USATODAY.com - Family's grief spans from Iraq to Iowa

USATODAY.com - Family's grief spans from Iraq to Iowa

Oh.
Dear.
God.

USNews.com: Mortimer B. Zuckerman: A nightmare scenario (6/27/05)

More on Avian Flu

Polyhedronism

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

You are the large, round, friendly d20! (You probably didn't know this, but the shape of the twenty-sided die is called an Icosahedron.) You are the friendly, outgoing, outspoken, leader of friends. You are often looked up to, even though you don't normally deserve it. Most other types secretly wish they were you, and you'd give them tips on how, if only you had a clue yourself. Your charisma is often all you need, but you have your occasional moments of brilliance as well--just never when it's actually needed. You are the all-around good guy, a dependable chum, a respectable foe, and an inspiration to those who need one. Who says you can't get by on a smile and good looks alone?

Pakistan gang-rape victim free to go abroad

Yahoo! News

I hope she does leave Pakistan. I wish a whole lot of women could leave Pakistan.

Was This Really eBay's Fault?

There are a few things which should absolutely not be sold on eBay.

Pieces from the space shuttle which broke up over Texas would be an example.

But I can't really see why tickets to the London Live 8 concert should not be sold on eBay. I especially do not see why eBay should receive more blame than those selling on eBay.

Rolling Stone article

Yeah, Bob, you're doing a good thing fighting hunger and poverty. But by organizing this concert, you've also created something of great value. I really don't know why you decided to give tickets away instead of selling them and raising money for the cause. Its not like you really made them accessible to the underclass by holding a text message lottery.

And once those tickets leave your hands, they really are the property of the ticketholders, who are free to do with them as they wish. Nobody's found an iron-clad way to prevent scalping yet, and for a concert of this magnitude, where the number of people wanting to attend vastly exceeds the number who can, the law of supply and demand says that tickets can and will be sold for very large amounts. Appealing to the sellers better natures might help you see some of that $ back as donations. Acting the control freak and making it harder for people to sell their tickets will make them that much less likely to contribute what money they do get for them.

Get real. If we lived in the kind of a world where no one would sell their free Live 8 concert tickets, there wouldn't need to be a Live 8 concert, would there?

- Sue

Bird Flu Drug Rendered Useless

Bird Flu Drug Rendered Useless

oh.
shit.

This avian flu is a truly frightening prospect. Amarillo has 175,000 people, but is the health care center for somewhere between 1 to 1.5 million people.

If 10% of the Amarillo population is infected, and 1% of them require ventilatory support (a VERY optimistic projection), that would be 1750 Amarilloans needing an ICU bed. And 10,000 region-wide. Amarillo has about 100 ICU beds. Do the math.

U.S. dismayed at treatment of Pakistani rape victim - Yahoo! News

U.S. dismayed at treatment of Pakistani rape victim - Yahoo! News

This story keeps getting worse.

:(

Everything you always wanted to know about the stem cell debate

from Salon.com News

Mother Explains Fatal Pit Bull Mauling

Yahoo! News

I'm no fan of pit bulls, but perhaps laws banning the breeding of pit bulls would be less needed if we had laws against the breeding of pit bull owners.
*************************************************
Sun Jun 12,12:42 PM ET

SAN FRANCISCO - The mother of a 12-year-old boy killed in his own home by one of the family's two pit bulls says she had been so concerned about one of the dogs that she shut her son in the basement to protect him.

Maureen Faibish said she ordered Nicholas to stay in the basement while she did errands on June 3, the day he was attacked by one or both of the dogs. She said she was worried about the male dog, Rex, who was acting possessive because the female, Ella, was in heat.

"I put him down there, with a shovel on the door," Faibish said in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle. "And I told him: `Stay down there until I come back.' Typical Nicky, he wouldn't listen to me."

Nicholas apparently found a way to open the basement door.

Despite her concerns about Rex that day, Faibish told the newspaper: "My kids got along great with (the dogs). We were never seeing any kind of violent tendencies."

Faibish found her son's body in a bedroom. He was covered in blood from several wounds, including a major head injury. No charges have been filed.

"It's Nicky's time to go," she said in the interview. "When you're born you're destined to go and this was his time."

Ella was shot to death by a police officer the day of the attack. Rex was taken to a shelter, but Faibish said she wanted him put down.
************************************************

Silly Plant Tricks

The house we bought last year has an atrium. At one end of the atrium is an area with no flooring, just dirt. When we moved in, this was mainly occupied by 2 corn plants and a couple of rubber plants. The corn plants, one in particular, overwhelmed the whole area.

