The Blogkove

Baked Bean Swastikas

2010-04-27T10:44:00.000-04:00

While the baked bean has been traditionally held as a symbol of colonic unrest, it has now expanded into the realm of social unrest as well. I do think that having to provide your identifikation at will for the immigration gestapo is a bit over-reaching. Interestingly, it was baked beans, fermented into a noxious cloud in my, my brother's, and my father's gut, which turned our Apache A-frame family tent into a horrendous gas-chamber at a campsite in the southern reaches of Appalachia. I believe that was the same weekend a redneck kid rolled up grass (as in turf) into a joint and had us smoke it with him. It was wierd.

Black Pudding

2010-04-19T19:40:00.003-04:00

I love rathergood, and have been totally obsessed with this/them:

Rant!

2010-04-19T19:37:00.000-04:00

Its rant time.

On February 25th, the night before yet another exam (seems like every night is a night before an exam), after studying many hours that fateful thursday, I readied for bed. There were some dishes in the sink, Nehama, who already tucked herself in, told me not to worry about them, that she'll do them in the morning, and that I should just come to bed. The clock strikes 11:32 PM. Being the im/compulsive ADD child that I am, those dishes gnawed at me. So I decided I'll quickly wash them then go to sleep. After all, 11:30 isn't that late, and I wanted that coffee cup clean for my morning brew. So I am there washing the cheap ass ceramic mugs that Fayga left upon her departure from the apartment (a tale for another time), with my mind drifting through the vagaries of Pulmonology. I was scrubbing the inside of the cup, when it quickly broke into several pieces, giving me a nice slice through my right pinky (anteromedial aspect of the DIP of the 5th finger, to be precise and nerdy). Upon the sight of the gushing blood, and the numbness I felt on the pad, I began to feel concerned. I washed it out as best I could, viewing the supple tissue under the wound, and decided that, being a righty, this could make the test that I prepared so hard for, difficult. But, I resolved to not postpone the test, no matter what, because I value free weekends. So I went upstairs, woke Nehama telling her that I injured myself, and needed to go get stitched at the ER, and that she shouldn't worry. But she did worry, being the pleasant wife that she is, and she got out of bed. She said that I could just let it heal, but I told her that I wanted it stitched because it'll take forever to heal by secondary intention, and on top of that the lack of sensation is vexing. I told her that I didn't want to bleed all over my scantron in the morning, and on top of that we had white sheets on the bed. So she wrapped my finger up, and joined me in the car, though insisted that I drive, claiming that she has poor night vision. Amazing. So we go the hospital, they triage me, I sit there for 20 minutes watching Seinfeld reruns, and then they call me back, stitch me up, send me on my merry way.

Here is the annoying part. My insurance, which is through Nehama's work, provides for a $75 copay for ER visits, plus 20% of the ER physican costs. So let's break that down: $75 to walk in the door. then 20% of whatever the physician costs. Why you have to pay $75 copay is so F-ing beyond me. Ok, so then I get a bill from the ER physicians' practice...for $641.68. Ok, let's break down the costs, using costs attained from google searches of the materials used:

1 pack of 3-0 nylon sutures: $7.99
1% Lidocaine HCl: $1.41,
1 5 mL syringe: $21. (Note, this is the cost for 100 syringes, but I'll round up to prove a point)
1 25 gauge needle: $0.20
2 betadine swabs: $13.07 (Note, this is for 100 swabs. they only used 2 on me)
1 sterile field: $0.50.
1 roll of gauze: $4.70
1 piece of tape: $0.50 (rounded way up)
1 Suture kit: $23.24 (their's was likely way cheaper)
Total so far: $72.61.
This is a VERY liberal estimate of the costs, which I obtained through picking the first item I found online. I know that hospitals, which buy in bulk from medical suppliers, probably pay less than half this price. But, leaving that aside, that leaves $569.07 in other costs. So what else am I paying for? The lights and power of the building. supplies to run it. Considering I entered the hospital at 12 AM, and left around 2 AM, nearly all of which was spent waiting in a non-monitored state with no supervision by personnel whatsoever, that puts me at $4.74/minute spent in the ER. That's amazing. However, if you consider that I was only in contact with the physician for around 30 minutes, that puts the total costs per minute with the ER physician at approximately $18.69/minute. That's good money right there. I know you're thinking, hey ben, what about the 3 minutes that the nurse spent wrapping your finger at the end. So I know I am being unfair to them, but this is just to prove a point.
The medical system is completely fucked. As a medical student, I know how much it costs to get our education, and I think I am developing an understanding of how much operating costs are at an institution. I do not think that the true cost of running 4 sutures, which took no time at all, is reflected in the $640 bill I received. These costs are frighteningly inflated. The reason being that insurance companies are such shitty reimbursers, yet they literally manage their clients' care. So they decide what gets paid for (meaning what procedures/visits get done) and what doesn't. In reimbursing less and less, and in people sacrificing their involvement in their own care, costs for all procedures have been driven way too high. there is no reason that this hsould cost this much. I got a bill from the insurance company for $367. They applied my deductible to the ER visit. This was a mistake. However, had I not called and demanded that they read me, word for word, my plan details, they never would have accepted that. They have "resubmitted" the claim. THe fact is, the republican plan of arguing over costs with health providers is dumb. When my finger was bleeding, I wasn't about to storm out of the ER, demanding a cheaper rate. I would have fucking accepted whatever was offered. On the other hand, having no connection with the costs is also silly. Luckily, I'm a cheap ass jew and demand an explanation for every single cost applied to me, so I was able to get this corrected. Now I only have to pay 20% of this ridiculously inflated cost. I cannot wait until the government expands control of healthcare even more, so that these insurance companies will be put out of business. Imagine if I was actually unhealthy. I, all people in the US in fact, are literally 1 serious health problem away from bankruptcy. This is the second time that I have been billed incorrectly by the insurance company SINCE JANUARY! Both times the mistakes would have resulted in me paying more, and them paying less. "Mistakes." These are the biggest shiesters on earth, and they've got their hands around the balls of our healthcare. DOWN WITH HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANIES!

Trail People

2010-04-09T11:50:00.007-04:00

So earlier I promised you, dear reader, some stories from my 30 day hiking trip/adventure out west. Last night I was thinking about all the weird people I met on the trail, lots of unique characters. Because, for the majority of our trip, we were walking and hitch hiking everywhere we went, and we oscillated from relative solitude in the mountains to some highway thoroughfare that stood between us and our next destination, we ended up speaking to nearly every person we saw. A lot of people have a misconception that hiking is very lonely, it is not. Don't get me wrong, you do get lots and lots of alone time, but I probably met more people there than I meet in a typical year. Many of them were oddballs, people hiking the PCT, strange hippies, lost souls, some "regular" ol tourists. Here is a list of the characters we met, and some facts about them. Most of the time, we never learned anyone's name, or they were using a trail name, a false moniker to represent their trail-self. It's like an avatar, only (slightly) less lame. I had a trial name. Ha. I will start chronologically from the beginning of the trip, and work towards the end, and I'll intersperse some pictures I took of the areas where we met these people.

YOSEMITE VALLEY

Jake: about to start med school at dartmouth, rode a train across russia, was working on a farm in NoCal, has knee problems, likes to hike. Is from Maine. Is now my friend. hung out together at the hiker's camp in the valley for the day while waiting for our passes, hiked the first day on the trail with us. never seen again, except on facebook.
Two guys with bivvy sacks: nice, left one day ahead of us. helped us with our maps and some logistics in the hiker's camp in yosemite valley.
Guy With rearranged Fingers: He had a mohawk, and worked at vermillion valley resort, and was playing with this GPS because he got lost in the backcountry recently and had to call 911 to get his longitude and latitude, and had to write it in sand. His fingers look like they were cut off and put on wrong. He was kind of a dick.
Autistic Ultralight hiker: was carrying almost nothing. no tent, slept under a mosquito net. had a bladder of wine, however. very strange character, but nice. met him in little yosemite valley on the first night. I imagine his idiosyncratic nature worked well with the particularities of ultra light hiking. he also biked across america, so he claims.
Asian Couple plagued by mosquitos: met them at cathedral pass. The mosquitos were bad, they had no DEET whatsoever, and were going to leave the trial. as the boyscouts say, Be Prepared. They took this picture of us in front of cathedral peak.

PICTURE BY CATHEDRAL PEAK TAKEN BY UNPREPARED ASIAN COUPLE

British Climbing Teacher: he is both a teacher and a climber. He came from england to climb, we met him as we descended into tuolumne meadows. He also gave us a lift into tuolumne proper, which was nice. we spoke about america, england, climbing, US foreign policy. He feels out of shape, likes teaching. I think he lives in florida. Nice guy. His buddy met us at the bottom. We smelled bad, and I left my gloves in his car, which he gave to the lost and found at the store in tuolumne, and then i was able to retrieve them. Nice guy.

