Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Organic Manifesto

[Update:  I've done some research on rBGH and some of the concerns about hormone/antibiotics exposure in dairy products in a more recent post.  Refer to that if you're looking for more information about some of the topics mentioned here.]

No, I haven't "gone organic."  Over the holidays, I found out that my sister-in-law had read Organic Manifesto by Maria Rodale, and now she's been buying organic milk and other food products (peanut butter, fruits and vegetables, etc.).  She's an intelligent person, but she doesn't have a science or medical background.  She works as an accountant, but I'm not sure how well she knows statistics.  This can make it difficult to find, sort through, and understand the wealth of research on a topic such as organic food.

I thought it might be helpful to try to understand what specifically led her to make the switch. A lot of this is familiar to what I've read and heard elsewhere, but I'll list some of her main reasons here anyway:
  • Preservatives.  She doesn't like all the preservatives in many foods today.  I told her that while we do use a lot of preservatives, many organic foods use them too (they're just "organic preservatives" that have a chemical formula observed in nature).  I also reminded her that preservatives are somewhat necessary if we want to avoid food-borne illnesses and live in societies like we do (food shipped across the country, available year-round, not have to grow your own food, etc.).
  • Pesticides.  She doesn't like the idea of pesticides being used on her produce.  I told her that organic produce are grown using pesticides too, but that they are "organic" pesticides.  These are newer pesticides, and thus have a smaller body of evidence in support of their safety and efficacy.  Also, just because you ingest trace amounts of any pesticide does not mean you'll actually experience any health consequences from it.  Lastly, the best thing she can do is to wash her produce before she cooks/eats it if she wants to reduce pesticide exposure/ingestion.
  • Antibiotics and hormones.  Cows are "pumped full" of antibiotics and hormones, and she doesn't want milk from these cows.  I told her I'd seen some research showing reduced rates of eczema in infants from pregnant mothers who consumed organic dairy products, but that I wasn't sure how large that decrease actually was -- i.e. if it's a 50% reduction, but only from .02% of infants to .01% of infants, it's really not that huge of an effect.
  • Nutrition.  She didn't list this as a specific reason, but I reminded her that nutritionally speaking, organic and conventional foods are essentially identical.  One isn't healthier or richer in vitamins/antioxidants/joojoo than the other.
  • "The Dirty Dozen."  These are 12 fruits and vegetables that supposedly have the highest rates of contamination by pesticides.  She said she specifically tries to buy these as organic products.
Overall, I got the sense that most of her complaints had come from this book and what others (I remember her mentioning Jillian Michaels specifically) had said about eating a healthier, more natural diet.  Let me be clear, there is a lot to be said about the benefits of eating a healthy diet that includes more fruits and vegetables than most Americans eat.  But "organic" does not mean "healthier" and "synthetic chemicals" do not automatically equal "toxic."  I wouldn't rely on Jillian Michaels to give me advice on medical science, and I wouldn't trust an organic farmer or salesperson to tell me why organic food is the greatest thing since sliced [organic] bread.  In the same way, don't come looking to me for advice on sculpting, playing in the NBA, or starting a KISS tribute band.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Sloppy Research Regarding GM Crops

I've come to the conclusion that I'm too busy and far too easily distracted to post to Verbatio with any sort of regularity right now.  (That may change if/when SkepSIG starts up though).  I'll still post when something is on my mind, but in general, I won't beat myself up for not posting regularly.  So if I don't post for a few weeks at a time (like now), don't think that I've completely abandoned Verbatio.  Rather, it's likely that I've just been busy or haven't thought of something to post about lately.  But when something comes up, or when I feel like procrastinating instead of studying for an exam (like I'm doing now), I'll be sure to blog about it.

But I digress, onto the matter at hand: those evil genetically modified (GM) crops!  A classmate of mine linked this study, which compared the effects of 3 different GM maize/corn varieties on mice.  What caught my eye from the beginning is that the authors consistently use the term "toxic" or "toxicity" instead of simply "different."  A change in metabolite concentration in the serum or urine is a sign of hepatorenal toxicity rather than just being statistically different from the control.  Rather than state what their hypothesis was (that the GM crops would just be statistically different, or that certain concentrations would be decreased or elevated), they took any change from the control to be a sign of toxicity, rather than simply a difference.  Sloppy science.

Saturday, October 02, 2010

Richard Tillman on Real Time with Bill Maher

Bill Maher interviewed Richard Tillman (brother of Pat Tillman - the NFL player who left to join the Army) on last week's Real Time.  Richard discusses The Tillman Story, a new documentary about his brother and the circumstances surrounding his death.

Now, I believe that a lot of skeptics agree that Bill Maher is... let's call it inconsistent... when it comes to his rational beliefs about science and the like.  He's an atheist, and in Religulous he repeatedly brings up some of the problems and fallacies of religion.  He takes the reasonable position of saying that you CAN'T know about the existence of god -- and most atheists acknowledge this position as well.  I don't believe in god, but I also know that I can't prove or disprove his existence; I just see little reason to hold the belief the such a being exists.

Contrast Bill's reasonable stance on the existence of god with his beliefs regarding germ theory and vaccination, and you'll understand why I have mixed feelings about the guy.  He tends to jump to conspiracy theories all to readily, but nevertheless I appreciate the fact that he shines a light on other aspects of our society that I also find troubling.

Rally to Restore Sanity

I reserved my hotel rooms for the Rally to Restore Sanity/March to Keep Fear Alive in Washington, D.C. on October 30th.  I've never been to D.C., so I'm hoping I get a chance to look around the day before the rallies.  I hope to see you there!



Note:  I'm in the middle of an exam block right now, so probably no updates until next week.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

I'm not playing a game, I'm preparing myself!

In honor of Halo: Reach coming out today, I thought I'd refer you to this gem at Ars Technica.  A recent research paper published in Current Biology shows that gamers who enjoy action games take less time to make decisions while remaining just as accurate as non-gamers who take a greater amount of time.  So, rather than say I'm wasting all of my time today playing a video game, I'm going to stick with the story that I'm honing my decision-making prowess so that I can make decisions faster and on less information when I start my clinical rotations, especially for emergency medicine.  Yeah, that's plausible enough... kinda.

In the meantime, I'm going to get as much studying done as possible until UPS shows up with my copy.  I love Amazon's release-date delivery!

Monday, September 13, 2010

I Almost Forgot I'm Going to be a Doctor

A strange thing seems to happen throughout your 1st year in medical school: you forget you're actually going to be a doctor at some point.  You get so caught up in studying anatomy, biochemistry, histology, cell biology, etc. that you lose sight of WHY you're studying all of that stuff.  Instead, you spend all of your time studying (or, if you're me, you spend all of your time reading skeptical blogs and books about the financial collapse, and playing Halo or Call of Duty until 2-3 days before an exam).  You don't really experience much outside of the classroom.

