The Unexamined Life...

Atheists Don't Have No Songs

2011-03-24T00:19:00.001-04:00

But we do have Sundays free.

Tony Blair vs. Christopher Hitchens on Religion

2010-10-12T21:26:00.001-04:00

Munk Debate: Tony Blair vs. Christopher Hitchens. November 26, 2010 at 7pm at Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto.

In a world of globalization and rapid social change does religion provide the common values and ethical foundations that diverse societies need to thrive in the 21st century? Or, do deeply held religious beliefs promote intolerance, exacerbate ethnic divisions, and impede social progress in developing and developed nations alike? To encourage a far-ranging discussion on one of human kind’s most vexing questions, the 6th semi-annual Munk Debate will tackle the resolution: be it resolved, religion is a force for good in the world.

Chiropractors manipulate people

2010-06-06T15:32:00.001-04:00

CBC’s Marketplace takes down some bullshit therapy for back pain.

Teach the controversy!

2010-05-24T21:15:00.001-04:00

Christian Groups: Biblical Armageddon Must Be Taught Alongside Global Warming

To Serve Man

2010-04-18T22:49:00.001-04:00

“An Australian publisher is reprinting 7,000 cookbooks over a recipe for pasta with ‘salt and freshly ground black people’.”

Brian Williams meets Brian Williams

2010-02-23T22:02:00.001-05:00

It’s kind of weird to see them together. Like watching the twilight zone.

NBC confuses Terry Fox for Michael J. Fox

2010-02-15T14:17:00.001-05:00

Epic fail

Danny Williams goes to US for heart surgery

2010-02-02T23:38:00.001-05:00

Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams’ decision to travel to the United States for heart surgery has elicited an interesting comment:

Wilbert Keon, a heart surgery pioneer in Ottawa and a Conservative senator, said there's “no question” Mr. Williams could have been cared for in Canadian facilities. …

But the Ottawa doctor doesn't begrudge the Newfoundland Premier for heading south for health care. “If he can afford to pay for that, who can deny somebody the right to drive a Mercedes as opposed to a Honda?”

Surely the surgeon-senator realizes that in fact it is the Canadian government (Canada Health Act, 1984) that forbids private insurers from covering services offered by the public health care system, forcing Premier Williams to drive his Honda south of the border in order to upgrade to a Mercedes.

Mother would refuse to let son have H1N1 vaccine if he hadn’t already died from measles

2009-12-12T13:50:00.001-05:00

A local woman is taking a stand against what she sees as a paternalistic government and school board trying to tell her how to raise her kids. Dolores Ridgeway, a 43-year-old bricklayer, was a loud presence at her deceased son’s school Parent Teacher Association meeting last Wednesday, attempting to convince school staff and other parents that a planned H1N1 vaccine clinic to get elementary school students immunized should be cancelled.

“This is a matter of principle,” she said at the meeting, addressing a group of 30 parents and teachers. “I know that if my son weren’t already dead from measles I would forbid him from getting this swine flu vaccine. It’s my right as a parent to raise my children as I see fit. I didn’t want anybody injecting bits of virus into my son when he was alive, and especially not now when he’s a measles-ridden corpse.”

Ridgeway is being supported in her efforts by the Families Against Immunization League, a national non-profit organization involved in convincing parents that vaccines are harmful and unnecessary. In recent years, they have hosted a number of anti-vaccination conferences such as “The polio vaccine doesn’t have a leg to stand on” and “Preventing HPV infection the natural way: douche bags at your cervix.” They are especially vocal during flu season.

When asked to comment, League president Jean McArthur said that she fully supports Dolores Ridgeway’s right to act in the best interests of her dead son. “As we learn more and more about infectious diseases and the way our immune system works, we are able to see that there are several good reasons against getting the H1N1 vaccine. The most important one is that in clinical trials, the vaccine has been shown to have no benefit in children who have already been killed by diphtheria, rubella, meningitis, or measles.”

McArthur also recommended that children with polio should forego the vaccine as well and attend an “H1N1 party” instead, since “no one should have to live with polio.”

School officials and parents were split on where they stand. While some parents claimed that modern science has shown that vaccines are the most important tool in preventing infectious diseases, others were more ambivalent.

“How am I supposed to control my brats when I can’t threaten them with a deadly virus that’s easily prevented by vaccination? When one of them steps out of line, I tell them they’re not getting their shots,” commented one parent at the PTA meeting.

When another parent was asked how they could leave their kids vulnerable to an easily prevented disease, she replied, “You caught me! I never wanted to have kids in the first place.”

Originally published in the medical school satirical newsletter, The Droopy Lid.

Homeopath arrested for contaminating city’s water supply

2009-12-12T13:47:00.001-05:00

Mississauga homeopath Sam Hanman was arrested earlier today following an incident where he was working with Natrum muriaticum, a salt remedy, and a tiny drop fell into his office sink. Because the remedy had already been diluted by a factor of 10³⁰, the solution was considered to be extremely potent. Mixing in the sewage system and dilution in Lake Ontario will make the remedy even more potent and possibly dangerous, other homeopaths warned.

It is currently unknown whether Hanman acted maliciously or if this were a simple accident. However, what is clear is that the city’s water supply has been tainted with a powerful homeopathic drug and various citizen advocacy groups have called for tighter restrictions on the practice of homeopathy.

“This was a ticking time bomb,” said Ethan Smith, a concerned citizen. “I’m surprised we’ve been safe this long, considering how easy it is for a homeopathic remedy to find its way into the water system. One drop in the sink or down the toilet is enough to poison an entire city. These ultra-dilute potions are too dangerous and toxic to be handled without more regulations.”

So far, the public has been encouraged to only drink bottled water. It has been suggested that the effects of Nat-m can be counteracted by making it more concentrated in the water so that it loses its potency. Officials are currently considering dumping large amounts of salt into Lake Ontario but many fear that since the most of the bodies of water all around the globe are connected, we may be facing a worldwide catastrophe.

Originally published in the medical school satirical newsletter, The Droopy Lid.

The Onion destroys Glenn Beck

2009-11-02T23:15:00.001-05:00

“Victim In Fatal Car Accident Tragically Not Glenn Beck”

Friday funnies

2009-10-23T17:48:00.001-04:00

Jim and Pam finally get married on The Office

When the doctor asks, “How are you?”

2009-10-14T15:56:00.001-04:00

You know how when you’re waiting in the doctor's office and the first thing he says when he walks in is, “Hi, how are you?”… what are you supposed to reply? Is he just being polite and saying it as a greeting, or is he actually asking why you’re there to see the doctor?

If you reply “I’m fine, thanks” then why the hell are you at the doctor’s office? But instead, if the first words out of your mouth are, “I’ve had this rash for 3 months,” then how rude! What a conundrum.

PZ Myers on Mr. Deity

2009-10-12T14:31:00.001-04:00

Brilliant. Banana!

The Onion on vaccination

2009-10-09T15:58:00.001-04:00

Friday funnies

2009-10-09T15:29:00.003-04:00

“I don’t care if she is a tape dispenser. I love her”

Obama’s Peace Prize

2009-10-09T15:29:00.001-04:00

This is pretty funny in an embarrassing and humiliating kind of way. It’s like awarding it to one of those women in beauty pageants whose one wish would be to have world peace.

The press release that accompanied this announcement is so vaguely-worded it is almost a parody of itself. It speaks of Barack Obama’s “vision” that has “stimulated…negotiations” and how the US is now playing a “more constructive role.” My favourite line is “Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.” Like I said, hilarious.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee must think that we live in a world that is such a living hell that intention alone is enough to merit a reward. Or that it is enough to merely have wishes or goals, or the right “attitudes,” or simply potential. Have they given up on the possibility of achieving real results? How deeply misanthropic.

Financial independence

2009-10-06T22:46:00.001-04:00

Medical school debt has been accumulating for over a year now but fortunately, credit is an easy thing to come by for medical students. Thus, I went ahead and got myself a line of credit from the local bank (I only pay interest, at the prime rate, until I finish residency) to help pay the bills and to gain some financial independence from my parents. My parents are supportive but I don’t want to keep going to them for money, especially when I have so much credit available to me. And they still have a mortgage to pay off too.

