Give,Get,Take, And Have

Don't Sleep On This Foundation

I'm totally donating money to the National Sleep Foundation
Not only because they sponsor the My Pet Loves Sleep Photo Contest (that's this weeks winner , Bitsy Baby Myers at left) but because they co -sponsor legislation that would mandate a fixed maximum of 18 consecutive hours a day for medical interns, with no more than one 18-hour overnight shift a week.

A recent nationwide poll by the Foundation found that 86 percent of people would feel anxious about their safety if their surgeons admitted they had been on duty more than 24 hours.
Seventy percent of those polled said they would ask for a different doctor if this were the case.

This poll calls into question the 14 percent who would say "No worries mate", in response to the news that their surgeon was
Orphicly challenged.

Also needing to be slapped are the remaining 30 percent of respondants who, while anxious about their sleepy surgeons, would not request a fresh one. It's what they leave out, and all that.

A recent study by Harvard Medical Schools' No Duh Institute of Stating The Obvious showed that " interns who worked more than five marathon shifts in a month were seven times more likely to report significant medical errors than those who worked no extended shifts. Interns who put in between one and four extended shifts reported that potentially harmful errors were three times more likely than when they were well rested.

Interns who put in more than five 24- to 30-hour shifts in a month were involved in 300 percent more fatal errors than when they did not work extended shifts. They were also more likely to fall asleep during surgery, while examining patients, during hospital rounds, and during lectures or seminars. "- [1]

The article cited goes on to mention swirling statistics that ,as an intelligent consumer of medical care, should scare the shit out of you. Unless you fall in to that 44 percent unknowing and uncaring demographic.

Related Links
1) Doctor fatigue hurting patients [Harvard University Gazette]
Harvard Medical School Division Of Sleep Medicine
Many Press Releases That Scream the Obvious [HMSDSM]
Are Residents' Extended Shifts Associated With Adverse Events? Study authored by Mariana Szklo-Coxe, as posted on PLoS
Medicine, a peer reviewed open access journal sponsored by the Public Library Of Science.
Interns crash more after long shifts [Harvard University Gazette]
Interns continue to work overly long shifts, study finds [Harvard University Gazette]
Sleep Research Society cosponsor of legislation.

How Much Does It Blow?

Contrary to popular belief, The Beaufort Scale is not a way to measure Mr Haney's hound dog, but is instead a scale of wind force devised by Francis Beaufort, of the British Royal Navy .
Beaufort's scale, devised at the start of the 19th Century, was not the first notable system of gale force measurement.

Daniel Defoe , Author of "Robinson Crusoe " and one of the world's first modern journalists, referred to a 12-point 'table of degrees' when writing on the especially shitty weather in Britain on 26-27 November 1703.Comprised of "bald terms used by our sailors" the 12 points included : Stark calm, Calm weather, Little wind, A fine breeze, A small gale, A fresh gale, A topsail gale, Blows fresh, A hard gale of wind, A fret of wind, A storm, and A tempest.

- From the UK's Metropolitain Office Of Weather and Climate Change
I'm suprised they don't have A Prime Minister for that.

Stephen Hawking:Playah

Stephen Hawking to Divorce

They Laughed At Me At The Academy, They Said My Theories Were The Ravings Of A Madman-

but now Technovelgy has proven me right!
Yes, you read that correctly- Technovelgy, what's that you ask?
I doubt if your puny mind can comprehend it- but it's a nifty list of which inventions and ideas presented in science fiction films and books actually came true. Leave me to my work, mortals.

THE HUH? WHAT THE?-FACTOR

13 things that do not make sense New Scientist's end- of- last- year- roundup of things that make scientists get all C& C Music Factory.
A lot of the reasons for government sponsored head scratching have to do with improvements in technology.
Scientific Instruments and methods are now more precise so (gasp!) they pick up anomalies that the older Two- Tin- Cans and The -Leaning -Tower -of -Pisa method did not.
In something akin to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principal in reverse, the things we use for observation change the nature of the observer.
Because of an increased precision in the equiptment used to measure phenomena, Einstein's Riceboys are starting to get the idea that the universe, is well, quite frankly- sloppy. The universal constant isn't always constant, and so on.
Other ephipanies include the re-emergence of cold fusion as something other than bullshit. True to form, these things tend to run in 15 year cycles. Does it really take 15 years for the Scientific Community to absorb the sting of being lied to? I guess.
Also of no comfort whatsoever is the creedence given to the placebo effect, and the grudging findings of a vehement anti-homeopathist (Item four on the list) . Never mind all that- the pharmacologist in question writes up her findings in the delightfully named "Inflammation Reseach", an apt metaphor for this year end list.

