.
I take that back.
We've watched the entire 5th season of House and the 1st season of Scrubs. I made a penguin out of a glove and painted some minis for our Last Night on Earth Zombie game. We've also played with little cat and had an extensive water fight that ended up soaking the bathroom and each other.
It's been good and it's only Monday.
I did have to wake up at 5 to get to the hospital though. Today was the first day of my pilot study and I wanted to make sure the shift huddles started well.
Nobel Prize for Medicine goes to.... Robert Edwards for his work on invitro fertilization. I'm sure you all know what this is, so I won't go into detail. It just seems sad to me that there is such a lag time between discoveries and the recognition for them. I guess we have to "wait and see" if a discovery is really as important as it seems before we get around to awarding people for it. I say this because the man is pretty old now, not in great health, and his partner (who probably would have shared the prize) has already died.
The ethics section on Wikipedia's IVF thread is very interesting. Sometimes I think people make up issues where they don't exist just so they can hear themselves speak. Such as the Catholic Church's argument that IVF is a separation of the marital act and therefore an immoral way to conceive children. It opposes "Natural Law," (to which my husband griped, "If it couldn't happen then it WOULDN'T happen.")
This brings up an interesting (and I feel unrelated point, but I'm going there anyway.) in the current book I'm reading (Hitler's Scientists) the argument is made that scientists are there to discover and explain things. They should not be morally bound or ethically responsible for how their discoveries are then utilized. There are so many comic book villains suffering from this it's not even funny.
Then there are real people.
So what's the thing? Invent and let others use to destroy? Or keep it to yourself and hope no one else figures it out? You can't control how people use your data. Maybe we should all just curl up in little balls and hide inside so no one can discover anything and no one can cause harm.
On the other hand, how will we ever learn to do good? How can we learn what feels good if we never get hurt?
Wow, too deep for 2:15 on a Monday...
I say knowledge is power. Do the most good for the most people. I don't think scientists can figure out every possibility that their discoveries can be used for. What if they mean well, but it is utilized for bad? Who gets the fault? He guy who invented the gun or the one holding it? Come on now. But, I know things are not that black and white.
How did we get from the Nobel Prize to Oppenheimer? The guy never won a Nobel Prize.
This does remind me of the time in high school when I memorized all the Nobel Prize winners, years and contributions. Phew. Like I said, I like to stalk scientists. Especially dead ones.
Also, a clown was just voted into office in Brazil. It seems he won, by a lot.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Habits
I'm a creature of habit. I know this. I also know I can get a bit cranky when those patterns are altered. Throw extra balls at me and if I can't figure out the trajectory in time I'll drop them, and every thing else. Quite angered too.
Not really saying this with much specific in mind, just throwing it out there.
I like to wake up, go running, listen to my podcasts, shower, eat a bit of toast while browsing my google reader and listening to NPR. Then I blog and I go to work. That's how I like to start a day. When that doesn't get to happen, I feel off all day long. Like I've missed the best parts.
Unfortunately, on my days off once I've done my "plan" I have to think of what to do with the next 13 hours.
I'm not off work today, so no worries mate!
I'm reading Hitler's Scientists. It looks at the science in Germany leading up to the WWII and how it affected Hitler's mindset as well as opened/closed certain doors during that war. I'm getting the feeling a LOT of German scientists hated Einstein. Simply HATED him. I've also learned that Hitler was a terrible scientist. Not at all the clever, scheming mastermind he's been portrayed as. If he couldn't understand something he would shake his head and walk away (good thing he couldn't understand Von Braun!) He believed in astrology and homeopathy as well as various other pseudosciences. Once I get further (heh heh) in the book I'll give a better review.
Man, I had this girl shadowing me at work yesterday that simply could not handle silence. I talk, I think I talk too much sometimes, but wow. She was amazing. I didn't handle it very well. Now I'm super aware of how much I speak. I'm working on only talking when necessary. That was a terrible experience. I like silence. It allows for thought.
Oops, work time!
Oh read this if you have time.
Individual intelligence isn't as important as we thought for group functioning!
Not really saying this with much specific in mind, just throwing it out there.
I like to wake up, go running, listen to my podcasts, shower, eat a bit of toast while browsing my google reader and listening to NPR. Then I blog and I go to work. That's how I like to start a day. When that doesn't get to happen, I feel off all day long. Like I've missed the best parts.
Unfortunately, on my days off once I've done my "plan" I have to think of what to do with the next 13 hours.
I'm not off work today, so no worries mate!
I'm reading Hitler's Scientists. It looks at the science in Germany leading up to the WWII and how it affected Hitler's mindset as well as opened/closed certain doors during that war. I'm getting the feeling a LOT of German scientists hated Einstein. Simply HATED him. I've also learned that Hitler was a terrible scientist. Not at all the clever, scheming mastermind he's been portrayed as. If he couldn't understand something he would shake his head and walk away (good thing he couldn't understand Von Braun!) He believed in astrology and homeopathy as well as various other pseudosciences. Once I get further (heh heh) in the book I'll give a better review.
Man, I had this girl shadowing me at work yesterday that simply could not handle silence. I talk, I think I talk too much sometimes, but wow. She was amazing. I didn't handle it very well. Now I'm super aware of how much I speak. I'm working on only talking when necessary. That was a terrible experience. I like silence. It allows for thought.
Oops, work time!
Oh read this if you have time.
Individual intelligence isn't as important as we thought for group functioning!
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Brain pain
Auuuugh.
Brain hurts. Multiple factors I believe. Largest having to deal with this article from SciAm.
Oral contraceptives and brain plasticity. Are you really "yourself" when taking estrogen/progesterone or whatever combo. Maybe no. (Side note: What constitutes a person anyway?)