However, much to my chagrin, when I told them I got a line of credit, they were offended that I would take any action that would distance them from me. Since I moved out, I think they’ve been looking for any opportunity to stay involved with my life. Even if that meant financial involvement. My well-reasoned arguments went nowhere and then they promptly wrote me a cheque for $5,000!

Now I’m conflicted. On the one hand, I’m guilty about taking their money but on the other hand, ka-ching! Well, I guess I can afford that ophthalmoscope/otoscope now.

My hero

2009-10-04T16:17:00.001-04:00

Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper is a man of many talents

Full video here.

Friday funnies

2009-10-02T22:58:00.001-04:00

The bra that is also a gas mask

2009-10-02T21:26:00.001-04:00

Maybe it’s the H1N1 paranoia talking, but I think this is an excellent idea:

[image and credit: Elena Bodnar]

60 years of Communist China

2009-09-30T22:53:00.001-04:00

October 1st is the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

I remember being in Beijing in the summer of 1999; I was 12 years old. At that time, the government was preparing for a huge 50th anniversary celebration and my school-aged cousins would spend hours every day out in the unbearably hot weather practicing their routines.

I asked my dad what the big deal was. What exactly was the celebration all about? He replied that it was the 50th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. I was perplexed –- hadn’t China been around for thousands of years? How could it only be the 50th anniversary?

My dad replied that it was the 50th anniversary of the current government, Chairman Mao’s Communist Party. They had been in power for 50 years. I was naive –- why would the government be celebrating an anniversary? After all, I had never heard of the Liberals or Conservatives ever celebrating an anniversary. Governments change all the time. I was 12 years old, so I asked him why the Communists were celebrating when they wouldn’t necessarily be in power in a few years. My question was met with what I now realize was a shameful silence and the conversation ended.

It’s hard to imagine that was 10 years ago. And what a long silence it has been.

Are chiropractors still beating their wives?

2009-09-29T23:55:00.001-04:00

For reasons unclear to me, there was a research survey handed out in class today by a chiropractic student. The purpose of the research was apparently to gauge our (medical students’) understanding of chiropractic. This may also have something to do with “inter-professional education.”

I demonstrated my understanding by choosing “disagree” or “strongly disagree” to most of the questions that began “chiropractic is effective in the treatment of …” but I had to pause when I came to this question:

Are you aware of the scientific evidence for chiropractic?

Yes/No/Not sure

Of course, I’ve realized for a long time now that the scientific method is not chiropractic’s forte but this outrageous complex question was still asinine enough to elicit from me an exasperated “what the fuck.” The whole premise of this research was apparently: “Chiropractors know that chiropractic works, but are medical students smart enough to realize it?” Well, up yours.

Now, I didn’t want to get all bent out of shape because of this (I might need to see a chiropractor for that!) so I did what any gentleman would do. With a few strokes of my pen, I changed the question to read, “Are you aware of the lack of scientific evidence for chiropractic?” and emphatically circled “yes.” I do hope they learn something from this research.

A comeback for direct instruction?

2009-09-29T13:45:00.001-04:00

Margaret Wente in The Globe and Mail, A radical alternative: real teaching:

I watched as a teacher took her students through a quick vocabulary and spelling drill. “Threadbare,” they spelled aloud in unison. “This would be a no-no with the board of education,” said Ms. Howlett. “It's called direct instruction.” In the age of “child-centred” education, direct instruction is thought to stifle children's inherent creativity. They're supposed to discover math and spelling, not memorize the times tables.

Ms. Howlett's school has only 52 kids, from kindergarten through Grade 8. She started it by accident nine years ago, when she realized that her younger son wasn't learning much in public school. One morning she looked at him and said, “You might as well stay home.” With a long track record as a teacher in Australia and Toronto, she figured she could just do the job herself. Then other parents begged her to teach their children too. The Howlett Academy's annual tuition is $13,500. Many parents must dig deep to pay it.

According to the prevailing pedagogy, these kids are oppressed. They don't seem oppressed to me. They seem attentive and engaged. When a teacher asks a question, almost every hand shoots up. It's impossible to pick out the “behaviour” cases, because all the kids are well behaved.

“So much of public school is about making it fun,” said Ms. Howlett, a fierce advocate for her students. “But the fun is when you've gone from not knowing something to grasping it. That's when you feel good inside.”

Dawkins’ new book on sale

2009-09-26T13:34:00.001-04:00

If you haven’t bought one already, Richard Dawkins’ The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence of Evolution is now 50% off at amazon.ca (CDN$ 20.00).

White Coat Black Art

2009-09-25T20:23:00.001-04:00

White Coat Black Art is an excellent radio program about medicine and healthcare from the doctor’s side of the gurney hosted by Dr. Brian Goldman, an ER physician at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.

I can never wake up early enough to listen to it when it airs, but I never miss a podcast. Here’s the most recent episode was about swine flu.

Friday funnies

2009-09-25T20:17:00.001-04:00

20 most bizzare Craiglist advertisements of all time

11) I took your purse and felt a connection
"Tuesday night around 11:30. On 53rd btw 1st and 2nd. You came out of the subway and I followed you. You looked over your shoulder, saw me and started walking faster. I ran up, grabbed your arm, took your purse and ran away. I've done many a snatch-and-grab but no one has ever stuck in my mind like you. There was a quick moment when our eyes met that I felt something strong. I think you felt it too. If I wasn't so shy (or so committing a crime) I would have asked your name. I, of course, later got your name from your drivers license. So Jennifer if you'd like to get together for a drink sometime get back to me."

Friday funnies

2009-09-18T17:17:00.001-04:00

Wolf Blizter finishes with –$4600 on Celebrity Jeopardy.

Another question Blizter missed:

Clue: (Category: “E times 3”) King David and Jesus both hailed from this town.

Blizter: What is Jerusalem?

Trivia

2009-09-15T23:23:00.001-04:00

Just got back from a charity trivia contest organized by some other people in my class. My team didn’t do as well as we would have liked so here is my sour grapes rant.

The organizers decided to write the trivia questions themselves, but they didn’t realize how dangerous such a task would be. To select about 50 facts that one considers to be trivial or common knowledge from all the facts in the universe is a gargantuan undertaking. If one is not careful, his choices will reveal a lot more about himself than he intended. Much like the way an artist meticulously chooses his subject, the quizmaster must select the few facts that he regards as most important, most worthy, and give them centre stage. His selection thus reveals a great deal about his life; I contend it is no less than a window into his very soul.

Such was the case tonight. I was extremely disappointed by the nature of the questions posed: over half had some relation to pop culture (Gossip Girls, Entourage, SNL, name that song, etc); the other questions were a smattering of geography, history, “food and drink” (apparently just recipes to cocktails), sports –- and they were either too pedantic (geography seemed to be places the organizers happened to have visited), insignificant (listing 5 of the 6 most populous cities in North America), or way too easy (who was Canada’s first female Prime Minister). It became clear as the night progressed that these were the things the organizers thought important enough for us to be quizzed on.

The winners seemed rather proud after they won. In hindsight, it would have been easy to predict that they would win. In terms of personality and demographics, the winning team had the most in common with the trivia organizers (indeed, they were good friends). Congratulations.

My team finished tied for fourth. Just as well, since I would have been embarrassed to have known the answers to their questions. Like I said: sour grapes.

Legion

2009-09-11T18:58:00.001-04:00

I happened to stumble upon this movie trailer today, with the following plot description:

After God loses faith in humanity, the archangel Michael (Paul Bettany) is the only one standing between mankind and the apocalypse. This time using angels as the act of Biblical judgment, God's wrath descends on Earth to exterminate the world's population. In a desperate, last-chance gambit, Michael leads a group of strangers to a small, New Mexico diner to protect a young waitress who may be pregnant with Christ in his second coming.

Wouldn’t it be much better for this film to open on Christmas Day?

