
I spend a lot of my work time looking at skeletons, and appreciate the extra details she put into the lumbar spine and sacroiliac joints (as seen from behind).

Shedding invisible light on medical imaging
I got off the subway at Bloor and Yonge last night, and this is what I saw; some buskers with a fiddle and a banjo were playing, and these four other guys just started to pop it and lock it, apparently just for the hell of it. It cheered me right up.
I don’t know how he stayed alive so long with blood counts that I, as an emergency physician, associate only with patients at the edge of death; I don’t know why his blood felt cold; and most of all, I don’t know why his dying brought no tears to my eyes.Thank you for sharing this with us, Dr. Weinberg. Your account moved this radiologist to tears.
Was it because after his memorial service, determined to celebrate his life, my brothers and I bought Champagne — and then, at my mother’s request, went into his closet, tried on his old clothes and staged a spontaneous fashion show, causing the assembled wives and grandchildren, and my mother, to laugh for an uproarious hour?
Or was it because he died at home, surrounded by those he loved, in such stark contrast to what I experience so often at work: all of those patients circling the drain on trips between nursing home and emergency room, and then dying alone with no one to feel their blood turn cold?
Since 1929, Republicans and Democrats have each controlled the presidency for nearly 40 years. So which party has been better for American pocketbooks and capitalism as a whole? Well, here’s an experiment: imagine that during these years you had to invest exclusively under either Democratic or Republican administrations. How would you have fared?His conclusion, summarized in an impressive-looking graphic:
As of Friday, a $10,000 investment in the S.& P. stock market index would have grown to $11,733 if invested under Republican presidents only, although that would be $51,211 if we exclude Herbert Hoover’s presidency during the Great Depression. Invested under Democratic presidents only, $10,000 would have grown to $300,671 at a compound rate of 8.9 percent over nearly 40 years.The implication is that the stock market has a very strong liberal bias. Your reaction to this is probably either "Oh, shit!!" or "Dude!!", depending on your political orientation. However, don't touch that dial.
So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!
A funny thing happened to me this morning …
My immediate conclusion was that was an obviously fake Swedish accent.
...he said that US science would be better served with access to more stem cell lines. In a competitive world, he told senators, "it is important for us not to fight with one hand tied behind our back here."The timing of his retirement is interesting, as it takes place about 4 days before the upcoming presidential election. Again from Nature News:
Zerhouni, 57, said that he was leaving before national elections on 4 November so that there would be no question of his lingering into a future administration.I hope that the next president does indeed put a high priority on medical research, and in finding a worthy successor to Dr. Zerhouni.
"I felt that it was very important, for the sake of NIH, to not just stay and have the [next president's] transition team think: NIH is taken care of. They have a decent director. Let's focus on other things," he told reporters on a conference call.
This Bizarro cartoon is brought to you by Painful Truth Imaging Company. "We see right through your crap."
Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.Crikey.
"The queen had only one way of settling all difficulties, great or small. 'Off with his head!' she said without even looking around."There are certainly interesting political waters roiling around the U.S. these days. Since we're talking about politics, it can be hard to swim clear of the usual boatloads of punditry, rhetoric and demagoguery. However, amongst this noise and turbulence, it's nice to find occasional conservative and liberal islands of calm and rationality. It's especially interesting when some of them seem to be in agreement for a change.
-- "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama...Another good read is The Choice, an equally thoughtful editorial by the editors of The New Yorker:
...It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?
...The longer the campaign goes on, the more the issues of personality and character have reflected badly on McCain. Unless appearances are very deceiving, he is impulsive, impatient, self-dramatizing, erratic, and a compulsive risk-taker. These qualities may have contributed to his usefulness as a “maverick” senator. But in a President they would be a menace...This sort of bipartisan congruence of opinions is something that I have fantasized about ever since seeing "The Supremes", one of the best episodes ever of The West Wing. The story line therein revolves around an upcoming presidential nomination to the U. S. Supreme Court. The heart of the episode is when an arch-liberal (Glenn Close) and an arch-conservative candidate (William Fichtner) for the nomination meet unexpectedly in the White House. The wonderful conversation that ensues is one of my favorite moments ever on television.
...Although his opponents have tried to attack him as a man of “mere” words, Obama has returned eloquence to its essential place in American politics. The choice between experience and eloquence is a false one––something that Lincoln, out of office after a single term in Congress, proved in his own campaign of political and national renewal...
STEWART: -- what has been the coolest thing that's happened to you while you've done your show?
LETTERMAN: Well, you know, you'd think being in show business, or as close to it as I've come, you ought to have a lot of cool things happen to you.
STEWART: Sure.
