palmd
Posts by this author
October 11, 2009
I was going to try to sleep in this morning but my kid couldn't find her femur---long story. So I figured I might as well brew up a pot of Pal's Special, put up some Irish steel cut oatmeal, and review this weeks insanity.
This has been a rough week for the public's health education. The flu…
October 9, 2009
I am a patriot. This word means different things to different people, but to me it means pride in my nation, one founded by brilliant thinkers and built on the acknowledgment of basic human rights. It does not mean that I agree with everything my country does or with all of my fellow citizens.…
October 9, 2009
My readers have just funded another project! So what's next? Are Michigan's children all set?
No, not quite. We've funded some great projects, helping out kids with hearing impairments, giving inner city girls a view into a remarkable future, but there's more work to do. I found another…
October 9, 2009
Alternative medicine boosters promote bad health practices that hurt real people---that's been a theme in my writing for nearly three years. It's bad enough that they sell people fake cures and encourage them to avoid real medical care, but apparently, that's not enough anymore. It's getting to…
October 8, 2009
I try not to get involved over at PZ's place, but his post today just sucked me right in. To catch you up, in a case before the Supreme Court, Justice Scalia argued that a cross can actually be a secular symbol used to honor the dead.
"I assume it [the cross] is erected in honor of all of the war…
October 8, 2009
You guys have been great. Really. So I gave you a break from the nudging. But it's time to pick another project to fund, and this one is terrific. Go read about it.
I'm not sure what I can offer as a challenge---my blogging check is already being donated thanks to your generosity in the last…
October 8, 2009
Why am I politically liberal? Is it because liberal ideals conform to my own sense of morals about how a just society should function? According to some, that idea is laughably wrong. Let me share with you an exchange from facebook:
Me: The michigan house passed the doctor tax. Time to write…
October 7, 2009
One of my bibles of clinical medicine is Fitzpatrick's Color Atlas and Synopsis of Clinical Dermatology. It's basically a field guide to skin, with hundreds of pictures matched up with brief summaries. The introduction states, "We have endeavored to include information relevant to gender…
October 7, 2009
Even with cable, there isn't much on TV before six in the morning. On the stationary bike today I was flipping through the channels and I just had to watch the infomercial for No Evil Oil. According to the testimonials, this stuff not only keeps out the Devil, but gets rid of shingles and makes…
October 7, 2009
The kiddo started kindergarten this year. She went from complete freedom to getting up at dawn five mornings a week for a seven hour school day. It is my fortunate task on four of those mornings to help her on her way. Like many of the Pal clan, she is independent of thought, and rather stubborn…
October 7, 2009
I weighed in today at 202#. I'm quite happy about that, given certain dietary indiscretions. I'm finding that as my diet improves overall, these indiscretions don't have quite the negative impact I might expect.
As for exercise, well, a wind storm kept me up last night so I got up and rode the…
October 6, 2009
We reached our goal for today! We fully funded a project for kids with hearing impairments. Because you did this before the 7th inning stretch, my next blog check is going to DonorsChoose (hopefully to this project, but if not, to my "most needy" list). Of course, now I have to come up with a…
October 6, 2009
OK, folks, we've almost fully funded another project, thanks to your generosity. There's only $280 left to fully fund this worthy project. I'm extending my deadline. If you can do it before the 7th inning stretch of the Tiger's game, I'll donate my blog check from this month. Let's do it!
(…
October 6, 2009
How cool is this? If you, my readers, can fully fund this cause by 5pm EDT, I'll donate my next blogging check to DonorsChoose. There's about $290 left to go, so it shouldn't be that hard. C'mon, folks...even if you can give one or two bucks, it adds up fast, and encourages others to give.
