terrasig | August 2, 2009Just a quick note this morning as I picked up the dead-tree version of The New York Times this morning in the PharmDriveway.
For some reason, I recognized the name of Anthony DeCurtis in the byline of this short essay on the Manson family Tate-LaBianca murders marking the demise of the 1960s counterculture movement. I posted yesterday on the speakers at the upcoming conference, U2: The Feedback and The Hype - DeCurtis is keynote speaker.
No surprise here since DeCurtis - Dr. DeCurtis, I learned below - has been a contributing editor to Rolling Stone mag and books, with many works in the NYT…
terrasig | August 1, 2009
During the summer between high school and college, about this very time in 1981, I was sitting at a beach house in North Carolina listening to my uncle rail against The Beatles. He held that the band never truly took its fame and international press attention to doing anything good for the world except to glorify LSD.
I now get to tell him about U2.
That summer also saw the launch of MTV and in fall I watched four young Dubliners on a barge playing a song called, "Gloria," the opening track of their album October. And in the intervening years the band, and especially its lead singer Bono…
terrasig | July 31, 2009I absolutely guarantee that the President wanted a fine, handcrafted American ale. But I am certain that the conservative press would've jumped this as an "elitist" choice as they did his campaign comments on arugula.
Instead, he chose Bud Light.
The President had a choice to promote the craft-brewing industry in the US - the most noble and patriotic of pursuits shared by our Founding Fathers.
Instead, craft brewers across the country - nay, perhaps the world - let forth a collective "D'oh" upon the announcement of the President's watered-down choice.
There has been much ado about President…
terrasig | July 28, 2009
We've spoken here every few months about so-called natural dietary supplements being adulterated with prescription drugs used for similar indications. The most common of these of late have been erectile dysfunction supplements which have been repeatedly found to contain the active compounds present in prescription E.D. products such as Viagra and Cialis.
The latest public health advisory from the US FDA concerns what appears to be a much more serious case of adulterations, this time with steroids in body-building supplements marketed as containing "steroid-like" compounds:
The FDA is…
terrasig | July 28, 2009[This 23rd July entry is being reposted today under the ScienceBlogs "Education" channel as its original categorization there fell victim to gremlins in the upgraded Movable Type script.]
At the outset, let me say that I have immense respect and admiration for a special commenter.
In last week's Friday Fermentable post, we took the 40th anniversary of the Apollo XI mission as an opportunity to draw attention to Buzz Aldrin's newly-released autobiography, Magnificent Desolation. In it, Aldrin describes his lifelong battle with depression and alcoholism and how he has managed both challenges.…
terrasig | July 26, 2009In the United States, herbal and non-herbal dietary supplements can be sold without any assurance of safety or efficacy as a result of a hastily-passed, late-night, final-session piece of legislation put forth by Sen Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). (Aside: Utah has several large dietary supplement manufacturers.) This piece of legislation is named the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, or DSHEA. A FAQ for consumers is provided by the US Food and Drug Administration here.
An unusual aspect of the law is that supplement manufacturers can make a variety of wellness or structure-function…
terrasig | July 24, 2009
Well, a week has passed since I first issued a call for posts for the August Scientiae Carnival with the theme "Summer Days, Driftin' Away."
Consider how you balance the demands and pleasures of this season. Have you found ways to make progress on your must-dos while also taking time for your family, friends - and yourself - and being in the moment of this time of year? Or are July and August just another month for you?
And so as not to exclude our colleagues in the Southern Hemisphere (where I am fortunate to draw 5-7% of my blog visitors), why don't you take this time from your winter and…
terrasig | July 20, 2009For those of you who read only Terra Sig and not others at ScienceBlogs (post-morning coffee delusions of grandeur), you may not be aware that a number of questionable advertisements have been appearing on the frontpage run by the purveyors of our pontifications.
Many of this adverts have been of content diammetrically opposed to what each of us stand for professionally and personally.
So, it was to my dismay this morning that I awoke to this ad for a bodybuilding supplement that exploits the endogenous vasodilator, nitric oxide. Commenter Daedalus will be convulsing in a corner somewhere…
terrasig | July 19, 2009No, this is not mean - we all like GrrlScientist, the evolutionary biologist/ornithologist and freelance science/nature writer who blogs at Living the Scientific Life (bio here).
But yes, we want to send her to Antarctica. Far away. For a month.
There are currently 338 bloggers competing in "Blog Your Way to Antarctica," a competition sponsored by Quark Expeditions.
The Official Quark Blogger will travel with a guest to Antarctica in February 2010 and blog about their experience, chronicling the action, the emotion, and the drama as their polar adventure unfolds.
Following her latest update…
terrasig | July 18, 2009
My Y chromosome and I are supremely honored to have been invited by skookumchick to host the August edition of Scientiae, the blog carnival of "stories of and from women in science, engineering, technology, and math." But remember: "Posts are welcome from women and men and everyone in between if they focus on the topic of the Carnival."