Lyell Canyon

Rattler: told us increasingly crazy and probably increasingly false stories about rattlers: one time he saw a rattler, one time he stepped on a rattler, one time he sat IN A DEN OF RATTLERS. I loved that guy.
Research Dick: asked him what his deal was, said he was doing research, was a dick.
Pack of trail workers: they were literally running down the trail (which was flat at this part, but still) through lyell canyon, with large packs and shovels and picks. One of the guys was lagging, and seemed upset about it. He had a long queue on his head, and told us that "this is bullshit," and then ran on down the trail.

Teacher Man: He is one of my fondest characters, perhaps because we ran into him a few times. He was a fat man, with a big moustache/beard thing. We passed him in lyell canyon, he was huffing and puffing up the first half of donohue pass. We made camp at a large river crossing halfway up donohue pass (10500 ft!), and Teacher Man camped there as well. He met this other fellow on the trail, Little Teacher (all these names were bestowed by me and Nehama), who was thin. Teacher Man told him that he could show him how some of the backcountry behind Thousand Island Lakes, so they decided to hike together. Teacher Man was full of advice for everyone, and talked a lot, and farted alot too. But he taught us how not to be afraid of bears. We all ate together on the bridge over the gushing river, with nervous trepidation about our trek over donohue pass (11000 ft). We set off in the morning before Teacher Man. We ran into Little Teacher a few days later near Thousand Island Lakes, who was sitting by the trailside reading a Ben Franklin book. Apparently they had some sort of falling out: Little Teacher felt that Teacher Man was too slow, he got him off course, the backcountry sucked. So Little Teacher was about to break up with Teacher Man. After an awkward greeting with Teacher Man once he caught up, the tension between the two teachers was palpable. Little Teacher broke up with Teacher Man then, and set off with us. Teacher Man herumphed mightily, and grumbled about all the fish he would catch in the next few days on the backside of Thousand Island Lakes.
Teenagers hiking in blue jeans: their knife was way too large, and they were hiking very slowly.

