Here's some cool short snippets from Popluar Science...
Weird Science - Popular Science
Cut the risk of a hangover by taking a pill made from a cactus.
FDA OK'd use of maggots to treat chronic wounds.
Commitment might be genetic... at least in moles.
Water for astronauts going to Mars may come from a new toilet.
a male salmon has spawned trout hatchlings.
I went back to the ENT doc for a follow up today. Basically, the drugs (entex and nasonex) haven't really helped. He said the next avenue is surgery. Endoscopic sinus surgery and possibly septoplasty. I had him write it down so I could do some research on it first. I'm not too fond of the idea of surgery, but I'm not too fond of constant sinus pain / pressure either. I think I'm going to take the next couple of weeks during my Hawaii trip and try out the Gelstat Sinus sample I have received. If it's bad enough that they are suggesting surgery then I don't hold out much hope for the Gelstat to help, but I'm willing to give it a shot.
CNN.com - Darth Tater: The dark side of Mr. Potato Head - Jan 19, 2005
One week from tomorrow I leave for a 10 day business trip to Hawaii. It's a rough assignment, with a hotel right on Waikiki beach, but someone has to do it! :) It will be terrible to have to leave the snow we got yesterday behind and head into 80 degree weather. Sometimes you just have to make sacrifices. A couple of days into the trip, my friend Kyrie will be joining me. She's never been to Hawaii so I will play tour guide when I'm not working.
Less than a week after I return from Hawaii, I will be leaving for sunny Florida. I'm going to meet up with my father and his girlfriend and we are heading to the Daytona 500. So, I'll be gone for most of the month of February. I'll still be posting, but probably not as regularly as I normally do. Given the choice between a computer screen and a Hawaiian sunset, well, there really isn't a choice there...
MSNBC - Atheist rebuffed in bid to bar inaugural prayer
Oh woah is me... The President wants to have a prayer at his inauguration ceramony. I'm sooooo offended! He's trying to push religion on me! Separation of church and state! Help Me!
He's not pushing his religion on you, you fucking whiner. You're trying to push your religion (or lack thereof) on the rest of country. Now get over it! No one said you have to agree with everything that's said in this world. If the President wants a prayer at his ceremony, it's HIS CEREMONY. If you don't like it, go have your own damn ceremony and you can have it without a prayer. God, people irritate me sometimes.
We had our first real snow today. It didn't add up to much, maybe an inch. But it sure was nice to be able to drive in a straight line. This is the first year I've owned a 4x4 truck. My Mustang sucks in the snow. I used to spend A LOT of time driving sideways. Now, the Mustang is in the garage for the winter. When the real snow hits (we're supposed to get 6+ inches this weekend), it will be nice to have the ability to get out.
I have temporarily changed the comments section of this blog to be moderated. If you do not log in through TypeKey, the comment will not show up until I approve it. I will continue to work on a better solution to fighting the spam, but for now it's all I've got.
Anyone who has to fold laundry should watch the two video's on speed folding over at wyckedone. They may be in Japanese, but you don't need to understand the narration, the demostrations tell it all.
My room mate Heather had a tire blow out last night. It wasn't just a little blow out; it bent the rim and beat up the fender. She got the car stopped immediately. Unfortunately, it was in the left lane of I395 and there is little to no break down lane there. Of course, it was night time. On top of being dark, it started raining too. All in all, it was VERY dangerous. She called me because, while she had a spare, she had no jack or lug wrench. I showed up and parked my truck a little ways back hoping to add a little buffer zone. Unfortunately, the lug wrench I had with me wouldn't work on her lug nuts. While figuring this out, I heard several cars skidding to miss my truck and watched one Tractor Trailer come FAR too close to it too. All I could picture was that tractor trailer hitting my truck and then it plowing into us. Eventually, the police arrived and turned on the lights to give us a little more safety. They were nervous about being in that spot too, even with the lights on. Finally, the tow truck came and we got out there... alive... I think I need to say a "Thank You" to what ever guardian angel was watching out for us last night...
If you're looking to buy or sell real estate in Arizona, look up my Dad... www.prescottareahomesandland.com
Things are getting a little ridiculous. We have had a lawsuit because the judge in Georgia wouldn't remove the Ten Commandments from the county courthouse. To this I say, GET OVER IT! No one is forcing you to go over and READ THEM. Unfortunately, the courts disagreed with me.
Then we have students suing a college because it required them to read "Approaching the Qur'an: The Early Revelations," which contains 35 passages from the sacred book of Islam before they arrived. First of all, suing a college because "I don't wanna read that" is stupid. If you don't like it, find another college. Second of all, reading a book that goes against your religion only helps you understand other people’s views. It in no way requires you to agree with them.
