New Year's Eve: Iceland

Pretty chaos, originally uploaded by BeggaSnorra.

Links for 2006-12-31

• The Becker-Posner Blog
  A blog by Gary Becker and Richard Posner (an economist and lawyer at the University of Chicago).
• The Becker-Posner Blog: Comment on the New York Ban on Trans Fats--BECKER
  Posner gives an excellent analysis of the possible risks from consuming too much trans fats, but I believe he reaches the wrong conclusion about whether the NY ban of trans fats in restaurants is warranted...
• Wired News: Computer Warming a Privacy Risk
  A security researcher has a devised a novel attack on online anonymity systems in which he literally takes a computer's temperature over the internet.
• Death By Hanging
  "Basically it's 'drop, crack, dead' — if it's done right," said Dr. D.P. Lyle, a cardiologist and author of the book "Forensics for Dummies."
• Clinical Cases and Images - UK Medical School Interview Technique on YouTube
• Can Google Come Out to Play? - New York Times
  You could be forgiven for not knowing that a satellite Google campus is growing in downtown Manhattan.
• Top 10 Viral Video Moments of 2006 « Will Video for Food
• Elder-Care Costs Deplete Savings of a Generation - New York Times

Links for 2006-12-30

• Catching the Light » Top 25 Astronomical Images of 2006
• BoingBoing's most-trafficked posts of 2006 (and all time)
• NeoNurseChic: Change of Shift: Vol 1, No 14
  Change of Shift is a nursing blog carnival.
  
• Iraq War Medicine - National Geographic Magazine
• 2006 LifeHack Review: Best 50 hacks for your Life
• Patient Request for Email Communications: HIPAA Form
  
• CrunchGear » Workspace Roundup: Ergonomic Chairs

Links for 2006-12-29

• Top Five Nanotech Breakthroughs Of 2006 - Forbes.com
• City Drops Plan to Change Definition of Gender - New York Times
  New York City's Board of Health unexpectedly withdrew a proposal yesterday that would have allowed people to alter the sex on their birth certificates without sex-change surgery.
• Parrots Have Colonized the Wilds of Brooklyn - washingtonpost.com
  Thought to be long-ago escapees from a container at John F. Kennedy International Airport, their ranks replenished by unauthorized releases from pet shops...
• Flight Patterns -- Animation
• NEJM -- An Intervention to Decrease Catheter-Related Bloodstream Infections in the ICU
  An evidence-based intervention resulted in a large and sustained reduction (up to 66%) in rates of catheter-related bloodstream infection that was maintained throughout the 18-month study period.
• Low-Tech Measures Slash Catheter-Related ICU Infections - CME Teaching Brief® - MedPage Today
• Dialysis in N.Y. Lags as Diabetes Ruins Kidneys - New York Times
  Newly released patient data show that people who receive their dialysis from a national chain generally fare better than those treated by an independent provider.
• Clinical Cases and Images - Blog: Interesting Medical Links
• Amazon.com: Best of 2006: Books
• Music denied -- shoppers overwhelm iTunes - CNN.com
  Swarms of online shoppers armed with new iPods and iTunes gift cards apparently overwhelmed Apple's iTunes music store over the holiday, prompting error messages and slowdowns of 20 minutes or more for downloads of a single song.

First Images from Hinode Satellite Offer New Clues About Our Sun (Solar-B)

This image of the sun was captured by Hinode's X-Ray Telescope, one of three primary instruments on the international science satellite.

Links for 2006-12-28

• Wednesday One-Liners Need a Better Bedside Manner -- Overheard in New York
• New England Journal of Medicine Audio Summary for December 28, 2006
  Featured are articles on decreasing catheter-related bloodstream infections in the ICU, lapatinib plus capecitabine for HER2-positive advanced breast cancer, female predominance and transmission distortion in the long-QT syndrome...
• Productive Strategies: Free Academic Podcasts
  "Here is the complete list of 145 podcasts for your educational pleasure."
• Effective Decision Making - Financial, Business and Management Decision Making from Mind Tools
• Best of Getting Things Done | 43 Folders

New Yorkers Given Rabies Warning

According to the BBC. But usually, Staten Island ain't got nothing on the Bronx.

Mayfly

"A Virtual Reprise of the Stanley Milgram Obedience Experiments"

Torturing someone for an experiment is unethical -- but what if it's performed in a virtual environment?

Via PLoS ONE (published under a Creative Commons license):

Background

Stanley Milgram's 1960s experimental findings that people would administer apparently lethal electric shocks to a stranger at the behest of an authority figure remain critical for understanding obedience. Yet, due to the ethical controversy that his experiments ignited, it is nowadays impossible to carry out direct experimental studies in this area. In the study reported in this paper, we have used a similar paradigm to the one used by Milgram within an immersive virtual environment. Our objective has not been the study of obedience in itself, but of the extent to which participants would respond to such an extreme social situation as if it were real in spite of their knowledge that no real events were taking place.

Methodology

Following the style of the original experiments, the participants were invited to administer a series of word association memory tests to the (female) virtual human representing the stranger. When she gave an incorrect answer, the participants were instructed to administer an ‘electric shock’ to her, increasing the voltage each time. She responded with increasing discomfort and protests, eventually demanding termination of the experiment. Of the 34 participants, 23 saw and heard the virtual human, and 11 communicated with her only through a text interface.

Conclusions

Our results show that in spite of the fact that all participants knew for sure that neither the stranger nor the shocks were real, the participants who saw and heard her tended to respond to the situation at the subjective, behavioural and physiological levels as if it were real. This result reopens the door to direct empirical studies of obedience and related extreme social situations, an area of research that is otherwise not open to experimental study for ethical reasons, through the employment of virtual environments.

Links for 2006-12-27

• Traffic Web Cams - NYC DOT
  Real time traffic cameras in New York City.
• Blogborygmi: Grand Rounds 3.14
• Who owns a donated organ? - By Kathryn Lewis - Slate Magazine
  No one, really. American courts have generally refused to treat a corpse as someone's "property," and the same ambiguity extends to the organs.