I kept thinking about cutting it back, but now I'm glad procrastination set in, because I would have missed this:
Corn Plant Flowering

The blooms really are pretty spectacular - 2-3' long and very pretty balls of white flowers. The scent, however, is sickeningly sweet, and quite overpowering. So I think now that the flowers are turning brown, we will go ahead and cut of the three main branches of the larger corn plant, and leave the smaller second plant (not pictured) to grow better, and perhaps flower itself in a year or two, and in the meantime, the rubber plants now growing in the corn plant's shadow might actually get some light!

Tyson Loses in Sixth; Career May Be Over

Yahoo! News

Career May Be Over? Please. It was over years ago. I'm sorry you're broke, Mike, really, I am. But you know what? You got more second chances than any ten people deserve. Now just go away.

Europe's oldest civilization unearthed: report

Yahoo! News

2000 years older than the Egyptian culture which built the pyramids. I love learning about ancient cultures.

One Night Changes a Life, and Calif. Town

Yahoo! News

What a great feel-good story!

Pakistan court orders 12 men freed in gang rape

Yahoo! News

Follow-up on previous story...

What I Did on My Summer Vacation - Part I

I feel human again. I just took my first days off since October 1st 2004.

I went to a medical conference, ENDO '05, put on by The Endocrine Society. It was in San Diego this year. It's a really neat conference, and very unusual in that it is not all physicians there. About half of the members and attendees are physicians; the other half are Ph.D.'s and others involved in basic science research into areas of physiology, cellular biology, biochemistry, pharmacology pertaining to the medical specialty of Endocrinology. It is really fascinating to see things discussed on a basic science level later be the focus of clinical research and later still have senior physicians-in-practice discuss their role in therapy. There was a huge amount of new material, since with my almost-deployment 2 years ago, and moving into the new house 1 year ago, I haven't been to this conference since 2002.

And it's great fun to catch up with old friends. Although I don't know a large number of the 8,000+ attendees at the meeting, I am part of a "society within the society" - current and former military Endocrinologists. And I do know most of them from my work with the "Society of Uniformed Endocrinologists" (SUE) while I was still on active duty. We had a dinner together at a Spanish restaurant Sunday night and that was a blast. There was hardly a seminar in the 4 days of the conference where I didn't see someone I knew.

San Diego was a neat place for the conference, even if I didn't get out much. I stayed at a Comfort Inn in the Gaslamp Quarter, and walked to and from the conference every day except once when there was a dinner presentation that let out about 10PM (after dark). Yes, it's a very nice part of town, but I don't walk alone after dark anywhere. Part of what made it great though, was that the hotel was only a few blocks from a Ralph's (Cali grocery chain) with a great selection of prepared foods, so nights I didn't have a dinner to go, I just got something there. I also got 2 12-packs of Diet Cokes the first evening I was there, and a couple of freezer packs, and since I had a fridge in the room (something the $200+ a night places assume you don't need) I always had plenty of Diet Cokes to take to the conference and never had to pay $2.50 for a Diet Coke at the convention center.

You would think that being surrounded by so many super smart people, everyone would know how to put their cell phones on vibrate, or better yet to off, while speakers were presenting their research. But nooooooooooo. Despite signs throughout the conference center advising people to turn put thier cell phones to vibrate, despite slides on the screens as you walked into meeting rooms, despite common courtesy/common sense, I don't think 15 minutes went by without some idiot having their cell phone go off.

Also, if your travels plans include airline travel between the east/central US and the West Coast, and you have the option of changing planes at Las Vegas or elsewhere, go elsewhere. Even if "elsewhere" is in China. My plane from Amarillo took off 2 1/2 hours late because there was no runway available until 2 1/2 hours after our scheduled arrival time due to construction going on there. Fortunately, my connecting plane was delayed by a similar amount of time, so no problems there. But avoid Las Vegas as a connecting center. If you are flying in or out of Vegas, travel as early in the day as possible to avoid serious delays.

All in all, I had a good time, learned lots about some new therapies, updated strategies for some common vexing problems, and feel recharged. I've got some other time off coming up, and will be getting some playtime in then.

Doctors reluctant to accept military insurance

Star-Telegram.com

This reporter really has no clue about Tricare.