Go…
October 6, 2009
You guys have been fantastic. You've helped fully fund several programs now. Donations have reflected my readership---individual donations have ranged from a few dollars to a few hundreds of dollars. Every single dollar helps, and no contribution is too small (but homeopathic giving is…
October 5, 2009
Last spring, when the flu season is usually winding down, we had a "second flu season" brought to us by the novel H1N1 ("swine") flu. After school let out for the summer, the numbers declined, but not to the usual low summer rate. Now, as fall begins, flu is picking up again---fast. Pandemic…
October 5, 2009
From time to time, my wife or one of our friends will forward one of the latest health rumors going through the email lists in our community. The usual email list is the one that goes out to moms of young kids living in our ethnic/geographic community. Usually I shrug it off, but every once in a…
October 5, 2009
You guys are fantastic. You've fully funded another project. This one gets kids in a tough neighborhood focused on the outdoors in a positive way, exploring their environment. What a great project. I feel proud to have you as readers, and I'm even more proud I married a teacher. Teachers are…
October 4, 2009
One of the projects on our list reached it's "fully funded" status! Now, donors from other challenges pretty much kicked our asses, but one of our readers helped, and we can be proud.
But there are more projects to go, all of which help out Michigan classrooms that are desperate. I'm not going to…
October 4, 2009
The flu pandemic of 1918 was horrific. Millions of people died (by some estimates 4% of the world population), and the medical establishment worked feverishly to find a cause and a treatment. There were many dead-ends in the search for the cause of the flu. One of the most enduring errors was…
October 3, 2009
Today begins the Jewish festival of Sukkoth, originally a harvest festival. Like many religious holidays, it carries a mandate for charity. During this time, it is traditional to build a temporary structure called a sukkoh and to do as much living as possible there. It is also traditional to…
October 3, 2009
Times columnist David Brooks would like to distance the conservative movement from Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and all the other "not true Republicans" out there. His simplistic tactic is to claim that Beck and Limbaugh haven't won the GOP any elections. If elected positions were the only…
October 2, 2009
In general, competent adults shouldn't be forced into any medical intervention, but taking on certain jobs comes at the cost of accepting certain responsibilities. As health care workers, we are given special access to people at their most vulnerable, and with this access comes a special…
October 2, 2009
When I was younger I took a temp job for the University of California Center on Deafness. I was lucky enough to be taken in and taught by the close-knit deaf community at the Center, and my eyes were opened to the special challenges of deafness in a hearing world. This was before instant messages…
October 2, 2009
In the context of a needy public school classroom, $165.00 is a lot of money. Not enough, but a lot, and every little bit counts. Every $5.00, every re-tweet to let others know helps. Today's headlines show US unemployment continuing to rise, but here in Michigan, that's old news. Unemployment…
October 2, 2009
Of course you know what my answer will be. It was predictable that the death of a girl shortly after receiving an HPV vaccine to prevent cervical cancer would attract the immoral agents of the anti-vaccine movement. Like zombies to brains, they descend on the tragedy, ready to consume it and gain…
October 1, 2009
Fever is a fascinating phenomenon. The biochemistry and physiology of it is fairly well understood (sort of), but historically and presently, it is endowed with great teleologic power. The nearly magical ability of the body to heat up dramatically was noted by the earliest physicians. In the…
October 1, 2009
I really like this DonorsChoose thing. I already got a few donations toward needy Michigan classrooms! I'm so excited that I'm using exclamation points!!
In the past, other ScienceBloggers have set specific goals and offered to mutilated their bodies or whatever for the cause. I'm not quite that…
September 30, 2009
Here in Michigan, schools are hurting---a lot. Classrooms are crowded, schools are closing, supplies are non-existent. Even in "wealthy" districts, the system is failing. Parents, when they can, supply the bulk of classroom supplies.
This is a good time to think about DonorsChoose, a unique…
September 30, 2009
I've been putting this off. Today I'm 203.5#. I feel into some bad habits this week.
I've found that routine is my friend. I have a few choices for breakfast at home, a few lunch and dinner choices at the hospital, and a few evening snack choices at home, all of which support my diet.
We…