A Flying Picnic Cooler Will Surely Save us All

The Magenn Power Air Rotor System (MARS) is an innovative lighter-than-air tethered device that rotates about a horizontal axis in response to wind, efficiently generating clean renewable electrical energy at a lower cost than all competing systems. "Electrical power generated at the floating Air Rotor is transferred down the tether to ground level equipment. Depending on size of the Air Rotor, power is sent to users ranging from campers to large power grids. Helium (an inert non-flammable lighter-than-air gas) sustains the Air Rotor which ascends to an altitude for best winds. No towers or heavy foundations are necessary and sizes range from small "backpack" models to large megawatt generating devices."

My New Heroine

is Venetia Phair , who, In 1930, at just 11 years of age, suggested calling the newly discovered ninth planet "Pluto", thus making her is the only (living) person in the world who can claim to have named a planet.
Mrs Phair is keen to scotch one rumour that grew up in the years after Pluto's discovery; namely that she had named the planet after Disney's cartoon dog, which also debuted in 1930.

"People were repeatedly saying: 'Ah, she named it after Pluto the dog'. It has now been satisfactorily proven that the dog was named after the planet, rather than the other way round. So, one is vindicated...." Read the All -together charming story of The girl who named a planet on the BBC's Site

Eh? He Queried ,Uncolloquially.

Two Canadian Doctors improvise a solution to a patient's chronic earwax buildup, then write a paper describing " the off-label use of a recreational device (the Super Soaker Max-D 5000) in the alleviation of a socially emergent ear condition."
Pretty cool.

A novel method for the removal of ear cerumen by David A. Keegan* and Susan L. Bannister{dagger} *Departments of Family Medicine and Paediatrics; {dagger}Department of Pediatrics, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, Ont. [Canadian Medical Association Journal]

"Midway through the second load's stream, wax particles began to run out of the ear. Just after starting the third load, a large plug of wax burst forth from the patient's ear. The 3 generations of family members present took turns admiring (or recoiling from) the specimen. The patient exclaimed in joy, "I can hear again!"......"

..."The clinician operator of the device was impressed by the Super Soaker's ease of use for this procedure. Specifically, the ability to control a narrow, mildly pressurized jet of water was considered excellent. As well, the device only had to be refilled once or twice before the cerumen was removed from each ear. This is in contrast to his experience of requiring up to 10 or more refills of standard ear-syringing equipment. Using the Super Soaker in standard practice could then lead to decreased overall time spent on this procedure, resulting in shorter waiting times for patients through increased physician efficiency.

A disadvantage to the Super Soaker was that the very useful blue hand-pump (used to pressurize the water) also prevented the device from getting close to the ear. This meant that the jet had to start approximately 5.0–7.5 cm from the patient, leading to significant backsplash toward the operator, and significant dousing of the patient (well in excess of that from the use of standard ear-syringing equipment). Any risk to the operator from this backsplash could be reduced in the future with the use of protective personal equipment, including a face-shield and gown.
We feel that prospective randomized trials are warranted to evaluate the utility of the Super Soaker Max-D 5000 in clinical settings......

FOOTNOTES
" Disclaimer: Despite what bush-mad physicians may get up to on their private islands, CMAJ by no means endorses this particular application of the Super Soaker Max-Whatever. Do not try this at home.
Acknowledgements: The authors would like to particularly thank Mr. Charlie Bannister, age 4, for his gracious loan of his Super Soaker Max-D 5000 for this pressing clinical and social need.
Competing interests: None of the authors holds stock in the Super Soaker Max-D 5000, water pistols or any devices of that kind......

TRANSYLVANIAN DELI

Voronezh Scientists Turn Blood into Coffee, Milk, Chocolate [Mosnews]
Scientists from the Voronezh State Technological Academy have realized that every meat packing plant wastes about 7 tons of blood daily.
Test foods they have prepared taste like traditional foods , they say.
They ought to know, they are scientists dammit, and they love blood.
Seven tons of it, apparently.
Before you go off thinking that those Russians are a bunch of Commie Vampire Zombie Cannibals like McCarthy predicted, grock the fact unique blood proteins are metabolized (by the human body) two times faster than egg proteins.
So it's a speed issue then?
Lemme tell you, on a personal level, when it comes to metabalising things, I allow for latency -big time.
Here's hoping the Moscow Starbucks gets a blood latte soonish.

MMMM.......... PLANKTON!

Ever wondered how starfish eat?