Timing is fitting. I took my last oral contraceptive pill today so I'm beginning an additional log to monitor changes as time progresses away from that era. Just the usual, blood pressure, body weight, mood fluctuations. Good thing I keep fairly good journals. The coding on my writing style can be a bit time consuming.
Anyway.
So SciAm posts this review on a study monitoring the effects of hormonal contraceptives and brain plasticity. Great, but they don't give a link to the article! Just to pubmeds main page!
Auuugh.
This is where my pain really sets in. I wanted to see this study. So now I'm digging through pubmed to try and locate it.
More pain as I realize that SciAm doesn't list the author, the title, or really much of anything that could help me locate it. Just the name of the Journal and that it was published "recently"
Ah, found it. Maybe the article did have the author. Just halfway down and it looked like Pfizer. So, naturally I thought it was the drug company.
My bad....
Bah. I don't want to purchase anything. I just want to read the article.
It's times like this I wish more people thought like Cory Doctorow.
Who needs copyright? Make everything creative commons and we can get along and share nicely...
Plus, I can read those articles if I wish.
Anyway, enough rant about how I can't read it. Lets dive right in and discuss it.
Oooh ohh! I found it!
Wow, it's at this point I wish I had my sisters' brain.
This is confusing stuff.
This study assessed grey matter volume in men, women using hormonal contraceptives and women not using hormonal contraceptives. The women not on contraceptives were assessed twice. Once when estrogen/progesterone levels were high (folicular) and again when they were low (mid-luteal).
For the scans they utilized the fMRI machine. A functional MRI maps blood flow and oxygen. This is based on the theory that neuronal activity is reflected by greater consumption of O2.
So the fMRI lights up the areas where O2 consumption is high, and we believe that area of the brain to be "workin."
All in all what they found is women on hormonal contraceptives had a minor inlargement of the prefrontal cortex.
This is the part that known as your "personality" in layman's terms.
They don't discuss how this effect anything, just that there are differences. So conclusions about behavior cannot really be drawn from this study. Only that brain plasticity and structure is affected by hormonal regulation. Hormonal regulation is enhanced by hormonal contraceptives.
Limitations?
They don't specify what type of hormonal contraceptives the women used. Oral, injections, etc. Nor do they separate the estrogen/progesterone group from the progesterone only group.
I don't think they administered hormones to the male population either, it's tough to tell.
Now my brain really hurts.
I purchased the 6th edition of the APA publication guide. I think I go read that. It might make the headache go away...
Brain hurts. Multiple factors I believe. Largest having to deal with this article from SciAm.
Oral contraceptives and brain plasticity. Are you really "yourself" when taking estrogen/progesterone or whatever combo. Maybe no. (Side note: What constitutes a person anyway?)
Timing is fitting. I took my last oral contraceptive pill today so I'm beginning an additional log to monitor changes as time progresses away from that era. Just the usual, blood pressure, body weight, mood fluctuations. Good thing I keep fairly good journals. The coding on my writing style can be a bit time consuming.
Anyway.
So SciAm posts this review on a study monitoring the effects of hormonal contraceptives and brain plasticity. Great, but they don't give a link to the article! Just to pubmeds main page!
Auuugh.
This is where my pain really sets in. I wanted to see this study. So now I'm digging through pubmed to try and locate it.
More pain as I realize that SciAm doesn't list the author, the title, or really much of anything that could help me locate it. Just the name of the Journal and that it was published "recently"
Ah, found it. Maybe the article did have the author. Just halfway down and it looked like Pfizer. So, naturally I thought it was the drug company.
My bad....
Bah. I don't want to purchase anything. I just want to read the article.
It's times like this I wish more people thought like Cory Doctorow.
Who needs copyright? Make everything creative commons and we can get along and share nicely...
Plus, I can read those articles if I wish.
Anyway, enough rant about how I can't read it. Lets dive right in and discuss it.
Oooh ohh! I found it!
Wow, it's at this point I wish I had my sisters' brain.
This is confusing stuff.
This study assessed grey matter volume in men, women using hormonal contraceptives and women not using hormonal contraceptives. The women not on contraceptives were assessed twice. Once when estrogen/progesterone levels were high (folicular) and again when they were low (mid-luteal).
For the scans they utilized the fMRI machine. A functional MRI maps blood flow and oxygen. This is based on the theory that neuronal activity is reflected by greater consumption of O2.
So the fMRI lights up the areas where O2 consumption is high, and we believe that area of the brain to be "workin."
All in all what they found is women on hormonal contraceptives had a minor inlargement of the prefrontal cortex.
This is the part that known as your "personality" in layman's terms.
They don't discuss how this effect anything, just that there are differences. So conclusions about behavior cannot really be drawn from this study. Only that brain plasticity and structure is affected by hormonal regulation. Hormonal regulation is enhanced by hormonal contraceptives.
Limitations?
They don't specify what type of hormonal contraceptives the women used. Oral, injections, etc. Nor do they separate the estrogen/progesterone group from the progesterone only group.
I don't think they administered hormones to the male population either, it's tough to tell.
Now my brain really hurts.
I purchased the 6th edition of the APA publication guide. I think I go read that. It might make the headache go away...
Monday, September 27, 2010
What a weekend.
I've worked since the last update, and that's about it.
Very, very busy days. Finally got a chance to run again yesterday. I ran at 5 in the afternoon and I'll be honest. It was a bit chilly. Weehaw! Autumn is finally here.
For my run this morning it was 53 degrees. I wore long sleeves. I was still cold. It felt great.
Haven't had a great amount of time for "fun" research. I've been doing REAL stuff. I've been working like mad for the past three days on an actual project for work. I put a proposal together for "change of shift" huddles. Complete with a lit review, a pilot study, a data collection tool, etc etc etc. I scienced all day Sunday.