However, you really need to have a lot of that basic medical science down before you can even approach anything clinically-oriented.  In my yearly meeting with a faculty member the other day, I explained how utterly useless most 1st year medical students are when they attempt to give us some amount of clinical exposure.  Sure, they can take 1st years into the hospital to interview patients and get a history, but the patients tend to know more about their disease than we do.  I've joked a few times that at this stage in my medical career, I'm a lot like my uncle when it comes to computers -- I [think I] know just enough to be dangerous.  Some schools brag about offering clinical exposure in the first year, but realistically, it's basically like show & tell back in kindergarten.  You get to see some pretty machines, neat disease processes that you still don't understand, and meet some interesting people.  But don't plan on the encounters changing your life or enhancing your understanding of the science you're trying to learn.

But a funny thing happened at the beginning of this semester.  The professors snuck up on me and reminded me that I'm actually going to be a doctor.  This year, I get to do some exciting things.  I see at least one patient every week to work on history-taking and physical exam skills.  More often than not I even have a clue as to what's going on with them and how that disease has progressed.  Each week we have a special session about a particular specialty where we learn about the specialty and have some sort of clinically-oriented experience.  For example, when we had the session for plastic surgery, I got to practice my suturing skills (on a pig's foot).  It was comforting to know that after spending a semester dissecting a cadaver last year, I actually did pretty well in stitching skin back together.  It was too little too late for the pig though.

So, since my medical school did me the kindness of reminding me that I'm in medical school to do more than just learn neuroanatomy and pathology this year, I'm going to follow suit and try to post a little more often about medically relevant topics.  I'm sure I have a few readers who are interested in the medical school perspective on more than just science topics, so I'll try to include some of that when I can.  Considering my ADHD nature, however, I'm confident I'll still bounce around quite a bit between that, skepticism, what I'm reading on my Kindle, and whatever else happens to hold my attention while I'm at the computer.  I hope you enjoy it!

Sunday, September 12, 2010

A Game of Thrones

I finally finished A Game of Thrones.  Despite some of the annoyances I discussed earlier about the eBook being an OCR'd copy of the print version, it was one of the most compelling pieces of fiction I've read in a while!  If you haven't read this book yet, you need to start now.  That way you can finish before they start the HBO series in Spring 2011!  The book was recommended to me by one of my preceptors from last year, and ironically enough, it was probably the best advice he's ever given me!  Now when the HBO series starts, I can be one of those elitist pricks who constantly complains that "it was never like that in the books," or "they totally screwed up that character," and "the books were WAY better."  Though I actually have a good bit of confidence that HBO will do right by this series.  We'll find out.

A few friends have warned me that I'll be extremely pissed after the first 4 books because it's been 5 years since George R.R. Martin released the 4th book and there's no release date in sight for #5.  Unfortunately, I'm already addicted so I can't stop now.

I usually find enough nonfiction to satiate my palate between Orson Scott Card's books that come out a couple times a year, but I'm glad I tried something new.  Of course, I've already pre-ordered Pathfinder, but I'm going to try to get through as much of A Song of Ice and Fire (the name of the series) until then!  Next up is A Clash of Kings.

So, if haven't already, give A Game of Thrones a shot.  It's not exactly a quick read at ~850 pages, but it's worth it!

Friday, September 10, 2010

Review: Kindle 3G + WiFi vs. Kindle for Android vs. Hardcover Book

I've had my Kindle for a week now, and I don't know that I've read this much in a while.  It's just so much more convenient to be able to read with my Kindle rather than having to carry around a big hardcover wherever I go.  But when I shelled out $249 for this thing ($189 Kindle + $60 cover), I wondered how it would compare to having Kindle for Android on my HTC Evo, or just reading out of a good old-fashioned hardcover.  It better be a wonderful experience, considering how much I spent on the device just so I could spend more money on books in the Kindle Store!

I purchased the 3rd generation Kindle with 3G.  At first, I was tempted to get the WiFi-only version and save $50, but I figured if I'm going to have this thing for a few years, I'd rather not worry about always being in WiFi range to download/purchase new books or sync my place in a current book should I decide to read on my phone instead.  I had money from working over the summer, so the $50 extra wasn't the end of the world to me.  If you're on a tighter budget, you would probably be just fine with the WiFi-only version.  Personally, I haven't used the Kindle anywhere outside of my apartment yet, but I could envision myself reading in the park or by the canal downtown.  I'm of the mind that if you're going to be making any purchase that will last for more than a couple years, you better make sure you're happy with it so that 1 or 2 years down the line, you don't regret the fact that you cheaped out that extra $50 or whatever.

In addition to the Kindle itself, I spent $60 on the lighted black leather cover.  The leather is alright and it feels plenty sturdy to protect the Kindle.  The light is bright enough and covers the screen adequately.  Some of the reviews on Amazon complain about it being an uneven light due to its position, which is true, but I still have no problems reading the last few lines.  The convenience of having the light as part of the cover and having it powered by the Kindle is worth it, even if the light is uneven.  I'd prefer that to having to carry around a clip-on light.  As I've said previously, the case adds quite a bit of heft to the Kindle.  I've mostly gotten used to it now, though if you don't plan on needing the light, you might better off with a lightweight protective skin instead.  I've been reading in bed at night quite a bit, and I prefer to have the light with the cover rather than having to situate myself specifically to read by desklight.  So I'm plenty happy with my purchase, although $60 is pretty steep.  I think $30-40 would be more reasonable.

So, $249 later, I have a brand new Kindle.  But how does it compare to Kindle for Android or a hardcover book?

Thursday, September 02, 2010

Kindle Has Arrived

As I mentioned on Sunday, I pre-ordered a 3rd generation Kindle about a month ago.  It was delivered yesterday -- ahead of schedule!  I've had some time to play around with it, and so far I'm very pleased.  I'll post more about it over the weekend after I've had time to really put it through its paces (and when I don't have a quiz and an exam the following morning), but I wanted to take a few minutes to post my initial thoughts.

The device itself is incredibly light and very comfortable to hold.  If I'm holding just the Kindle (more about the cover below), I could probably read for hours without tiring.  Most hardcovers I read tend to be around 350 pages, and I can't say the same when I'm reading those.  I'm reading A Game of Thrones now (a whopping 704 pages for the hardcover, 831 for the paperback), and I can't imagine lugging around such a massive book in my bag all day.  It's also nice to be able to set the Kindle down for a moment and not worry about losing my place.  The size and feel of the Kindle are both excellent, and the text display is perfect.  It's VERY clear and easy on the eyes.  The E-ink display is perfect for text, although the display does occasionally look a little wonky when changing all screen elements.  That's a product of the technology, however, and given the quality of the text display and the battery life, I'm more than OK with the trade-off.

To Start a New Student Interest Group?

