Don't Dis The Dan

Steely Dan lambastes Owen Wilson.

Wilson semi-lamely responds.

5 Celebrities Who Used To Be Cool But Are Now Crazy

1. Mel Gibson
2. Dennis Miller
3. Rosie O'Donnell (it was barely a blink, but yes she was cool once)
4. Sean Penn
5. Tom Cruise

5 People who were NEVER cool:

OK, there's only one: Colin Quinn

The Sweetness Out Of Space

Scientists have discovered cold sugar molecules in space. This fuels all sorts of theories about how life began.

Was Earth seeded by the snowy dust coming off some passing sperm-like comet? Did our primordial soup get seasoned (BAM!) with a little space spice?

And perhaps Earth has, with a little help from some asteroid massage, ejaculated seeds back into space!


Was Lovecraft's Colour also a sweet cloud.....

When they looked back toward the valley and the distant Gardner place at the bottom they saw a fearsome sight. At the farm was shining with the hideous unknown blend of colour; trees, buildings, and even such grass and herbage as had not been wholly changed to lethal grey brittleness. The boughs were all straining skyward, tipped with tongues of foul flame, and lambent tricklings of the same monstrous fire were creeping about the ridgepoles of the house, barn and sheds. It was a scene from a vision of Fuseli, and over all the rest reigned that riot of luminous amorphousness, that alien and undimensioned rainbow of cryptic poison from the well - seething, feeling, lapping, reaching, scintillating, straining, and malignly bubbling in its cosmic and unrecognizable chromaticism.
Then without warning the hideous thing shot vertically up toward the sky like a rocket or meteor, leaving behind no trail and disappearing through a round and curiously regular hole in the clouds before any man could gasp or cry out. No watcher can ever forget that sight, and Ammi stared blankly at the stars of Cygnus, Deneb twinkling above the others, where the unknown colour had melted into the Milky Way. But his gaze was the next moment called swiftly to earth by the crackling in the valley. It was just that. Only a wooden ripping and crackling, and not an explosion, as so many others of the party vowed. Yet the outcome was the same, for in one feverish kaleidoscopic instant there burst up from that doomed and accursed farm a gleamingly eruptive cataclysm of unnatural sparks and substance; blurring the glance of the few who saw it, and sending forth to the zenith a bombarding cloudburst of such coloured and fantastic fragments as our universe must needs disown. Through quickly reclosing vapours they followed the great morbidity that had vanished, and in another second they had vanished too. Behind and below was only a darkness to which the men dared not return, and all about was a mounting wind which seemed to sweep down in black, frore gusts from interstellar space. It shrieked and howled, and lashed the fields and distorted woods in a mad cosmic frenzy, till soon the trembling party realized it would be no use waiting for the moon to show what was left down there at Nahum's.









Now here it is, your url of the day:
http://ratsound.com/cblog

Sumptuous Rock And Roll

Tom Petty's new album, Highway Companion, came out this week and it is a sweet ride. The songs are all very subtle, easy-going haunts of people running, returning, reminiscing, and rambling. Petty's voice and guitar were never better, and Jeff Lynne's production masterfully garnishes soft and luxurious. The songs aren't as varied as you'd like, but they rock enough to keep things moving.
It's all a smooth and yet sophisticated trip.
Nicely done, Tom.

Harebrained Stem Cell Veto

Most of all, last week's decision betrayed his oft-stated belief in the sanctity of life. The question, as in all moral issues, is whose life? I'll choose yours or mine over a piece of protoplasm no larger than the period at the end of this sentence.

Jonathan Alter's column in the latest Newsweek nicely summarizes the problems with Bush's stem cell veto.

An Urban Legend May Be True?

During the New Orleans hurricane tragedy there were horrific things happening all over the place, even in the hospitals. I had posted about reports that doctors were euthanizing patients and then commented that it sounded too phony.

Now the truth is coming into light, and it may have really happened.