"Googling for a Diagnosis: Using Google as a Diagnostic Aid"

Actually, I'm shocked that Google revealed the correct diagnosis in only 58% of cases. (Using Google Scholar instead might have increased the yield.) From the British Medical Journal (Free Full Text):

Objective To determine how often searching with Google (the
most popular search engine on the world wide web) leads
doctors to the correct diagnosis.
Design Internet based study using Google to search for
diagnoses; researchers were blind to the correct diagnoses.
Setting One year’s (2005) diagnostic cases published in the case
records of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Cases 26 cases from the New England Journal of Medicine;
management cases were excluded.
Main outcome measure Percentage of correct diagnoses from
Google searches (compared with the diagnoses as published in
the New England Journal of Medicine).
Results Google searches revealed the correct diagnosis in 15
(58%, 95% confidence interval 38% to 77%) cases.
Conclusion As internet access becomes more readily available
in outpatient clinics and hospital wards, the web is rapidly
becoming an important clinical tool for doctors. The use of web
based searching may help doctors to diagnose difficult cases.

Links for 2006-12-26

• The Man on the Table Was 97, but He Devised the Surgery - New York Times
  Article about DeBakey's surgery for an aortic aneurysm.
• Charlie Brown Christmas - Performed by the Cast of Scrubs - YouTube
• James Brown RIP: Jump back, Jack, see you later, alligator | The Huffington Post
  James Brown, the dynamic, pompadoured "Godfather of Soul," whose rasping vocals and revolutionary rhythms made him a founder of rap, funk and disco as well, died early Monday, his agent said. He was 73.
• New York Daily News - 9/11 evac study: Don't wait, don't ask, just go
  A study on how survivors fled the twin towers on 9/11 has yielded this advice for future disasters: leave your purse, don't ask your boss for permission and don't waste one second getting out.
• Social Networking Awards - The Top Social Networks of 2006 - Mashable!
• Welcome, Year of the Widget - Newsweek Technology
• The 10 Best Books of 2006 - New York Times
• 100 Notable Books of the Year - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

Flickr: James Brown

James Brown @ parkorman, originally uploaded by Tasslehoff Burrfoot.

Links for 2006-12-25

• Biomedical Implications of a New Kind of Science -- Stephen Wolfram
  Given as the 2006 Harvey Preisler Memorial Lecture at the UMass Medical Center.
• WolframTones: Generate a Composition
  WolframTones works by taking simple programs from Wolfram's computational universe, and using music theory and Mathematica algorithms to render them as music.
• Stephen Wolfram: A New Kind of Science | Online - Table of Contents
• 5 Firefox extensions that will change the way you search
• Google Apps for Your Domain
• Google Book Search is a plagiarist's nightmare. - By Paul Collins - Slate Magazine
  For any plagiarist living in an age of search engines, waving a loaded book in front of reviewers has become the literary equivalent of suicide by cop.
• Research Brief: Getting Antibiotics Without Seeing a Doctor
  Amidst increasing concern that the overuse of antibiotics is contributing to the emergence of antibioticresistant "superbugs," new data suggest that large numbers of Americans receive prescription antibiotics without first seeing a physician.
• Albino wild boar popular with photographers to use on New Year cards
  Many visitors are flocking to an amusement park here to photograph an albino wild boar called "Bu-chan," as they want to use photographs of the animal on New Year cards.
• Search - A Wikia wiki
  "Welcome to Search Wikia, a project to create the search engine that changes everything."

Link for 2006-12-24

• PLoS ONE : Publishing science, accelerating research

Links for 2006-12-23

• Eakins Painting to Stay in Philadelphia
  "The Gross Clinic," a graphic 1875 canvas that depicts surgeon Samuel Gross teaching Jefferson students the finer points of 19th century surgery, was designed to illustrate Philadelphia's groundbreaking scientific and artistic achievements.
• O'Reilly Radar > Mechanical Turk is a Community Substitute
  Amazon's Mechanical Turk is great as artificial, artificial intelligence. It is perfectly designed to facilitate humans (or Turkers) transcribing podcasts, fixing MP3 metadata, and picking the best picture of a storefront.
• Henry Kissinger On Colbert Greenscreen Challenge: "It Is Time To Rock"... | The Huffington Post
• Italian Poet Dies With Help From a Doctor - New York Times
  Piergiorgio Welby, who had eloquently begged Italy's leaders to let him end his life legally, died late Wednesday after a doctor sedated him and removed the respirator that had kept him alive for nine years.
• UnSpun by Amazon: Community Opinions ... Ranked!
• Amazon Mechanical Turk: Work on a Random Unspun List
• Reuters/Second Life » Warren Ellis to write weekly SL column for Reuters
  Writer Warren Ellis, author of comic books, graphic novels, and two forthcoming novels, is bringing his "Second Life Sketches" to the Reuters Second Life News Center as a weekly column beginning next month.
• British Medical Journal Christmas Issue (December 23 2006, 333 [7582])
  Free Full Text.
• How Web 2.0 is changing medicine -- Giustini 333 (7582): 1283 -- British Medical Journal
• Hilarious Journal Articles #71: Sword swallowing and its side effects -- Witcombe and Meyer 333 (7582): 1285 -- BMJ
  We had information from 46 sword swallowers. Major complications are more likely when the swallower is distracted or swallows multiple or unusual swords or when previous injury is present.
• Hilarious Journal Articles #72: Subcutaneous inflammation mimicking metastatic malignancy induced by injection of mistletoe extract -- Finall et al. 333 (7582): 1293 -- BMJ
  We describe the histological features of subcutaneous inflammation induced by mistletoe, a popular Christmas decoration, when used as an anticancer complementary therapy.
• Hilarious Journal Articles #73: Phenotypic differences between male physicians, surgeons, and film stars: comparative study -- Trilla et al. 333 (7582): 1291 -- BMJ
  Male surgeons are taller and better looking than physicians, but film stars who play doctors on screen are better looking than both these groups of doctors. Whether these phenotypic differences are genetic or environmental is unclear.
• Hilarious Journal Articles #74: Time to stop sniffing the air: snapshot survey -- Johnson and Goodman 333 (7582): 1295 -- BMJ
  To determine whether the phrase "sniffing the morning air" is useful in positioning patients for tracheal intubation.
• NYC by Night - a photoset on Flickr
• The world is in your hand | haha.nu