I'm debating starting a new Student Interest Group (SIG) at my med school.  We have all kinds of them for various specialties (dermatology, orthopedic surgery, family medicine, etc.), cultures/beliefs (LGBT, Christian Medical Association, Spanish language), and other commonalities.  I tried to get involved with one SIG last year that presents 1 hr presentations about science/medicine to students at a local junior high school to get them interested in the topic, but unfortunately the date I was scheduled to present was rescheduled.  But aside from that particular SIG, I haven't found one that really speaks to my interests.  I don't just want to be in some SIG that will sound good on a residency application; rather, I'd like to be a part of something that will have a lasting effect on myself and my peers by preparing us to deal with the challenges that lie ahead.

This led me to an idea for a new SIG, which I would call SkepSIG.  Catchy, I know.  It would basically be a way for medical students to get together to discuss science and medicine and how to effectively communicate these topics to patients.  When I read about how people respond when the scientific evidence contradicts their own beliefs, or when I observe such political and public outcry when it is recommended that an ineffective breast cancer drug have its FDA approval revoked, I can't help but consider how the scientific attitudes of physicians, patients, public officials, and the general public will affect my ability to help my patients in the future.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Review: No One Would Listen

I realize I'm way behind on reviewing this book, seeing as it was released way back in March.  But I figure I'll post some thoughts about it anyway, just in case anyone out there is still debating whether or not to pick this one up.  Nevertheless, No One Would Listen, by Harry Markopolos, tells the story of Harry's nearly decade-long investigation of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme.

Kindle for Android
I first heard about the book when Harry appeared on The Daily Show on March 8, 2010.  His passion and frustration regarding the entire debacle was enticing, and I purchased the Kindle version as soon as I saw the show.  I figured it would be an opportunity to try to reformat Amazon's eBook to something I could read on my Palm Pre.  After futzing around with it for a week, unfortunately, I couldn't get the page breaks to transfer right and I just got one GIANT block of text on my phone.  But when I switched to the Evo, Kindle for Android (use a barcode scanner on your phone to scan the QR code at right to find it on the Android Market) was available so I began reading NOWL shortly thereafter.  This was my first experience reading a book on Kindle for my phone, and it was a very pleasant experience.  I'll write more about my experiences using the Kindle for Android software versus the latest generation Kindle device versus reading an old-fashioned hardcover after I receive my Kindle at the end of the week.

But I digress -- back to NOWL.  After the first few chapters you get a real feel for the type of person Harry Markopolos is.  He's a stand-up guy, ready to fight the good fight, which is nice to see after seeing so much of the ugliness that Wall Street has shown us in recent years.  Harry is also a quant -- a math geek.  I'm by no means a quant, but I've always excelled in math and science and I appreciate what we have to learn from such disciplines.  I sometimes wonder if I'd have ended up in the financial industry if I hadn't pursued engineering and then gone to medical school.  Either way, as a fellow nerd, I sympathize with a lot of what Harry went through.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Kindle on the way (I hope)

I ordered one of the new Kindles a few weeks ago when the new design was announced (unfortunately, not early enough, as I didn't get in on the first shipment) and I should be receiving it some time this week or next week.  After having just finished No One Would Listen using the Kindle for Android software on my new HTC Evo 4G, I'm looking forward to trying out the actual Kindle device. 

Amazon seems to have finally made a useful eBook device that's actually attractive to look at.  I've been interested in the Kindle since the first generation was originally launched, but the price point and aesthetics never agreed with me.  I'd been anxiously waiting for them to bring the Kindle software to WebOS, but when I made the switch to Android, I figured I'd give the software a shot on my phone.  The convenience is incredible, and it's nice to save $5+ on each book you order without having to kill any trees (we do, after all, only have one Earth).  I'm in the process of reading A Game of Thrones right now, and I'm hooked.

I'll post an update when I receive my Kindle (I'm hoping by this Friday, but we'll see).  I strongly recommend you check out No One Would Listen in the meantime.  It's absolutely mind-boggling how much Harry Markopolos went through while trying to expose Bernie Madoff. You know how it ends, but it's still a very addicting read.  I'll try to post more about it another time.

"But they were atheists, so they didn't care..."

Something rather disturbing happened at a party I was at the other night.  You may have heard about this story, where a wedding party's bus was hit by an SUV and a member of the wedding party was killed.  I was out of town at the time, so I never heard anything about it.  When someone at the party was telling me about it, she said something along the lines of the wedding couple being atheists, so they just had the wedding at the hospital after the death of their friend.

I'm sorry, but how the hell does the couple's religion (or lack thereof) have anything to do with that?  Realistically, it's not like postponing the wedding would erase the memory of what happened or make the ceremony any less sad than it was bound to be by that point.  It's a tragic event, no doubt, and it's not the wedding memory that anyone wants to have.  Whether the couple wants that memory to be of their actual wedding day or of the day they had originally planned to get married is completely up to them, and has nothing to do with their religious beliefs.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Back to the Trenches

After a chronologically long but subjectively short summer, I'll be starting up with classes again on Monday.  Supposedly, 2nd year is when medical students start to learn stuff that is actually somewhat useful and applicable to patient care. I'm looking forward to that, as one year filled with memorizing microbial virulence factors and biochemical pathways was uninspiring enough already.  It should be fun!

I'm still in the process of catching up on what's been going on for the past few months in the US regarding science, medicine, politics, and everything else.  After being cut off from current events while I was in China for 4 weeks, I immediately went to work on the east coast for the remainder of the summer, where I didn't really have time to keep up with the news.  But now that classes are starting up again, I'll be more motivated to post about the news and whatever else is on my mind.  As I dig through the archives of my favorite news sites and podcasts, I may or may not be posting about stuff that happened weeks or months ago, so I apologize in advance for being late to the game!

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Food at the Indiana State Fair

So now that I'm back home, I was planning on writing a wonderful post about the food that can be found at the Indiana State Fair.  But it turns out that Aaron Carroll has already done so.  You're welcome.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Gone longer than expected

Well, I made it back to the USA without any trouble.  Unfortunately, as soon as I got back 2 weeks ago, I had to drive to Boston for work.  So rather than have time to post about my experiences in science and medicine while in China, I've been helping students study for the MCAT so they too can experience the joys of medical school (I'm not sure myself if that last part is sarcasm). 

I'm having a great time here in Boston.  The amount of nerd humor I've experienced while around some of the best MCAT instructors in the country has been absolutely mind boggling!  However, I simply do not have enough time to give Verbatio the attention it deserves.  So I will not plan on posting to Verbatio until I finish my work here in Boston and return home.  It's funny, I never would have thought I'd have MORE time for blogging while I was actually in medical school compared to while I was on summer break

I have a few posts concerning China that I will try to finish and post while I'm here, but I suggest you get outside and enjoy the amazing summer weather while you can.  See you in August!