For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it is summer. In academia in particular, summer is often a time when institutional responsibilities (teaching, committees) are at somewhat of a lull - still buzzing but less demanding than usual for most. One has…
terrasig | July 17, 2009Please accept my apologies in advance for taking another edition of The Friday Fermentable to bring you a sober (pun intended) story about alcoholic beverages. The heat, beginning training for a half-marathon, and other stuff have my personal alcohol consumption at nil so I don't have any recent wine or beer finds to share with you, Dear Reader.
Moreover, there have been some prominent stories as of late relating to alcohol and substance abuse such as the pharmacology and toxicology of Michael Jackson's death (which we've discussed here, here, and here) and the prevalence of alcoholism in…
terrasig | July 17, 2009
Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum have released a new book entitled, Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future. Mr Mooney and Ms Kirshenbaum also co-author the blog, The Intersection, a Discover Magazine online.
I was fortunate to receive a review copy from the publisher but must admit, sheepishly, that the book has sat unread beside my home office desk because of other responsibilities. The advance paperwork says it is to be released officially on 20 July. So, my plan is to get to it this weekend and get some magnitude of a review written.
During my relative…
terrasig | July 16, 2009If so, could you please e-mail it to me or put the URL in the comments section?
I realize that this request might have gotten all caught up in my lengthy post the other day where I spoke about the case of Dr. Doug Bremner at Emory University.
Bora Zivkovic noted that a reader had sent him a draft proposal from a "Big Research Institution" in April 2009 and they had a nice discussion on his blog. Among the unrealistic provisions of that policy was that the institution reserved the right to the intellectual property of faculty blog content.
However, I've not received any other input from the…
terrasig | July 14, 2009Addendum published 14 July 2009 - I began this post in the spirit of revisiting the recent case of Emory University professor of psychiatry and radiology, Dr Douglas Bremner, who write the blog (and authored the book) Before You Take That Pill. Inside Higher Ed has the story behind the request by university administration for Bremner to remove from the blog his academic affiliation after publishing a satirical but serious post on the need for a bipolar patient to continue smoking in his residence.
One may also care to note that Dr Bremner is critical of the pharmaceutical industry and Emory…
terrasig | July 12, 2009For those of you in the North Carolina Research Triangle area wanting to extend your weekend as much as possible, you'll want to catch a a local music showcase at The Berkeley Café in Raleigh (217 W Martin St, 27601) tonight, Sunday 12 July at 7 pm. Yours truly will be playing a 30 min solo acoustic set of mostly original songs.
(Addendum: Cool! Eva Amsen just posted her interview of me yesterday for her Musicians and Scientists project)
Most notable on the bill are two fantastic roots reggae bands, Anchants and Curry Don (de Doc). I'm supposed to go on 8 pm or so.
Figure 1. This lovely 2001…
terrasig | July 8, 2009Great news hit my e-mail box overnight: one of the premier literary physician-bloggers of my childhood days in the blogosphere has returned.
Hi all, I missed you. I missed blogging.
Just wanted to let you know that I'm returning to writing at http://theexaminingroom.com
I hope you'll stop by, and I look forward to catching up with you all!
Dr. Charles
back from 2007 retirement
This is VERY good news for all of us, especially if you never had the pleasure of reading The Good Doctor before.
I cannot write with his clarity, of course. But I can say that Dr. Charles has a tremendous gift for…
terrasig | July 8, 2009Ahem.
I have privately received grief about the poor quality of a sentence I wrote yesterday while spouting off about my being quoted by ABC News on the first round of drugs reported used by the late Michael Jackson. (I suspect that the number of prepositions I just used here will elicit a response as well).
While I'm a half-decent pharmacologist, it seems an English major I am not.
Therefore, may I request that someone amongst this learned gathering kindly assist me in rewording the following statement:
I also enjoyed that fact, however, that my quote was missing from the responses of other…
terrasig | July 7, 2009While invoking my little-known real name, the ABC News Medical Unit shows its commitment to providing scientifically-objective and medically-valid commentary to the Michael Jackson circus.
The post cited was from 26 June where I discussed the first Michael Jackson revelation that he had repeatedly been given the unusual opioid drug, meperidine, presumably for his chronic back pain.
From this morning's ABC News story by Vic Walter and Richard Esposito with contributions from JoAnna Schaffhausen:
One pharmacologist blogged about [p]ropofol this week and explained in his science blog how Demerol…
terrasig | July 3, 2009As I agonized over what I'd write about for this week's installment of The Friday Fermentable, my Wine Authorities newsletter arrived followed by their tweet on their inaugural music video.
Wine Authorities, my local wine merchants and community gods, have been spreading the gospel of rosé wines as a summer alternative to the red wines we enjoy most of the rest of the year. But contrary to the sweet white zinfandels and such that might turn off those who enjoy good wine, there is now a plethora of foreign and domestic wine offerings (and values) that show off red grapes in a lightly-crushed…
terrasig | July 1, 2009
Dear PharmGirl,
We wanted to make this note public today because a great many of our blog friends know of your dedication as a physician, wife, and a mother.
Yesterday you finished an association with an academic medical institution where you have been for half your life. From young women with breast cancer to old men in the V.A. Hospital, literally thousands have been touched by your gifts of intelligence, remarkable clinical judgment, and, perhaps most importantly, compassion. The recognition from your patients was abundant and we were privy to the personal notes of just how much you…