FDA MedWatch - Update on MRI Contrast Agents Containing Gadolinium and Nephrogenic Fibrosing Dermopathy

The FDA has issued a Public Health Advisory to notify healthcare professionals
that it has received additional information about a new disease, known
as Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis or Nephrogenic Fibrosing Dermopathy
(NSF/NFD), which may occur in patients with moderate to end-stage kidney
disease after they have had a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) or
Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA) scan with a gadolinium-based
contrast agent. FDA has received reports of 90 patients with moderate to
end-stage kidney disease who developed NSF/NFD after they had an MRI or
MRA with a gadolinium-based contrast agent. FDA is notifying health
care providers and patients that: 1] Patients with moderate to end-stage
kidney disease who receive an MRI or MRA with a gadolinium-based
contrast agent may get NSF/NFD which is debilitating and may cause
death, 2] Patients who believe they may have NSF/NFD should contact
their doctor, 3] When a patient with moderate to end-stage kidney
disease needs an imaging study, select imaging methods other than MRI or
MRA with a gadolinium-based contrast agent for the study whenever
possible, and 4] FDA asks health care professionals and patients to
report possible cases of NSF/NFD to the FDA through the MedWatch
program.

Read the complete MedWatch 2006 Safety summary, including links to the
updated information page, Public Health Advisory, and previous June 2006
alert, at:

http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/safety/2006/safety06.htm#Gadolinium

Links for 2006-12-22

• del.icio.us: tagometer
  The Tagometer includes an up-to-date count of others who've already bookmarked the page, as well as a fresh list of the top tags applied.
• Prediction markets accurately forecast influenza activity
  Influenza experts have borrowed a page from economists, creating a futures market for influenza activity that predicted outbreaks two to four weeks in advance.
• The dawn of time - after 13 billion years in the darkroom
• Web 2.0 how-to design style guide
• Doctor disciplined for removing patient's kidney, not gallbladder
  The state Board of Registration in Medicine has ruled that a doctor cannot perform surgeries without another physician present after wrongly removing a patient's kidney instead of her gallbladder.
• The new 100 most useful sites | Guardian Unlimited Technology
• Avatars consume as much electricity as Brazilians
• Bizarre nanoparticles found in kidney stones
  Researchers who've found strange nanoparticles in a handful of kidney stones say these self-replicating specks may play a role in disease.
• The Lancet Podcast, Friday Dec 22
  This week's podcast includes an interview with Christopher Murray from Harvard University, one of the authors of the research article estimating 62 million deaths from a future influenza pandemic.
• Flickr: Medicine Photos, Most Interesting
• The Unexplained Explainer
  "How likely is it/how often do we inhale/consume and/or incorporate into our own protein structure molecules that were once in some historical figure, say Abraham Lincoln?"

Rank the Best Internal Medicine, Cardiology, and Nephrology Books using Amazon's Mechanical Turk and Unspun

Amazon's Mechanical Turk is an experiment in "Artificial Artificial Intelligence" -- human intelligence that looks like artificial intelligence. Unspun is a service that uses Amazon's Mechanical Turk in order to create "best of" lists. Here are three sample lists:

• Best Internal Medicine Books
• Best Nephrology Books
• Best Cardiology Books

You can rank other lists (and be paid a small amount) using the Mechanical Turk here.

Flickr: Gouda City Hall Fog, I

Gouda City Hall Fog, I, originally uploaded by doogie.

Links for 2006-12-21

• Respectful Insolence: Best Medical/Health Issues Blog in 2006 Weblog Awards
  It appears that Respectful Insolence won the 2006 Weblog Awards as Best Medical/Health Issues blog.
• Shuzak.com | Anatomy of a Successful Social Network
• New England Journal of Medicine Audio Summary for December 21, 2006
  Featured are articles on diagnostic techniques for ventilator-associated pneumonia, biomarkers for the prediction of cardiovascular events and death, ertapenem versus cefotetan prophylaxis in elective colorectal surgery...
• Nature Cancels Public Reviews Of Scientific Papers - WSJ.com
• The Blog Mob -- WSJ.com
• A Poet Crusades for the Right to Die His Way - New York Times
• Hilarious Journal Articles #70: Navigation-related structural change in the hippocampi of taxi drivers -- Maguire et al. 97 (8): 4398 -- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  Structural MRIs of the brains of humans with extensive navigation experience, licensed London taxi drivers, were analyzed and compared with those of control subjects who did not drive taxis.
• Art Buchwald - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  In February, 2006, Buchwald checked himself into in a ... hospice. He elected to forego kidney dialysis... However, his health did not fail as rapidly as he expected... On November 22, 2006 Buchwald again appeared on the Diane Rehm show describing himself
• Top 7 Freshest Designs of 2006 » Wisdump
• Hack Attack: Become a Gmail master - Lifehacker

A Selection of Best Posts of 2006

Dissect Medicine and Social Bookmarking
New Target Hemoglobin for Anemia of Kidney Disease
Lists of Favorite Podcasts
Musings on Vasculopath
Nephrology Case #11
Useful Tools for Blogging, Medicine, Getting Things Done
While You're Tattoing "Do Not Resuscitate" on Your Chest
Sopranos and Zosyn
How Not to Get Bitten By Your Dog
High Blood Pressure Due to Automatic Blood Pressure Monitors