Old Couple: Near Rush Creek. Nice folks, barely knew them. Pointed us towards a good campsite down by Rush Creek, nice place to camp in solitude. We washed our clothes thoroughly there, as the creek formed a small pond. I then soaked my feet, made a delicious dinner, and enjoyed some coffee before turning in with the sun up at 730 pm. The next day we did a series of log crossings over some perilously rushing rivers, and nehama was scared. I had to come back and hold her hand, walking backwards, across the log. She is sweet.
Songbird: a well known PCT hiker that season, she carried a guitar with her, thus her name. For some reason, PCT hikers were always looking for her.
Donovan: Quite a unique character. He was a tall, gaunt fellow, with a long beard, and trouble in his eyes. looked to be around late twenties, early thirties. We ran into him a few times, and so hung out with him when we camped at the relatively "populated" Reds Meadows. He was troubled, though he liked to play as if he had found zen. He was definately searching for something. I gathered, through some hints, from our conversations, that he used to be an accountant, went to IU Bloomington in fact, but recently became sickened with that life, liquidated his 401k, and used the money to set out on the trail. He had some other sorts of travels before the trail as well. He met up with another character, Joey, a nice hippie girl, who comes from a family that is not hippie. They have been dating since they hiked together through the desert. I think she saw him naked prior to dating at some hot springs down there, and they fell in "love." Their relationship was a farce, much like them: they are running from something and towards something, though they only have a handle on the former, and no clue on what the latter is. Donovan smoked a ton of weed, and would take any drug he could get his hands on. Fortunately, drugs were scarce on the trail, but he made some mention of being hung up on a layover day in Mammoth Lakes because of a big bender. THere was also an incident with a rental car that I do not fully recall.
Crazy Guitar Guy: We also met him at Reds Meadow. He befriended donovan initially, who introduced us to him. He was married, with kids, but set out on the JMT alone, with his guitar. He was a manic type, who put up money for a cabin at Reds and bought everyone beer and food. He spent money like nuts, and just wanted to have a huge party all the time. A whole group of us gathered at his cabin, and he played his guitar non stop. He tweaked his knee, and was getting off the trail, and his excitement for going back to society was fueling his manic episode. Donovan and Joey secured a spot in the extra bed in his room. THey wanted us to sleep in there with them, but they made me nervous, so I said no. Best to follow your instincts. I think they were offput by that, as they were cold to me from then on, but we were setting off the next morning in opposite directions, so I didnt really give a crap. I felt like Crazy Guitar Guy could do something really crazy. Nehama did use his shower however, and got to use actual shampoo, so that was nice. Reds also has a hotspring fed shower that was built in 1920. It is very nasty, but the hot water was FAB. I really enjoyed it.
Unprepared Runaway: young teenage boy, set off on the trail without proper preparation, like a lot of things teenage boys do. He hiked the high peaks without enough food, and was bogged down in the snow, and based on his picture on his liscense, lost a shitload of weight because of it. He looked like he could get into some serious trouble. He did not have money, nor enough food. THere was some good food in the backpacker barrells (free food that people abandon), so he was able to restock, but he could very well be dead. He vied for acknowledgment and acceptance from Donovan. He really liked him. But donovan is a poor role model.
Teenage Shitheads: group of bastards, who said we'd all split the cost of the campsite at Reds, and then took the money and never registered, and tried to book early in the morning. I called him out on it, and he gave me my money back. But I told him that he's a fucking asshole for leaving me high and dry here, that I didnt want to have to flee first thing in the morning before the ranger comes around.
Frenchies: I love the frenchies. They were a couple from france, about mid thirties. They were hiking in all black, with VERY SHORT shorts. I swear i could see the bottom of his balls. that's how short they were. Nehama, who speaks french, mediated our nice conversation and evening together camping. We spoke about the french healthcare system, france, america, the trail, etc, and he left his email address in my trailbook. his name was Gil, and his wife's name was Natasha. Very nice folks, maybe I'll call them if i'm ever in france.
Fat Guys who tell bad stories: family of obese guys who were hiking to lose weight. they are from LA, and told us these inane tails about their property values there. They spoke very close to my face, and wouldn't let up. They lost lots of weight already, so kudos to them for doing the trail. But I was happy to leave them the following morning.
Spiderman: never met him, but found his note with his abandoned food. He was allergic to whey protein, which I was not allergic to, so I now had a full restock of delicious oatmeal breakfasts with whey protein added.
Fallen Horse Packtrain: Horse fell off a cliff. very scary.

Major Asshole: after hiking 14 miles to the hot springs, which are entirely off-trail, we arrive at the base of the mountain containing the hotsprings, and stumble upon the first pool. In it is Major Asshole, who is a major because he wore an army hat, and an asshole because of the following: we said "yes! we arrived." and he said, "this pools taken, sorry gotta camp elsewhere." and we said, "where are the other pools?" and he said, "you have to find them yourselves, I'm not going to tell you the secret spots." so we said go fuck yourself and headed on. Also, we could see his small wang through the clear water, which was awkward, but more so for him. We hiked up and up this muddy mountain, with no clue where the hot springs would be.
Our only advice was from a guy in a shoe store in Mammoth saying, "go higher than you think you should go, its up there, the apartment in the sky." Well we went up, and more up, and more up, until the sun set behind the valley. This was about to turn from shit to fuck. I left nehama
with my pack, so I could seek higher ground at a greater vantage point. I took the whistle to signal her. I scrambled up a rock face (twist!), and there to the right, I saw the glimmer of a pool, tucked under a large pine tree. I sprinted to it, and there it was, the apartment in the sky, a beautiful campsite, nestled in the trees, with a pool overlooking the valley. I signalled nehama with the whistle, eventually found her and led her up to the site. It was all ours for the next few days. 2 days later, Major Asshole comes ambling up the mountain in what looks like a bee suit. He was apparently looking for our site. We told him, "sorry this one is taken. Bitches!" HA! trail karma, gets ya every time.
Guy Who Claimed to Have Built Apartment in the Sky: we met him on the way back from the hotsprings, he claims to have built that site. Dont believe him. He was with two nasty looking young dudes, with tons of piercings and a scowl on their face, smoking cigarettes on the trail.
C: girl who works at coffee shop in Mammoth Lakes. She told us we could find some cheap food at the gas station next door, just tell them C sent us. We told them, and they said, "who?" and we said, "the girl from teh coffee shop." and he replied, "who?" and we said, "forget it." She was vulgar, but super nice and gave us a ton of free food.
Fake therapist: guy with a bachelors in psychology somehow practicing as a family therapist. Didnt know shit about it, and was really just a ski bum. Gave us a lift to tioga pass, where we camped by a blue grass concert and hitched back into Yosemite Valley.