John and I watched the original Taking of Pelham 123 last night. We had seen the remake a month ago or so. It was very interesting to note all of the differences. I appreciated that I could watch and enjoy both movies. They are similar and yet different enough to keep one intrigued even though the plots are essentially the same.
A few of the major differences that were interesting to note were things such as. Everything is so yellow in the 1970s while it's blues and greens in 2000s. People were much, much ruder to each other in the 70s version and cared much less about the people on the subway. Another difference was the mayor of New York was such a pansy that everyone hated. You just can't do that anymore. It's way too taboo to make fun of the mayor of New York. The President is free game, but not New York. Interesting no? Also, the remake worked in this twist of wall street that used some crazy technology.
All in all, I can't actually choose which Gerber I liked more. Walter Matthau, or Denzel Washington. Both excellent. Both great movies. I recommend both. They each stand on their own feet exceptionally well.
Zombie nightmares last night. Shudder.
They're coming for you, Barbara....
Something about being a maze of a building and having to get out while zombies were bursting through the walls. This is what I get for playing Last Night on Earth, before going to bed.
I almost lived this time too. Rats.
Time for work again. I'll be so excited when John's next test is over, he's been studying for a long time. He needs a night off. That will be tomorrow. We'll probably go get some pizza.
Very, very busy days. Finally got a chance to run again yesterday. I ran at 5 in the afternoon and I'll be honest. It was a bit chilly. Weehaw! Autumn is finally here.
For my run this morning it was 53 degrees. I wore long sleeves. I was still cold. It felt great.
Haven't had a great amount of time for "fun" research. I've been doing REAL stuff. I've been working like mad for the past three days on an actual project for work. I put a proposal together for "change of shift" huddles. Complete with a lit review, a pilot study, a data collection tool, etc etc etc. I scienced all day Sunday.
John and I watched the original Taking of Pelham 123 last night. We had seen the remake a month ago or so. It was very interesting to note all of the differences. I appreciated that I could watch and enjoy both movies. They are similar and yet different enough to keep one intrigued even though the plots are essentially the same.
A few of the major differences that were interesting to note were things such as. Everything is so yellow in the 1970s while it's blues and greens in 2000s. People were much, much ruder to each other in the 70s version and cared much less about the people on the subway. Another difference was the mayor of New York was such a pansy that everyone hated. You just can't do that anymore. It's way too taboo to make fun of the mayor of New York. The President is free game, but not New York. Interesting no? Also, the remake worked in this twist of wall street that used some crazy technology.
All in all, I can't actually choose which Gerber I liked more. Walter Matthau, or Denzel Washington. Both excellent. Both great movies. I recommend both. They each stand on their own feet exceptionally well.
Zombie nightmares last night. Shudder.
They're coming for you, Barbara....
Something about being a maze of a building and having to get out while zombies were bursting through the walls. This is what I get for playing Last Night on Earth, before going to bed.
I almost lived this time too. Rats.
Time for work again. I'll be so excited when John's next test is over, he's been studying for a long time. He needs a night off. That will be tomorrow. We'll probably go get some pizza.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Take THAT b-thalassemia!
Back to work today!
I always get more done when I have a time crunch. I guess that's what makes me such a procrastinator.
I had a great few days off. Didn't really do much on my "list" I read a lot of books though. I'm currently in the midst of "Hitler's Scientists" it's a quick overview of the crazy and unethical things that surrounded WWII, plus all the things we learned from it. *Whistles* Review once I'm done with it.
I got a book on cat training, but SOMEONE wasn't the the mood to be trained. Sigh. Spock is pretty good about coming when he's called, but... I'd like to teach him a few more things. You know, sit, fetch, things like that. He'll do them occasionally, but only if he wants to. So there. I just he's just a cat.
Honestly, that's one of the reasons why I like cats, they don't fall all over themselves to make you love them. They have the attitude that they could really careless. So when they do really want to snuggle, its doubly sweet.
Like last night, John and I were kinda laying in bed, exhausted. Teasingly, we "kicked" Spock off the bed. Next thing we noticed, he was burrowing his way back up under the covers where we couldn't see him and he snuggled up next to us, hidden. So cute!
This morning on my run I listened to last week's Nature Podcast and learned some pretty awesome stuff. Such as THIS article.
That's the medscape btw. SO, using gene therapy they've "cured" someone of b-thalassemia.
b-thalassemia is an anemic blood disorder similar to sickle cell. In this disorder there's a mutation of one of the heme molecules that are on your redblood cells. Heme is used to transport oxygen.
Here's a rough and dirty version. They modified a virus to contain the gene they needed to replace in this guy's DNA and introduced it. The virus did it's "Virus-y" thing of going in and taking over the DNA replicating and replacing etc etc. Through this method they essentially fixed him.
This young man has had blood transfusions since age 3 and subsequent transfusions approx every 3 months to keep his blood levels at a functional level. He underwent this therapy 3 years ago and hasn't required a transfusion since June 2008!
Wow.
That's great.
Of course limitations include small sample size and length of observation.
Awaa??
Sorry. I've been working on a lit review for the past few days. Pointing out limitations has become a bit of a habit. I'm putting together my stuff for the introduction of change of shift huddles in our ER. It's a pretty impressive report. I've got to get my crap together for the pilot study I'm starting in October. Augh, I've got to create a reliable and valid measurement tool in the next few days...
Blerg.
Oop! Off to work!
I always get more done when I have a time crunch. I guess that's what makes me such a procrastinator.