WikiMapia: Central Park

Links for 2006-12-20

• Nicostopper
  The Nicostopper is an electronic cigarette dispenser in which you can fit a maximum of 10 cigarettes at a time.
• HIV trial in Libya - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  On December 7, 2006 the journal Nature published a new study which examined the mutation history of the HIV virus found in blood samples from the children, and found that they had likely been first infected years before the Benghazi Six arrived in Libya.
• Nurse Ratched's Place: It's Christmas Grand Rounds
• Technology Review: Printing Muscle and Bone
  Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh have successfully directed adult stem cells from mice to develop into bone and muscle cells with the aid of a custom-designed ink-jet printer.
• NASA - NASA and Google to Bring Space Exploration Down to Earth
  NASA Ames Research Center and Google have signed a Space Act Agreement that formally As the first in a series of joint collaborations, Google and Ames will focus on making the most useful of NASA's information available on the Internet. Real-time weather
• "Gender-testing" female athletes. - Slate Magazine
  The test report says she "does not possess the sexual characteristics of a woman," apparently because she has "more Y chromosomes than allowed." (The test involves gynecological, endocrine, and genetic exams.)
• Worldmapper: The world as you've never seen it before
  Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest.
• Google 2006 Zeitgeist
  A year's worth of search speaks to our collective consciousness, and 2006 is no exception. To compile these year-end lists and graphs, we reviewed a variety of the most popular search terms that people typed into Google.
• Is There a Barber in the House? When Cutting Hair Saves a Life - New York Times
  Now her doctors wondered, How did her hair become impregnated with insecticide in quantities to bring her to the brink of death?
• Books of the year 2006 | Economist.com
• Radio Guy Medical Curiosities
• Tech Medicine: Avoid Intravenous Promethazine (Phenergan) When You're Nauseous or When You're Getting a Pain Shot
• David Allen Company Principles
• Random Message Widget Creator
• John Hodgman's Blog
• Maria prescribes her first medication for erectile dysfunction
• Google Browser Sync
  Google Browser Sync for Firefox is an extension that continuously synchronizes your browser settings – including bookmarks, history, persistent cookies, and saved passwords – across your computers.
• War Games 2: The Dead Code (2007)
  Computer hacker Will Farmer (Lanter) engages a goverment super-computer named Ripley in an online terrorist-attack simulation game. Little does Farmer know that Ripley has been designed to appeal to potential terrorists...
• Wikimapia blog: How to add a Google Map to any web page in 30 seconds.

Flickr: navidad de diseño

navidad de diseño, originally uploaded by cmedrang.

Links for 2006-12-19

• TIME.com: Person of the Year: You
• Social Bookmarking Tools: A General Review
• TEH INTERNETS - a photoset on Flickr
• Weather Bonk - Live Weather, Forecasts, WebCams, and more on a Google Map
• Doctor offers man his kidney after mistakenly removing both of them
  Dr Francois Boezaart mistakenly removed the wrong kidney. The cancerous one has since been removed and Boezaart has apparently offered Lamprecht one of his own kidneys.
• United Press International - Pastor to give kidney to rabbi
• Novartis announces three-month extension of US regulatory review period for Tekturna®
  Novartis announced today that the US regulatory review period has been extended by up to three months for Tekturna® (aliskiren), which was submitted for approval earlier in 2006 to become the first in a new class of high blood pressure medicines...
• Fighting Crime Using Videos on YouTube - New York Times
• Kidney Drug Coverage.org
  This site was developed by the Kidney Medicare Drugs Awareness and Education Initiative to provide timely, consistent, reliable, and up-to-date information about Medicare and Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage (Part D), specifically for kidney patients a
• Gmail: Help Center - Which phones work with Gmail for mobile browser?
• LogMeIn Hamachi : VPN
  LogMeIn Hamachi is a zero-configuration virtual private networking (VPN) application. In other words Hamachi is a program that allows you to arrange multiple computers into their own secure network just as if they were connected by a physical network
• Foxmarks
  The Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer automatically synchronizes your bookmarks between two or more computers running Firefox.
• everystockphoto.com - your source for free photos
  everystockphoto.com is a search engine for creative commons photos, located in Vancouver, BC. We aim to be a community for designers, developers, photographers and other media publishers who want better, easier access to license-specific media on the web.
• stikkit
  Stikkit makes organizing your daily details as simple as jotting down a note or firing off email. Stikkit's "little yellow notes that think" talk to the productivity applications you already use, as well as to friends, coworkers and family.
• Roll Call of Notable Deaths in 2006 | Guardian Unlimited
• Amazon.com: Nespresso C180W Le Cube Automatic Espresso Machine

Flickr: Space Station Over New Zealand

They fly over my house, originally uploaded by Brenda Anderson.

Links for 2006-12-18

• The Case For a Regulated System of Living Kidney Sales
• New York Daily News -Towers, excitement rising at WTC site
  More than five years after the destruction of the twin towers, the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site has begun in earnest.
• Counterinsurgency Manual: usacac.army.mil/CAC/Repository/Materials/COIN-FM3-24.pdf
• Eli Lilly Said to Play Down Risk of Zyprexa- New York Times
  The drug maker Eli Lilly has engaged in a decade-long effort to play down the health risks of Zyprexa, its best-selling medication for schizophrenia, according to hundreds of internal Lilly documents and e-mail messages among top company managers.
• iTunes power tips - Lifehacker
• Download of the Day: Google Toolbar 3 Beta (Firefox) - Lifehacker
  Access your bookmarks from anywhere, open Google Docs & Spreadsheets files and do other cool stuff with Google Toolbar 3 Beta.
• The best apps of 2006 - Lifehacker
• "Devices Can Interfere With Peaceful Death: [Implantable Defibrillators] Repeatedly Shock Hearts Of Patients Who Cannot Be Saved"
  When Carol Lewis's father-in-law died, family members circled his hospital bed to pray, expecting to offer their final goodbyes peacefully. Then his body suddenly started to lurch.
• N.Y. LovesTrans Fats! - washingtonpost.com
  When did New York transform itself from all-purpose Gomorrah to that annoying friend from Los Angeles who says things like "Dude, you shouldn't eat that"?