Friday funnies

2009-09-11T18:21:00.001-04:00

Matt Damon tells a funny story on Letterman:

Handwriting tips

2009-09-08T18:31:00.001-04:00

For some reason, I enjoyed this: handwriting tips from the New York Times. Maybe it’s because I’m a future doctor.

Friday funnies

2009-09-04T22:21:00.001-04:00

“There really is an app for almost anything, even when there shouldn't be.”

An unexpected visitor

2009-09-02T18:36:00.001-04:00

We had an unexpected visitor in class today. Suddenly during lecture he appeared and scurried under the lecture podium –- it was a mouse. And it was a big mouse too, about the size of a rat.

The lecturer seemed rather nonchalant about it even though she was a microbiologist. I guess mice don’t carry as many diseases as people think. Or maybe she just didn’t want a rodent to steal her thunder.

About 5 minutes later, the mouse came out from under the lecture podium and started running along the base of the wall at the front of the room. It stopped at a tiny hole that nobody had notice beforehand and crawled in. Apparently, it was home -– a hole in the wall, like in those old cartoons.

Class continued until the mouse reappeared and much to my surprise, courageously ran straight toward the back of the room, through a maze of 200 medical students. “Bags off the floor,” was the only instruction given by the lecturer. I would have added, “Tuck your pants into your socks.”

There were a few screams and giggles as the mouse scurried past our feet but the behaviour of the mouse was something else. Running into a crowd of 200 people without a care in the world? It was as if it knew we were medical students –- 200 bleeding hearts who wouldn’t harm a fly.

After the commotion, the mouse disappeared and it was back to business as usual. Did you know that as few as 10 Shigella bacteria can cause profuse bloody diarrhea? (Holy shit). But it’s only a pathogen in primates and not other mammals. I guess this is how you know when you’ve had a long day -- you finish it admiring a mouse.

First day of class

2009-08-31T19:02:00.001-04:00

Well, summer has come and gone and lectures started promptly at 9:10 AM today and went until 5 PM, with 1 hour for lunch. And I just realized that this is the start of my 18th year of school and I’m only 22. I might be on the verge of some quarter-life crisis.

And it doesn’t help when the professor hands out this timetable:

Friday funnies

2009-08-27T19:15:00.001-04:00

Is using a minotaur to gore detainees a form of torture? The Onion sure asks the tough questions. The answer is not at all obvious.

Obama “Joker” poster makes it to Toronto, Canada

2009-08-27T18:19:00.001-04:00

But it’s “fascism” now. Seriously, can’t you people write an op/ed or something? Or go home and blog about it. Fear is not an argument.

Richard Dawkins coming to town

2009-08-24T22:17:00.001-04:00

Centre for Inquiry:

**RICHARD DAWKINS IN TORONTO FOR NEW BOOK!**
September 28 or 29 at the University of Toronto
In "The Greatest Show on Earth", Professor Richard Dawkins, the world's most famous atheist and author of "The God Delusion" and "The Selfish Gene", takes on creationists, including followers of 'Intelligent Design' and all those who wish to undermine evolution and the scientific worldview.

And Michael Shermer on October 2nd! Well done, CFI.

Friday funnies

2009-08-21T21:49:00.001-04:00

From xkcd:

Sporcle

2009-08-20T22:49:00.001-04:00

If your summers are like my summers, there’s a lot of spare time that needs to be wasted. Check out Sporcle, which will provide you with some “mentally stimulating diversions.” It mainly consists of quizzes where you have to list everything in a certain category. For example, try this quiz where you have to fill out the periodic table from memory. Or fill in the digits of pi. Or the amino acids (this one is way to easy since it gives you the 3 letter abbreviation). Other science categories are here. Some interesting religion ones are here. Overall, I’d say this is time well wasted.

Cocaine on Canadian money

2009-08-20T15:25:00.002-04:00

You probably knew that 90% of paper money in the US has traces of cocaine, but did you know that 88% of bills contain trace amounts of cocaine right here in Toronto, Canada?! I didn't know we were that hip.

[via]

Testing gender

2009-08-19T21:58:00.001-04:00

BERLIN (AP) --

Facing questions about her gender, South African teenager Caster Semenya easily won the 800-meter gold medal Wednesday at the world championships.

Her dominating run came on the same day track and field's ruling body said she was undergoing a gender test because of concerns she does not meet requirements to compete as a woman. …

Before the race, IAAF spokesman Nick Davies stressed this is a ''medical issue, not an issue of cheating.'' He said the ''extremely complex'' testing has begun. The process requires a physical medical evaluation and includes reports from a gynecologist, endocrinologist, psychologist, internal medicine specialist and gender expert.

I wonder what definition of “gender” they’re using.

Canadian health care system “imploding”?

2009-08-19T21:52:00.001-04:00

Incoming Canadian Medical Association president Anne Doig says that the system is “imploding” and “things are more precarious” than we realize, but she’s extremely vague on both the causes of the problem and possible solutions: Overhauling health-care system tops agenda at annual meeting of Canada's doctors.

Some links

2009-08-17T18:33:00.001-04:00

- Lapsed Catholics in Quebec.

- Bill Maher on how dumb Americans are.

Nearly half of Americans don't know that states have two senators and more than half can't name their congressman. And among Republican governors, only 30% got their wife's name right on the first try.

- Christopher Hitchens on the “capitulation of Yale University Press”.

Friday funnies

2009-08-14T22:55:00.001-04:00

Advocacy Group Decries PETA's Inhumane Treatment Of Women

Science literacy quiz

2009-08-13T18:11:00.001-04:00

Here’s a science literacy quiz found in the Toronto Star. It’s got a good mix of concepts and facts. (Although, I found #13 to have missed the point.) Here’s the quiz with answers.

Friday funnies

2009-08-07T23:35:00.001-04:00

Sam Harris on Francis Collins

2009-08-05T20:06:00.001-04:00

Sam Harris continues his assault on Francis Collins with a lengthy piece at the Reason Project.

In fact, to read The Language of God is to witness nothing less than an intellectual suicide. It is, however, a suicide that has gone almost entirely unacknowledged: The body yielded to the rope; the neck snapped; the breath subsided; and the corpse dangles in ghastly discomposure even now—and yet, polite people everywhere continue to celebrate the great man’s health.

Friday funnies

2009-07-31T20:11:00.001-04:00

Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm) and wife Cheryl attempt to get in to a country club run by conservative WASPs.

Gospel of Judas

2009-07-28T23:09:00.001-04:00

The New Yorker on the Gospel of Judas.

Francis Collins vs. Science

2009-07-27T19:29:00.001-04:00

Sam Harris does a brilliant job of exposing the absurdity of Francis Collins simply by quoting the gibberish that spews out of him. From a lecture Collins delivered at Berkeley in 2008:

Slide 3: “After evolution had prepared a sufficiently advanced ‘house’ (the human brain), God gifted humanity with the knowledge of good and evil (the moral law), with free will, and with an immortal soul.”

Slide 4: “We humans used our free will to break the moral law, leading to our estrangement from God. For Christians, Jesus is the solution to that estrangement.”

Not only does this nonsense have no scientific basis, I don’t even know what its basis is in Christianity. In Genesis 3, a serpent tempts Eve to eat the fruit of a forbidden tree (verses 1-4). Eating from the tree is forbidden because “God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (v5). Eve, and later Adam, eat from the tree and, indeed, “the eyes of both of them were opened” (v7) and even God admits that “[t]he man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil” (v22). However, the reason God banishes Adam and Eve from Eden is that God fears they will eat from the tree of life and live forever (v22-23).

Has Francis Collins been tapping into an invisible means of knowledge again? It’s clear that knowledge of good and evil was not a gift, rather it was “stolen” by Adam and Eve, which made God angry. Humans didn’t use free will to break a moral law – the “crime” was acquiring the moral law in the first place. Knowing that humans had become like him (“knowing good and evil”) and fearing they will eat from the tree of life and gain immortality, thus becoming even more like him, God promptly casts them out of Eden. That is the reason from the estrangement -– the petty fears of an infantile God -- to which Jesus is somehow the solution.