I had a great few days off. Didn't really do much on my "list" I read a lot of books though. I'm currently in the midst of "Hitler's Scientists" it's a quick overview of the crazy and unethical things that surrounded WWII, plus all the things we learned from it. *Whistles* Review once I'm done with it.
I got a book on cat training, but SOMEONE wasn't the the mood to be trained. Sigh. Spock is pretty good about coming when he's called, but... I'd like to teach him a few more things. You know, sit, fetch, things like that. He'll do them occasionally, but only if he wants to. So there. I just he's just a cat.
Honestly, that's one of the reasons why I like cats, they don't fall all over themselves to make you love them. They have the attitude that they could really careless. So when they do really want to snuggle, its doubly sweet.
Like last night, John and I were kinda laying in bed, exhausted. Teasingly, we "kicked" Spock off the bed. Next thing we noticed, he was burrowing his way back up under the covers where we couldn't see him and he snuggled up next to us, hidden. So cute!
This morning on my run I listened to last week's Nature Podcast and learned some pretty awesome stuff. Such as THIS article.
That's the medscape btw. SO, using gene therapy they've "cured" someone of b-thalassemia.
b-thalassemia is an anemic blood disorder similar to sickle cell. In this disorder there's a mutation of one of the heme molecules that are on your redblood cells. Heme is used to transport oxygen.
Here's a rough and dirty version. They modified a virus to contain the gene they needed to replace in this guy's DNA and introduced it. The virus did it's "Virus-y" thing of going in and taking over the DNA replicating and replacing etc etc. Through this method they essentially fixed him.
This young man has had blood transfusions since age 3 and subsequent transfusions approx every 3 months to keep his blood levels at a functional level. He underwent this therapy 3 years ago and hasn't required a transfusion since June 2008!
Wow.
That's great.
Of course limitations include small sample size and length of observation.
Awaa??
Sorry. I've been working on a lit review for the past few days. Pointing out limitations has become a bit of a habit. I'm putting together my stuff for the introduction of change of shift huddles in our ER. It's a pretty impressive report. I've got to get my crap together for the pilot study I'm starting in October. Augh, I've got to create a reliable and valid measurement tool in the next few days...
Blerg.
Oop! Off to work!
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
The Yo-yo of life
I just realized this morning how much I do simply to counteract other things I do.
That's pretty much all my day consists of.
I eat breakfast so I have energy to run which burns off the food I ate.
I shampoo to get the oils out of my hair, then I put oil back in my hair so it doesn't get damaged by the dryer.
I make the bed to unmake it later.
I do laundry to clean my dirty clothes.
I buy food just to eat it.
I read books so I can watch futurama later with John and have my brain melt out!
Now I have to go to Goodwill to give someone else the joy of my old kitchen table!
That's pretty much all my day consists of.
I eat breakfast so I have energy to run which burns off the food I ate.
I shampoo to get the oils out of my hair, then I put oil back in my hair so it doesn't get damaged by the dryer.
I make the bed to unmake it later.
I do laundry to clean my dirty clothes.
I buy food just to eat it.
I read books so I can watch futurama later with John and have my brain melt out!
Now I have to go to Goodwill to give someone else the joy of my old kitchen table!
Monday, September 20, 2010
Speaking of...
So, my awesome list of things to do over my 5 day break isn't going so well.
I write lists like these just so I can ignore them and do the boring stuff.
Like grocery shopping.
For some reason I spent 30 minutes at the library loading up on Vegan and Vegetarian cookbooks only to go out and buy all frozen dinners for the next week.
The worst part is I didn't realize what I had done until I had to drag it all inside. Then the incongruousness of the situation hit me.
Nice.
Speaking of nice I have a new kitchen table! I gave myself a blister putting it together. Ouch.
Speaking of ouch my cyst was lanced today.
Speaking of lanced (well, er... Lancet) I can get journal access through work!
Speaking of journal access that's what I did all day yesterday. Researched the effectiveness of "pre-shift" huddles for critical care units. I'm conducting a pilot study in our ER and needed some articles for my lit review.
Speaking of lit review. I'm reading this totally awesome book called "Panic in Level 4: Killer viruses, cannibals, and other journeys to the edge of science."
I think that's all I can "speaking of"
Ps. the author of this book is the only non-doctor to win the CDC's Prevention Award.
I write lists like these just so I can ignore them and do the boring stuff.
Like grocery shopping.
For some reason I spent 30 minutes at the library loading up on Vegan and Vegetarian cookbooks only to go out and buy all frozen dinners for the next week.
The worst part is I didn't realize what I had done until I had to drag it all inside. Then the incongruousness of the situation hit me.
Nice.
Speaking of nice I have a new kitchen table! I gave myself a blister putting it together. Ouch.
Speaking of ouch my cyst was lanced today.
Speaking of lanced (well, er... Lancet) I can get journal access through work!
Speaking of journal access that's what I did all day yesterday. Researched the effectiveness of "pre-shift" huddles for critical care units. I'm conducting a pilot study in our ER and needed some articles for my lit review.
Speaking of lit review. I'm reading this totally awesome book called "Panic in Level 4: Killer viruses, cannibals, and other journeys to the edge of science."
I think that's all I can "speaking of"
Ps. the author of this book is the only non-doctor to win the CDC's Prevention Award.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
September 2001
THAT day.
In September an amazing phenomenon occurs. Everyone whips out their American Flags, Rifles, and Bibles. Reminding us to Never Forget. (Or as one person quipped Never Forgive. My issues with this view later.)
Everyone's got a story about what they were doing in September 2001. I've got a bit of a different tale about September 2001, but I'd be lying if I said it was one I'd ever forget.
September 2001 I was thirteen, homeschooled, and still waiting to get my braces off.
My brother, Aaron, was a senior in Homeschool High and taking a couple of college classes at the community college. We were at Volleyball practice that morning and Aaron was running late.