Quote of the Day: Those Things Are Addictive

Random person in hospital hallway as I'm looking at my Treo: "Those things are addictive. I threw mine away. You should throw yours away."
--
Sent via Treo

What Happened to Ariel Sharon?

Back in July, I wrote about how Ariel Sharon was being treated with hemofiltration (similar to dialysis) for kidney failure. I had assumed he was doing poorly, but as far as I know, he hasn't died, and there isn't anything on Google News about Sharon being on chronic dialysis. Did his kidneys recover?

Links for 2006-12-17

• Break Through Your Medical Practice Success Barriers.mp3 (Journal of Medical Practice Management)
• Empty-Stomach Intelligence - New York Times
  The stimulation of hunger, the researchers announced in the March issue of Nature Neuroscience, causes mice to take in information more quickly, and to retain it better — basically, it makes them smarter.
• How do I get experimental drugs? - By Christopher Beam - Slate Magazine
  First, get sick.
• How do you perform an adult circumcision? - By Daniel Engber - Slate Magazine
  Adult circumcision can reduce the risk of HIV transmission by 50 percent, the National Institutes of Health reported on Wednesday.
• Wordie
  "Like Flickr, but without the photos."
• Warning Signs - a photoset on Flickr
  "Existential threat." "Antimatter." "Nonstandard spacetime."
• Schneier on Security: Real-World Passwords
  The top 20 passwords are (in order): password1, abc123, myspace1, password, blink182, qwerty1, f*ckyou, 123abc, baseball1, football1, 123456, soccer, monkey1, liverpool1, princess1, jordan23, slipknot1, superman1, iloveyou1 and monkey.
• An Interview with Bruce Schneier (The Silver Bullet Security Podcast)
• The 10 most dangerous toys of all time : Radar Online
  Target recalled 10 of its Kool Toyz-brand play sets, citing hazards like "lead paint," "sharp points," and "puncture wound potential."
• HydraCoach Intelligent Water Bottle
  The HydraCoach is the worlds first Interactive Water Bottle. It calculates your personal hydration needs, tracks your real-time fluid consumption, paces you throughout the day and motivates you to achieve and maintain optimal hydration.
• Mind Map Guidelines (from Wikipedia)
• Compare Maps with Flash Earth

Nephrology Cases / On Call Musings: Very Different Clinical Situations That Look Alike

A 65 year old man with known congestive heart failure presents with pulmonary infiltrates, respiratory failure, and a low serum sodium of 117. Is it primarily congestive heart failure or is it pneumonia with the low sodium related to SIADH? Surprisingly, it turned out to be the latter. This is a situation where a Swan-Ganz catheter was extremely useful.

Report on Searching Online for Health Topics by the Pew Internet & American Life Project

From Online Health Search 2006:

Eighty percent of American internet users, or some 113 million adults, have searched for information on at least one of seventeen health topics. Most internet users start at a general search engine when researching health and medical advice online. Just 15% of health seekers say they “always” check the source and date of the health information they find online, while another 10% say they do so “most of the time.” Fully three-quarters of health seekers say they check the source and date “only sometimes,” “hardly ever,” or “never,” which translates to about 85 million Americans gathering health advice online without consistently examining the quality indicators of the information they find. Most health seekers are pleased about what they find online, but some are frustrated or confused.

Links for 2006-12-16

• Smart Elevators - New York Times
  Instead of a button to call the elevator, there's a keypad. Punch in the number of the floor you want, and the computer will direct you to a particular elevator.
• 300,000 in the USA afflicted by [arteriovenous malformation], most don't know it - USATODAY.com
  Sen. Tim Johnson is one of about 300,000 people in the USA with the congenital defect called arteriovenous malformation (AVM). Most people don't realize they've got the problem until they suffer a seizure or an episode of internal bleeding.
• Favorite Books of 2006 | Salon Books
• MineZone Wiki | GettingThingsDone
• Monogenic Forms of Low-Renin Hypertension -- Medscape
• Cascading Next Actions (Getting Things Done) : MarkTAW.com
• PREVAIL: VTE Reduced With Enoxaparin vs Heparin in Stroke
  Results of a randomized trial show a significant reduction in venous-thromboembolism (VTE) events in stroke patients receiving the low-molecular-weight (LMW) heparin enoxaparin (Lovenox, Sanofi-Aventis) vs unfractionated heparin, without a significant inc
• Survival Better With Short, Daily Dialysis Than With Conventional HD
  Survival among 117 patients treated by short, daily hemodialysis was 61% better than that of the US population on conventional hemodialysis.
• SCAI Publishes Recommendations for Prevention of Contrast-Induced Nephropathy
  The Society of Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) has published recommendations to assist in the prevention of contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN).
• Renal Week 2006: American Society of Nephrology Annual Meeting -- Medscape
• 10 Reasons to Buy a DSLR Camera - TheTechLounge
• Breath Capture
  Breath Capture is a patent-pending method and apparatus for collecting human breath as a keepsake display.
• Gothamist: There Is No Exchange Policy On Kidney Donations

KidneyNotes Enhanced with Snap Preview Anywhere

In order to make your browsing more efficient, If you hover over the links on KidneyNotes you'll now see a preview of the website it links to. For more information on Snap Preview Anywhere, see here.