The drugs of Versed and Morphine were found in several dead patients. The question now is whether they were used to comfort or to euthanize.

Either way, it still doesn't matter. An entire city destroyed by a hurricane is still almost impossible to grasp fully, and the extreme situations the hospital staff had to deal with are so beyond worst-case-scenario that it's not even funny.

If a doctor did make such a difficult decision - helping a suffering patient die comfortably rather than inhumanly allowing them succumb to agony - then bless them.

At any rate, the euthanasia charge would be very difficult to prove as the physician could say that she was using them to calm and comfort, not kill.

What is strange about the story, though, is the accusation that a doctor and three nurses all so blatantly went to do the deed. It just doesn't seem to ring well.









Now here it is, your url of the day:
Swedish Chef TV

A Very Long Game Of Pass-It-On

I'm enjoying re-reading Karen Armstrong's book The Great Transformation. The thing is so jam-packed that I notice I missed quite a bit.

One thing that intrigues me is how corrupted information is over the millennia.
When you think about the oral transmission of info that existed for countless centuries and how each person or generation may have altered, deleted, or added a few things here and there, and when you think about the relatively recent human invention of writing and how religious works, even though they were pretty much inaccessible to the common masses for the longest time, were also altered via a single transcribing monk or a collective political movement (like the Deuteronomists), then it becomes tantalizing that what is now contained in religious/holy books may bear little resemblance to the original stories. Even more so, many religious stories may have been corrupted into meanings that bear no resemblance to the originals!

Armstrong's book gives a great sense of how religious information swirled down from numerous voices and onto continually edited pages. The origin maze for many bits of information is lost in time, often due to the whims of a single king or priest. Information closing in on the modern day has a better chance of not being corrupted as more copies/files of it are made concrete with easier access. The blogosphere itself is useful as a kind of originality police of modern info.


Information obviously can be twisted even today. I am reminded of an excellent Penn & Teller Bullshit episode where they discuss the pitfalls of ancient info using the modern analogy of Elvis.
Elvis died in 1977 and was buried at Graceland. There are many records about him: medical, financial, personal accounts, pictures (including his body in the coffin), etc.
Yet, in the past 25 years there are many people who insist Elvis is not dead. Some people say he never did drugs, others say aliens abducted him. There are numerous books about his life that have conflicting accounts of things. There are even several cookbooks that have different recipes claiming to be officially for Elvis' favorite fried chicken!

If all that can get muddled up in just 25 years, Penn & Teller ask you to imagine what would happen over 20 centuries.









Now here it is, your url of the day:
http://www.dandelife.com

The White Zone Is For Loading And Unloading Only

Scientist have found an organizing code in DNA protein spools (nucleosomes) that act like valet signs, directing DNA strands to their proper parking place.

The interesting thing about this code is that it is very evolutionary conserved, meaning that it doesn't vary all that much from one DNA to the next.

One implication may be that the code can be used as a "reset" button to treat, or more likely prevent diseases such as cancer. Some future doctors may be herd bosses, directing protein wranglers to quit nappin' and start snappin' their microscopic bullwhips and roundin' up them wayward little doggies.


(BTW, check out the NYT article where there's an oddly placed sentence:

"I think it's really interesting," said... a biologist at (a highlighted hospital).

That's the only thing the biologist says! And I should be really proud of him?)







Now here it is, your url of the day:
http://www.hassleme.co.uk

Annual Monday Links

Only a few moments available today, so here's a little linkage:

Spooky Librarians, a cool blog I found via grow-a-brain.

An open letter to James Randi, McSweeney's style.

Bush's disrespect for checks and balances is finally challenged.

Interesting Crooks and Liars posts about stem-cell controversy.

Letter to Luke Wilson from Steely Dan. Way too funny!

It was only a matter of time: iPod vibrator.

National Portait Competition or Underwater Photography.

You MUST bookmark the mental_floss blog and read it every day along with Neatorama.





Those are all urls of the day!