…

Adam and Eve are blamed for bringing about the Fall of Man. We did not fall. We were liberated. Like Prometheus, they seized the fire that ignites Man’s spirit. What was the nature of their Sin? They acquired knowledge of good and evil, i.e. they became moral beings. What was the punishment? They were estranged from God and needed to use their own minds to survive, i.e. they became rational beings. And they needed to live by the sweat of their brow (v19), i.e. they became productive and creative beings. Adam and Eve brought us the virtues that make us who we are, and this is called the Fall? They leaped and soared; but for this, they are said to have brought sin into the world.

It is ironic that Francis Collins criticizes science for not being up to the task of answering the “most pressing questions of human existence.” Apparently, science is beneath us. Perhaps he should to re-visit his own faith and have it revealed to him again that one of the core themes of Christianity is the depravity of Man. After so many centuries, we should realize that it is Faith that is beneath us. It is Science that has re-kindled the spark.

Naked girls plow fields for rain

2009-07-25T15:58:00.001-04:00

I approve.

PATNA, India (Reuters) - Farmers in an eastern Indian state have asked their unmarried daughters to plow parched fields naked in a bid to embarrass the weather gods to bring some badly needed monsoon rain, officials said on Thursday.

Witnesses said the naked girls in Bihar state plowed the fields and chanted ancient hymns after sunset to invoke the gods. They said elderly village women helped the girls drag the plows.

"They (villagers) believe their acts would get the weather gods badly embarrassed, who in turn would ensure bumper crops by sending rains," Upendra Kumar, a village council official, said from Bihar's remote Banke Bazaar town.

"This is the most trusted social custom in the area and the villagers have vowed to continue this practice until it rains very heavily."

India this year suffered its worst start to the vital monsoon rains in eight decades, causing drought in some states.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

2009-07-24T21:41:00.001-04:00

Merely a bridge between the 5th and 7th movies, Half-Blood Prince was quite disappointing. The movie was dull in every sense –- the plot moves forward but you wouldn’t call it action; some witty lines make you smile but not quite laugh; the climax comes and goes with but a whimper, as the villains simply leave (as in walk away) after Dumbledore is killed. What was the point, by the way, of having the Death Eaters enter Hogwarts through the vanishing cabinet Draco works so hard to restore? They come in, stay about 5 minutes, which is long enough to have Snape kill Dumbledore (which he was already magically bound to do), make a mess in the dining hall, and then simply stroll away from castle, back to wherever it is the villains live. You get the sense that they’re holding back for the last 2 movies -- which is fine, but they’d better be magical.

Fix your terrible password in 5 minutes

2009-07-24T21:21:00.001-04:00

Farhad Manjoo of Slate recommends:

Start with an original but memorable phrase. For this exercise, let's use these two sentences: I like to eat bagels at the airport and My first Cadillac was a real lemon so I bought a Toyota. The phrase can have something to do with your life or it can be a random collection of words—just make sure it's something you can remember. That's the key: Because a mnemonic is easy to remember, you don't have to write it down anywhere. (If you can't remember it without writing it down, it's not a good mnemonic.) This reduces the chance that someone will guess it if he gets into your computer or your e-mail. What's more, a relatively simple mnemonic can be turned into a fanatically difficult password.

Which brings us to Step 2: Turn your phrase into an acronym. Be sure to use some numbers and symbols and capital letters, too. I like to eat bagels at the airport becomes Ilteb@ta, and My first Cadillac was a real lemon so I bought a Toyota is M1stCwarlsIbaT.

That's it—you're done. These mnemonic passwords are hard to forget, but they contain no guessable English words. You can even create pass phrases for specific sites that are coded with a hint about their purpose. A sentence like It's 20 degrees in February, so I use Gmail lets you set a new Gmail password every month and still never forget it: i90diSsIuG for September, i30diMsIuG for March, etc. (These aren't realistic temperatures; they're the month-number multiplied by 10.)

Friday funnies

2009-07-24T21:14:00.003-04:00

I’m jealous of this family

Cavernous sinus

2009-07-24T21:14:00.001-04:00

The cavernous sinus is an important structure related to the anatomy of cranial nerves III, IV, V, and VI. Located on either side of the sella tursica, against the lateral aspect of the sphenoid bone, the cavernous sinuses (it’s paired) communicate not only with cerebral veins but also with ones in the face, potentially allowing extracranial infections to pass into intracranial locations.

Its relevance to the cranial nerves has to do with the fact that cranial nerves III, IV, V1 (ophthalmic division of V), V2 (maxillary division of V), and VI all pass through the cavernous sinus. The “cavernous sinus syndrome” describes a set of signs consisting, in part, of ophthalmoplegia (III, IV, VI), loss of sensation to the forehead (V1), and loss of sensation to maxillary part of the face (V2). One potential cause of the syndrome is a pituitary adenoma. As it grows and expands, the cavernous sinus is compressed, and cranial nerve function is lost, sometimes one at a time.

Image: Gray’s Anatomy for Students (Drake, Vogl, Mitchell), Churchill Livingstone, p. 796

This is why you’re fat

2009-07-19T14:18:00.001-04:00

I must link to This is why you’re fat. People submit pictures of foods that are so disgustingly fattening that it’s simply fascinating.

For example,

The Tobias

A grilled beef sandwich topped with fried pepperoni, salami, provolone cheese, fried onions, tomato and special sauce.

Friday funnies

2009-07-17T20:15:00.001-04:00

Two pretzels were walking down the street. One was assaulted.

Quarantine

2009-07-16T16:11:00.002-04:00

Recently, a friend of mine was immediately quarantined upon his arrival in Beijing, China because the Chinese authorities suspected a passenger on his flight of having swine flu. He was forced to stay in a hotel (under guard) for 1 week before they let him go.

But, during his stay: free TV, high speed internet, phone, and 3 all-you-can-eat meals everyday. All I want to know is where do I sign up?

Disturbingly similar wording in 2 review papers

2009-07-16T16:07:00.001-04:00

I'm doing some work on TRPM2 this summer and was reading about its pharmacological inhibitors in 2 review papers. They both contain a strikingly similar passage.

The first paper is Kühn FJ, Heiner I, Lückhoff A. TRPM2: a calcium influx pathway regulated by oxidative stress and the novel second messenger ADP-ribose. Pflugers Arch. 2005;451(1):212-9. It contains the following about TRPM2 inhibitors [references omitted]:

As for TRP channels in general, the pharmacology of TRPM2 is poorly developed. So far, no specific blockers have been identified. There are some reports on successful block of TRPM2 by organic substances such as the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory compound flufenamic acid (FFA) and the antifungal imidazoles, clotrimazole and econazole. The characteristics of channel block produced by these two structurally unrelated compound classes are quite similar. Both types inhibit current development of heterologously expressed human TRPM2 channels in a use-dependent and irreversible manner, whereas the inhibition is freely reversible in vivo. The reason for this discrepancy has to be established in future experiments. Like FFA, clotrimazole and econazole are known to affect a wide range of ion channelsand cannot be considered selective for TRPM2.

Recent data indicate that AMP specifically and exclusively inhibits ADPR-mediated gating of TRPM2 (IC₅₀ 70 uM). AMP is one of the immediate breakdown products of ADPR cleavage by Nudix-pyrophosphatases. AMP can thus be considered a negative feedback regulator of ADPR-directed channel gating. Whether this finding has pharmacological impact remains to be seen.