Now we have a court ruling against placing stickers on text books that say:
“This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered.”
I received an email from Stephen C. Roberts, M.D. He is the CEO of GelStat and managed to find my previous blog entries on Gelstat Migraine. He was interested in my opinions of the product and offered to send me some samples. I agreed to the samples as long as he was ok with my giving an HONEST opinion of the product on my blog. He said, and I quote, "We love honesty."
It's nice to see a company actively researching what the "common man" thinks of their products. I find it even more surprising that the CEO takes the time to do the interaction himself. He emailed me and he actually read my reply. How refreshing is it to find TRUE customer care in today's corporate world?
I was a KISS fan when I was a kid. I still listen to them once in a while. However, I would like to know how it is that Gene Simmons claims to have had sex with 4,600 women. Is it the fame, the fortune, or just the really long tongue that attracted all the women?
Also, is 4,600 just a guestimate? I mean, at what point do you stop counting? Does he have a big notebook just full of tick marks or what? Or is that the number of penicillin shots he's had?
I went to the Ear Nose & Throat (ENT) doc today. This is a continuation of my sinus pressure issue. He took a look at my sinus CT scan films (that the radiologist had reported as "normal with indications of allergies") and said "Well, they aren't EXACTLY normal". He then pointed out how my sinus passages were narrower than normal and several spots that "could be" a problem.
This also happened when I went to an ortho with back problems. He took one look at the MRI film and said "Sure, you have a little swelling in this disc", which is what the radiologist reported, "but the real problem are these stress fractures in the spine right here.".
Both times, the docs pointed things out to me and to me, they were QUITE obvious. For instance, the stress fractures had that entire spot on the spine AN ENTIRELY different color on the film. How can a trained technician miss something that stands out THAT much?
Of course, this IS coming from the same diagnostic center that reported my abdominal CT as "NORMAL" and then during another test a year later found out that I only have one kidney. HOW DO YOU MISS AN ENTIRE ORGAN???
I've basically come to the conclusion that all films should be taken out of the diagnostic center and actually read by a specialist.
Is this normal? Has anyone else experienced these problems, or is it just this particular diagnostic center?
I took a look at mt-blacklist today to see about starting the anti-comment spam attack. Because I'm running version 3.1 of Movabletype, I would need to run version 2.04beta of mt-blacklist. Version 1.65 had a grand total of 5 files to drop into a few different directories, version 2.04b (the one I actually need) has like 50 files and alters the MT database schema. I'm wondering if it's worth it or if I should try some of the other products first.
I thought the only spam I had to worry about was in my email. Now, I've started getting comment spam in my blog. I've deleted a half a dozen spam comments today alone. I wasn't even sure anyone was reading my blog, never mind thinking it was worth spamming.
It's funny that my Spam problem started today and MovableType (the blog software I use) released the Guide for Fighting Comment Spam today. I guess I'm going to have to start looking into using some comment spam filtering techniques. I believe the mt-blacklist plug-in seems to be one of the most popular for MovableType.
For the other bloggers out there, do you get comment spam? How do you fight it?
CNN.com - Bush pushes for lawsuit limits - Jan 5, 2005
I don't know exactly how I feel about this issue. On one hand, the lawsuits drive up malpractice insurance. This drives up everyone’s medical bills. I know every year the cost of my medical insurance goes up as does the amount of the co-pay I have to pay. If my medical rates are getting high, and I have decent benefits, those who are paying 100% of their own insurance must be paying ridiculously high prices. Many can't afford to pay and therefore don't have ANY medical insurance. At the same time, those high malpractice insurance rates are slowly going to run the small doctors out of business because only the large hospitals will be able to afford them.
On the other hand, if I were to go in for surgery and the doctor amputated something he wasn't supposed to I think there is definitely some seriously justified compensation coming.
I think it all comes down to the need to stop FRIVOLOUS lawsuits. This isn't just in the medical arena, but everywhere. While the low lifes that are trying to get rich from suing people are definitely to blame, the courts are just as much to blame. When someone sues because they spilled coffee on themselves while driving down the road and it was *HOT* and WINS, the courts are just asking for more. (Personally, I think a lawsuit for the coffee being cold and crappy would be more reasonable :) )
Does anyone have any ideas on how to stop frivolous lawsuits? Or are payout limits the answer? Whatever the answer is, SOMETHING needs to change.
Between holiday parties, birthday celebrations and DNS problems, I just haven't been doing well at getting entries in here.
Last night we went to the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate Kyries birthday. The food was fantastic as usual. I had the Key Lime cheesecake for dessert. As a matter of fact, I only ate half my dinner and half my dessert, so that's what I'll be eating for dinner tonight too.
I finished Half Life 2 today. What a GREAT game!
I hope everyone had a good New Years celebration!