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Difficulty posting

Unfortunately, I am unable to access Blogger/Blogspot from China, so it will be very difficult for me to post regularly while I am here.  I was able to set up posting via email, so we'll see if/how that works out.  My Internet connection here is terribly slow, which is a real shame because I was hoping I'd be able to post some pictures, but that would take forever on this connection and I'm not even sure how it would work posting those via email.  Nevertheless, I will try to post about my experiences, especially those related to my travels to the medical school here.  The orientation for that starts tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be able to offer some insight on that by the end of the week.

In the meantime, I don't think I've eaten a single item that I've actually recognized while I've been here.  The next 4 weeks will definitely be an interesting experience!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

The "hCG Diet"

This is something I've been meaning to post about for some time now, but just haven't gotten around to it.  A while back, my mom told me about this diet someone in my family had started on.  She referred me to this website and asked what I thought about it.

I'm now 25% doctor after completing my 1st year of medical school, so hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) is something I've actually learned a bit about in class.  hCG is what some people think of as the "pregnancy hormone."  It's a hormone that doesn't show up in a woman's body until she becomes pregnant (it's what at-home pregnancy tests detect) at which point it acts to maintain other hormone levels at high enough levels for the developing fetus.  hCG is also responsible for morning sickness, which disappears by the end of the first trimester because at that point the placenta can maintain hormone levels for the fetus all on its own.  Such a wonderfully useful structure, that placenta!

So, when I first read about this, I thought, "So he's basically just giving himself morning sickness.  I should tell him to take a pregnancy test too just to freak him out!"  The website itself is downright awful too, even going so far as to say that their "product is a professional grade homeopathic hCG weight loss product that is made in the USA."  A professional grade homeopathic product... so does that mean they use filtered water or spring water instead of just plain old water?  And it's made in the USA, so it has to be good, right?

Thursday, May 06, 2010

Going to China

Some interesting news.  In just over a week, I will be leaving for China for 4 weeks.  It's a trip organized by a group affiliated with the medical school.  While I'm there, I'll be studying the language and the culture, as well as interacting with some of their medical students and checking out some of their medical facilities.

I'm incredibly excited about the trip, not just because I get to go to the other side of the world for relatively cheap, but because I'll be able to observe firsthand the "Eastern" or "alternative" medicine that people here in the states try to tout when they're promoting their supposedly "natural" cures.  My expectation is that what we consider to be Eastern medicine will be very similar to Western medicine (albeit with some alternative medicine flavor thrown in at times), at least as far as the medical education establishment goes.  I'd expect to find higher usage of alternative medicine in perhaps more rural settings, but who knows.  That's part of the reason why I'm going.  As a person enormously interested in technology and a supporter of the free exchange of software and ideas, I'm also anxious to see what the general feeling is over there with regard to the Great Firewall of China.  People love to talk about China's people, culture, medicine, etc. but how much of that is actually accurate?  That's what I hope to find out.

I plan on blogging about the experience as much as I can.  A few students who went on the trip last year told me we'll probably be asked if we'd like to experience "cupping" (I swear it's not as dirty as it sounds).  If I'm able to try it out, I'll be sure to let you know if it's the best treatment ever and takes away all of my back pain and fixes my eye sight, or if it just relaxes me for a couple hours (a byproduct of the heat and the placebo effect, from what I've read).

This is the first time I've really gone out of the country, and it's about as far out of the country as I can get.  I went to a resort in the Dominican Republic for vacation for a week a couple years back, but nothing quite like this.  It will definitely be one hell of an experience.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

I'm not dead, I feel fine.

I know I've been absent for a while, but I swear I'm not dead.  It's been a hectic 2 weeks of finals, but I'll be done for the semester and back here after Thursday. 

In the meantime, as I said:  I'm not dead!

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Beating Obesity

An interesting article about obesity was recently linked on Rational Arguments.  It's worth a read, especially considering all the misunderstandings people have when it comes to obesity and weight management.

Last week, we had a few lectures about nutrition and exercise, and how the body reacts to lifestyle changes when people try to lose weight.  To put it simply, your body can be a real prick when it comes to trying to lose weight.  Granted, if you want to lose weight, you certainly can, but it's not always as simple as changing your diet.  You might lose some weight that way, but it's going to take a lot more to continue to lose weight, especially if you want to keep that weight off.  Either way, your body will put up quite a fight by lowering its energy needs so that even though you're taking in fewer calories, you still won't lose as much weight as you hope/expect.

Obesity is a major problem in the US right now, and it's a more complex problem than people want to admit.  Yes, it would be great if it were as simple as going on a diet for a few months, but long-term benefits require greater long-term commitments.  And when the obesity problem starts in childhood, it's going to be even harder to get those children to change their unhealthy habits when they reach adulthood.  The article isn't trying to make excuses for obesity, but it does well in explaining the more complex nature of the obesity epidemic we're experiencing right now.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Science Reporting

Pretty much the only evening news show I watch is NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.  It's usually pretty good reporting, and I'm a big fan of Brian Williams.  I've always enjoyed his appearances on late night talk shows -- I sometimes wish he'd ditch that whole serious reporting thing and do his own late show!

Anywho, tonight's show had a segment about the environmental effects of the recent volcanic eruption(s) in Iceland.  It was doing well until Anne Thompson, the "NBC News Chief Environmental Affairs Correspondent", threw out this particular gem:

But [Sulfur Dioxide]'s reflective properties can also cause global cooling, leading some to wonder if this isn't the silver lining in the volcanic cloud.  Could it actually help reverse global warming fueled by man-made carbon dioxide, CO2?

You're right, a single volcanic eruption is going to spew enough sulfur dioxide into the air to reverse global warming.  Before I could even start to laugh at this idea, immediately after she stated this, it cuts to Richard Wunderman of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, who says:

And it's pretty hard to reverse that [global warming] without reducing the greenhouse gases like CO2.

Why would she even pose the question like that if the next person is going to refute it?  To me, it seems like she's leaving the possibility open and acting as though this one particular expert says no, but people are still wondering if this is our cure-all for global warming!  With a subject like global warming, it seems to me that she shouldn't have left the idea lingering such that people might start thinking that these volcanoes are going to solve climate change.  It would have been much better to tack on something like "but climatologists say that these small effects are not significant enough to impact global climate change" before cutting to Wunderman's clip.

Maybe I'm overreacting, but I strongly believe that the media as a whole does a piss poor job when it comes to science reporting.  It's always about painting this picture of a big controversy that doesn't actually exist (e.g. the false notion that vaccines cause autism).  It's incredibly frustrating to watch. 

But you be the judge and check out the clip:


Monday, April 12, 2010

Science-Based Medicine

I added another link to my sidebar at the right: Science-Based Medicine.  This one is similar in its overall theme and content to NeuroLogica, and Steven Novella posts on SBM as well.

A highly recommended you check out this post about Dr. Werner's explanation of homeopathy.  It's several months old now, but it's definitely worth reading.  As for Dr. Werner's video itself... it's certainly a must-see video, but for very, very different reasons.  Enjoy!