Then the accident happened.
Two girls came running in the gymnasium from where they had been playing outside saying that Aaron was stuck in his car and was yelling for help. By the time we made it outside this man was lifting Aaron's truck off his body. Aaron had been trapped between his car and a 3 ft high cement wall. The truck had been rolling down the hill towards a house at the bottom of the parking lot. Aaron had jumped infront of it in an attempt to stop the car. Well, it stopped, but only after it had smashed him into a concrete wall and trapped him there. There was an amazing flurry of activity. Jake and Jackson, teammates from the boys team carried Aaron into the bathroom and we ripped his pants off. There was a large (3-4 inches length) gash on his upper thigh, and I could read his license plate backwards off his leg. The most disturbing part however was this gash (through which I could see bone, it's vaguely bluish) was not bleeding. Aaron was very white, not yelling anymore. Very calmly telling us that he really hurt. My mom decided there was no time to wait for an ambulance and we loaded him up in the car and she drove off to Cox North, the hospital Aaron was born at 18 years and two days ago.
I was left at the gymnasium, there wasn't room in our small car. I didn't feel like going back to practice. So I waited. Mom said she'd be back to pick me up once Aaron was in the ER. After all, he'd only been 18 for two days, she figured she'd still have to do all the legal stuff. I just kinda sat. I'm sure it was only 30 minutes or so but Gretchen, my teammate and much taller twin loaded me in her car and we drove to the hospital. My mom had called and told us he had been transferred to Cox South. I remember the ER waiting area vaguely, I remember a small carpeted room where the Chaplain talked to me and I remember the surgical waiting area. I remember Gretchen and Jake being there except when the Chaplain told me Aaron probably wouldn't live. I remember being with most of my family when the surgeon told us Aaron would not be able to walk again if he lived. I remember finally getting to see him a day later, in his hospital room, mad as hell, legs flayed open to counteract compartment syndrome. I remember him doing sit-ups in bed on day two. Trying to sneak out of bed with a walker on day three ( both legs still sliced open in a quadruple fasciotomy) Aaron was an athlete. He played Volleyball with me, had just joined my cheerleading squad and was a fantastic gymnast. Fantastic. How was he supposed to start his adult life with such a sudden shift in lifestyle? To go from a kid so active he was pulled from public school to being wheelchair-bound?
I remember being in a very crowded room hearing the President declare war and thinking how stupid and silly war seemed now that my brother was paralyzed.
I remember the doctor telling us that had Aaron not been in such great shape he should have lost his legs. I also remember him leaving the hospital, and being carried in the house.
I remember physical therapy.
I remember him relearning to walk.
I remember Aaron going to ground zero that January to help clean up the wreckage. I remember when Aaron received his cheerleading scholarship to Southwest Missouri State that next fall. I remember Aaron going on to teach boys gymnastics for at least 5 years.
Not all memories are bad.
Now I remember what it's like to almost lose someone.
I love you Aaron, thanks for being more than a memory.
In September an amazing phenomenon occurs. Everyone whips out their American Flags, Rifles, and Bibles. Reminding us to Never Forget. (Or as one person quipped Never Forgive. My issues with this view later.)
Everyone's got a story about what they were doing in September 2001. I've got a bit of a different tale about September 2001, but I'd be lying if I said it was one I'd ever forget.
September 2001 I was thirteen, homeschooled, and still waiting to get my braces off.
My brother, Aaron, was a senior in Homeschool High and taking a couple of college classes at the community college. We were at Volleyball practice that morning and Aaron was running late.Then the accident happened.
Two girls came running in the gymnasium from where they had been playing outside saying that Aaron was stuck in his car and was yelling for help. By the time we made it outside this man was lifting Aaron's truck off his body. Aaron had been trapped between his car and a 3 ft high cement wall. The truck had been rolling down the hill towards a house at the bottom of the parking lot. Aaron had jumped infront of it in an attempt to stop the car. Well, it stopped, but only after it had smashed him into a concrete wall and trapped him there. There was an amazing flurry of activity. Jake and Jackson, teammates from the boys team carried Aaron into the bathroom and we ripped his pants off. There was a large (3-4 inches length) gash on his upper thigh, and I could read his license plate backwards off his leg. The most disturbing part however was this gash (through which I could see bone, it's vaguely bluish) was not bleeding. Aaron was very white, not yelling anymore. Very calmly telling us that he really hurt. My mom decided there was no time to wait for an ambulance and we loaded him up in the car and she drove off to Cox North, the hospital Aaron was born at 18 years and two days ago.
I was left at the gymnasium, there wasn't room in our small car. I didn't feel like going back to practice. So I waited. Mom said she'd be back to pick me up once Aaron was in the ER. After all, he'd only been 18 for two days, she figured she'd still have to do all the legal stuff. I just kinda sat. I'm sure it was only 30 minutes or so but Gretchen, my teammate and much taller twin loaded me in her car and we drove to the hospital. My mom had called and told us he had been transferred to Cox South. I remember the ER waiting area vaguely, I remember a small carpeted room where the Chaplain talked to me and I remember the surgical waiting area. I remember Gretchen and Jake being there except when the Chaplain told me Aaron probably wouldn't live. I remember being with most of my family when the surgeon told us Aaron would not be able to walk again if he lived. I remember finally getting to see him a day later, in his hospital room, mad as hell, legs flayed open to counteract compartment syndrome. I remember him doing sit-ups in bed on day two. Trying to sneak out of bed with a walker on day three ( both legs still sliced open in a quadruple fasciotomy) Aaron was an athlete. He played Volleyball with me, had just joined my cheerleading squad and was a fantastic gymnast. Fantastic. How was he supposed to start his adult life with such a sudden shift in lifestyle? To go from a kid so active he was pulled from public school to being wheelchair-bound?
