hashtag meme of the day
#healthpolicyvalentines
via Tim
headline of the day, II
Paula Deen confirms that she has type 2 diabetes, unveils partnership with drug company
photo out of context
Not my super-heroine persona,
but I am thinking that somebody should assume the mantle of The Sanitizer.
The Science of Snot
My friend Susan: “The science of snot is surprisingly fascinating.”
Snot is your body’s best defense mechanism, a sticky moat of protection against invading bacteria, viruses, and fungi. When it comes to where your body is open to the outside world, snot (more properly, mucus) provides a barrier against these alien invaders.
As my junior high school algebra teacher, “Coach” High, put it, “You may think it’s mucus, but I say it’s snot.”
The Dust Library
So what can this unusual library tell us? First, there is the simple parts list. The most common component was organic material, present in 40 of the 63 particles – exactly what is unclear, but it could be anything from pollen to sloughed-off bits of researcher. Quartz, found in 34 particles, came next, followed by carbonates (17 particles) and gypsum (14). “The minerals blow in,” says Coe. “They come from all over the world.” Other ingredients included air pollutants and fertiliser chemicals.
headline of the day
Pepsi Says Mountain Dew Can Dissolve Mouse Carcasses
Lost in Translation
Xfinity recently started adding transcriptions of voicemail messages to its email notifications. Most of the time they’re non-sensical. Sometimes almost funny. Here’s a message to my wife Lois from our Dr. Allegar, reminding her of an upcoming physical.
“Hi this message is for Luis I’m calling from Doctor alexander’s(?) Atlanta to confirm your appointment for Monday at two o’clock for his vehicle immediately. If you could give us a call back here blaming me for Monday at two o’clock. Thank you.”
I can understand Lois->Luis and Allegar->alexander, but it took me a while to figure out that vehicle was the translation for physical. Why they asked us to “call back here blaming me for Monday” still totally eludes me.
from the comments
My parents are a doctor and nurse respectively and both would like to donate their bodies to science. They both agree that they would not like any medical intervention to keep them living longer. Also, my dad has tendencies to not get medical attention when needed. I was a day away from being admitted to a hospital with pneumonia, as both parents thought I just had an upper respiratory infection. I’d like to see an article about children of medical professionals and their thoughts about dying.
headline of the day, II
Trent Arsenault, Sperm Donor, Gets Cease Order From The FDA
Reflections on a Respiratory Infection
I coughed so long. I coughed so hard. Deron asked, “How are your ribs?” “Not as good as the ones at Hardeman’s,” I said. Not nearly so good as the gas station tacos at the Sylvan Avenue Valero’s either.
And I wanted to do what the mother of my long-time friend Melanie did when Melanie was little and had a bad cold and a dripping nose. Melanie’s mom took one of those tiny paper baskets they put Jordan almonds in at weddings and attached a string loop to it, then taped the string to the bridge of Melanie’s nose and made a drip bucket so Melanie would no longer have to blow her nose raw.
headline of the day
Bottom line: Doc explains mysteriously massive buttocks
Poop Brush
This morning I noticed my toothbrush smelled like ass. I didn’t know what to do.
I didn’t exactly yank it out of my mouth right away. I was thinking.
When I removed the brush I looked at it for a time. Then I sniffed it. It smelled pretty high at the base. Pretty extremely fucking stinky. I thought am I in the movies?! Who the hell has put my toothbrush up their ass, and doesn’t this clown know the right way to insert it?
Ahem. Turns out there was a simple answer. The silver goblet thing that holds the toothbrush was full of a terrible solution. The smell was primordial. It almost knocked me out.