LETTERMAN: And I've thought about this and thought about this, and currently I've distilled it now down to the persona of Paul Newman. I have been lucky enough to meet Paul Newman, and I just want to tell you, this guy is the real deal.
STEWART: Really?
LETTERMAN: He is solid gold, he's a great actor, he's a wonderful guy, and just an interesting fellow. I met him, I don't know, five or six years ago. Some friends introduced me. It was at a race in Phoenix. It was Bobby Rahal, who is a race driver, and his wife Debbie, and now, of course, I sound like Dick Cavett. "Gregory Peck was there as well and Jimmie Stewart," and on and on.
STEWART: And Groucho and all the rest.
LETTERMAN: Yes, sir. And so they introduced me to Paul Newman, and you're carrying on a conversation. "How do you do? I enjoy your popcorn and Cool Hand Luke." That's what you're saying to Paul Newman.
STEWART: Right.
LETTERMAN: In your head all you can hear is this huge voice screaming, "Oh, my God, it's Paul Newman. Oh, my God, it's Paul Newman." So I've been lucky enough to kind of have -- I guess it's a friendship. I won't say we're really good friends, but we have kind of a relationship, and he's called me from time to time. About six months ago -- and this is where it starts to get cool --
STEWART: All right.
LETTERMAN: -- Paul Newman calls up and he says, "Dave," he says, "I'm thinking about getting me a Volvo station wagon, and I'm gonna stuff a Ford 302 V-8 engine into it."
STEWART: Sure.
LETTERMAN: "This engine is about the size of a small piano, so we're going to have to push back the fire wall. Do you want one?" So, you know, I'm thinking a Volvo station wagon looks like something you'd make in metal shop, and if you want something really sporty you get a bakery truck, and every time you see a Volvo station wagon in the back it's three kids getting car sick on a golden retriever, and I'm thinking these cars are so safe because in traffic other motorists slow down to check out how ugly they are.
STEWART: Right, the tank.
LETTERMAN: So intellectually I don't want a Volvo station wagon, but, of course, internally it's Paul Newman, I say, "Yes, I'd like one."
STEWART: "Bring it on."
LETTERMAN: "Paul, let me have that Volvo station wagon."
STEWART: Sure. Me too.
LETTERMAN: So I'm aware of the fact in talking to Paul, he's far more excited about this than I am. He calls up from time to time and he says, "Have you picked out the interior yet?" And I said, "No, I haven't." He said, "Well, you better hurry. The dollar's falling." And I don't know what that means.
STEWART: No, he's very concerned about the world economics.
LETTERMAN: And then he calls up after that and he says, "Good news. Pirelli's gonna give us free tires." "Wow, that's great, Paul." It's Paul Newman. We're getting free tires. I don't know. So he calls two weeks ago, and he says, "Dave, the cars are ready. We got two, one for me, one for you." He says, "Everything is ready to go. I've got to ask you a question. Do you want a puffer on yours?" You know, and I'm thinking, well, is that like a special inflatable seat? I don't know. Like sails on this Volvo? And I said, "Well, Paul, are you getting a puffer on yours?" And Paul says, "Yeah, yeah, I'm getting a puffer on mine." And I said, "You know, I have no idea." And he says, "It's a supercharger. I said, "A supercharger?" He says, "Now you have to be very careful, because with this supercharger this thing will turn about 400 horsepower, so if you pop the clutch you're gonna tear up the rear end." By comparison, a stock showroom Corvette, 300 horsepower.
STEWART: Ouch.
LETTERMAN: I say to Paul, "Now wait a minute. Paul, I have a Volvo station wagon, 400 horsepower?" And he says, "Oh, yeah," he says, "from 20 to a hundred you can chew anybody's ass." And I'm thinking to myself, what circumstance would Paul find himself in driving around in a Volvo station wagon where he feels like he's gotta chew somebody's ass?
(Hoots and applause)
STEWART: I don't know. I can see that's very nice though.
LETTERMAN: A 400 horsepower Volvo station wagon.
STEWART: But when Paul Newman offers you a puffer, I mean, you take it. You don't turn down Paul Newman.
LETTERMAN: You'd be a fool to pass on the puffer.
Hideo Mitamura (2008). Public access defibrillation: advances from Japan. Nature Clinical Practice Cardiovascular Medicine DOI:10.1038/ncpcardio1330This recent article by Hideo Mitamura details some of the societal, legal and attitudinal changes in Japanese society since 2000 that led to this change. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration seems to have gotten the ball rolling there in 2001, by making AEDs mandatory on all US domestic and international flights (including those of Japan Airlines). The well-publicized 2002 squash court death of Prince Takamodo of the Imperial family probably also played a role. After lay-use AED legalization in 2004, Japan adopted the devices avidly, and is now the second largest market for AEDs after the U.S.