Irresponsible Fireman: latino looking man, who was at the bluegrass concert. He was a
fireman who was saw around in Mammoth. He brought his little daughter to this concert, who he stuffed in the car to sleep while he went and got shitfaced with his friends. He slept somewhere that wasnt the car, and his daughter woke up in the morning disoriented and crying. she cried for her dad for a while, until he eventually woke up. He was irresponsible.
Puma: ridiculous character. Met him at the bluegrass concert. He was wearing what looked like a cape or a rug. He had a long pony tail, and a large puma tattooed on his arm. We spoke briefly, he gave me the wilderness guy handshake, where they grab your whole forearm. He told me his name is Puma. I asked him why. he said its because one time he was tracked for 30 miles through the mountains by a puma. eventually they faced off in a box canyon, to which he was led by the puma, and after a prolonged staring contest, the puma backed off, because "he felt my
energy." Crazy. Love it.
Climbing Lady: moved to yosemite to climb, gave us a hitch partway into the valley. SHe is a climbing instructor, and was going to pick her child up at white wolf, which is someplace in yosemite.
Girl Hitching with hula hoops: Climbing Lady picked her up while we were in the car, apparently they knew each other. How do you hitch with so many hula hoops?

Thai Exchange Students: Picked us up and drove us into the valley. Agreed to even drive us back to san francisco, thus saving us days of travel and at least $100. They wanted to hang out in the Valley for the day, so we split up that day and walked around on our own. We went and
retrieved abby's leaking water bladder, which i stashed under a shed, which was promptly eaten by squirrels. I told abby that it just broke and we threw it out. Hopefully she isnt' reading this. Thai Exchange Students were from chicago most recently, and came out west on a trip together. We had a nice ride back to "san Fran" and we even split a hotel room. Gotta shave off costs where ya can. We went together to get sushi in san francisco, and drove around in their car, and walked around golden gate park. We had a nice day together. I dont really remember their names, one was Joi, the other was like Huonglang.

Geology Family: family out on the Lost Coast Trail with their 6 year old son. Dad was a geologist. He was doing great.SInce the lost coast is such a geologically active area, it was cool to speak with the geologist about it. He was up in cali for a conference, and decided to
hike the lost coast while he was up here. Our original plans were to hike in 2 days, then hike back, since we had only 4 days to be out in the woods before our flight back to atlanta in san francisco. But hiking in had a 30 knot tail wind, so hiking back would have been utter hell. So nehama decided that we should try to hike to the end ( 3 days) and then hitchhike back to our rental car at the trail head. Hitchhiking through a very remote area, mountain roads with almost no people on it. what the fuck, lets try it. Our contingency was to pay for a van ride back to the trail head with Geology Family. $50 per person. So we hiked to the end, way ahead of geology family. We then proceeded to hitch.
No Shoes Silent Man: This guy was our second ride on our hitch back to the lost coast trailhead. He picked us up in the ramshackled old pickup, he was wearing cutoff shorts, no shoes, no shirt. He was about 60. He didnt speak, just was singing some old blues songs from the radio. He eventually dropped us off where the road met a dirt road, which he headed down. We then waited for our next hitch.

Pompous Chilled out Guy: our third, and final, hitch back to our car at the trailhead at Mattole Beach. This guy who picked us up was an english transplant to humboldt county, the marijuana growing capital of america. when I asked him what he does for work out in this remote region, he lambasted me for being such "an east coaster, just like the british. you don't judge people by their jobs, their status. out here you just talk to people, and eventually find out what they do. you dont wanna ask that question out here, because you might get killed for it." thank you, now relax. He left us off on the side of the road, told us he had an errand to run and would come pick us up again. we sat on our packs, ate lunch, drank the beer he gave us. and hoped. He eventually did come back, with his 5 year old son in the car. The son had caught a lizard, which he was downright strangling. Nehama cooed to him, I spoke with the brit. He was headed to a party that they volunteer fire department was throwing, thats what the pickup filled with beer was for. He dropped his son off with some shady woman at a campground, and then set off to go party. He stopped by the most remote store in america (so he claimed), and then dropped us off at mattole. We prepared dinner/lunch, pleased at our hitchhiking success, and then the van with Geology Family pulled up. He gave us all these fresh veggies he had stashed in his car. It was delightful.
Boring Researcher: girl at Mattole beach who offered to let us sleep at her site. she was doing really boring research surveys on wilderness preparedness.
Hippies: I only mention these folks because I want to shamelessly congratulate myself. These hippies we met at Mattole after hitching back asked how we got back to our car, we said we hitched back, and they were all impressed and like, "whoa, that's nuts." because the area is so remote. nehama was very pleased that we out-hippied the hippies.

