j7uy5 | June 25, 2008Radio Frequency IDentification tags (
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_frequency_identification">RFIDs)
are little devices that communicate with other devices, sending an
identification signal. You've probably seen them on various
items purched in stores. They commonly are used for inventory
control and theft prevention. They are increasingly used in a
wide variety of applications.
Now, they have been found to interfere with medical devices.
This includes critical items such as mechanical ventilators
and external pacemakers.
The study was published in JAMA ($ for full access…
j7uy5 | June 23, 2008Sometimes I see news about upcoming drugs, and hope that it
works out. Sometimes, I don't see the point.
Rarely, I actively hope that it does not
work out.
Staccato® alprazolam is one that I hope does not work out.
It's a form of
href="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/medmaster/a684001.html">alprazolam
(Xanax®)
that goes in an inhaler. It is heated by a little electrical
circuit, vaporized, then inhaled. The idea it to give it a
faster onset of action.
Why?
First, a little background. Alprazolam is a member of the
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzodiazepine…
j7uy5 | June 20, 2008The old
riddle goes: you were granted three wishes, and you have one
wish left. What do you wish for? Everyone over the
age of 6 knows: more wishes.
When we figured out that there was oil under the ground, and figured
out how to use it, it is as though we had been granted three wishes.
Now the oil is running out. It is as though we have
one wish remaining. So what do we do with it?
What we have done in the meantime, is run around looking for more
Genies. Coal? No, too dirty. Nuclear?
No, can't figure out what to do with the waste.
Solar? Wind? Geothermal? Tidal?
Biofuels? No,…
j7uy5 | June 18, 2008This
article in the Onion was supposed to be a satire of the 2001
Bush inaugural speech. It was not satire. It was
prophetic:
Bush: 'Our Long National
Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over'
January 17, 2001 | Issue 37â¢01
WASHINGTON, DC-Mere days from assuming the presidency and closing the
door on eight years of Bill Clinton, president-elect George W. Bush
assured the nation in a televised address Tuesday that "our long
national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over." ...
It is true, almost every word of it. Except he hasn't
succeeded with ANWR. Not for lack of…
j7uy5 | June 18, 2008Gardasil is the vaccine from Merck that greatly lowers the risk of
infection from some human papilloma virus (HPV) infections. The
href="http://scienceblogs.com/ethicsandscience/2006/06/hpv_vaccine_approved_daughters.php">first
big controversy had to do with the practice of giving the
vaccine to young girls. To be most effective, it should be
given prior to the commencement of sexual exposure. So the
recommendation is to give it to girls at age 12. This led
some persons to complain that it might encourage sexual activity in
contexts they deemed inappropriate.
The ethics of this have…
j7uy5 | June 16, 2008
I scarcely need to mention it, but today is the big day: Firefox 3 is
out, so be sure to download
it. The Mozilla folks are
href="http://www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord/firefox3">shooting
for a world record for the most downloads in a single day.
href="http://www.internetnews.com/software/article.php/3753196/Will+Linux+Users+Miss+Out+on+Firefox+3.htm">Will
Linux Users Miss Out on Firefox 3? Silly article.
Download the source. Configure, make, make install.
Just order a pizza first, because compiling it from source takes a
while. But so does eating a pizza.
Actually, the…
j7uy5 | June 15, 2008Ohio has just
href="http://www.env-econ.net/2008/06/electric-vehicl.html">approved
certain smartcars for
use on roadways. This may strengthen our country by reducing
use of fossil fuels.
In other news, Blackwater
USA is
href="http://www.archive.org/details/BlackwaterForcesInBaghdadsNisourSquare">trying
to get its Grizzly
APC licensed for use on America's
roadways.
Pretty soon, you might have a choice. In fact, in November,
you will have a choice.
BTW, does anyone know why Blackwater would want to be able to drive
Grizzlies on American roads?
j7uy5 | June 14, 2008The Wiki
Bible Project is a Wikipedia-like project from
href="http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Main_Page">Wikisource,
that aims "to create an original, open content translation of the
source text of the Bible that will be in the Public Domain."
But some see problems. According to a recent Newsweekarticle:
Biblical scholars see the potential for an
inaccurate, bias-filled mess.
Of course, they could settle this easily. All they have to
do , is develop an objective test that detects inaccuracies and biases.
j7uy5 | June 14, 2008
href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/ODD_LIGHTNING_STRIKE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-06-13-20-47-33">Girl
survives lightning strike, then wins $20
Jun 13, 8:47 PM EDT
BLANCHARD, Mich. (AP) -- No one quite understands the term "striking it
lucky" better than 16-year-old BreAnna Helsel. The Michigan teen
survived being struck by lightning and went on to win $20 in the
lottery the next day.
Funny thing, that $20 is the amount of the tax break that
href="http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/opinion/88118.php">McCain's
plan would give to the lowest…
j7uy5 | June 12, 2008A study published in
title="Journal of the American Medical Association">JAMA
indicates that treatment with bright light alone (1,000
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lux">lux), or
bright light combined with
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melatonin">melatonin,
can improve symptoms in patients with dementia. Melatonin
alone appeared to have a slight adverse effect.