Tip: use a transparent container for your toothbrushes, or create new stinky life in the home. And when you rinse the mouth, rinse the container. Simples.
headline of the day, III
Darpa’s New Tool for Diagnosing Disease? Semen
headline of the day
High blood pressure makes some socially awkward
from my voicemail
Uh, yes, my name is ————. My telephone number is ————. The purpose of my call is I’m listening to public radio, and, uh, they’re talking about, uh, viral, uh, strains of, uh, birds. Uhhh, I was parked at Walmart, and a woman was feeding birds, and I said, “Ma’am, don’t do that,” I says, “Ya know, they they they know how to live on their own.” And, uh, the guy from Walmart came out, the manager of the store, and says, “Oh, you’re gonna have to leave here because, uh, the, uh, asphalt’s too weak for an RV.” And he was, it was pouring rain out; he was really acting like an idiot. I did call for the Centers for Disease Control, and they don’t seem to care what one way or another that people feed birds. And I just can’t imagine why, since birds spread diseases more than anything else, uh, why, uh, these people just aren’t taking it seriously. But. I’m sixty-six years old; I’ll be dead in a few years. So what difference does it make to me, ya know? It just it irritates me how ignorant we are, ya know? Umm, just don’t feed the birds, ya know? It’s crazy. They can fend, they know how to forage for themselves. And I love birds. I learned how to fly. I’ve been a pilot all my life. And, uh, airlines and corporate. And, uh, but, uh, you just don’t feed birds. That’s that’s craziness. Ya know, and I, but, uh, if more people, if they, uh, really know about it, then, uh, maybe they might do something about it. But, uh, there’s the other people that’s just gonna say, “Oh, hooey, I’ll feed birds whenever I feel like. It’s my right to do whatever I want to do, so.” Well. I guess that’s the case, ya know? Anyways. Take care. Bye.
Also: The related episode of WHYY’s Fresh Air.
gaming for science and health
Over a three-week period, gamers playing Foldit, an online protein-folding game, helped to map out the structure of an enzyme that could be used to help fight HIV and AIDS.
quote out of context
It’s not clear how many klutzes want to notify their insurers that a doctor visit was a W22.02XA, “walked into lamppost, initial encounter” (or, for that matter, a W22.02XD, “walked into lamppost, subsequent encounter”).
(via the browser)
From 102 to 67…
In 36 hours. Out on the patio, I’m shivering.
headline of the day, III
Jury rules in favor of doctor who cut off part of Kentucky man’s penis
headline of the day, II
Korean scientists create glowing dog
Mark Menjivar, You Are What You Eat
Delicatessen Attendant | Daphne, AL | 4-Person Household | Disowned by parents for marrying a black man.
You Are What You Eat is a series of portraits made by examining the interiors of refrigerators in homes across the United States.
I like that so many of them are from Texas.
(via marginal revolution)
the first synthetically engineered windpipe transplant
A 36-year-old man who had tracheal cancer has received a new lab-made windpipe seeded with his own stem cells in a procedure in Sweden they call the first successful attempt of its kind, officials said Thursday.
it’s good to be the guy behind the guy
Laurence R. Gesquiere, a research associate in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton, and colleagues report in the journal Science that in five troops of wild baboons in Kenya studied over nine years, alpha males showed very high stress levels, as high as those of the lowest-ranking males.
The stress, they suggested, was probably because of the demands of fighting off challengers and guarding access to fertile females. Beta males, who fought less and had considerably less mate guarding to do, had much lower stress levels. They had fewer mating opportunities than the alphas, but they did get some mating in, more than any lower-ranking males. After all, when the alpha gets in another baboon bar fight, who’s going to take the girl home?
(via the browser)
The Age of Mechanical Reproduction
If you haven’t read Paul’s piece yet, you should:
We don’t tell many people about what we are doing. When we do some say: “Well, it must be fun trying.” Or: “Are you sure you’re doing it right?” I laugh with them; after all, how many times have I said something insensitive while trying to be funny? I don’t talk about the large doses of medicine that I inject into my wife’s buttocks that cause her to inflate like a hormonal balloon. Nor do I discuss how intimacy itself has become such an awkward, uncomfortable thing that it’s scheduled on a Google Calendar named “LadyStuffings” with events that show up in pink.