Ok, you greedy munchkin, here it is, your url of the day:
Dr. Seuss Parodies

Summer Camp Pill-Popping Kids

I just found this very disturbing article about the number of kids at summer camps who take medications.
(via Metaphor Voodoo)

Sweet Zombie Jesus!

There's even a company called CampMeds which exists to dispense kids' medications!!!

Check out the article's graphic which shows allergy meds top the list, and which adds weight to the study mentioned in my last post.

You know, perhaps 0.2% of those kids maybe need Zoloft or (gulp!) Risperdal, but 15% of 6000 kids needing some sort of psychotropic medication is just insane, reckless, and scary!


The telling part of the whole problem is on page two of the article where it reveals, I believe, Rule #2045 straight out of the Official Soccer Mom Handbook:

"Some, for instance, may view photographs on the camp Web site, see their child is sunburned and call the camp director to ask for more diligent application of sunscreen."

It goes on,

"That mind-set may produce ceaseless efforts to help the child, but it has to potential to lead to overmedication, many camp owners and doctors say."

No doubt.

My Dirty Kids Are Healthier Than Your Clean Ones

The dire consequences of antimicrobial mania that compels soccer moms to practically blast their kids with a triclosan-filled power washer and then seal them in a ziploc bag before they step out the door are now coming to light.

While that soccer mom's kid may be shiny clean and protected from the teeming biosphere, he or she will have to suffer the frequent puffing on their inhaler and/or other methods of dealing with allergies.

That's according to a new study suggesting exposure to pathogens early in life builds a healthy immune system.

The body's immune system is a complex dance that needs healthy exposure to the living world in order to run at optimum.


Sure it's a good idea for everyone to wash their hands regularly, but don't get Monk-ish: don't fight the equilibrium*.




*From the CDC site:
Even with the use of antiseptic preparations, which substantially reduce counts of hand flora, no reductions beyond an equilibrium level are attained. The numbers of organisms spread from the hands of nurses who washed frequently with an antimicrobial soap actually increased over a period of time; this increase is associated with declining skin health.



Triclosan, by the way, doesn't do much anyway, except make a good marketing tag.










Now here it is, your url of the day:
Weird World Records (collected by Neatorama)

Edge Of The Llano Estacado

If you haven't visited David Byrne's always fascinating web journal lately, then you're missing the beauty of Marfa, TX he's discovered.

I've been to Marfa, and I'll be damned how he found anything there!

I Knew I Should've Gone Into Plasma Physics

We're now a step closer to safe long-range space travel thanks to the handy Plasma Bubble.

Surrounding a spacecraft with a shield of plasma energy that will absorb or deflect harmful rays, microparticles, and other space nasties is just common sense.

Spacecraft won't be bulky behemoths of metal cruising through the galaxy. The only need for any kind of solid material would be to contain a life-supporting atmosphere inside the craft.
A spacecraft's hull could be made simply of plastic with the plasma, or some other type of energy shield, protecting it.
Not only would the shield protect, but it could also convert absorbed radiation and material into energy for the craft!

Now we just need the power of a billion suns to fold space so we can make some sweet hyper-jumps.

Make it so, Dr. Hawking!








Now here it is, your url of the day:
18 Tricks To Teach Your Body

A Study Of The Metaphorically Challenged

There's an interesting article in the latest Skeptic that outlines a recent study about religious belief and societal health.

The study interestingly shows that societies (it only surveyed prosperous democratic ones) with higher religious belief also have higher rates of homicides, teenage pregnancies, and abortions.
The United States is remarkably highest in all these.

The author of the Skeptic article points out:


The question is one of causation, and there is no clear answer. Whether religion leads directly to dysfunctionality, or religions merely flourish in dysfunctional societies, neither conclusion from this study flatters religion. The first tells us that religion is a hindrance to the development of moral character, and the second that religion hinders progress by distracting us from our troubles (with imaginary solutions to real problems). This study is complicated enough that I do not think that we can draw definitive negative conclusions about religion. But we can at least conclude, contrary to popular belief in this country, that it is not a given that religious societies are better, healthier, or more moral.