Links for 2006-12-15

• The 6th Annual Year in Ideas -- The New York Times
  Our editors and writers have located the peaks and valleys of ingenuity — the human cognitive faculty deployed with intentions good and bad, purposes serious and silly, consequences momentous and morbid.
• MIT OpenCourseWare
  a free and open educational resource (OER) for educators, students, and self-learners around the world.
• Amazon.com: Mindjet MindManager Basic 6
• intueri: to contemplate » Liberals are Safe.
  "I don't want to kill liberals anymore. And I've got you to thank for that."
• Senator Tim Johnson's difficulty speaking during a WNAX radio interview — MP3
  Johnson spokeswoman Julianne Fisher said the senator was in the Capitol on Wednesday morning conducting a conference call with South Dakota reporters when "his speech pattern slipped off."
• Vagina's Molecular Armor - Medgadget
  "It's a smart molecular condom because we designed this gel to release anti-HIV drugs when the gel comes into contact with semen during intercourse."
• NY judge tosses suit of Florida man on Atkins diet | Reuters.com
  A New York federal judge on Monday tossed out a lawsuit by a Florida man against the company behind the Atkins low-carb diet that alleged it caused his cholesterol to skyrocket and necessitated an angioplasty
• Terie and Ger's Transplant Adventure: The Big Holiday Feed and Dialysis
• CHANGE OF SHIFT, Vol. 1, No. 13 at Protect The Airway
• Nascent: Nature's blog on web technology and science
• Spoonful of Medicine: Musings on Science, Medicine, and Politics (Nature.com)
• buzznovation: GTD, The Road Map
  
• Notes from "Getting Things Done: The Roadmap" -- PointReyes.net
• Medical Experts Launch Global Campaign Against Salt to Prevent Over 2.5 Million Deaths Worldwide Each Year : ISN Nephrology Gateway
  194 medical experts from 48 countries around the world (1) have today joined together to launch a new global organisation, WASH - World Action on Salt and Health - in a concerted effort to reduce dietary salt intake to less than 5g per day per adult...
  
• PC World's Techlog: Google Patents: The Atari Files
• URINAL CARRIER - Google Patents
  Assigned to Lenox Hill Hospital...

FDA Public Health Advisory: Gadolinium-containing Contrast Agents for Magnetic Resonance Imaging Associated with Nephrogenic Fibrosing Dermopathy

From the FDA:

The FDA has learned of 25 foreign cases of Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis/Nephrogenic Fibrosing Dermopathy (NSF/NFD) in patients with renal failure who underwent Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA) with Omniscan. Omniscan and other gadolinium-containing contrast agents are FDA approved for use in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) but not for MRA. Physicians should carefully assess the need for performing MRI with contrast in patients with advanced renal failure (those currently requiring dialysis or with a Glomerular Filtration Rate (GFR)≤15cc/min) and administer the minimal needed dose of contrast agent if MRI with contrast is necessary. The FDA is further evaluating the possible link between the use of gadolinium-containing contrast agents and development of NSF/NFD.

Links for 2006-12-14

• Video of Night Launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery - Dec 9, 2006
• DJ Riko Christmas Music Mixes
  The DJ Riko Merry Mixmas collection is a holiday tradition that dates back to 2002.
• Dissect Medicine - Current Headline Stories
  Seen an interesting medical-related news story on the web? Add it to Dissect Medicine, along with your comments. It will take just a moment. Not only is this a great way to keep track of news, but once you send an item to Dissect Medicine, all other Disse
• Carbonite Online Backup
  "Nonstop unlimited automatic backup over the Internet."
• Visions of Bonus Heaven in Goldman Sachs Profit - New York Times
  Quarterly profits soared 93 percent.
• J Forensic Sci, Vol 51, Issue 6, pp. 1362-1371: Serial Murder by Healthcare Professionals (Abstract)
  The prosecution of Charles Cullen, a nurse who killed at least 40 patients over a 16-year period, highlights the need to better understand the phenomenon of serial murder by healthcare professionals.
• FDA Orders Unapproved Quinine Drugs Off the Market
  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today ordered firms to stop marketing unapproved drug products containing quinine, a drug used to treat malaria, citing serious safety concerns, including deaths, associated with quinine products.
• Dr. Shameless: Why I Take Handouts from Drug Companies (Slate)
  My drug-company habit started innocently enough—a pen here, a lunch there. But soon I hit the harder stuff: a trip to Italy in exchange for attending a symposium, tickets to a Mets game for my sons and me (and a chatty drug rep). Et cetera.
• PC World - The 15 Best Places to Waste Time on the Web
• PC World - Digital Focus: Demystifying Lenses
• The FPM Toolbox -- American Academy of Family Physicians
  The FPM Toolbox offers 150+ tools that you can use to improve your practice.
• New England Journal of Medicine Audio Summary for December 14, 2006
  Featured are articles on the prevention of antigenically drifted influenza by inactivated and live attenuated vaccines, the effectiveness of school-based influenza vaccination, colonoscopic withdrawal times and adenoma detection...
• For Getting Baby to Sleep, Sticking to a Plan Is What Counts - New York Times
• My Final Prediction: Bruce Sterling
  The Internet has a habit of defying expectations.

Flickr: leftover drops

leftover drops, originally uploaded by Steve took it.

Links for 2006-12-13

• How to Turn an Ordinary Photo Into an Extraordinary Photo
• Babble Magazine
  On December 12th, Nerve Media will launch its second online magazine: Babble.com, an exciting, intelligent daily publication and interactive community for urban parents.
• Medicare Links Doctors' Pay to Practices - New York Times
  Now, doctors can qualify for a 1.5 percent bonus in the second half of 2007 if they report data on the quality of their care, using measures specified by the government.
• Healthy Babies Need Irony - New York Times
  Babble.com, set to begin on Tuesday, aspires to appeal to educated, culturally engaged urban hipsters who are knee-deep in baby gear and seeking not just advice but the humor in it all.
• Exploring Google's Hidden Features
  Google is a great search engine, but it's also more than that. Google has tons of hidden features, some of which are quite fun and most of which are extremely useful— if you know about them.
• Ten Tips for Smarter Google Searches
  For example, to search for words that are like the word "elderly," enter the query ~elderly. This will find pages that include not just the word "elderly," but also the words "senior," "older," "aged," and so on.
• Amazon.com: UglyDolls
  Uglydolls are a line of toys which have been steadily increasing in popularity since their introduction in 2002, due to their unique "ugly" aesthetic, endearing characters, and wide appeal to all ages.
  