The second paper, published later in 2007, is Naziroğlu M. New molecular mechanisms on the activation of TRPM2 channels by oxidative stress and ADP-ribose. Neurochem Res. 2007;32(11):1990-2001. It contains the following eerily familiar passage [references omitted; my emphasis]:

As a member of TRP channels in general, the pharmacology of TRPM2 is poorly developed. So far, no specific blockers have been identified. There are some reports of successful block of TRPM2 by organic substances such as the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory compound flufenamic acid (FFA) and the antifungal imidazoles, clotrimazole and econazole. Activity of FFA depends on the pH with enhanced effect at acidic conditions. The characteristics of channel block produced by these two structurally unrelated compound classes are quite similar. Both types inhibit current development of heterologously expressed human TRPM2 channels in a use-dependent and irreversible manner, whereas the inhibition is freely reversible in vivo. The reason for this discrepancy isn’t known. Like FFA, clotrimazole and econazole are known to affect a wide range of ion channels and cannot be considered selective for TRPM2.

Recent data indicated that AMP specifically and exclusively inhibits ADPR-mediated gating of TRPM2 (IC50 70 lM [sic]). AMP is one of the immediate breakdown products of ADPR cleavage by Nudix-pyrophosphatases. AMP can thus be considered a negative feedback regulator of ADPR-directed channel gating. Whether this finding has pharmacological impact remains to be seen.

The italicized sentence is essentially the only difference between the 2 passages. Otherwise, it's almost a word for word copy. I showed a graduate student in my lab and she was shocked. I'm surprised because TRPM2 is a relatively small field (there aren't that many review papers about it) but I don't think anyone has ever noticed this. Of course, I'm pissed off because if I had known the second paper was just going to be a copy of the first, I wouldn't have bothered to read it!

Brüno

2009-07-13T18:30:00.001-04:00

When Sacha Baron Cohen was making this movie, he probably thought to himself, “What can I put in this movie that people have never seen before?” Apparently, the answer he came up with was: his penis. Or somebody’s penis. That was the only part of the movie that was genuinely surprising; the rest was just the same bunch of gags that made up his earlier film Borat. Near the end, you are still laughing only because you want to be polite.

Friday funnies

2009-07-10T18:57:00.001-04:00

Top Ten Reasons To See The New Movie 'Bruno’

Kary Mullis' next-gen cure for killer infection

2009-07-09T21:36:00.001-04:00

Strangers you’ve known for a year

2009-07-08T19:21:00.001-04:00

The other day was super awkward. I got together with a bunch of med school friends and there happened to be a person there who I knew was in the class, but I had never talked to before. (It’s a big class, 224 students). What’s one to do in that situation? You’ve sat in the same lecture room for a year and recognize each other’s face but have never been formally introduced or had a conversation. Do you introduce yourself now, after a year of first “meeting”? The rule I’ve come up with is if we haven’t talked within the first 2 months, it’s never going to happen.

Friday funnies

2009-07-03T19:49:00.001-04:00

I went to a boxing match and a hockey game broke out.

Surgery's past, present and robotic future

2009-06-26T18:34:00.001-04:00

Friday funnies

2009-06-26T18:30:00.001-04:00

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

2009-06-25T23:43:00.001-04:00

Giant robots fighting. Now that’s entertainment. Well, it was pretty mindless -- but the brief moments of wit and levity (few and far between) were what made this film’s 2 and a 1/2 hours bearable. For instance, Barack Obama is actually President in the movie and it is subtly suggested that he would want to pursue diplomatic relations with the Decepticons (ha ha). And notice that the bureaucratic, weak, bumbling, annoying, oblivious, cowardly Agent Galloway gets his orders directly from the President… The plot was convoluted but luckily the back-story is all explained half way through the film to Sam, and conveniently, to the viewer. The explanation pretty much gives away the ending too but like I said -- giant robots fighting.

All you can eat for free

2009-06-24T21:09:00.001-04:00

I’ve written that “all you can eat” is a monstrous concept. Well, it turns out Mandarin (a Chinese restaurant) is offering a free all-you-can-eat buffet on Canada Day for all Canadian citizens. Free. As much food as you can eat, for free. My God.

Plagiarizing a book about celiac disease?

2009-06-23T19:42:00.001-04:00

The View co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck has been sued for plagiarism. (I didn’t even know she could read and write!) Apparently, at issue is her stupendously fascinating new book about celiac disease:

A lawsuit in federal court in Massachusetts alleges that Hasselbeck lifted "word for word" content from a book on celiac disease written by a self-published author on Cape Cod.

Hasselbeck's book, "The G-Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide," has appeared over the past month on several best-selling lists.

Author Susan Hassett filed the lawsuit, saying she sent Hasselbeck a copy of her "Living With Celiac Disease" book as a courtesy after the TV celebrity disclosed she had the illness last year.

One of the examples of plagiarism cited by Hassett is revealing:

Hassett's Book:( p. 37)

“A person with celiac disease should only shop in the outer isles of the supermarket. The reason being the only thing down down the other isles is things you can’t have.”

Vs.

Hasselbeck's Book:( p. 78)

“The foods in the outer isles of the supermarket should be the foundation of your diet....”

Ouch. It’s supposed to be “aisles”…

Criminalizing intentional HIV transmission

2009-06-22T21:42:00.001-04:00

A couple of months ago in the CMAJ, Mark Wainberg raised a rather counterintuitive point against criminalizing intentional HIV transmission:

The potential to be charged with wilful HIV transmission may be a significant deterrent to being tested for HIV infection. After all, individuals who do not know that they are HIV-positive cannot logically be accused of its transmission. The consequence may be a failure to identify as many HIV-positive people as possible and higher rates of HIV spread. Studies have shown that individuals who are informed that they are HIV positive will commonly desist from high-risk sexual practices, but may not do so if they are unaware of their own status. This is important, since as many as 50% of all new HIV transmissions are attributable to people who are only recently infected. [references omitted]

This argument has prompted Philip Berger to respond. In this week’s CMAJ, he writes:

Some argue that criminal prosecution will dissuade persons from being tested for HIV and therefore promote HIV transmission by these persons who do not know their status [Wainberg reference]. Such speculation is unsupported by a single published study. No informed and reasonable person would decline HIV testing, thus placing themselves at risk of grave illness and death, just because of the publicized prosecution of some HIV-infected individuals accused of unlawfully transmitting the disease to others. It is not one’s HIV infection itself that is the subject of prosecution, it is the intentional or reckless transmission of HIV to others.

Berger should not be so quick to dismiss Wainberg’s argument. After all, it’s not like it’s the most counterintuitive argument ever made about HIV transmission (see More Sex is Safer Sex by Steven E. Landsburg). And although Berger criticizes Wainberg’s argument by calling it “speculation,” Berger himself goes on to speculate in much the same manner.

If I read Wainberg correctly, his argument against criminalizing intentional HIV transmission is as follows. For a wantonly promiscuous person, there is no benefit to being tested for HIV if his/her main interest were to continue living a wantonly promiscuous lifestyle. A negative test result would merely reaffirm his feelings that his lifestyle is acceptable. However, a positive result would be devastating –- not only would he have a very serious illness, but he could also be punished by law if he were to have sex without informing his partner(s) of his status. His days of unprotected sex with multiple partners would obviously be over. If sexual promiscuity were a main value to this person, he might therefore decide to not get tested for HIV at all.

Berger objects at this point by saying that “no informed and reasonable person would decline HIV testing, thus placing themselves at risk of grave illness and death.” However, we have to keep in mind the demographic target to which the argument applies. We are not concerned with people who use protection every time -– HIV transmission, intentional or otherwise, is unlikely in any case. The current speculation addresses those that are wantonly promiscuous, i.e. those that could potentially transmit HIV to their partner by having unprotected sex, i.e those that would potentially be affected by the proposed legislation. As such, these are the very people who are least concerned with HIV testing since their sexual lifestyle itself puts them at “risk of grave illness and death.” (If they were so worried about HIV, they wouldn’t be so promiscuous in the first place.) That’s why they are so dangerous. But it’s also why, according to Wainberg, criminalizing intentional HIV transmission might do more harm than good.

Peer-marking gets shut down by Court

2009-06-19T20:51:00.001-04:00

I guess the University of Toronto’s Scarborough Campus will do just about anything to get some attention:

A University of Toronto professor who got students to grade their peers' work has seen the practice blocked by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

The union that represents teaching assistants and sessional instructors at the university filed a grievance against the university when it discovered that psychology professor Steve Joordens was using specially designed software to have students grade and comment on one another's written work.