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Skeptics' Guide to the Universe (SGU)

I'm not really sure how I've been missing out on this podcast for so long, but I've recently started listening to The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe (or just subscribe directly to the RSS feed here).  It's a little long, usually weighing in around 80 minutes or so, but it's worth it.  It's published once a week, and I've been listening to it while I've been at the gym all week.

SGU is produced by Dr. Steven Novella of NeuroLogica Blog, among others.  It's a refreshing "escape to reality" for those who struggle throughout the week listening to people who just don't seem to have a grasp on science and reality.  And unfortunately, many of those people have their own news programs.  Anyhow, check the SGU podcast out.  It's both informative and humorous, and the 80 minutes goes by pretty quick.  That's an added bonus if you're listening to it while driving or exercising, because it makes that activity go by fast too!

Fox News flat-out lying about new nuclear weapons treaty with Russia

I know Fox News has a certain conservative, "progressives/liberals are the anti-christ" narrative that they're trying to push.  And most of the time, they seem to be content to mostly just distort or dismiss the facts that don't suit their ideology.  It's a pretty obvious bias, but now it appears that they've moved on to just flat-out lying about what President Obama is doing while simultaneously propagating some false, god-like fantasy existence of Ronald Reagan.  Seriously, how do they get away with this shit?  If, as a doctor, I were to lie about the effectiveness, side effects, or risks of a particular treatment, I would be sued in no time.  So how is it that Fox News continues to do crap like this without any consequences?

I try not to go too heavy on posting stuff from The Daily Show or The Colbert Report.  They're not news organizations, and I acknowledge that they shouldn't be used as a source of actual news.  However, I don't see many other people out there calling out Fox News on their complete and utter bullshit.  The clip below is from Thursday, April 8.  Enjoy.


The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Big Bang Treaty
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full EpisodesPolitical HumorTea Party

Friday, April 09, 2010

NeuroLogica on Skepticism and Religion

Dr. Steven Novella (of NeuroLogica) posted a very interesting piece on skepticism and religion a few days ago.  I've fallen woefully behind on his blog lately, but I had made time to read that particular post and it was well worth it.  My brain has been so wrapped up in medical studies lately that I almost forgot how to interpret philosophical arguments!  That being said, he does well in addressing the issues that come up when science and skepticism meet religion.

Essentially, he concedes that when religions make untestable, nonscientific claims, science is essentially agnostic towards those claims.  If a religious belief is constructed in such a way that it is simply untestable, then by definition a continued belief in such an idea can only be defined as faith.  His position as a skeptic is to focus on testable claims, and leave the untestable religious claims alone.  Some skeptics disagree, of course, which is expected.  But even as an atheist, I can certainly admire and agree with such a position.

Thursday, April 08, 2010

The Big Short by Michael Lewis

Last night, I finished The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, by Michael Lewis.  I consider myself to be a pretty intelligent, educated person, and it bothered me when I had no idea how $1.3 trillion essentially vanished overnight.  Granted, I hadn't really looked into the subject, but I'd hear about subprime mortgages, CDOs, and credit default swaps and wonder what the hell people were talking about. 

Michael Lewis goes to great lengths to explain how the financial crisis occurred and expose the greed, stupidity, and magical thinking that allowed it to happen.  Interestingly, he does it from the perspective of the small number of people who actually made millions from the subprime mortgage collapse.  This makes the story incredibly entertaining, allowing you to learn a lot about what happened without falling asleep while reading it.  It's a very different approach, but one that I appreciated.  Through his character-driven account of the financial collapse, I finally began to understand what the hell happened to all that money.

So if you've been wondering what made all of those financial institutions drop like flies, give this book a shot.  It's a relatively quick read (266 pages) and well worth the time and effort.  It really made me wonder if I would have seen the problem coming had I been in their shoes.  I'd like to think that I'd have at least been cautious of it, but then again, who knows. 

Some googling led me to Investopedia, which has a free stock trade simulator to let you try your hand at investing without actually losing (or gaining, unfortunately) any money.  That website only lets you trade stocks (not mortgage bonds, CDOs, CDSs, etc. as in The Big Short), but it lets you put your money where your mouth is if you've ever thought you could make money investing if you actually had money to invest.  I haven't really done anything with my account yet, but maybe I will after this month, and my 1st year of medical school, is over.

Sunday, April 04, 2010

iPad: A step backward

If you watched the most recent episode of Modern Family, you might have come away thinking, "Well, I didn't really want one at first, but maybe the iPad isn't so bad after all."  I did.  But then I went to the Apple store to try it out, and I was thoroughly underwhelmed.  I love the idea of a portable tablet, but it seems that Apple is only interested in giving people one more way to buy apps, music, and now books from their store.  Moreover, the iPad offers you very little freedom with regard to how you use it.  I can't help but agree with Corey Doctorow as far as why you shouldn't buy an iPad.

I'm a very proud user of Ubuntu -- a free, popular, easy-to-use Linux distribution.  What I love about Ubuntu, and the Linux motto in general, is that I have so much freedom in how I use my computer.  For 95% of what I might want to do with my PC, some enthusiast out there has already put out software to do it, and FOR FREE!  I can run a DVR/media center, web/file server, virtualization server, or whatever else for free.  Over the last 4 years, I've saved $500+ by running my own DVR on my old computer instead of shelling out $15+/month to a cable company.  It took some extra hardware and some time to set everything up, but it was well worth it and my DVR can do way more than anything I could have gotten from the cable company!  Linux isn't for everyone, but using it for the past 4 years has helped me tremendously in understanding the computers and networks that power the Internet and help us every day.

Saturday, April 03, 2010

A little too far

So I found myself on MSN today (weird, I know), and I saw this story on the front page.  A urologist, Dr. Jack Cassell, in Mount Dora, FL, put up a sign outside his office saying:

If you voted for Obama... seek urologic care elsewhere.  Changes to your healthcare begin right now.  Not in four years.

Granted, he is in a heavily Republican area and he says he will not refuse treatment to anyone who walks in the door.  "But if they read the sign and turn the other way, so be it."

But still, are you kidding me?  Having political opinions and all is fine, but putting that sign outside a building that is supposed to provide healthcare to people who need it is just going too far.  Mount Dora has a population of ~10,000, and considering he's a specialist, chances are that there aren't many, if any, other urologists in that town.  So if you are an Obama supporter, and your primary care physician referred you there, you have to be asking yourself: do I really want this guy to treat me for my prostate cancer?

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Changes to Student Loans

Something that went relatively unnoticed (untiland whatnot recently) amidst all the healthcare news lately are the changes made to student loans.  It's absolutely ridiculous how some people are so up in arms about this, screaming about another "government takeover" that's killing freedom and whatnot.  Oddly enough, this one actually is a government takeover, but one that I think most people should be happy about!