I remember being in a very crowded room hearing the President declare war and thinking how stupid and silly war seemed now that my brother was paralyzed.
I remember the doctor telling us that had Aaron not been in such great shape he should have lost his legs. I also remember him leaving the hospital, and being carried in the house.
I remember physical therapy.
I remember him relearning to walk.
I remember Aaron going to ground zero that January to help clean up the wreckage. I remember when Aaron received his cheerleading scholarship to Southwest Missouri State that next fall. I remember Aaron going on to teach boys gymnastics for at least 5 years.
Not all memories are bad.
Now I remember what it's like to almost lose someone.
I love you Aaron, thanks for being more than a memory.
Cosmicism
Ok I know more than half of you read that as COMICism and are now expecting something about Scott Adams or Jerry Seinfeld.
Sorry, I'm here to disappoint.
This is my post on cosmicism.
Cosmic, with an "s."
Really, this just flows from a rambling moleskin notebook entry I scribbled yesterday while waiting for John to finish up another 20 slides before dinner.
Cosmicism is a literary movement developed by HP Lovecraft (of whom I'm been reading a lot of lately.) Lovecraft was a "weird science" writer in the 1920s. He created the Cthulhu Mythos that I've been greatly enjoying. Lovecraft was himself a very intriguing personality. His life story reads like so many of his own tales (giant galactic monsters absent however.) His brief 46 year life is peppered with those around him suffering mental disorders, dying suddenly, and abandoning him moneyless, jobless, and depressed. Having started this literary wave of cosmicism, inventing the Necromnomicon, and bolstering weird science through pulp magazines I find it amazing that at the time of his early death (per colon cancer) he had never published an actual book.
So, what is the cosmicism and why have I chosen to be fascinated by it and therefore submit you all to my wonderings? Cosmicism is the idea that the universe is far too vast and unknowable for rational thought or meaning and all life is insignificant. Not nihilism. Humanity is not meaningless, just insignificant in relation to the vastness of the universe.
As Douglas Adams put it.
Space, is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly big it is.
Whereas DNA (no really, Douglas Adams middle name is Noel. Same as mine.) used cosmicism in a humorous way to highlight the pretentiousness and self-important we all give ourselves, Lovecraft's method was much darker. He leaves one with a sense of utter hopelessness. He doesn't give his heros what they need to overcome their obstacles. He leaves them deranged, confused, and terrified. They might escape the evil, but they know their attempts are in vain for any extended period of time. I love it, it's realistic.
I love the way he handled Cthuhulu. He didn't really attempt to describe this entity of extreme terror and hideousness but he let you know that simply its presence made the entire crew of a poor, poor sailing ship lose consciousness and rationality at the sight of it.
He does the same thing in The Dunwich Horror, by having the monster remain invisable and at the end when they are attempting to destroy it. Instead of having the point of view be from one of the men near it, he has you far away on another hill, standing NEXT to the person with a telescope. He doesn't even let you hold it.
Its the idea that if mankind ever had to actually face the truth about our place in the scheme of things we would all go nuts.
I think it's fairly true.
This is why we have so many damn coping mechanisms (my personal favorite being bureaucratic tape) if we all keep ourselves so busy with the "non-important" things then we never have to face the music. Life is pointless, insignificant, and to short to really get anything done.
Like my Dad always told me, "Life sucks, then you die."
For those of you who know me you're probably confused and shaking your heads. There's no way someone as positive, naive, and ambitious as myself can actually believe or find comfort in this idea of cosmicism. Why not? Believing myself to be insignificant has been quite possibly the most liberating idea I've ever held onto. Nothing I really do will make that large of an impact so who cares if I screw it up? I'll never have the answers to everything, so why fret about looking for them? I'll get what I can out of life but won't get everything.
As one of the greatest minds of the future once uttered.
Life, loathe it or ignore it, you can't like it.
Thanks Marvin.
Sorry, I'm here to disappoint.
This is my post on cosmicism.
Cosmic, with an "s."
Really, this just flows from a rambling moleskin notebook entry I scribbled yesterday while waiting for John to finish up another 20 slides before dinner.
Cosmicism is a literary movement developed by HP Lovecraft (of whom I'm been reading a lot of lately.) Lovecraft was a "weird science" writer in the 1920s. He created the Cthulhu Mythos that I've been greatly enjoying. Lovecraft was himself a very intriguing personality. His life story reads like so many of his own tales (giant galactic monsters absent however.) His brief 46 year life is peppered with those around him suffering mental disorders, dying suddenly, and abandoning him moneyless, jobless, and depressed. Having started this literary wave of cosmicism, inventing the Necromnomicon, and bolstering weird science through pulp magazines I find it amazing that at the time of his early death (per colon cancer) he had never published an actual book.
So, what is the cosmicism and why have I chosen to be fascinated by it and therefore submit you all to my wonderings? Cosmicism is the idea that the universe is far too vast and unknowable for rational thought or meaning and all life is insignificant. Not nihilism. Humanity is not meaningless, just insignificant in relation to the vastness of the universe.
As Douglas Adams put it.
Space, is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly big it is.
Whereas DNA (no really, Douglas Adams middle name is Noel. Same as mine.) used cosmicism in a humorous way to highlight the pretentiousness and self-important we all give ourselves, Lovecraft's method was much darker. He leaves one with a sense of utter hopelessness. He doesn't give his heros what they need to overcome their obstacles. He leaves them deranged, confused, and terrified. They might escape the evil, but they know their attempts are in vain for any extended period of time. I love it, it's realistic.