The study's website offers a good critical analysis of the study and how later studies can be improved upon. It suggests better definitions of religious and secular belief.

Why the U.S. is so high in bad behaviors (2 to 3 times higher than other countries) despite its high religious noise is interesting. I would generalize that this is because America's religiosity is so selfish and infantile.
Religion in America is overwhelmingly misused. In fact, I don't remember if I've ever met anyone who used their religion properly, that is, metaphorically.








Now here it is, your url of the day:
http://www.fromoldbooks.org

Jungle Of Doctors

The Fake Doctor provides a hilarious guide to the doctor jungle.

The Obstacle Of Me In Nursing Hell

I knew it wasn't going to get any better as soon as I was given report on the last of my patients, an 88 year-old man who was flushing 500 to 800 ml of blood out of his ass at a time.

He had some sort of lower G.I. bleed, probably from a diverticuli, that just seemed to be gushing. The old guy was in amazingly good spirits though, heartily drinking his Go-lytely and genuinely focused on getting the gallon of stuff down so a colonoscopy could be done in the morning. He'd been given some Vitamin K and several fresh-frozen plasma transfusions. While waiting for the effects of those to fully kick in, he'd be getting packed red blood cell transfusions all the rest of the night.
So, I had that to deal with, plus I was waiting to get the guy down to nuclear medicine so they could see how bad the bleed was.

But wait, here's Crazy Wandering Man, version 1058.7, in the hallway! "Hi, Mr. Crazy Wandering Man, where are you going?"
He points down the hall and yells, not says but YELLS, "I'VE GOT TO GO GET MY CLOTHES! WHERE'S MY WIFE?"
"Whoa whoa there, big fella." The guy's around 65 years-old, 6'2", and very strong-looking. He avoids the obstacle of me and heads straight into the dirty-room which is filled with smelly linens, trash, and the big red bio-hazard bins. I sigh, follow him in, grab him from behind in a basket-hold and drag his crazy ass out of there. Several other staff show up and we bum rush him down the hall and into his room.
Now we all have to sit on him until his nurse can give him something to calm him down. As she calls the doc, we put a posey-vest on him and tie him to the bed and then watch as he begins to hyperventilate, sweat profusely, and get all cold and clammy - a panic attack, lovely.

We let him loose and block the doorway as his panic attack dissipates and he looks for things to throw at us. His nurse gets the order for 1mg of Ativan I.M. (One milligram of Ativan!!?? Imagine a bevy (gaggle? coven?) of nurses all crying out in exasperation, "One stinkin' milligram of Ativan?!" It wasn't but a drop of tranquility in his mighty sea of agitation.) We tro' him on the bed again and she pops his butt with the Ativan.

An aide is able to keep him occupied with the intricacies of a phone, so we all sneak out of there.

Hey, I wonder how my blood transfusion guy is doing, but wait... don't I have, like, ninety-five other patients to see? And isn't one of them on a ventilator?

I hightail it into the ventilator room. It's a 49 year old overdose patient who is very semi-comatose. All looks good in there except for an ongoing temp - a fan's on, not time for tylenol yet, I.V.'s running, Foley's good. I check the vent alarm history and it's clear. She can wait.

I'm then told two of my other patients are begging for their pain meds and another wants to go smoke. I meet the smoker out in the hallway as he's headed downstairs. I tell him he has orders to not smoke as he ignores me and leaves the floor. God bless him and his COPD.

I try to make it to the med room to get at least one pain med for at least one person but I get a call from the nuclear medicine tech who just arrived and wants my bleeder. The aide is stuck in Crazy Wandering Man's room so I go and get the bleeder on a cart with about three thousand chux pads, along with their transfusing blood, and take them to the front. There's no one available to take him down to nuc med.