Basically, until this new law the government was lending money to private lenders so they could lend money to students, while the government (AKA: taxpayers) assumed all of the risk.  This meant that private lenders were able to make profits off of the interest they charged on student loans without having to worry about whether or not the student would actually pay the full amount back.  If the student failed to do so, no problem, the government would pay the private lender instead!  Talk about a government handout!

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Revisited: Kobo Books

A while back, I expressed my dissatisfaction with Kobo Books on the Palm Pre.  One thing I will say is that Kobo has done an excellent job in responding to my bug reports.  Compared to many companies that will just leave such problems unnoticed, I really have to commend Kobo for the effort.  Here's the current status on my previous concerns:
  1. Downloading books and adding bookmarks:  This was solved with an update to the Kobo Books app on March 9.  The problems appeared to be due to changes made in a WebOS update.  So it took them a little over a week to fix the problem.  Not as fast as I'd like, but not bad.
  2. Cutting off text at end of chapter:  They are aware of the problem, and they have been very good about keeping in contact with me about it.  They had difficulty reproducing it at first, so it seems to be pretty isolated based on the text display settings and just how it happens to paginate each chapter.  From the sound of it, it doesn't seem to be a widespread problem.  Still, this is an extremely annoying bug.  Although they did offer me a refund if it can't be resolved, which was comforting.
  3. Wasted space in UI: They passed the idea along to the development team.  Whether anything actually happens about that... who knows.
They are far from fixing the problems, but I do appreciate it when a company takes the time to respond to user issues and requests.  I'm still not on board with buying any more eBooks from them until they address issues #2 and #3 above, but I haven't written them completely off.

Another thing I will say is that their price for one of the books I'm interested in reading, No One Would Listen, was down to $9.99 before Amazon's Kindle price was.  They're the same now, but Kobo was cheaper by about $6 for a week or so that I noticed.  I'd still suggest Kindle for your eBooks, but it wouldn't hurt to check Kobo as well to see if they're cheaper.  If you can save yourself some money, it might be worth giving Kobo a shot.  Perhaps the software is better on other phones/devices.  If it is, let me know!

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Octopuses love HDTV

So it appears that recent research has shown that octopuses prefer HDTV to standard definition TV.  This news is a little depressing when considering the fact that I have friends and family members who can't tell the difference between HDTV and SDTV.  Check out the linked article and video for a short distraction from everyone being so up in arms about all this healthcare news!

Sugar: The Bitter Truth

Everyone needs to watch this.  It's long, yes, but please check it out.  In medical school, I've heard all about the rise of obesity in the U.S., but this video really takes an in-depth look at how we got to this point.

Friday, March 19, 2010

An Alternative Point of View

A friend pointed me to this blog post by Keith Hennessey, former Assistant to the U.S. President for Economic Policy (under President Bush).  I certainly don't agree with everything he says, but he carries a much more reasonable tone and point of view than I'm used to hearing.  Granted, you could probably make the argument that he wants the healthcare bill to fail simply because it would just make President Obama and democrats look bad too.  I have difficulty believing that if Congress were to strike down this bill, that it would have absolutely anything to do with changing fiscal responsibility in Washington like Hennessey talks about.  I mean, just try to keep a straight face while you imagine Congress not doing anything else until they fund old policies and significantly reduce the deficit.  And I have to wonder where this talk of fiscal responsibility was 9 years ago.  Note that I'm not saying these things directly in opposition towards Hennessey in particular.  He makes an interesting argument, even if I think it needs to be taken with a healthy grain of salt.

Still, with the complicated nature of healthcare, medicine, disease, and the economy, it's not unreasonable to question whether or not the full $1.3 trillion deficit reduction will actually be observed over the next 20 years.  I think it will definitely save us money in the long run, but whether or not we get that full reduction in 20 years is harder to say.  The more important news, however, is that in 20 years, I should be finished paying off all of my medical school loans!  I think it's important that I keep my priorities straight here, right?

But I digress.  Whether purposely or not, Hennessey also neglects some of the other benefits of the bill, such as the fact that it will expand coverage to 32 million people!  It's not the perfect, absolute best way to expand coverage, and I don't think anyone is trying to say that it is.  But if you're telling me that we can cover 32 million people and save hundreds of thousands of lives, while at worst staying budget neutral, I'm all for it!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

The Daily Show comments on the Texas BoE

The Daily Show did a fun little segment about the Texas BoE, embedded below.


The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Don't Mess With Textbooks
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political HumorHealth Care Reform

The clip brings up a few things I mentioned the other day: why do these people have so much power in determining what kids should be learning in school, both in Texas and throughout the nation?  For more on the subject, check out the Talk of the Nation Podcast on the subject.  I feel that NPR is one of the few news organizations that doesn't resort to sensationalist headlines and hyperbole in an attempt to attract attention while simultaneously giving as little actual news as possible.

2010 Census

I sent in my 2010 Census form today.  I think it took longer to walk to the mail drop down the street than it did to fill it out.  Such an inconvenience to have to do this once every 10 years, right?

A Reality of Medicare

In one of my classes, the professor told us that one of the big reasons Medicare is so expensive is because it's set up to cover the sickest population. Think about it, Medicare covers people 65+, the disabled, and it even pays for some odd healthcare-related costs like residency training programs (thank you for that, by the way). Therefore, it makes a lot of sense that Medicare wouldn't be a beacon of cheap healthcare. And yet I always hear people saying that Medicare is ridiculously expensive, wasteful, and prone to abuse that can waste millions or billions or zillions of dollars! I'm hoping that over the next few days, I can address some of these concerns.

According to a 2009 report by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Medicare covered 45.2 million people in 2008: 37.8 million 65+ and 7.4 million disabled. This cost $468 million. Yes, Medicare costs a lot, but it's also covering a higher risk population that deals with a higher incidence of high cost conditions like diabetes, hypertension, cancer, Alzheimer's Disease, etc.

I'm curious as to how Medicare's efficiency in covering a higher risk population compares to other countries with national healthcare coverage similar to that of Medicare.  Do European countries cover a similarly high-risk population at a comparable cost, or do they spend much more or much less in doing so? Initial searches brought up precisely bupkis on the matter, but I'm hoping I can find some more information about this in the near future.

Politicians love to point out how much Medicare costs and how costs are so out of control, but considering Medicare covers a population that's at greater risk for higher cost conditions, does Medicare really cost much more than it should be expected to?  I don't know, but if I find any information that sheds light on this subject, I'll be sure to let you know.  In the meantime, if you hear a politician or someone in the media bitching about how much Medicare costs, keep in mind that its high cost is largely due to the population it was set up to cover!

Monday, March 15, 2010

Who should be on a board of education?

