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2013 archive
Merry Christmas, 2013

This was my favorite for many years:
And here's a Christmas present  for all of you:
Friday, December 20, 2013
 
'Tis the Season to go buy stuff:
Living small -- and well:
  • I've posted a number of beautiful and cozy Tiny Houses, but these are noteworthy:  Mallory’s Tiny House for the different approach to interior layout, charm and comfort. The ARC for a new approach to the construction with a radius roof (which maximizes interior space and usable loft volume.) Gypsy caravans for their old-world beauty and practical ways of utilizing interior space that have been worked out over many generations. And a super-compact rollaway folding bed design plan -- for free.
Culture:
Science:
Law and Disorder:
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
 
Happy Thanksgivukkah! Listen to this while you cook: Hanukkah in Santa Monica (Tom Lehrer).  And of course every year we have to take another look at What Was on the Menu at the First Thanksgiving?

Science:
Health:
Food:
Culture:
Law and Politics:
Annual November reminder: You are SEVEN TIMES more likely to hit a deer in November.

Data for the state of Kentucky:


Mostly, deer don't seem to notice cars. And they are hit by cars 1.5 Million times a year. Deer, in general, don't recognize approaching headlights as being a threat: they seem to be almost invisible to a deer. Hence the massive numbers of deer killed at night. For my entire life, the only behavior I ever observed was that deer completely ignore approaching cars at night. If you tap your horn at them, they recognize that the successive beeps are "getting closer" and they will turn and run away from the sound, but the car itself always seems to be something that doesn't even register. Then, three or four years ago, I noticed that deer were stating to take better notice of approaching cars, especially at night. This is important, and it's very significant. And it's a perfect example of natural selection at work. Smarter Deer? Smarter Drivers? Both? Fewer Being Killed On Roads

A good rule to learn: the instant you see a deer, TAKE NOTE OF THE OTHER CARS around you. Mentally prepare yourself -- right now -- for the concept that, in many circumstances, your safest course of action is to slow gradually and stay in your lane, even if you hit the deer.  Because:
  1. Swerving to avoid a deer can result in a catastrophic collision with an oncoming car.
  2. Slamming on your brakes can result in you being hit from behind by a following car. ("Rear-enders" can be fatal.)
  3. If you swerve to avoid a deer and hit something else, even if it's just a road reflector post, you are "at fault" and your insurance will charge you accordingly.
  4. Most deer collisions happen at dusk and dawn.
  5. If you are about to hit a moose or a horse: duck! The bulk of the body mass will come through the windshield, and your best bet to survive is by being below the dash line.
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
 
Science
Tech, tools and gear: Carrying your own weight (plus a little more):
  • Backpackers need energy, and while you can buy those expensive, marginally- nutritious and culinarily- disappointing packaged energy bars, you can also make your own. Here's a recipe (reputed to be) perfected: Whitney’s Everything Energy Bars.
  • Two super-light single AAA battery flashlights, for your pocket, "go-bag," purse or backpack: Fenix E01 LED Flashlight (0.5 oz) and the Maglite LED Solitaire (0.8 oz.) And if you want to backpack even more ultralight: liberate yourself from Toilet paper.
  • Beautiful tents that suspend between trees: dreamy, surreal, evocative, expensive, too heavy for backpacking -- but still very interesting. Stingray USA
Living small:
  • The famous Tumbleweed Tiny House Company has revamped their line, separating the shells from the floor-plans, adding a few "larger" (small) house designs, and spiffing the website up. Worth a look. And in case you didn't know, Jay Shafer, the guy who started Tumbleweed, now has a new approach in his Four Lights Tiny House Company, with plans that are faster and cheaper to build, and a design that is easier to insulate.
Culture:
Law, life and politics in America:
Thursday, October 24, 2013
 
Science:
Tech and stuff:
Culture:
Law and Politics:
Friday, September 6, 2013

Science: 
Gear:
Culture:
Law and Politics:
Monday, September 2, 2013
 
She did it. (And she did it at 64.)
Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Science:
Gear:
Culture:
Law:
Saturday, July 20, 2013

I fell rather far behind after my computer's power supply died -- now replaced with a superb "PC Power And Cooling" reconditioned unit and running perfectly again. So this week's post is devoid of my usual pithy comments and descriptions. Still, there's some very interesting stuff below.
Science:
Food:
Tech and toys:
Culture:
Health:
Crime and Punishment:







Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Science:
Tech:
Culture:
Food:
Law and Politics:
Friday, May 17, 2013

Science and health:
  • A new threshold: 'Dangerous Territory': 400 ppm CO2. And no end in sight.
  • Could be very exciting news. Danish scientists: HIV cure 'within months.'
  • How to make your pan shiny, slippery and perfect in a few easy steps: Science-Based Cast Iron Seasoning
  • How A bat in the bedroom turned into a medical nightmare.
  • Speaking of medical nightmares: Valley Fever cases have exploded. It's interesting that the article authors are completely mystified as to the cause, while decades ago everyone knew exactly what the cause was; land development. The fungal spores live in the soil, and when you scrape up thousands of cubic yards of dirt to make new suburbs, shopping malls, WallMarts and strip malls, the wind picks it up and spreads it. Incidents of Valley Fever started "blooming" downwind from new developments decades ago, and the cause was very easy to trace. But holding a developer liable has been impossible -- to date. By the way, a good friend of mine very nearly died from Valley Fever, contracted when he was visiting the Southwest, but doctors were able to correctly diagnose it -- just before they sent him home to either die or recover -- they couldn't do anything more for him. And he recovered.
  • A YouTube exercise routine that you really should watch. All the way to the end. And then maybe have a tissue handy. 
  • The 7-Minute Workout is supposed to work pretty well, as long as you are willing to push yourself really, really hard.
  • There is a theory that humans had an "Ur language" which dates from the first emergence of our species. And the theory holds that there are dim shadows of those "Ur words" that persist even to this day: Words that last for thousands of years.
Culture:
Law, Military and Politics:
Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Musicians take note:
In Minnesota, the Taxman has decided that you are not a "real" musician if you tour, and "allow" NPR to play any of your music for free. You are only a "real" musician when you have a big recording contract and make LOTS of money. So how does that shake out for us "unreal" musicians? Well, how about being assessed over $100,000 in back taxes, interest and penalties when ALL of your deductions and expenses for the last four years are disallowed because you are now classified as a "tax evader" who is just "pretending to be an artist" in order to "take vacations and indulge your hobby." (Bonus points to the Department Of Revenue for targeting an attractive, talented Lesbian couple.)  Talking with the taxman about poetry and deductions.

Science:
Culture, gear and food:
Politics and Law:
  • It used to be "getting chewed out by the Vice Principal." (And maybe detention.) Now it's getting arrested and hauled into court and thrown into the system for the rest of your life: With Police in Schools, More Children in Court. What a shock: Police in schools seem to wildly overreact and bring out handcuffs -- and criminal charges -- against children for the most minor and insignificant misbehavior. Do your kids feel safer now? 
  • And, with this massive, armored (and heavily armed) behemoth rolling down the street in your town, do YOU feel safer now? BEAR enters town.
  • Speaking of "safer" -- here's a story about the Delaware police repeatedly Tasering man (and stomping on him, and punching and kicking him ... while he is lying on the ground. And his wife is begging them to stop.)
Monday, April 29, 2013
 
Last week, Tripod had a malware problem that caused Avast to lock Papa Vox out. Apparently, the malware code was not in my own html and various graphic files, but in the code and headers that Tripod inserts into every page displayed by their servers. (Tripod has had problems with this since 2009.) In any case, it's good to be back.

Speaking of malware, starting a few months ago, I dropped Avast and started using only AdAware, with their included antivirus. It did not flag the infected Tripod problems, and it also allowed a malware infection into my computer. (All of a sudden, Firefox was slow as molasses, and it crashed whenever I opened up more than two tabs.) Avast fixed it.
Monday, April 22, 2013

Your health:

What happens when people have very little sex?

A little research shows the following (for people having sex less than once per week, compared to people having sex three times per week.)

Men have:
  • 5 times the rate of erectile dysfunction.
  • 3 times the rate of prostate cancer.
  • twice the rate of BPE (benign prostate enlargement.)
Men and women both have:
  • Double the rate of heart attacks.
  • Double the rate of strokes.
  • Double the rate of blood circulation disorders.
  • Triple the rate of insomnia.
  • Triple the rate of adult incontinence.
Other surprising effects:
  • We become less active.
  • We become less attractive physically, and our personalities become less alluring.
  • We become less confident.
  • We gain weight (increasing cancer, heart attack and stroke risk.)
  • We make less money for the same job positions.
  • We accept higher workloads than our colleagues.
  • We become more likely to submit to -- and accept -- abuse.
  • We become less capable of healthy interaction with other people.
  • We win fewer games of any kind, from croquet to checkers.
  • We become less resilient to the effects of trauma and stress.
  • We are more fearful.
  • We get sick more often, with more serious illnesses, and take longer to recover.
  • We become less tolerant of frustration.
And in general, we die younger, by about ten years.