Prof. Joordens said he wanted to have his 1,500-student first-year psychology class write and think critically, but there was no money to hire teaching assistants required to do the extra marking.

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3

2009-06-19T20:41:00.001-04:00

Apparently, the world is filled with incompetent idiots, especially the New York City Police Department –- a hostage negotiator who gets a hostage killed within 5 minutes of opening his mouth; a sniper who accidentally pulls the trigger when a rat crawls up his pants; cops who can’t drive a few miles without crashing a motorcycle into a parked taxicab or getting rammed by a truck. The only competent person around is
mild-mannered MTA dispatcher Walter Garber (Denzel Washington), who despite being the hero, is nevertheless corrupt, having taken a bribe from some Japanese train company.

Then, nothing much happens. John Travolta says “motherfucker” a lot, a couple people are killed. It turns out the only thing the bad guys were really after was money (an extremely anti-climactic revelation).

In the end, in a ridiculous turn of events, it’s as if Denzel Washington becomes a completely different character. No longer gentle and meek, he carjacks a truck and chases down John Travolta himself, and kills him. Yes, that’s actually how it happened. Then the mayor, on behalf of the City of New York, thanks him. The end. Good riddance.

Friday funnies

2009-06-19T20:16:00.001-04:00

David Letterman’s jokes about Sarah Palin’s daughter may not have been funny, but these nutjob protestors who want Dave to be fired are frickin’ hilarious.

All you can eat

2009-06-19T20:11:00.001-04:00

When you think about it, “all you can eat” is a pretty monstrous concept. Why would you want to eat all you can eat? (Would you want to drink all you can drink? Maybe that’s a bad example.) Human beings obviously have homeostatic mechanisms to keep bodily processes within physiological norms but these mechanisms surely must have boundaries. When pushed to extremes, it’s not difficult to see how the body would struggle to bring the internal milieu back to baseline. Repeated insults may even bring about a higher setpoint, as is the case in those with enlarged hearts (a disease lacking compassion) or possibly Homer’s gastronomic rapacity, which knows no satiety. Ultimately, the result is unfavourable.

Well, at least that’s the way I feel after Indian buffet for lunch and Korea BBQ for dinner.

The Onion on vaccinations

2009-06-16T20:38:00.001-04:00

This is a pro-choice argument?

2009-06-12T21:23:00.001-04:00

Why do pro-abortion arguments so often end up looking like this?

When I advocate for reproductive rights, for choice, I don't claim that abortion is morally acceptable. I think that it's a very private, intensely personal decision. But I was stunned when one of my professors, a pathologist and a Planned Parenthood supporter, told me that decades ago, entire wings of the university's hospital were filled with women dying from infections caused by botched abortions. It's clear that women who don't want to be pregnant won't be deterred by limited access to providers or to clinics. And I believe that it's immoral to let them die rather than provide them with safe, competent care. [Rozalyn Farmer Love, "My Choice," Washington Post; emphasis mine]

By changing the subject to the consequences of “botched abortions,” this argument concedes everything. Abortion is morally acceptable because an embryo does not have the same moral status as a person. It is a few layers of relatively undifferentiated cells physically and physiologically dependent on the woman’s body; only religious mysticism would consider the two to be equivalent. Otherwise, pregnant women undergoing abortions would indeed be making “private, intensely personal decisions” to commit murder, since that’s what it would be if the embryo were a person. The reason that the decision is a personal and private one is because the woman, and she alone, decides what happens to her own life and to her own body. Why did abortion advocates ever concede the term “pro-life” to those who would deny a woman her rights? It is a woman’s right to her own life that gives her the right to have an abortion.

Friday funnies

2009-06-12T20:42:00.001-04:00

Letterman has gotten into some trouble for making jokes after Sarah Palin’s daughter. Judge for yourself.

Up

2009-06-12T20:31:00.001-04:00

The opening act was probably the most brilliant storytelling I have ever seen. The flash-forward sequence where Carl and Ellie live through the joys and miseries of life, never quite getting around to realizing their dream of travelling to Paradise Falls, will leave the emotionally unprepared struggling hold back tears. (You should have seen my roommate sitting beside me.) And after Ellie dies, and Carl is marginalized by the forces that be (who thankfully haven’t heard of eminent domain), Carl’s much-deserved liberation by helium balloon was magnificently uplifting, in every sense of the word.

But then, as the plot progresses, the magic of the first act is lost and Carl becomes a “geriatric action hero,” battling against a man even older than he is (how is Charles Muntz still alive after all these years?) all in an effort to save a rare flightless bird. Tagging along are a talking dog and a Boy Scout with father issues. The rest of Carl’s adventure is progressively formulaic (villain dies, Carl fills in as father figure), although the bits of subtle humour (the “dogfight”) was much appreciated. Nevertheless, after the emotional rollercoaster that was the opening act, one can’t help but feel disappointed in the end.

Mach-Gaensslen Foundation

2009-06-10T23:23:00.001-04:00

A quick shout-out to the Mach-Gaensslen Foundation of Canada. They are partly funding my research this summer.

The Mach-Gaensslen Foundation of Canada honours the lives of Vaclav F. Mach and Dr. Hanni Gaensslen by supporting research related to the fields of cardiology, oncology, and psychiatry. The foundation supports student research at Canadian medical schools.

The grants not only enable students to conduct medical research during their time at university, but also encourage them to make research an ongoing part of their careers.

Digitally added black guy

2009-06-10T18:12:00.001-04:00

This is hilarious. In the name of ethnic diversity, the City of Toronto alters a photo of a family to include some random black guy so it’s more diverse –- the image is featured on Spring/Summer 2009 Fun Guide.

A spokesman for the department that publishes the guide listing recreation activities confirmed the publication was doctored to insert the face of a different father.

"He superimposed the African-Canadian person onto the family cluster in the original photo. It was two photographs and one head was superimposed over the original family photo," said John Gosgnach, communications director for the social development division.

"The goal was to depict the diversity of Toronto and its residents."

Apparently, the City of Toronto was taking a page out of the Onion: Black Guy Photoshopped In.

Friday funnies

2009-06-05T19:49:00.001-04:00

[source]

20 years later

2009-06-03T19:07:00.001-04:00

Reading:

Tiananmen: Days to Remember (Washington Post)

Two years ago I met a Chinese student who was entering graduate school in the United States. I told her I had been in Beijing during "6-4," the Chinese shorthand for the massacre of June 4, 1989.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

At first I thought she might not have understood my Chinese, but it soon became clear that "June 4" meant nothing to her. I probably shouldn't have been surprised.

Tiananmen Square, 20 Years Later (New York Times)

Tiananmen dream: Dead in one generation (Globe and Mail)

Tiananmen anniversary: China's democracy deferred (National Post)

The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien

2009-06-02T18:08:00.001-04:00

Conan’s first show was not impressive –- too much reliance on pre-recorded clips; the jokes were pretty tame; his guest, Will Ferrell, was just awful. There was none of the natural spontaneity that makes Conan O’Brien the talented comedian that he is. But anybody is better than Leno, am I right?

Toronto Inhumane Society

2009-05-30T23:28:00.001-04:00

A distressing report in the Globe and Mail:

Killing them with kindness

At the Toronto Humane Society, veterinarians say animals die suffering unnecessarily in their cages while pleas to euthanize them are dismissed. Dozens of staff, volunteers and veterinarians have quit in protest. Part one of Kate Hammer's three-part investigation.

UPDATE: Here is more

A leader with a passion for animals, loyal supporters - and an iron grip

Former employees and volunteers describe volunteer president Tim Trow as a man whose grip on the Toronto Humane Society has hurt the very animals he strives to protect

A humane society that’s short on shelter

A litany of complaints: Globe investigation reveals questions about donations, financial inconsistencies and a lack of supplies

The physical exam exam

2009-05-30T17:28:00.001-04:00

I’ve always found bell-ringer exams to be quite challenging since at each station, there is a limited amount of time in which to come up with an answer. Unlike a multiple choice exam where you can skip a question and come back to it at the end, a bell-ringer puts you on the spot –- either you know the answer or you’ve got to make something up. Once the time for the station has elapsed, there’s no coming back to it.

