April 2008 Monthly Archive

April 29, 2008

Experts Weigh In On Bipolar Disorder


And they conclude there's a lot of bad information out there.  They try to set the record straight.

Bring a bottle.


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April 28, 2008

Election 2008


Remember the good old days of 2004?  When political debate was suitable for yelling out open car windows?   "Bush lied!  And he's a cowboy!"  "Kerry flip flops!  And he's French!"  That was awesome.

This time around, instead of repeating empty, meaningless soundbites that we steal from various media sources, let's dispense with the pretense that we thought anything through, and simply yell out the sources themselves.

"CNBC at 12:30 Tuesday.  I don't remember most of it, but he got it from Rush Limbaugh."

"That's stupid, because I caught the last nine seconds of a contrasting position on Lou Dobbs at 8p on Wednesday.  That's prime time."

"My friend said XM said that All Things Considered said Dobbs was a fool, and ATC is  certainly more intellectual than the show you didn't watch, so I am ahead."

He boots up his Mac.  "Except The New Yorker had a three page story on the election that I therefore didn't need to read, so I own you."

"Oh, please, the friggin New Yorker.  I read Daily Kos."

"The Daily Kos can blow me."

Pause.

"That's it?"

"Just saying."  He orders another decaf mocha.  "Besides, Time said bloggers are monkeys with one hand down their pants."

"The crawl on CNN said Time readership is down, and masturbating primates have determined six of the last three elections.  The crawl is where all the good stuff is."

"You wish.  That crawl is as compelling as a Soulja Boy acoustic set.  Besides, the anchor at CBS made fun of CNN.  Anchor beats crawl."

"But didn't the CBS anchor steal his quotes from CNBC?"

"Yes, who in turn quoted Rush--"

"--who was responding to something from The Daily Show!"  He tears open a Splenda.    "Wait, does all political discourse in this country originate with Rush Limbaugh and Jon Stewart?"

"Sadly, yes."

Pause.  He googles Juno and iphone.

"I wonder why that is?'






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April 24, 2008

The Real Mystery of 'Lost'


Lost.jpg


Figuring out when the hell the show is going to be on.


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April 24, 2008

Update on Schering Plough

It started with the Vytorin study, and my belief that doctors purposely misstated the results in order to support/portray an anti-Pharma bias.  The stock tanked, but I predicted that  eventually reality would set in, and so the American College of Cardiology was giving me the  opportunity to make 20%.


sgp.jpg


Technically, it was only 18%, but I'll take it.  Sold today.  Likely goes to 20, but I only bought it to prove a point: doctors, especially in committees, cannot be trusted with their own data, and politics always wins over science.   I was able to make money on the politics, but what about the patients who are pawns in this game, who think they're getting "evidence based" care?

 Good luck, everyone.  You'll need it.


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April 23, 2008

Intrinsic Value of Money




A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush if that bush is a pricker bush.  And only if people actually want birds, not bushes.


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April 21, 2008

Who Are We?



A recent article in the New York Times, written by Richard Friedman, MD, is called Who Are We? Coming Of Age On Antidepressants.


The article can be summarized: "I've been on antidepressants for most of my life. How do I know who the real me is?"


It's an interesting question, and many have attempted to answer it.  But the question is faulty, because it assumes there is a "you."






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April 17, 2008

British Medical Journal Sends Its Scienticians To The Internet


And finds that "Suicide searches produce disturbing, unsurprising results."

Damn the internet, damn it and its tubes.




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April 16, 2008

The Sex-Starved Wife



sex-starved wife.jpg


On the one hand, you have articles in the Economist saying people are spending less time at work and more at home, on the other hand Time writes about the sex-starved wife.  If they're both home more and at work less, why aren't they naked?

The answer isn't porn.



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April 15, 2008

The Dead Sea Effect In Academia

And I am ashamed.


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April 14, 2008

First Anniversary Of The Death Of Antidepressants

Belated, anyway.



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April 11, 2008

Nature Says Scientists Use Performance Enhancing Drugs


If only it were true.


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April 9, 2008

Time Magazine Stays Out Of the Election



Look at the page for three seconds only.  Guess which party Time favors?


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April 7, 2008

The Pornography Of Medicine

In which appears the phrase, "the sticky pages of the New England Journal."


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April 3, 2008

Vytorin



The article that has infuriated everyone, that no one will read.


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