Great! I run him down to nuc med and run back to the floor. Now I feel the effects of a delicious large pineapple shake I drank on the way to work. I gotta go number 2. I put my anal sphincter in hyper-clench (that information should satisfy all those who were desperately wondering what mode my sphincter was in) and head to the med room again for at least one pain med for at least one patient.

I come back out into the hallway and run into, you guessed it, Crazy Wandering Man! His wild eyes flash You again! and he flees the other way. The aide had apparently thought he was calm enough to leave in the room for a few minutes. I chase him down and sidetrack him back into his room until the aide, who went to answer a call light - how dare she! - can come back.

Now I get a call from the nuc med tech who says there's an "air in line" error going off on my blood transfusion pump down there. I try and tell her how to fix it, but of course I have to run down and do it in the end.

On my way back I despicably half-wish that the bleeder has a large enough bleed to warrant going to surgery because that's keep him out of my hair for several hours. I'm sick.

I get back to the floor and try and take that one pain med I got 20 minutes ago to its patient when I hear my vent alarm going off.

And it was only 3 hours into the shift...

Why am I a nurse again?








Now here it is, your url of the day:
http://www.sethkushner.com/brooklynites

Beatings With A Statistics Stick

STATS.org is a great site that takes on misuse of statistics in the media. It even slapped me around a little for my Big Pharma bias with this article. The economics of pill selling are complicated and perhaps Big Pharma isn't entirely evil. Now, if they could only do an article on why Big Oil's record profits this year aren't entirely evil either...

I place STATS along side there with Paulos, badscience, factcheck and quackwatch. They have a nice little How To Evaluate Health Risks page that helps boost your common sense, and we all need a common sense boost pretty regularly.

In fact, Americans should have to take a yearly common sense exam in order to be allowed to stay in the country.
Just how many people do you think would fail with such questions as, "Would it be healthier to diet and exercise or to eat only foods that say 'fat-free' on the package?"

Bon Voyage, 75% of America!


BTW, here's a lovely common sense article about eating. I especially like the last one: "How you eat is as important as what you eat," as evidenced by the article STATS.org points out regarding the Italian experience.
I love a good burger and fries now and then, but to just engulf them without enjoying the flavor is sad and disgusting. Super-size that and it's doubly repulsive.


Other useful sites:
7 Warning Signs of Bogus Science.
Skeptic's Dictionary.
The Fallacy Files.
Spin of the Day.









Now here it is, your url of the day:
The Mysterious Appeal of Garrison Keillor

My Best Concert Experience

The 1994 Pink Floyd Pulse concert just came out on DVD and I devoured it tonight.

I saw the concert live in 1994 at the venue in El Paso, Texas. It was windy and they had a bit of trouble with the pigs, but that was all. What a friggin' concert! It was probably the greatest concert I'll ever see in my lifetime.

This DVD of the concert is not the best shot concert film, but it does the job.

The little movies they showed in the giant circular screen are priceless. I thought I'd never see them again, but now there they are. Just plain cool. Now you can watch them all by themselves.

The Division Bell tour itself was fantastically done - the new Pink Floyd stuff first, a break, and then the entire Dark Side of the Moon. Gilmour's guitar work was never better. The lighting spectacle throughout the whole thing is still amazing to see.

The only annoying part of the DVD special features is the Billy Corgin R&R Hall of Fame speech--awwwwkward!
Billy Corgin, can you be any more annoying? Just what part about self-involved eclecticism do you not subscribe to, you bald-headed f*ck? (Can you tell I don't like that guy?)

Anyway, the Pulse DVD brought back many memories. The encore blasts of Wish You Were Here, Comfortably Numb, and Run just sear your rockin' heart.

Goddamn Pink Floyd. That was the best.

Thank you.

A Steel Breeze Passes

R.I.P. Syd Barrett.











Now here it is, your url of the day:
A Pro-Life Blogger who takes an ONION article seriously (the comments are hilarious) via

*Update* 7/17/06
Salon interviews the dim Pro-Life Blogger. via