j7uy5
Posts by this author
December 16, 2006
Ambidextrous More Likely To Be Bisexual; Why Do We Care, Anyway?
A new study coming from the
href="http://www.uoguelph.ca/" rel="tag">University
of Guelph.
href="http://www.psychology.uoguelph.ca/d_faculty/peters.html">Dr.
Michael Peters, a neuropsychologist, analyzed a survey of
about…
December 15, 2006
From the
href="http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4401429.html">Houston
Chronicle: State Rep. Edmund Kuempel has authored a bill that
would allow legally blind people to go hunting. They'd be
allowed to use laser sights, which are prohibited for fully-sighted
hunters. They also…
December 15, 2006
Since it seems to be a big deal to the New York Times (two articles in
two days), I thought I'd comment on this. An FDA advisory
panel recently voted to expand the warnings in the product labeling for
antidepressants.
Just to put this in perspective, the FDA makes many
such changes. The most…
December 13, 2006
Pay-for-performance is one of the buzzwords in health care financing
these days. I haven't been following it much, but Dr. Gault
has, over at
target="_blank">retired doc's thoughts.
His latest:
title="Site: retired doc's thoughts"
href="http://mdredux.blogspot.com/2006/12/ama-president-…
December 12, 2006
This
picture just cracks me up.
href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/images/ypsipanty1206.php"
onclick="window.open('http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/images/ypsipanty1206.php','popup','width=500,height=375,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=…
December 12, 2006
Spectrolab, Inc. has announced that they have developed a way to nearly
double the efficiency of solar cells. They've done it by
creating semiconductor Dagwood sandwiches, with over 20 layers.
The basic idea is to have different layers that respond to
different wavelengths of light. This way, a…
December 11, 2006
According to a study published in the medical journal, Pediatrics,
girls and young women who visit eating disorder oriented websites may
be harmed by the activity. The funny thing is, is does not
matter if the sites encourage eating disorder behavior, or discourage
it. Persons who visit such…
December 9, 2006
So far, I have resisted commenting on the report of the Iraq Study
Group. But this is too good to pass up. From
href="http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2006/12/nothing_can_mat.html">DeLong,
who got it from
href="http://myalteregospeaks.blogspot.com/2006/12/s-r-t.html">Alter
Ego, comes a…
December 9, 2006
In June, I put up a post noting that open-source browsers accounted for
more than 50% of the hits at ScienceBlogs. At that time,
Firefox was 48.17%. Since then, Microsoft released IE7, which
includes a tabbed interface, and other enhancements that Firefox (and
others, e.g. Opera and Safari) have…
December 9, 2006
Flying carp, also called Asian Silver Carp (among others), present a
significant risk to homeland security. The fish can grow to
50, even 100 pounds. Propellers on boats prompt the fish to
jump out of the water, sometimes into boats, sometimes striking boaters.
A video of this is available at the…
December 8, 2006
Just when you thought there could not possibly be any more to say about
the subject, given the uncertainties inherent in the area, there is yet
another study. This one is from analysis of a large patient
registry in Finland. A total of 15,390 patients were included
in the analysis, over a period…
December 7, 2006
This has been a topic at ScienceBlogs before. Now, finally,
the New England Journal of Medicine is catching up. They have
an editorial on the ethics of vaccination against Human Papilloma
Virus. It turns out that there are many facets to this issue.
The background is this: HPV is a major factor…
December 6, 2006
Usually, doctors post radiology quizzes with odd clinical findings, or
sometimes odd things that people have swallowed, or gotten into their
bodies through other means.
But this particular image has nothing to do with medicine, or even
traditional radiology. Rather, it pertains to astronomy and…
December 5, 2006
NEJM has a nice, short article on the management of menopausal
symptoms. Usually their clinical stuff is subscription-only,
but this one is openly accessible. I'm not going to comment
on it, specifically, but mention it only because it might be something
of general interest.
href="http://…
December 5, 2006
HT:
href="http://66.232.26.48/ee/index.php?/fist/more/fri_rdm_10_all_there_is_edition/">Liberal
Street Fighter.