And by the way, Americans are now among the lowest in the world for average frequency of sex. Too overworked (more hours than nearly any other country), overbooked, distracted and exhausted to love anymore, we are now averaging about once a week. Just a few decades ago, it was three times a week, roughly on par with most of Europe. Today, Greece, Brazil and Russia lead the way. America isn't in the top ten. Or the top twenty. We even rank below Great Britain, a country famous for being uptight and prudish. We actually rank with Nigeria. Only Japan (where they don't work as many hours as Americans, although they commute longer) is worse -- among countries where people actually answer sex surveys. (It's awfully difficult to say how things are going in, say, Iran.)

So back in the sixties when all of the hippies were saying "Make Love, Not War" -- they were right. (And they outlive you to prove it.)
Monday, April 9, 2013

Science:
Tech, gear and modern life:
Law and politics:
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Just in case you missed the post below, the Universe is 13.8 billion years old, not 13.7 :  Planck Data: Universe Older And Slower
Monday, April 1, 2013
Happy April Fool's Day. And I got nothing. (Except this: LiarTownUSA) Oh well. Maybe next year.

On the other hand, some years ago I wrote a newspaper article (for April Fool's Day) about "the latest non-drug substance abuse craze among teens," which was (or so I claimed) to snort lines of dry Wasabi powder. I really did think it was clearly obvious that this was a spoof article, but apparently, at least one kid actually tried it (even though several people tried unsuccessfully to dissuade him from the adventure) and later on he had very, very little to say on the subject. In fact, he simply wouldn't talk about it at all. So I have enough bad April 1 Karma to work off as it is.

So. Everything that follows, is, as far as I know, true. You can be absolutely sure it's true, because you are reading it on the internet.

Science:
Modern life:
Law and politics:
Saturday, March 9, 2013

Science: 
Modern Food:
Culture:
Gear:
Law and Politics:
  • The shocking news from the TSA: "Small knives" will be allowed on planes. Which is not really true at all. Nothing that any reasonable person would call a knife can be taken on a plane. However, a few small, basically harmless pocket tools -- which no reasonable person would call a "weapon" -- are no longer banned on planes. Tools which used to be confiscated on the spot.  Tools like these:
Saturday, February 16, 2013

Science:
Culture:
  • Some interesting stuff out there: 102 Spectacular Nonfiction Stories from 2012
  • Great performers: the "Top Secret Swiss Drum Corps." 
  • Back in the day, Early Winters was one of the better mail-order backpacking gear companies that made innovative, lightweight GoreTex stuff. One of their most famous products was the "Thousand-Mile Sock," guaranteed to last for at least 1,000 miles of walking, hiking or mountaineering without wearing through. They sold lots of those socks, and NOBODY could claim they wore out prematurely. I bought a few pairs, and loved them.  Then they also started selling the millionaire's socks which they confidently gave a Lifetime Guarantee. I bought a pair, and they were the most comfortable, warm, long-wearing socks I ever owned. They never did wear out in the foot, but they finally developed a separation along the elastic cuff at the top -- and they remained usable and wearable. The 1,000-mile socks were a very dense, boiled "rag - wool" style, flecked gray and white, tough as nails. The Millionaire's Socks were a plush terry-cloth wool, smooth knit on the outside and tiny cushy loops on the inside, much thicker and really posh. And guess what? They were all made by Devold of Norway and can still be purchased today.
  • A Brit's take on How to cook perfect pulled pork which can be done inside in your kitchen, without a charcoal grill.
  • All of those actresses and their gowns at the Oscars, over the years: The Red Carpet Project.
  • For good coffee, clean it up: Puro Caff.
  • The best: Wenonah Canoes.
  • Was it possible that a specific fur trapper in 1832 may have been gay? Yes, of course it's possible. Is it a sure bet that the entire corps of Rocky Mountain Company brigadesmen were all participating in one continuous festive pageant of fabulous gay Mountain Man parties and free gay Indian love? Not bloody likely. Men in Eden: William Drummond Stewart and Same-Sex Desire in the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade.
Politics and law:
Tuesday, January 29, 2013

After my earlier post of How Doctors Die, it also seems reasonable to point out that when it comes to certain medical procedures, there are a number of things that doctors won't do.