This already has been reported by
href="http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1813396,00.html">Time,
the BBC,
href="http://www.modernmedicine.com/modernmedicine/Neurology/Bright-Light-Can-Help-…
j7uy5 | June 10, 2008
That graphic is only a teaser, it is only peripherally related to theis
post, and is not scientifically valid. Still, it is nice to
see. It is from an article on msnbc.com,
href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10561966/">Spying,
the Constitution -- and the 'I-word'. The
article is from 2005. It used to link to an online poll.
The link in the article is gone, but
href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10562904">the poll is
still live. Every once and a while some
pro-impeachment citizen links to it, so the results have gotten wildly
skewed.
This post is about an awful thing, that…
j7uy5 | June 9, 2008This won't make much sense unless you watched at least part of the Bill
Moyers video of his speech at the National Conference for Media Reform.
(I posted the video on 7 June 2008.)
In this follow-up video, Moyers is confronted after the speech, by a
reporter from Fox News. Needless to say, Moyers gets the
upper hand.
Indeed, this video makes a fine example of the practice of appropriate
assertiveness.
In any situation that calls for a response,
the response can be placed on a continuum, from passive to aggressive.
It is a marvelous skill, to be able to find just the right
level of…
j7uy5 | June 9, 2008In 1996, the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996
("Freedom to Farm Act") called for elimination of government stockpiles
of grain. I'm sure someone thought it made sense, at the
time.
Now, the United States government has no reserves of butter, cheese,
dry milk, barley, corn, oats, sorghum, soybeans, wheat, rice, sugar,
honey, peanuts, canola seed, crambe, flaxseed, mustard seed, rapeseed,
safflower seed, sunflower seed, peas, lentils, chickpeas, and cotton.
[Source: US Farm Service Agency,
href="http://www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/webapp?area=home&subject=coop&topic=…
j7uy5 | June 8, 2008Welcome to the Lake Wobegon Scientific Society Journal, where
all research studies are "authoritative", all scientists
"experts", all findings "breakthroughs". Not to mention
"above average".
That happens to be almost a direct quote from a recent article in the
the Guardian. (HT:
href="http://www.blacktriangle.org/blog/?p=1801">Black
Triangle)
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jun/02/pressandpublishing.healthandwellbeing">Overhyped
health stories? They're all pants
Peter Wilby
The Guardian,
Monday June 2 2008
Last Tuesday, the Daily Mail informed readers that
cocoa…
j7uy5 | June 7, 2008Consolidation of media is but one step in the consolidation of power,
another brick in the wall.
It is a grave threat. Watch Bill Moyers, speaking
at the National
Conference for Media Reform, give an
impassioned speech about this topic.
Seriously, consolidation of media is more of a threat to "our freedoms"
than Osama even could be.
(HT: freepress)
j7uy5 | June 6, 2008Roy, writing at Shrink Rap, has a post about the
prospect of online access to prescription records in the State of
California. The attorney general is proposing a database of
all prescription records, that could be accessed by doctors and
pharmacists.
href="http://psychiatrist-blog.blogspot.com/2008/06/online-access-to-prescription.html">Online
Access to Prescription Medication History
Posted by Roy at 8:02 AM
I saw a
href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-drugs5-2008jun05,0,2974326.story">headline
this morning that the California attorney general is moving to provide…
j7uy5 | June 5, 2008After the
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/27/AR2008052703679.html">release
of Scotty McClellan's book, What Happened: Inside
the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception,
there was a big media/blogosphere splash about the supposed failure of
the media to examine critically the Administration's case for the war
against Iraq. There have been
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rachel-haimowitz/master-media-manipulation_b_105529.html">accusations,
href="http://wcbstv.com/politics/couric.iraq.coverage.2.734446.html">mea
culpas, and…
j7uy5 | June 4, 2008The Internet was abuzz for a bit today, when Engaget
href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/02/hitachi-maxell-claims-new-li-ion-battery-with-20x-the-power/">reported
that a lithium-ion battery was in development, that could store 20
times as much energy as existing batteries, with lower cost.
But then it was
href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/06/hitachi-maxell-lithium-ion-battery-manganese-subaru.php">clarified
that battereis could deliver 20 times more power.
Apparently, the original article is behind a pay wall, so bloggers are
still wondering what the real story is. …
j7uy5 | May 28, 2008
href="http://www.researchblogging.org">
alt="ResearchBlogging.org"
src="http://www.researchblogging.org/images/rbicons/ResearchBlogging-Medium-White.png"
height="50" width="80">Just as
we learn of favorable studies about rTMS (see yesterday's post on this blog), studies that suggest
that ECT could be surpassed, the ECT camp fires again. A new
study by Sackeim indicates that a new form of ECT is highly effective,
with lower negative impact on cognition. The difference is in
the length of the electrical pulse. They use what they call
an ultrabrief pulse (0.3 millisecond), as…
j7uy5 | May 27, 2008Jonah posted an
href="http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2008/05/tms.php">interesting
video of
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcranial_magnetic_stimulation"
rel="tag">Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)
on The Frontal Cortex. That got me to
wondering if there was anything new.
In January 2007, the US FDA
href="http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/07/briefing/2007-4273b1_00-index.htm">concluded
that rTMS was safe, but they were unconvinced of its effectiveness.
Their conclusion
href="http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/jan07/comments/1697">wasarguable,
but the…