December 4, 2006
I had to think about this for a bit before it made sense (free
registration on Medscape required):
href="http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/547792">Does
Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Decrease Gastroesophageal Reflux in
Patients With Obstructive Sleep Apnea?
Twenty-four-hour esophageal…
December 4, 2006
This is kind of an old story, I know. Still, every once in a
while it is good to revisit these things. When the topic
first came up in 2004, it was the subject of much newspaper space and
blog commentary. But now, it has pretty much faded from the
national consciousness. Has anything more come…
December 2, 2006
I have to admit, I was started to see a Consumer Reports article on the
"Best Buy" drugs for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar
disorder. So now
treating mental illness is like buying a toaster oven?
Seriously, at first
it seemed kind of inappropriate. After all you cannot assess…
November 29, 2006
I have not posted as much recently, compared to my usual.
That's because I've been messing with my computers, setting
them up to use Sabayon
instead of Suse. Those of you who can about such things can
guess why that is.
One thing I've noticed. If I don't post very much, not as
many people visit…
November 29, 2006
I just love the title; it's from a
href="http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/333/7578/1129">recent
editorial (link to abstract; subscription required for full
access) in the British Medical Journal. The author, Jonathan
Waxman, argues that the medical profession should protect patients…
November 25, 2006
I was a bit perplexed by a recent study on a new treatment for alcohol
withdrawal. Ordinarily, I am in favor of new treatment
options, based on the supposition that nothing works for everyone, and
having more options is good. This counterbalances, to some
extent, the anti-pharma screed about "me-…
November 23, 2006
Happy Thanksgiving!
About the image: it's big, I know, kind of slow for those with dial-up,
and it's going to mess up the formatting of the page for those with
lower-resolution monitors. I did shrink it some, but
shrinking degrades the quality quite a bit.
The above image is from the Wikipedia…
November 23, 2006
The NEJM has another open-access article about drug safety.
As usual, when they publish something on an open-access
basis, it is something of interest to the general public, pertaining to
health care policy.
This one describes specific instances of drug companies concealing
information from the…
November 22, 2006
"There is nothing which I dread so much as a division
of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader,
and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble
apprehension, it to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our
Constitution." -John Adams…
November 21, 2006
The big news on the USA culture front: Rupert Murdoch has personally
intervened, and
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/21/us/21simp.html?ex=1321765200&en=8a7b71ce038300ee&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss">canned
the OJ Simpson deal. He actually
href="http://www.…
November 21, 2006
HT to Murph
at Common Monkeyflower for reminding me about this.
Youtube has a video montage, set to the tune of "Let's
Impeach The President" by
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Young">Neil Young.
There's another video that just has a static picture, and the music, in
case you want to…
November 19, 2006
I've been holding back on this one, but it is time to speak out.
On November 2, 2006,
href="http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyid=2006-11-02T230517Z_01_WEN9025_RTRIDST_0_TECH-MICROSOFT-NOVELL-BALLMER-DC.XML">Microsoft
and Novell announced a deal.
…
November 19, 2006
Catching up on news from earlier in the week, I came across a couple of
items. One is a breathtaking development in Mexico, a country
that is 88%
Catholic; the other from South Africa:
href="http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4324824.html">Mexican
capital legalizes gay unionsCity…
November 18, 2006
The Game just started. I am not going to live-blog it, in the
traditional sense, but
I am going to make a few comments.
The student newspaper at UM is the Michigan Daily. Right now,
their entire front page (
href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/images/Remembering_Bo.JPG">screen
shot…
November 18, 2006
href="http://www.beliefnet.com/story/204/story_20419_1.html">Philanthropy
Expert: Conservatives Are More Generous
By Frank Brieaddy
Religion News Service
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Syracuse University professor Arthur C. Brooks is
about to become the darling of the religious right in America -- and
it'…