I love the way he handled Cthuhulu. He didn't really attempt to describe this entity of extreme terror and hideousness but he let you know that simply its presence made the entire crew of a poor, poor sailing ship lose consciousness and rationality at the sight of it.
He does the same thing in The Dunwich Horror, by having the monster remain invisable and at the end when they are attempting to destroy it. Instead of having the point of view be from one of the men near it, he has you far away on another hill, standing NEXT to the person with a telescope. He doesn't even let you hold it.
Its the idea that if mankind ever had to actually face the truth about our place in the scheme of things we would all go nuts.
I think it's fairly true.
This is why we have so many damn coping mechanisms (my personal favorite being bureaucratic tape) if we all keep ourselves so busy with the "non-important" things then we never have to face the music. Life is pointless, insignificant, and to short to really get anything done.
Like my Dad always told me, "Life sucks, then you die."
For those of you who know me you're probably confused and shaking your heads. There's no way someone as positive, naive, and ambitious as myself can actually believe or find comfort in this idea of cosmicism. Why not? Believing myself to be insignificant has been quite possibly the most liberating idea I've ever held onto. Nothing I really do will make that large of an impact so who cares if I screw it up? I'll never have the answers to everything, so why fret about looking for them? I'll get what I can out of life but won't get everything.
As one of the greatest minds of the future once uttered.
Life, loathe it or ignore it, you can't like it.
Thanks Marvin.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Up and Down with Burke and Hare
I guess relaxing stresses me out.
I always seem to be formulating lists of things to do. Most of the time it's quiet dull, cleaning house bits, cooking bits, things to keep the machine of life running. But occasionally I find lists like these
Books to Read
Traits to learn
Habits to form
Etc.
One of the best of these contained items such as. Learn lockpicking, teach the cat tricks, learn a useless language, build a marshmallow catapult.
Seriously? Yes. I have the next five days off. Lets see how well I can do on these...
I just finished reading a book about Burke and Hare. (5 points to anyone who knows who these people are without looking it up.) Here's where I tell you about them. They were two "body snatchers" essentially who murdered people and sold their cadavers (mostly still "fresh") to the local medical school. Ach. Pretty creepy. They were very obvious about it too and killed a total of 16 people. They murdered people by getting them very drunk, then "burking" them. Burking was laying on top of them and covering their nose and mouth until they suffocated. At the time these murders were committed the exact mechanism of death was undetectable. All evidence suggested the person drown in their own intoxicated vomit.
Hare was offered immunity when he turned on Burke at trial. Burke was hanged then publicly dissected. The Edinburgh Medical College Museum still has his skeleton.
I didn't know this however, it seems next month Simon Pegg (Shawn of the Dead) and Andy Serkis (Gollum) will be starring in the film Burke and Hare. Huh, good timing.
Don't you feel educated?
What I don't understand is Wikipedia is listing this upcoming movie as a British-Japanese-American Black Comedy.
What? These dudes were Irish. Where's the Japanese come in?
Up the close and down the stair
Up and Down with Burke and Hare
Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief
Knox the man who buys the beef!
Kids really knew how to make good jump-rope songs back then.
Ring-around-the rosy
Pockets full of posy
ashes, ashes, we all fall down!
By this point I'm sure everyone knows that's about the plague.
Lizzie Borden took an axe
Gave her mother 40 wacks
When she saw what she had done
Gave her father 41!
Sheeshes.
I always seem to be formulating lists of things to do. Most of the time it's quiet dull, cleaning house bits, cooking bits, things to keep the machine of life running. But occasionally I find lists like these
Books to Read
Traits to learn
Habits to form
Etc.
One of the best of these contained items such as. Learn lockpicking, teach the cat tricks, learn a useless language, build a marshmallow catapult.
Seriously? Yes. I have the next five days off. Lets see how well I can do on these...
I just finished reading a book about Burke and Hare. (5 points to anyone who knows who these people are without looking it up.) Here's where I tell you about them. They were two "body snatchers" essentially who murdered people and sold their cadavers (mostly still "fresh") to the local medical school. Ach. Pretty creepy. They were very obvious about it too and killed a total of 16 people. They murdered people by getting them very drunk, then "burking" them. Burking was laying on top of them and covering their nose and mouth until they suffocated. At the time these murders were committed the exact mechanism of death was undetectable. All evidence suggested the person drown in their own intoxicated vomit.
Hare was offered immunity when he turned on Burke at trial. Burke was hanged then publicly dissected. The Edinburgh Medical College Museum still has his skeleton.
I didn't know this however, it seems next month Simon Pegg (Shawn of the Dead) and Andy Serkis (Gollum) will be starring in the film Burke and Hare. Huh, good timing.
Don't you feel educated?
What I don't understand is Wikipedia is listing this upcoming movie as a British-Japanese-American Black Comedy.
What? These dudes were Irish. Where's the Japanese come in?
Up the close and down the stair
Up and Down with Burke and Hare
Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief
Knox the man who buys the beef!
Kids really knew how to make good jump-rope songs back then.
Ring-around-the rosy
Pockets full of posy
ashes, ashes, we all fall down!
By this point I'm sure everyone knows that's about the plague.
Lizzie Borden took an axe
Gave her mother 40 wacks
When she saw what she had done
Gave her father 41!
Sheeshes.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
What to do
Hmm, second OK Go title for my blog this month...
I had a day off today. The entire day. John was gone too. What did I do? Well, actually not much. I decided to get a doctor here in where I live now so I jumped online and began the RESEARCH!
First I had to find out what insurance I had through work then skim through their pages of acceptable providers, 84?! How am I supposed to arbitrarily pick from 84 different names?! Wow.
With a little help from vitals.com I "reviewed" some doctors. Unfortunately most of them had only 1 review. Yea, great sample size there. Phsaw.