Anatomy exams are usually in a bell-ringer format, probably because it’s an opportunity for the Anatomy Department to take out random body parts from storage and put them to good use. In front of you is a specimen with a pin stuck in it. Your job is to identify the structure labelled with the pin (without succumbing to the temptation of moving the pin into another structure after you’re done just to screw up your classmates). “What is the name of the fissure labelled A?” “What is the artery that supplies area B?” At least it’s straightforward. If you don’t know the answer, you can always write “brain” and hope for a lenient marker.

The clinical skills exam is much the same way but instead of “bell-ringer”, it is called an “OSCE”. And there are some other complexities. There are various timed stations where you have to demonstrate a physical exam maneuver on a standardized patient (actor) while the examiner, who is also in the room, watches you intently. Despite the presence of an examiner peering over your shoulder, an additional twist is that you have to be talking out loud, explaining the maneuver you are performing, as you are performing it. This way, the examiner knows that you know what you’re doing. Or so it goes.

The problem with this format is that I have trouble figuring out exactly what I need to say aloud versus what I should just demonstrate. If I say too much, I’m wasting time. If I don’t say enough, then the examiner won’t give me the marks. The line between internal and external monologue gets uncomfortably blurred. Of course, as important as what to say is how you say it. To avoid awkwardness, I’ve heard the trick is to talk as you are performing the maneuver so there are no disjointed phases of talking and doing. The problem then becomes a grammatical one –- what tense should I use? A “future” tense (“Now I am going to…”) would seem to introduce the awkward separation of talking and doing since it would necessitate saying what your are going to do before actually doing it. A present tense (“I listen with my stethoscope…”) would be a more logical choice and it even adds a suspenseful tone to the exam; but it also the negative effect of sounding like a cheesy narration in an antiquated film noir.

These nuances really add up and to do well on an OSCE is as much art as it is a science. That is, you not only have to be physically skilled but also a smooth talker. All of this is contingent, of course, on whether you actually know what the hell it is you’re doing. As I said, it’s a complex set of variables to coordinate…

I knock twice on the door and barge into the examination room. The sign outside had simply said “Examine the patient’s 3rd cranial nerve. Explain what you are doing and why.” I look at the patient, perched atop the examination table. His facial expression gives away the fact that he has been poked and prodded all day long by eager medical students. I notice his naked body is covered only by a blue hospital gown and thank god I’m only going to be examining his head. I introduce myself as a medical student, and “I’m going to be examining your 3rd cranial nerve, which controls eye movement, eyelid, and pupil constriction.” It’s a borderline accurate description but good enough. “Besides, this guy looks normal enough,” I think to myself. Wait…I remember that he’s an actor.

I turn to the examiner and hand him a sticker with my name. He sticks it to his marking sheet without a word. I begin my examination. “First, I wash my hands so they’re clean,” are the first words to leap from my loose lips. I squirt some hand sanitizer onto my hands and spread the cold, gelatinous fluid across my palm and onto the back of my hands. I wait for them to dry. I then make eye contact with the patient and begin to inspect his eyes. There’s an awkward pause as we look deeply into each other’s eyes –- mesmerizing, in its own way. I finally blurt out, “I am inspecting the patient’s eyes and they are in a central position. The position of the eyelids is symmetrical. Now, I’m going to move closer to examine the patient’s pupils.” Here I come.

I hold up a ruler to the patient’s pupils and measure his pupil diameter. I try my best to control the nervous tremor in my hands so that I don’t poke the patient in eye. I’ve heard they fail people for that. “The pupils are about 4 mm in diameter in normal light. They are equal on both sides.” I walk over to the light switch and flick one to the off position. It’s not dark enough. I flick the other light switch off. Now, it’s pitch black. I flick the first one back on. Just right. “Good work, Goldilocks,” the examiner smirks or was that just in my imagination? I return to measure the patient’s pupils again. This time, “they are 5 mm in diameter in dim light. Equal on both sides.” A pause as I think. “Now, I retrieve my penlight so I can do the pupillary light reflex.” The examiner rolls his eyes condescendingly, “Please.”

“Now, look forward and don’t look directly into the light,” I warn. I shine the light in one eye and then the other and “both pupils constrict equally to light.” I walk back over to turn the lights on and proceed with the final test. “Please follow the tip of my pen as I move it,” I instruct the patient. “I move my pen back and forth in an ‘H’ pattern and then toward and away from the patient to test for accommodation. I pause at the ends of each direction of gaze to inspect for nystagmus. Eye movements are normal.” With that, I pack up my things and get ready to move to the next station.

On my way to the exit, I thank the patient and examiner for nothing in particular. After all, even though the patient gets an examination, I’m the one being examined. I’m about to leave when the patient turns to me and asks, “Who were you talking to throughout the exam?” Shit. I should have explained at the beginning. “No one,” I reply. “I was talking out loud so the examiner knew that I knew what I was doing.” With a final glance, the patient tells me, “Oh. I see. That’s an interesting way of doing it. Seems a little weird to me though, talking out loud…”

“You’re not the only one…”

End of classes

2009-05-29T18:52:00.001-04:00

Today was my last exam and officially the start of summer. It sucks that we (medical students) finish about a month later than the undergrads. Guess it’s because we have much more to learn. Looking forward to normal sleep patterns again. Sadly, work starts on Monday.

By the way, anyone catch the spelling bee last night? It was intense.

Friday funnies

2009-05-29T18:37:00.001-04:00

Time has since changed the photo, but this is what was there this morning:

[via]

Terminator: Salvation

2009-05-22T23:25:00.001-04:00

Non-sensical, boring plot; loud, obnoxious action sequences; actors might as well have been emotionless robots from the future. Huge waste of money.

Seriously, if Skynet asked, I would have killed John Connor myself. It would have been so easy since there were probably about a million opportunities to do so in the movie. You’re just dumbstruck when you walk out of the theatre –- not only is John Connor still alive, but he’s alive due to having received a heart transplant of all things.

Friday funnies

2009-05-22T23:11:00.001-04:00

Scholarship discrimination

2009-05-18T01:48:00.001-04:00

There’s a bizarre editorial in the Globe and Mail today:

The University of Saskatchewan should be applauded for rejecting a half-million-dollar scholarship endowment aimed only at non-aboriginal students.

Apparently, an alumna of the University of Saskatchewan offered to set up a scholarship that would only be awarded to non-aboriginal students since they are “basically taken care of” and she thinks “there is an unequal playing field.” The alumna “want[s] to reduce the barriers for non-aboriginal students who don't expect or receive benefits.”

The University of Saskatchewan refused, and the Globe and Mail applauds them for taking “a principled stand on this issue.”

They declined the offer at the first opportunity, saying their policy was not to discriminate on the basis of race, and that they could not accept any funds that would exclude a disadvantaged group.

But then, two paragraphs later, the editorial says,

Contrary to the view that aboriginal students are disproportionately rewarded, of the 4,148 scholarships handed out at the university in 2007-08, just 36 were directed solely at aboriginal people. Those 36 awards were worth $107,000, or about 1.4 per cent of the university's scholarship funds.

So, what principle was the university upholding? It’s not that they don’t discriminate on the basis of race since they already have 36 scholarships that do just that. The principle, if any, is that discrimination is okay as long as some “disadvantaged” group benefits from the discrimination. But what’s confusing about this policy of affirmative action is why the university feels it is incompatible with other scholarships that are aimed at non-aboriginal students. If a private benefactor chooses to establish a scholarship that happens to exclude aboriginal students, how does it harm them? No money is being taken away them; only extra money is put into the system in order to help other financially disadvantaged students. The net result is still increased financial aid for students that struggle to pay their tuition. The (rather dubious) justification for affirmative action is that it gives extra aid to disadvantaged groups; however, no part of this includes trying to actively hold other groups back from succeeding. There’s no reason to believe that the proposed scholarship would “alienate” or discourage aboriginal students from postsecondary education.