• Grand Rounds, Vol. 3 No. 12 -- Anxiety, Addiction, and Depression Treatments
• intueri: to contemplate
  Maria is back after a break. (Intueri is my favorite medical blog.)
• Fingers And Tubes In Every Orifice (A Blog)
  "Fingers and tubes in every orifice"...It is a tenet of critical care medicine that I learned years ago during my training in Emergency Medicine. It is also a reminder to be tenacious, thorough and leave no stone unturned. You'd be amazed at what can be d
• Healthcare Blogger Survey Report.pdf

Add a "Dissect Medicine" Social Bookmarking Icon to Your Blog or Website

Dissect Medicine is Nature Publishing Group's social bookmarking site for medical news. It's a great resource, but it's underutilized, partly because Dissect Medicine has no social bookmarking icon like Digg () or Del.icio.us ().

Since there wasn't an icon, I created one: .

(It's actually the NYC "D" train symbol.)

Clicking this icon opens a new window in Dissect Medicine which allows readers to login and submit articles. The URL of the referring post is automatically included.

The blog template code, which may be placed in the footer of each post, is here:

<a href = "http://www.dissectmedicine.com/_submit/1?url=<$BlogItemPermalinkURL$>" target ="_blank" title="Submit to Dissect Medicine"><img src="http://kidneynotes.googlepages.com/dissectmedicineicon.gif" style="border:0" align="absbottom"></a>

Optionally, &title=<$BlogItemTitle$> may be added after <$BlogItemPermalinkURL$> to automatically include the post's title.

If you're using a service other than Blogger, <$BlogItemPermalinkURL$> should be substituted with the permanent link field. For TypePad and MoveableType, it's <$MTEntryPermalink$>. Similarly, <$BlogItemTitle$> would be changed to <$MTEntryTitle$>.

For an example of the icon in action, see the footer of this post.

If you found this post useful, you can vote for it on Dissect Medicine.

Links for 2006-12-12

• Apollo 17 Panorama: Astronaut Running on Moon
• The 2006 Medical Weblog Awards
• Scramble Is On For Real Estate Of Hospitals -- New York Sun
  Known as "bed pan alley," the neighborhood contains one of the largest concentrations of medical/surgical acute care hospitals in the country, according to the state report. Hospital officials have estimated the site could be sold for about $130 million..
• Official Google Research Blog: Google Research Picks for Videos of the Year (2006)
• Your Disease Risk -- Harvard School of Public Health
• Craigslist Meets the Capitalists -- DealBook - New York Times
  Jim Buckmaster, the chief executive of Craigslist, caused lots of head-scratching Thursday as he tried to explain to a bunch of Wall Street types why his company is not interested in "monetizing" his ridiculously popular Web operation.
• Techcrunch » New York Times Surrenders To Social News
  The New York Times has decided to let users post stories directly from their site to Digg, Facebook, and Newsvine.
• Socratic Dialogue Gives Way to PowerPoint (Grand Rounds) - New York Times
  But in recent years, grand rounds have become didactic lectures focusing on technical aspects of the newest biomedical research. Patients have disappeared. If a case history is presented, it is usually as a brief synopsis and the discussant rarely makes e
• Hilarious Journal Articles #69: The Influence of Expectation, Consumption and Revelation on Preferences for Beer
  "It's a clean demonstration that what we think is going into our mouth actually changes what we taste, down to the level of the taste buds themselves."

Links for 2006-12-12

• Apollo 17 Panorama: Astronaut Running on Moon
• Scramble Is On For Real Estate Of Hospitals -- New York Sun
  Known as "bed pan alley," the neighborhood contains one of the largest concentrations of medical/surgical acute care hospitals in the country, according to the state report. Hospital officials have estimated the site could be sold for about $130 million..
• Official Google Research Blog: Google Research Picks for Videos of the Year (2006)
• Your Disease Risk -- Harvard School of Public Health
• Craigslist Meets the Capitalists -- DealBook - New York Times
  Jim Buckmaster, the chief executive of Craigslist, caused lots of head-scratching Thursday as he tried to explain to a bunch of Wall Street types why his company is not interested in "monetizing" his ridiculously popular Web operation.
• Techcrunch » New York Times Surrenders To Social News
  The New York Times has decided to let users post stories directly from their site to Digg, Facebook, and Newsvine.
• Socratic Dialogue Gives Way to PowerPoint (Grand Rounds) - New York Times
  But in recent years, grand rounds have become didactic lectures focusing on technical aspects of the newest biomedical research. Patients have disappeared. If a case history is presented, it is usually as a brief synopsis and the discussant rarely...
• Hilarious Journal Articles #69: The Influence of Expectation, Consumption and Revelation on Preferences for Beer
  "It's a clean demonstration that what we think is going into our mouth actually changes what we taste, down to the level of the taste buds themselves."

Links for 2006-12-12

• Apollo 17 Panorama: Astronaut Running on Moon
• Scramble Is On For Real Estate Of Hospitals -- New York Sun
  Known as "bed pan alley," the neighborhood contains one of the largest concentrations of medical/surgical acute care hospitals in the country, according to the state report. Hospital officials have estimated the site could be sold for about $130 million..
• Official Google Research Blog: Google Research Picks for Videos of the Year (2006)
• Your Disease Risk -- Harvard School of Public Health
• Craigslist Meets the Capitalists -- DealBook - New York Times
  Jim Buckmaster, the chief executive of Craigslist, caused lots of head-scratching Thursday as he tried to explain to a bunch of Wall Street types why his company is not interested in "monetizing" his ridiculously popular Web operation.
• Techcrunch » New York Times Surrenders To Social News
  The New York Times has decided to let users post stories directly from their site to Digg, Facebook, and Newsvine.
• Socratic Dialogue Gives Way to PowerPoint (Grand Rounds) - New York Times
  But in recent years, grand rounds have become didactic lectures focusing on technical aspects of the newest biomedical research. Patients have disappeared. If a case history is presented, it is usually as a brief synopsis and the discussant rarely...
• Hilarious Journal Articles #69: The Influence of Expectation, Consumption and Revelation on Preferences for Beer
  "It's a clean demonstration that what we think is going into our mouth actually changes what we taste, down to the level of the taste buds themselves."

