stay classy
As noted earlier, in addition to menacing behavior toward multiple members of Congress, one protestor called Rep. Barney Frank a “faggot”, a taunt greeted by laughter from fellow protestors.
We’re now getting reports that other protestors yelled “nigger” at Rep. John Lewis (D-GA).
It’s good to see the bill debated on its merits.
Update: More.
Update: Still more.
Look into my eyes
And feed me a cracker:
Professor Jin Zhang of the University of Western Ontario has developed contact lenses which could help monitor diabetes by changing color with the user’s glucose level variations. The users will be alerted to dangerous sugar levels with a change in lens color, without needing to undergo regular blood tests. The hydrogel lenses are embedded with nanoparticles which change color by reacting with the glucose in wearer’s tears.
Right now, we have 100,000 people on the wait list
I remember when I thought the American political system was a legitimate battle of ideas.
quote out of context
It became a game to find the worm in my foot each morning.
endurance training and cardiovascular health
“Our data suggest that exercise may have an inverted U-shape relation with arterial stiffness. In other words, when you do not exercise you have higher risk of cardiovascular events, but the same also happens when you exercise too much,” study lead investigator Dr. Despina Kardara, of Athens Medical School, Hippokration Hospital, said in a news release. “Regular long-term endurance training is generally beneficial for heart health, but it seems that the cardiovascular system is like a sports car engine. If you do not use it, it will decay, but if you run it too fast for too long, you might burn it out.”
think of the children
A group of pediatricians in the United States is pushing for a redesigned hot dog.
“We know what shape, sizes and consistencies pose the greatest risk for choking in children and whenever possible food manufacturers should design foods to avoid those characteristics, or redesign existing foods when possible, to change those characteristics to reduce the choking risk,” said Dr. Gary Smith, immediate-past chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Injury, Violence and Poison Prevention and lead author of the organization’s new policy statement on preventing choking.
from the comments
He gave us a real good deal on a Massey Ferguson front axle spindle. Straight shooter. Love him and his wife. His breath stinks from the diabetes though.
this unique 18-minute genre has its own requirements
From a Wired article on how to ace a TED Talk:
“I’m surprised to see that half the people here know my career in some detail and the other half don’t know who I am,” he says.
Science is fine, but not when it messes with our illusions.
If she had included solar power and African child warriors, it would have been so perfect a TED talk that there would have been no need for others.
Wolfram wraps his talk by saying that when it comes to trying to boil down the universe to a simple algorithm, “it’s almost embarrassing not to at least try.”
“Just because someone has an ego,” he says, citing a writer whose name I can’t read from my scribbled notes, “doesn’t mean he’s wrong.”
photo out of context
Orthorexia
The obsessive compulsion to only eat healthy foods:
On Wednesday, the first draft of DSM-V was published online, kicking off a three-year process of public comment and further revisions that will culminate in a new and improved version come 2013. Orthorexia is not listed in this new draft and, despite the ongoing efforts of various eating-disorder groups, is unlikely to make its way into the final edition.
“We’re not in a position to say it doesn’t exist or it’s not important,” says Tim Walsh, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University who led the American Psychiatric Association’s work group that reviewed eating disorders for inclusion in DSM-V. “The real issue is significant data.” Getting listed as a separate entry in the DSM requires extensive scientific knowledge of a syndrome and broad clinical acceptance, neither of which orthorexia has.
suspended animation, metabolic flexibility in mammals
Mark Roth is a cellular biologist who has studied using hydrogen sulfide to induce suspended animation as a way to increase the likelihood of survival in both traumatic injury and surgery.
But then you have these freaks of nature. . . . There’s a retrospective study that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine ten years ago that shows that 50 percent of people who have been without a heartbeat for three hours [in cold conditions], and are re-warmed appropriately, survive without neurological problems. The people in that study spent at least three hours below 28 degrees. The record is a 29-year-old skier in Norway who went for nine hours. Her core temperature fell to below 14 degrees C. Remember, people are large bags of water; they take a long time to cool off and a long time to re-warm. It took her nine hours to get to a point where they could re-start her heart, and she went on to be the head radiologist in the hospital that treated her.
what i talk about when i talk about ruBBing
Fun facts about special sauce
As John Hodgman would say, more information than you require:
Click to embiggen
For Terri; With Love & Insurance
Terri Carlson, a 45-year-old woman who has been repeatedly denied coverage because of a rare genetic disorder, is actively courting someone to marry for their health insurance:
It is not easy living with my disease and now that I have the genetic answer for my health issues, every insurance company uses the information to deny me insurance coverage. You know, I am not happy I was [dealt] this deck of cards in my life. However, if I don’t fight for myself nobody will. While the [government] fights over healthcare reform people like me suffer. I will continue on this crusade for healthcare reform. And yes, as drastic as it sounds, I will marry for health insurance!!!
She happens to be pretty attractive, which should (I guess) speed the process along. Good luck to the 45-year-old balding gentleman without coverage.
Unforseen Risks
This is a real political ad
the first legal male prostitute
I think for a male, if you want to be successful in this type of venture, you’re not a prostitute. You’re a surrogate lover. You encompass everything that’s required of you—not only emotionally, physically—but psychologically. Because women are wired differently. They’re much more sensitive creatures. You actually have to enjoy what you do. You can’t necessarily say, “Oh, it’s just a job.” You actually have to say it’s a passion. I think it’s the same situation as with anything that happens when you break apart a social institution. There has to be some kind of change in terminology to describe persons like myself. And it’s more of a civil rights thing now. Basically this is the first time in the economy of the United States that a male has actually stood up and said, “I want to do this for a living.” And be protected under law to do it. It’s just the same as when Rosa Parks decided to sit at the front instead of the back. She was proclaiming her rights as a disadvantaged, African-American older woman. And I’m doing the same. I’m actually standing up now, and hopefully I can be supported by the male community and be understood as a person. This actually isn’t about selling my body. This is about changing social norms.
Congratulations.
(via marginal revolution)
proof that healthcare is too expensive
While my Jeep was rolling down a hill in Wyoming, I remember, very clearly, that I hoped for death since I was uninsured and would probably become a financial burden to my family. I walked away with a scratch on my thumb and glass in my hair.
True story.
quote out of context
Rollino wasn’t even felled by old age. He was killed by a minivan — a fucking Windstar! — while crossing the street in Brooklyn.
Rx
Don’t die (might not be an afterlife)
Did you know that “Rx” comes from an abbreviation for “recipe”? Or maybe it’s related to symbols for Jupiter or Horus. Nobody is sure!
You know I love Barack
But since he moved into the White House, I’ve been paying more attention to Michelle.
Off The Charts
A chart from National Geographic, illustrating the cost of health care per country.
(via kottke)
And I Quote, “Gazing at breasts makes men healthy.”
Just 10 minutes of staring at the charms of a well-endowed female, is roughly equivalent to a 30-minute aerobics work-out.
(Via @wilshipley.)
Dear Clusterflock
Would you rather have a lingering cold or get hit once with a hammer?
how the H1N1 vaccine is made
The most striking feature of the H1N1 flu vaccine manufacturing process is the 1,200,000,000 chicken eggs required to make the 3 billion doses of vaccine that may be required worldwide.