Science: 
Culture:
  • Perfect for your internet dating site profile photo: ‘Leaf Blower Faces’
  • A very small house, done right. Neat as a pin, cozy, comfortable, and beautiful: Tiny Tack House.
  • Want to go biking in the snow? How about a Pugsley, by Surly Bikes, one of the first companies to start making Bikes with "bigfoot" tires. Go anywhere, in almost any weather.
  • And stay hydrated. And if you'd rather pick your own flavorings and choose the type and amount of sweetener, you can make up your own "go juice" with Nuun Active Hydration formula. It has just the minerals and electrolytes, no sugar, no flavor. So you can go (very) plain, or you can go "Goat milk mocha- cappuccino- berry- deluxe- caramel- nut- fudge- royale" if you'd like.
  • Getting into the science of Jedi-level baking: The Power of Flour. And how to alter unbleached all-purpose flour so that it acts like bleached cake flour, by microwaving it: Kate Flour.
  • It's important for journalists to Avoid 'cop talk', because, let's face it, Cops Talk Funny.
  • A beautiful ad: Embrace Life.
  • It's easy to join the masses of naysayers who are predicting the demise of western civilization over this, but I think the fact that J.J. Abrams Will Direct the Next Star Wars Movie just might turn out to be  a good thing. After all, his take on Star Trek was true to the spirit of Saint Gene, and it kicked ass.
  • "An 'unloaded' gun is the most dangerous kind" according to all the experts -- and Mark Twain.
  • I remember the day that drinking soda went from delicate sipping ("The Pause that Refreshes") to massive consumption as a cultural norm. It was a Pepsi ad for TV, and it featured a glowing, youthful, healthy young man, drenched with sweat from exhilarating physical activity, drinking down an ENTIRE 12 OUNCE BOTTLE of ice cold Pepsi, in ONE single draught, in slow motion. He finished with a huge smile of happiness and satisfaction. And the very next time I was overworked and overheated, I REALLY wanted an ice cold bottle of Pepsi, so I could slug the whole thing down. Twelve ounces of soda as a single dose prescription medication against thirst and fatigue, guaranteed (by that TV ad) to cause instant ecstasy. Meanwhile, at least One Man Tried To Slim Down Big Soda From The Inside. Who knew.
  • Rabbie Burns night came and went, so start thinking about next year and learn how to make your own haggis. Or just order Chinese Take-Out, put on your kilt, and celebrate Gung Haggis Fat Choy.
  • I disagree, but here is at least one take on the idea: Why You Never Truly Leave High School.
  • Mostly, "Failure." Eleven things organizations can learn from airports.
  • So there I was, cruising around on the web, surfing the big binary wave, and I ran across a single, beautiful photo of the Grand Canyon, filled almost to the rim with clouds. "Pretty," I thought, and clicked my way into this fantastic set of Grand Canyon Photos on the FaceBook page for the Grand Canyon Association. I spent a fair bit of time looking through their entire album, and it reminds me with a sense of urgency that revisiting the Grand Canyon is near the top of my "Before I Die" list.
  • Getting away from it all -- very, very far away: For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact.
  • And once you are out there, you'll need a good Survival Guide.
  • No, Ben didn't want to use the Turkey as the National Bird. He just thought it would be better than using the Eagle. But Winston Churchill provided the best quote in the article: Benjamin Franklin's Turkey and the Presidential Seal.
"Oh, For Crying Out Loud" department:
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
 
From: http://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2011/11/30/how-doctors-die/ideas/nexus/
How Doctors Die
It’s Not Like the Rest of Us, But It Should Be

by Ken Murray -- November 30, 2011

Years ago, Charlie, a highly respected orthopedist and a mentor of mine, found a lump in his stomach. He had a surgeon explore the area, and the diagnosis was pancreatic cancer. This surgeon was one of the best in the country. He had even invented a new procedure for this exact cancer that could triple a patient’s five-year-survival odds–from 5 percent to 15 percent–albeit with a poor quality of life. Charlie was uninterested. He went home the next day, closed his practice, and never set foot in a hospital again. He focused on spending time with family and feeling as good as possible. Several months later, he died at home. He got no chemotherapy, radiation, or surgical treatment. Medicare didn’t spend much on him.