Steven Novella at NeuroLogica commented on the Texas BoE's recent changes to their social studies curriculum guidelines.  The Texas Education Agency responded to this recent press by explaining exactly what they changed.  Accepting the normal media sensationalism (and with Fox News criticizing such a conservative boost, who knew?), I still believe that the BoE is downplaying the reality of their changes as they pertain not only to education in Texas but also throughout the country.  They stick to saying that they're only changing curriculum guidelines and not the textbooks themselves, as though textbook publishers aren't going to adapt to their guidelines and then sell those same versions to millions of other students around the country!

Either way, I became curious as to who the hell is on the Texas BoE.  First off, I would expect a fair representation from school administrators and those with careers/degrees in education.  That's a gimme.  But considering these are the people setting guidelines for students who are expected to enter college and/or contribute to the workforce within the next 10 or so years, I would also expect to have some people with professional backgrounds that might qualify them to comment on what students need to know to be successful in the future job market.  I'd expect at least a few people with backgrounds as lawyers, physicians, engineers, etc.  I'm not saying a physician or an engineer is an expert on 3rd grade education, but they nonetheless have insight regarding what a student needs to learn in order to be successful in their professions in 10 years.  They also understand the importance of objective critical thinking skills, which is what children are more likely to retain after they graduate.  I certainly don't remember all the details from my high school US history class, but I remember to consider political, societal, and military motives when analyzing historical accounts.

With these wonderful expectations, I checked out the Texas BoE's list of board members.  After some investigation, some members' backgrounds inspired confidence while others left me wondering what the hell business they have determining what children in Texas should be required to learn.

Canadians taxed 40% with health insurance? Not quite

I was watching Real Time with Bill Maher this weekend and heard something that bothered me.  Specifically, Amy Holmes said something to the effect of Canadians paying a 40% income tax because of their national healthcare program.  To me, this didn't seem quite as outrageous as she meant it to be (considering the cost of healthcare paid out of pocket in the US), but I also wondered about the factuality of such a statement.

Before I get into the numbers, let me start by saying I'm no financial or healthcare expert.  I'm posting this mostly because I'm hoping someone who is more of an expert on the subject could comment on the situation.  I'm not looking to absolutely debunk her statement, but really just to introduce the idea that comparing the tax rate in Canada to that in the US as she did is neither an accurate nor a logical comparison.

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

The Daily Show and Colbert Report no longer on Hulu [Update]

As some of you may have heard, it's been announced that The Daily Show and The Colbert Report will no longer be available on Hulu beginning March 10.  It seems Comedy Central and Hulu couldn't work out a deal to keep the show streaming on Hulu, which is a real shame.  Hopefully they work out a new deal soon so I can continue using Hulu Desktop for the only 2 non-OTA shows I watch consistently.  Episodes will continue to be available on Comedy Central's website, but Hulu Desktop makes things so much easier because I can use my remote with my HTPC without having to bring out the keyboard.

[Update]  Both shows can still be streamed via Comedy Central's website using Boxee.  Granted, Comedy Central's site seems to use a lot more commercials, but if you're looking for a way to watch those shows using a remote and an HTPC, give Boxee a try.  Of course, Hulu blocks Boxee from streaming shows from Hulu's servers, which means you'll have to use both Boxee and Hulu Desktop if you still need to watch shows available only on Hulu.  Wow, it's a good thing this crap isn't frustrating at all, right?  At least it's better than paying $40/month for cable when you only watch 2 or 3 shows on the extra cable channels though.

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Apparently everything I do is an attempt to prove my own elitism :-)

A friend of mine sent me a link to a CNN article about how liberalism, atheism, and sexual exclusivity are linked to IQ.  It seems that many of my opinions are the result of my desire to prove how smart I am.  Oh well, I suppose I'm OK with that.

Though one thing I will say is that sometimes people overestimate the utility of IQ tests.  There's a lot more to a person's intelligence than his ability to do well on an IQ test.  Nevertheless, it was an interesting read, especially because I find evolutionary psychology and biology to be infinitely fascinating. 


Monday, March 01, 2010

Initial Thoughts: Kobo Books

I'm almost half-way through my 2nd eBook I've purchased via the Kobo Books app on my Palm Pre.  So far, I've been really disappointed and I don't think I'll buy any more books from them.  My biggest complaint is that the text display is horribly wasteful.  With the narrowest margins and the smallest text (which are the defaults), it still only displays 17 lines of text.  That might sound like a lot, but it skips a line of text for each new paragraph and the screen isn't very wide either.  There would be room for at least 4-5 more lines if the display was actually fullscreen and didn't leave so much empty space for when the UI buttons appear (but they disappear while reading unless you bring them back up manually).  The buttons are almost never there, and yet it just leaves the space empty instead of using it for displaying text.  I'd even argue that the buttons are useless and everything they do can be accomplished via swiping gestures and/or just tap-holding the display to bring up a menu for bookmarks, book information, etc.  It also does not support landscape viewing.

On a few occasions it's even dropped text at the end of a chapter!  I noticed this on a couple chapters in the 2nd book I've read (Darkly Dreaming Dexter), but now it has me wondering if I missed text in the 1st book I read on it too (Checklist Manifesto)!  To add icing on the cake, I also haven't been able to use the bookmark feature the last few nights and it hasn't allowed me to download Darkly Dreaming Dexter to my phone so I can read it without having a data connection present.  This is especially disappointing because the whole motto of WebOS is to automatically save your data whenever you exit/close an application.  With all of the other phone applications, such as the memo pad or the task list, it automatically saves my data when I close the application so I don't need to manually press "save" to preserve my changes.  And yet with Kobo, I have to bring up the UI buttons and then save a bookmark (assuming I have a current data connection and the feature is working).  When opening Kobo back up, I have to navigate to my library and then select the book, when it seems much more practical to take me back to wherever I left off in my current book instead of me having to waste time getting back to it.  The "home screen" when opening up the application is actually a list of books that you can spend more money on.  How convenient.  It'd be nice if they tried to make it easier for me to actually read my eBooks instead of just making it easy to spend money on them.

As I've stated before, I was very excited about Kobo Books, but the software has really failed to deliver.  I'll post more information about the software (with some screenshots to show what I mean about the UI) as well as the books I've read after I get through my histology exam this week.

What is Verbatio?

Since I started this blog, I've never really been sure what I even wanted to blog about.  I was so excited when Google Analytics showed that my page impressions were into the double digits, but I still wasn't sure what subjects would allow me to express myself while still being interesting to any future viewers.

To be honest, I'm not sure I can focus on any one subject well enough or consistently enough to make the blog purely about that one topic.  So instead, over the next few weeks, I think I'll just try to post consistently about whatever subjects are on my mind.  I've recently discovered the "scheduled posting" option for my entries, so I can try to write my posts ahead of time instead of posting in spurts of 3 in a row and then nothing for days.  I'll also try my best to keep them relevant, but for the most part, it will just be about science, medicine, politics, technology, and whatever else happens to be on the mind of one particularly overstressed medical student at the time.  If one subject seems to predominate, then so be it and I'll see where it goes from there.  I'll look forward to your input!