The 2006 Medical Weblog Awards

Nominations are being accepted for the 2006 Medical Weblog Awards. (I'm one of the judges.)

Via MedGadget:

Welcome to the third annual Medical Weblog Awards! These awards are designed to honor the very best in the medical blogosphere, and to highlight the diverse world of medical blogs.

Links for 2006-12-11

• Cell Biology Animation
• RSS: What is a 'River of News' style aggregator?
• BillMonk
  BillMonk is a free service that makes it easy to track borrowing money and stuff between friends, using a web browser or your cell phone.
• Electronic Preventive Services Selector (ePSS)
  The Electronic Preventive Services Selector (ePSS) is a quick hands-on tool designed to help primary care clinicians identify the screening, counseling, and preventive medication services that are appropriate for their patients.
• 2006, Brought to You by You (YouTube, Social Media Sites) - New York Times
  Imagine paying $1.65 billion for a flood of grainy TV excerpts, snarkily edited film clips, homemade video diaries, amateur music videos and shots of people singing along with their stereos...
• NPR : Wondering About Water Towers
  On behalf of Manhattan's water tower enthusiasts, we want to know: How do they work?
• The Upcoming Google Scrapbook - World of Psychology
  The next stage of the long-rumored Google health initiative is finally set to be launched in a few months' time. Coming in Q2/Q3 2007, Google is poised to roll out something they will call "Google Scrapbook."
  

Links for 2006-12-10

• NEJM Image of the Week RSS Feed
• Centers for Disease Control - Podcasts
• Snap
  Snap Preview Anywhere adds value to your site by powering it with the largest library of high quality site previews... for any link on your site for free!
• Google's triple play: Radio, TV, Healthcare | Digital Micro-Markets | ZDNet.com
  Google wants to create nothing less than individual, dedicated, online databases, to record and store every piece of private and personal data pertaining to "every single medical and health-related event" for "effortless" retrieval and sharing.
• Clinical Cases and Images: Edit Wars in Medical Wikipedia
• Google Earth Wikipedia Layer
  Just open the Layers -> Geographic Web section in Google Earth and tick the Wikipedia box; above screenshot shows the popup that opens for Switzerland.
• Hilarious Journal Articles #68: Randomized Trial of Placebo vs. Placebo
  After 10 weeks, subjects taking sham pills said their pain decreased an average of 1.50 points on the 10-point scale. After 8 weeks, those receiving fake acupuncture reported a drop of 2.64 points. In other words, not receiving acupuncture reduces pain more than not taking drugs.
  

Links for 2006-12-09

• FreshDirect Recipes - Beef with Olives and 100 Cloves of Garlic
• Santastic II: Clausome
  Christmas music mashups.
• It's a contraceptive ... and a breath mint (Femcon Fe)
  The first chewable birth-control method, a tiny, spearmint-flavored tablet that also can be swallowed without chewing, has hit pharmacy shelves.
• Askville
  Once you've submitted your question, your question will be open for 7 days. Depending on the community's interest and/or difficulty of the question you will get up to 5 answers back from the Askville community during those 7 days. In the interim, fe
• BlackBerry Orphans - WSJ.com
  As hand-held email devices proliferate, they are having an unexpected impact on family dynamics: Parents and their children are swapping roles. Like a bunch of teenagers, some parents are routinely lying to their kids, sneaking around the house to covertl
• Babies and Sign Language
  "The motor areas of the body mature sooner than the mouth and other language articulators... which means it is easier for children to learn and remember signs than it is for them to acquire fluency in either spoken or written language."
• NPR : Music for Kids That Even Parents Might Love
  Gone are the days when saccharine-sweetness, singsongy silliness and forced good cheer reigned supreme in children's music. Now, a wide range of tunes for the small set is climbing the music charts -- and much of it is acceptable to adult ears.
• NPR : Zooglobble Favorite Kids' Albums of 2006
• Flickr: Camera Finder: Canon: EOS Digital Rebel XTi

Sunset on Mars (NASA)

Links for 2006-12-07

• How Google Finds Your Needle in the Web's Haystack
• Inside AdWords: Advertise online - even if you don't have a website
• Hilarious Journal Articles #67: Virtual Reality Causes False Memories
• New England Journal of Medicine Beta Applications
  Now includes "Most Viewed" and "Most Blogged."

Links for 2006-12-06

• Hilarious Journal Articles #66: hMaxi-K Gene Transfer in Males with Erectile Dysfunction: Results of the First Human Trial
  Eleven patients with moderate to severe erectile dysfunction (ED) were given a single-dose corpus cavernosum injection of hMaxi-K, a "naked" DNA plasmid carrying the human cDNA encoding hSlo (for human slowpoke)...
• New England Journal of Medicine Audio Summary December 7, 2006
  This summary covers the issue of December 7, 2006. Featured are articles on coronary intervention for persistent occlusion after myocardial infarction, five-year follow-up of patients receiving imatinib for chronic myeloid leukemia, K. oxytoca in antibiot
• Medgadget Science Fiction Contest Results
• An interview with Anurag Acharya, Google Scholar lead engineer
• myTriggers.com | Comparison Shopping Site Compare Prices and Products Online in Real Time
  # Enter the search term for the item you want # Enter the price you're willing to pay # Voilà! Immediate results from over 1 million sellers!
• 30 Seconds with Phone Guy
• Spam Doubles, Finding New Ways to Deliver Itself - New York Times