It’s not a frequent topic of discussion, but doctors die, too. And they don’t die like the rest of us. What’s unusual about them is not how much treatment they get compared to most Americans, but how little. For all the time they spend fending off the deaths of others, they tend to be fairly serene when faced with death themselves. They know exactly what is going to happen, they know the choices, and they generally have access to any sort of medical care they could want. But they go gently.

Of course, doctors don’t want to die; they want to live. But they know enough about modern medicine to know its limits. And they know enough about death to know what all people fear most: dying in pain, and dying alone. They’ve talked about this with their families. They want to be sure, when the time comes, that no heroic measures will happen–that they will never experience, during their last moments on earth, someone breaking their ribs in an attempt to resuscitate them with CPR (that’s what happens if CPR is done right).

Almost all medical professionals have seen what we call “futile care” being performed on people. That’s when doctors bring the cutting edge of technology to bear on a grievously ill person near the end of life. The patient will get cut open, perforated with tubes, hooked up to machines, and assaulted with drugs. All of this occurs in the Intensive Care Unit at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars a day. What it buys is misery we would not inflict on a terrorist. I cannot count the number of times fellow physicians have told me, in words that vary only slightly, “Promise me if you find me like this that you’ll kill me.” They mean it. Some medical personnel wear medallions stamped “NO CODE” to tell physicians not to perform CPR on them. I have even seen it as a tattoo.

To administer medical care that makes people suffer is anguishing. Physicians are trained to gather information without revealing any of their own feelings, but in private, among fellow doctors, they’ll vent. “How can anyone do that to their family members?” they’ll ask. I suspect it’s one reason physicians have higher rates of alcohol abuse and depression than professionals in most other fields. I know it’s one reason I stopped participating in hospital care for the last 10 years of my practice.

How has it come to this–that doctors administer so much care that they wouldn’t want for themselves? The simple, or not-so-simple, answer is this: patients, doctors, and the system.

To see how patients play a role, imagine a scenario in which someone has lost consciousness and been admitted to an emergency room. As is so often the case, no one has made a plan for this situation, and shocked and scared family members find themselves caught up in a maze of choices. They’re overwhelmed. When doctors ask if they want “everything” done, they answer yes. Then the nightmare begins. Sometimes, a family really means “do everything,” but often they just mean “do everything that’s reasonable.” The problem is that they may not know what’s reasonable, nor, in their confusion and sorrow, will they ask about it or hear what a physician may be telling them. For their part, doctors told to do “everything” will do it, whether it is reasonable or not.

The above scenario is a common one. Feeding into the problem are unrealistic expectations of what doctors can accomplish. Many people think of CPR as a reliable lifesaver when, in fact, the results are usually poor. I’ve had hundreds of people brought to me in the emergency room after getting CPR. Exactly one, a healthy man who’d had no heart troubles (for those who want specifics, he had a “tension pneumothorax”), walked out of the hospital. If a patient suffers from severe illness, old age, or a terminal disease, the odds of a good outcome from CPR are infinitesimal, while the odds of suffering are overwhelming. Poor knowledge and misguided expectations lead to a lot of bad decisions.

But of course it’s not just patients making these things happen. Doctors play an enabling role, too. The trouble is that even doctors who hate to administer futile care must find a way to address the wishes of patients and families. Imagine, once again, the emergency room with those grieving, possibly hysterical, family members. They do not know the doctor. Establishing trust and confidence under such circumstances is a very delicate thing. People are prepared to think the doctor is acting out of base motives, trying to save time, or money, or effort, especially if the doctor is advising against further treatment.

Some doctors are stronger communicators than others, and some doctors are more adamant, but the pressures they all face are similar. When I faced circumstances involving end-of-life choices, I adopted the approach of laying out only the options that I thought were reasonable (as I would in any situation) as early in the process as possible. When patients or families brought up unreasonable choices, I would discuss the issue in layman’s terms that portrayed the downsides clearly. If patients or families still insisted on treatments I considered pointless or harmful, I would offer to transfer their care to another doctor or hospital.

Should I have been more forceful at times? I know that some of those transfers still haunt me. One of the patients of whom I was most fond was an attorney from a famous political family. She had severe diabetes and terrible circulation, and, at one point, she developed a painful sore on her foot. Knowing the hazards of hospitals, I did everything I could to keep her from resorting to surgery. Still, she sought out outside experts with whom I had no relationship. Not knowing as much about her as I did, they decided to perform bypass surgery on her chronically clogged blood vessels in both legs. This didn’t restore her circulation, and the surgical wounds wouldn’t heal. Her feet became gangrenous, and she endured bilateral leg amputations. Two weeks later, in the famous medical center in which all this had occurred, she died.