Thanks to this article from NPR I narrowed my search a little more. (I also only looked at those within 2 miles of my house.)
I landed with a new female doctor who was accepting patients right now and could actually see me within the next hour provided I filled out the paperwork in time.
Hastily, I printed out the 12 page history, 2 page HIPPA, and 1 page personal data sheet and swibbled away.
The history was unremarkable. I simply wrote NO or NA to everything (save seasonal allergies as a child) and signed the bottom. Then I threw on my vibrams and was out the door.
1 blood draw and x-ray later I was told I was healthy but... what was I going to do about my blood pressure? 130/80? That's amazing for me. (Not great, but better than last years 150/90 incident or the previous years 180/100 embarrassment) We talked a bit about the general diet=vegetarian, exercise= 2miles a day, stress=not gonna change. Finally, we landed on my birth control. I take an estrogen-progesterone compound, well estrogen can increase blood pressure. So, I switched today. I opted not to go to simply oral progesterone (since a slip up by even one hour can greatly increase the baby risk) Now I'm getting shots every 3 months.
A bit scary since it can completely eliminate your menses (where does it go?!) by inhibiting follicular development.
Wahoo.
I was going to switch to this a while ago, but realized I would be moving, so here I am. All moved. I will say I did google scholar this thing like crazy as I waited for the injection. I hope I don't have the weight gain side effect. I worked so hard to get back into these size 4s. I'm not going anywhere!!
In other news. I ran this afternoon to a new podcast and nearly peed my pants it was so funny. I guess I'm a bad person for not listening to Carl Sagan's Dance Party earlier in life but man, oh man was it funny. Tuesday runs are going to be so much more fun now. Not very "science" heavy but very sarcastic. I recommend it highly.
Back to the doctoring bit. In my "weekend of horror" where I sat around and did nothing, I think I gave myself a pressure ulcer. Well, it hasn't gotten any better, it's making it a pain in the (exactly where it is) to sit and it keeps seeping serosanguinous fluid!
So the fact that it's been two days of bandaids and neosporin sans ANY clotting or scabbing at all made me ask the doctor about it.
It's either an abscess (antibiotics for a week) or a pilonidal cyst.
Great, I've got Jeep Disease.
These cysts experienced a great out-coming during WWII when the service men did a lot of riding around in bumpy jeeps. They would get (essentially) ingrown hairs on their coccyx making those bumpy jeep rides a pain in the... er... coccyx.
I'm sure all you non-medical people out there are shocked at how personal this blog suddenly is.
Oh wow, today we talked about my menses and infected butt-hairs.
Ha ha, how funny.
Sorry all.
; )
I had a day off today. The entire day. John was gone too. What did I do? Well, actually not much. I decided to get a doctor here in where I live now so I jumped online and began the RESEARCH!
First I had to find out what insurance I had through work then skim through their pages of acceptable providers, 84?! How am I supposed to arbitrarily pick from 84 different names?! Wow.
With a little help from vitals.com I "reviewed" some doctors. Unfortunately most of them had only 1 review. Yea, great sample size there. Phsaw.
Thanks to this article from NPR I narrowed my search a little more. (I also only looked at those within 2 miles of my house.)
I landed with a new female doctor who was accepting patients right now and could actually see me within the next hour provided I filled out the paperwork in time.
Hastily, I printed out the 12 page history, 2 page HIPPA, and 1 page personal data sheet and swibbled away.
The history was unremarkable. I simply wrote NO or NA to everything (save seasonal allergies as a child) and signed the bottom. Then I threw on my vibrams and was out the door.
1 blood draw and x-ray later I was told I was healthy but... what was I going to do about my blood pressure? 130/80? That's amazing for me. (Not great, but better than last years 150/90 incident or the previous years 180/100 embarrassment) We talked a bit about the general diet=vegetarian, exercise= 2miles a day, stress=not gonna change. Finally, we landed on my birth control. I take an estrogen-progesterone compound, well estrogen can increase blood pressure. So, I switched today. I opted not to go to simply oral progesterone (since a slip up by even one hour can greatly increase the baby risk) Now I'm getting shots every 3 months.
A bit scary since it can completely eliminate your menses (where does it go?!) by inhibiting follicular development.
Wahoo.
I was going to switch to this a while ago, but realized I would be moving, so here I am. All moved. I will say I did google scholar this thing like crazy as I waited for the injection. I hope I don't have the weight gain side effect. I worked so hard to get back into these size 4s. I'm not going anywhere!!
In other news. I ran this afternoon to a new podcast and nearly peed my pants it was so funny. I guess I'm a bad person for not listening to Carl Sagan's Dance Party earlier in life but man, oh man was it funny. Tuesday runs are going to be so much more fun now. Not very "science" heavy but very sarcastic. I recommend it highly.
Back to the doctoring bit. In my "weekend of horror" where I sat around and did nothing, I think I gave myself a pressure ulcer. Well, it hasn't gotten any better, it's making it a pain in the (exactly where it is) to sit and it keeps seeping serosanguinous fluid!
So the fact that it's been two days of bandaids and neosporin sans ANY clotting or scabbing at all made me ask the doctor about it.
It's either an abscess (antibiotics for a week) or a pilonidal cyst.
Great, I've got Jeep Disease.
These cysts experienced a great out-coming during WWII when the service men did a lot of riding around in bumpy jeeps. They would get (essentially) ingrown hairs on their coccyx making those bumpy jeep rides a pain in the... er... coccyx.
I'm sure all you non-medical people out there are shocked at how personal this blog suddenly is.
Oh wow, today we talked about my menses and infected butt-hairs.
Ha ha, how funny.
Sorry all.
; )
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