Friday funnies

2009-05-15T22:36:00.001-04:00

Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'

Why is the retina backwards?

2009-05-12T17:51:00.001-04:00

One of our lecturers today was a bit off. I’m not sure but she may have been a creationist.

But let me back up. This week in medical school is Vision Week, where we learn about the eye and vision. This morning we had a whole series of guest lecturers talking about the eye and of course, one of the topics covered was the retina.

The first guest lecturer was very good. She was from the Departments of Cell and Systems Biology and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and works on the evolution of photoreceptors/visual pigments (if you’re from U of T, you probably know who this is). As a retina expert, she inevitably noted that the retina seems to be “backwards” in vertebrates, with the photoreceptors (which respond to light) at the back of the eye and many layers of cells and blood vessels in front. Light has to pass by all these layers that can absorb and distort the image.

Why is this so? In passing, the lecturer mentioned something about it being “an accident of history” –- my limited understanding is that the structure of the retina was first elaborated in earlier vertebrates so all subsequent vertebrates, including us, are stuck with it. [Evolution of vertebrate eyes].

The next lecturer (an ophthalmologist) was the one that I thought was a bit off. Not having heard the previous lecture, she started off by asking us a “$64,000 question.” Why the photoreceptors are at the back of the retina?

One of the students answered that it was an “accident of evolution,” which is what we had just learned.

Her answer took my breath away. In a dismissive tone, she replied “That’s more of a philosophical answer. I’m not really interested in philosophical or religious answers.” And to clarify, when she said “philosophical or religious,” the way she said it suggested she was equating the two categories.

It’s pretty dumb to equate an evolutionary explanation for philosophy (since it’s a scientific explanation). It’s downright offensive to equate evolution (or philosophy) with religion. The possibility of an evolutionary accident didn’t even seem to register with her, so she kept pestering us for a teleological explanation.

Someone else said that the photoreceptors are where they are because they need the dual blood supply (from the retinal arteries and the choroid) –- an absurdly teleological and ID-esque answer, but according to this lecturer, the correct one.

Regrettably, I held my tongue and admittedly, was caught off guard. After conferring with classmates after the lecture, it was clear I wasn’t the only one who found this lecturer to be not quite right (in the head). There are bad lecturers (poor communicators) and then there are bad lecturers. Live and learn, I guess.

Incidentally, there happens to be a Panda’s Thumb post that addresses this issue precisely. Wish I had read it earlier.

[The creationist argument] is that the blood flow through the choroid needs to be high for the metabolic requirements of the retina. This is a variant of the “cooling bath” concept, and has exactly the same problems. The retina is an energy hungry system, but it doesn’t need to be inverted to get a high blood flow. In fact, the way the vertebrates do it is just plain silly. Molecules used for providing the energy to run light detection are formed in the mitochondria in the cell body from blood born nutrients, then passed along to the photoreceptors in the modified cilia projecting from the cell body (see diagrams in links above). As the retina is invert, the cell bodies are further away from the choroid, with the light harvesting disks between them and the choroid. Consequently, all blood born nutrients delivered by the choroid in vertebrates must diffuse from the choroid, through the pigmented epithelium, then past all the photoreceptor disks to the mitochondria in the cell body to be used (and all waste diffused in the reverse direction). Delivery from the cell body end would result in a shorter diffusion distance through less restricted space; ie, more efficient delivery. This point is born out by the fact that choroid oxygen tension drops by only 3% from artery to vein. In consequence, the retinal artery, though it only carries 5% of the blood supplied to the retina, carries 40% of the oxygen used by the retina.

Star Trek

2009-05-08T23:41:00.001-04:00

Overall, it was pretty awesome. I definitely recommend seeing it. The plot was mostly coherent and Kirk and Spock were pretty good. The pace was exhilarating. The visuals were absolutely amazing –- the bridge of the Enterprise was quite brilliant and there were some epic space battles. Classic lines (“I’m a doctor, not a physicist!” and “I'm giving her all she's got”) got some big laughs. However, I expected much more from Michael Giacchino’s soundtrack; it was odd that the music from the trailers were nowhere to be found in the film. One additional nitpick would have to be the glorification of emotionalism over logic. For instance, near the end, Old Spock (Leonard Nimoy) advises Young Spock (Zachary Quinto) to forget logic and do “what feels right.” Contrary to the Vulcan philosophy, a rational life need not be one of emotional repression. But emotions need to be kept in their place, subservient to reason –- to act on emotion alone, to simply do “what feels right” is recipe for disaster. So while some fans were lamenting the absence of William Shatner, I felt this film could have used a little more Jean-Luc Picard.

Friday funnies

2009-05-08T17:44:00.001-04:00

Top 10 Lines Never Before Said in a Star Trek Film presented by Leonard Nimoy.

That impenetrable fortress

2009-05-08T17:29:00.001-04:00

When you’re doing a physical examination of the liver, one of the things you need to do is see if it is enlarged ("hepatomegaly”). One method to do this is to “percuss” (doctor-speak for tapping with your fingers) the area of the liver from above (i.e. the chest) and below (i.e. the right lower quadrant of the abdomen). See the diagram below. Since the area over the liver will be duller than the areas above and below, you can estimate the vertical size of the liver.

In a male patient, this is quite easy to do. But in a female patient, well…

This is what happened today and there was all kinds of awkwardness. I asked her to lift it up a bit but that didn’t help much and I tried percussing as high as I could but I wasn’t anywhere near the top edge of the liver so I decided to just give up before I humiliated myself any further.

Later, my tutor said to just percuss further to the lateral side. Oh. Well, yeah…

Friday funnies

2009-05-01T21:17:00.001-04:00

Ambassador Stages UN Coup, Issues Long List of Non-Binding Resolutions

Friday funnies

2009-04-24T23:32:00.001-04:00

Tony Blair Faith Foundation comes to U of T

2009-04-24T16:50:00.001-04:00

Congratulations to the 3 U of T students who won fellowships from Tony Blair Faith Foundation:

The Right Honourable Tony Blair, Former Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, announced today that the Tony Blair Faith Foundation has awarded three fellowships to students at the University of Toronto.

In addition, Blair announced that the University will be the host post-secondary institution for the fellowship program.

"The Tony Blair Faith Foundation program is an exciting exploration of how faith communities can contribute to the common good in civil society," said Richard Chambers, director of the University's Multi-Faith Centre. "The choice of three University of Toronto students in the inaugural selection of Fellows is a reflection of the University's wider commitment to developing life long scholars contributing to ethical decision-making in a multi-faith global society."

The Tony Blair Faith Foundation aims to increase understanding between faith communities throughout the world through inter-faith encounter and action. The Foundation has launched Faiths Act as an opportunity for people around the world of all faiths to work together in pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals, one of which is the battle against malaria.

When I think of battling malaria, the first thing that pops into my mind is faith. The more faith the better! After all, it was those lousy scientists that first thought malaria was caused by “bad air.” Not until the late 1800s did we uncover the true cause of malaria –- the protozoan Plasmodium -- based on work by those famous Faith Healers Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran and Ronald Ross. For their work, the Vatican awarded them the Pope Leo XIII/Pius X Prize in Physiology or Faith-healing. And, of course, God bless chloroquine and other anti-malarials, which have absolutely no efficacy unless combined with a big dose of prayer. Lest we forget those important mosquito nets –- our faith assures us that they don’t have holes big enough to allow mosquitos through, unlike a certain other type of prophylactic…

Here’s Richard Dawkins on the Tony Blair Faith Foundation:

YouTube Symphony Orchestra

2009-04-18T22:15:00.001-04:00

“The world's first collaborative online orchestra performed at Carnegie Hall on April 15, 2009. Selected by the YouTube community and several members of the world's most renowned orchestras, the YouTube Symphony Orchestra is made up of over 96 professional and amateur musicians from 30+ countries and territories on six continents and represents 26 different instruments.”