It’s easy to find fault with both doctors and patients in such stories, but in many ways all the parties are simply victims of a larger system that encourages excessive treatment. In some unfortunate cases, doctors use the fee-for-service model to do everything they can, no matter how pointless, to make money. More commonly, though, doctors are fearful of litigation and do whatever they’re asked, with little feedback, to avoid getting in trouble.

Even when the right preparations have been made, the system can still swallow people up. One of my patients was a man named Jack, a 78-year-old who had been ill for years and undergone about 15 major surgical procedures. He explained to me that he never, under any circumstances, wanted to be placed on life support machines again. One Saturday, however, Jack suffered a massive stroke and got admitted to the emergency room unconscious, without his wife. Doctors did everything possible to resuscitate him and put him on life support in the ICU. This was Jack’s worst nightmare. When I arrived at the hospital and took over Jack’s care, I spoke to his wife and to hospital staff, bringing in my office notes with his care preferences. Then I turned off the life support machines and sat with him. He died two hours later.

Even with all his wishes documented, Jack hadn’t died as he’d hoped. The system had intervened. One of the nurses, I later found out, even reported my unplugging of Jack to the authorities as a possible homicide. Nothing came of it, of course; Jack’s wishes had been spelled out explicitly, and he’d left the paperwork to prove it. But the prospect of a police investigation is terrifying for any physician. I could far more easily have left Jack on life support against his stated wishes, prolonging his life, and his suffering, a few more weeks. I would even have made a little more money, and Medicare would have ended up with an additional $500,000 bill. It’s no wonder many doctors err on the side of overtreatment.

But doctors still don’t over-treat themselves. They see the consequences of this constantly. Almost anyone can find a way to die in peace at home, and pain can be managed better than ever. Hospice care, which focuses on providing terminally ill patients with comfort and dignity rather than on futile cures, provides most people with much better final days. Amazingly, studies have found that people placed in hospice care often live longer than people with the same disease who are seeking active cures. I was struck to hear on the radio recently that the famous reporter Tom Wicker had “died peacefully at home, surrounded by his family.” Such stories are, thankfully, increasingly common.

Several years ago, my older cousin Torch (born at home by the light of a flashlight–or torch) had a seizure that turned out to be the result of lung cancer that had gone to his brain. I arranged for him to see various specialists, and we learned that with aggressive treatment of his condition, including three to five hospital visits a week for chemotherapy, he would live perhaps four months. Ultimately, Torch decided against any treatment and simply took pills for brain swelling. He moved in with me.

We spent the next eight months doing a bunch of things that he enjoyed, having fun together like we hadn’t had in decades. We went to Disneyland, his first time. We’d hang out at home. Torch was a sports nut, and he was very happy to watch sports and eat my cooking. He even gained a bit of weight, eating his favorite foods rather than hospital foods. He had no serious pain, and he remained high-spirited. One day, he didn’t wake up. He spent the next three days in a coma-like sleep and then died. The cost of his medical care for those eight months, for the one drug he was taking, was about $20.

Torch was no doctor, but he knew he wanted a life of quality, not just quantity. Don’t most of us? If there is a state of the art of end-of-life care, it is this: death with dignity. As for me, my physician has my choices. They were easy to make, as they are for most physicians. There will be no heroics, and I will go gentle into that good night. Like my mentor Charlie. Like my cousin Torch. Like my fellow doctors.

Ken Murray, MD, is Clinical Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at USC. 
Wednesday, January 16, 1013
 
Science:
The new materials, soon to revolutionize a planet near you: Modern Life:
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(See the "Archives" for previous posts -- here's the most recent)
Proud to be a "True Blue" American.
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September through December, 2011
April through Aug, 2011
Sept through March 2011
July through Oct, 2010
Jan through June, 2010

Old and somewhat interesting posts, stripped of their former political grousing:
2009
2008
2007
2006
Hacking yourself:

An experiment in the supposition that shoes are bad for you with reviews of various "nearly barefoot" alternatives to the evil shoe.

An experiment in lowering the set-point as a means of safe, rapid, nearly-effortless weight loss.

The miracle of medical massage.
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