Saturday, February 27, 2010

A Senator making sense? That's weird.

I came across this and was very surprised to hear it coming out of a Senator's mouth.  I didn't know we had people in D.C. who referred to actual facts instead of just talking points when discussing policy.  Granted Senator Durbin did use a particularly emotional reference to some woman's medical malpractice case to support his point, on the whole I think he was honest and direct.  I enjoyed his reference to Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande, which I just finished reading and plan to post a review soon.  Medical malpractice reform is by no means a bad idea, but it's not some cure-all for health care costs.  And people whose lives are forever changed by gross medical negligence (i.e. not something that can be easily remedied by another operation paid for by the erring party) do deserve fair compensation for the impact the error has had on their lives.  I'd be interested to see how many lawsuits are of the unwarranted "get rich if they let me" kind or just someone trying to get their medical and legal fees paid for because a medical error was made that lead to those costs.

Anywho, here's the video:

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Why is buying an eBook such a pain?

As much as I've enjoyed free shipping with Amazon Prime lately, I'd enjoy buying eBooks that I could read on my Palm Pre even more.  The problem with eBooks right now is that you're throwing all of this money at a specific format/company, but if that company goes under or doesn't support your current or next mobile device, you're pretty much screwed.  To be fair, eReader does support a lot of other devices, but their lack of Pre support is a deal breaker for me.  I love my Palm Pre, but unfortunately it doesn't have the same market penetration that the iPhone, Blackberry, and Android smartphones are enjoying (but hopefully its recent Verizon launch will change that).  Maybe the Kindle software will come out for the Pre soon too, but we'll see.

Right now, I think I'll give Kobo Books a try with my next purchase.  It's available on my Palm pre and other devices and I'm pretty sure it even syncs your bookmarks with the cloud so you can log in from a different device or in a browser and continue reading there.  I like the idea of always having my books with me on my phone without also having my library (and bookmarks) limited to just my phone.  After I finish with Hidden Empire, I'll probably read Checklist Manifesto.  Kobo Books' prices even seem to be pretty reasonable ($10-$15 for most books), unlike eReader and Fictionwise that charge $20+ for books that have been out for years.  If anyone has any experience with Kobo Books, or if you would like to suggest another eBook solution, please let me know.  Otherwise I'll see how it goes when I get around to trying it out.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Hidden Empire

I'm in the process of reading Hidden Empire, the sequel to Orson Scott Card's Empire. I can't always force myself to read my histology or physiology textbooks, but for some reason I always find time to read Orson Scott Card's newest books.

Anyway, for those of you who haven't read the 1st book, Empire was set in the near future and basically takes a look at what would happen if disagreements between liberals and conservatives were to escalate towards an actual civil war. Granted this is a hyperbolic sci-fi-ish look at the situation, but if you take the story as a whole, it can be a bit disturbing when you see so many similarities to what's going on in America today. I think Empire is one of Card's best books, and he does an excellent job of merging modern, relevant political topics with engaging science fiction. Hidden Empire has been great so far, and I'm looking forward to finishing it within the next week or so. I'll be sure to post a review then. In the meantime, check out Empire if you haven't already. It's only $8 on Amazon.

"Sarah Palin ahead of where Obama was 30 months before his nomination." Umm, what?

I came across something interesting terrifying horribly misleading today. A blogger from the LA Times reported that Sarah Palin is apparently ahead of where Barack Obama was 30 months before his nomination as the Democratic candidate for president. Let's take a closer look:

A recent Washington Post/ABC News Poll found that 30 months out from the 2012 party presidential nominations, only 71% of Americans believe that Sarah Palin is not qualified to be president.

This compares with someone named Barack Obama. At the same point in his then unannounced campaign, 0% thought he was qualified for the Oval Office. That's because he wasn't even on the polling lists' radar then.

"Only 71%" believe that Palin is NOT QUALIFIED to be president? How is that better than not being in the poll? Note that saying 71% believing she's not qualified does NOT mean than the other 29% believe she IS qualified, considering polls like that tend to give the option of "don't know" or some such. The post didn't link the poll results directly, so I'm not sure what the choices were. Some very quick Googling didn't reveal the exact poll parameters or results, but if anyone finds them, please let me know!

(More after the jump)


Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Moral Reasoning

I attended a lunch talk by a Christian doctor, Dr. John Patrick, who started talking about the "myth of moral neutrality." I'm confident he finished the talk, but I had to get to class so I couldn't stay for the whole thing. Nevertheless, during the time I was there, he made a few assertions with which I have to strongly disagree.

Chiefly among these is the idea that Darwinian evolution is somehow used as a basis for moral reasoning. I encountered something back in my first year of undergrad where another biomedical engineering student told me,

"I don't understand people who believe in evolution. I mean, if evolution were really true, why don't all of these evolutionists just let all the sick people die since it's all about the survival of the fittest?"

The speaker said something similar when he said that no one would want to live in a world where everyone was only concerned with propagating their own genes (as in letting sick people die, etc.), which he described as having morality based on Darwinian evolution.

(More after the jump)


Sunday, February 14, 2010

Republicans respond to Obama's invitation to healthcare summit

I know this is almost 1 week old, but I'm trying to post more often so I figured covering something late is better than not at all. House Republicans responded on Monday to President Obama's invitation to a televised healthcare summit. I'll let you do most of the reading, but it seems like this sentiment is one I hear a lot from Republican congressmen, as well as from conservative citizens, bloggers, etc. The main complaint is that Obama hasn't taken enough input from Republicans. Now, I would argue that when Democrats argued against many of Bush's policies, they were dismissed as being unamerican or giving into what the terrorists wanted, but let's not focus on the past. In all honesty, the idea of the majority party legislating without input from the minority is bothersome indeed. The Republicans seem to be much better at doing so (I mean that as a compliment; Democrats suck at getting enough congressmen to agree on anything in order to get stuff done even with the majority). Nevertheless, I disagree on the legitimacy of the Republicans' complaints here.

(More after the jump)

Saturday, February 13, 2010

The Greatest Show on Earth

I finally finished the new book by Richard Dawkins, The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution. It was a good, interesting read, and made me want to finally get around to finishing The God Delusion. His anecdotes are usually very amusing, and he does well with finding metaphors that can be used with most people regardless of whether or not they have a science background. My main complaint is that he occasionally drones on about silly details, some of which are amusing, and some of which force me to scan through a few paragraphs until he gets back to the topic at hand. Either way, he is a very intelligent man and I appreciate how he tries to get information to those who haven't the time, energy, or background to go through the mountains of scientific journals about the subject of evolution. I'm a first year medical student with a degree in Bioengineering, and he still managed to surprise me a couple times with new information or by clarifying details that previously had not made complete sense to me.

(More after the jump)