News News

2010-04-09T09:28:00.002-04:00

One day I will write a long rant about cable news, and news in general, being a total pathos-defining farce. one day....

How To Report The News - Watch more Funny Videos

Blast From the Past Wednesday!

2010-03-24T14:41:00.002-04:00

Here's a blast from the past, Dshinghis Khan. My fellow member's of the tribe out there may recognize the tune of this first clip. Predating MBD by many years, it calls into question his musical prowess and respect for other artists' material. Busted, Mordy, totally busted. Oh, and by the way, Tani can do this entire dance.

This second clip is a Dshinghis Khan classic. These moves can neither be replicated nor beaten. "Oh Ha Hah Hah Hah"

The Bagger-288...

2010-03-05T21:01:00.002-05:00

The bagger 288 is a gigantic mining machine. It is actually the largest machine on earth, bigger than NASA's wimpy crawler-transporter, which possesses neither an artificial mind filled with hate, nor the ability to de-meat. Here is a video about the bagger 288 that is simultaneously good and awesome [via rathergood (go here now!)]

Why I Love Augusta....

2010-03-05T17:33:00.001-05:00

Found this gem on the bumpersticker of a pickup in the student parking lot today. Now I recognize that healthcare and medicine have little practical overlap with theoretical physics and cosmology, but we are all reasonably intelligent people here at MCG, and this seems a little, well, silly. Now this car could have belonged to a nursing student, a PhD candidate, a medical student, whoever it was at the school. But regardless of what program they are in, he/she spends a number of hours daily in a science book, and you would think that that would help you develop a little more sophistication in your understanding of our origins than, "Bang, it happened." I love Augusta, and the South in general, for this reason: it is a complicated place, with a complicated people. There are so many social dichotomies and paradoxes here. The kindest people saying the most racist things (on both sides, by the way), the smartest people clinging to entirely unintelligent beliefs. But it's home...

Caramel Chocolate Cake with Fleur de Sel Praline

2010-03-05T11:42:00.004-05:00

So for my friend's birthday, Jon and I made Chocolate Cake with Salted Caramel and Fleur de Sel Praline. It was significantly less complicated than Nehama's birthday cake (which I will post about soon), it only took a 2-3 hours total, but was fun because it was my first time (successfully) making pralines or ganoche . I need a camera, since I lost mine somehow when we moved, and have been taking pictures using my phone's cam.

Big issues:

The ganoche: formerchef's ganoche appeared to be much stiffer, more like an icing even. Mine was liquidey, despite having refrigerated it overnight. I know there is more intricacy to ganoche, and I'd like to get it to hold its form better.
This is a very salty recipe, I would leave some out. Gotta watch that blood press.
The batter is very wet, and Jon decided to initially forgo lining the cake pans with parchment paper. Do it! It leaked through, made a mess. We recovered mostly, but our cakes were significantly thinner than I would have liked. That being said, you add a ton of leavener using this recipe, and it really does puff up.
We used Folger's Instant as the "espresso mix." It worked like a champ.
The cake will melt at room temp, that's no lie. Store cautiously chilled.

Cakes before assembly

Ganoche. This was right after it came out of the fridge, and it became significantly more loose than this as time progressed

Caramel filling. It becomes much thicker after refrigeration

Fleur de sel praline. Simple and quick.

More praline. That is salt inside of it. Gives it a nice textured appearance

The final cake

Close-up of the cake

As time progressed, the ganoche melted a bit, dissolving some of the finer bits of praline as well as taking on a more liquid appearance.

Haman's Ears!

2010-03-04T11:38:00.002-05:00

The PurimFest has come and gone. I made some delissio hamentashen, recipe courtesy of Intrepid Reader Julz [aside: the delissio commercial is a canadian ripoff of the digiorno commercial. that's why they are watching hockey, and are so damn polite]. Hamentashen are an interesting bunch. The meaning of the yiddish word was fodder for much speculation over Purim 2010, and based on my research, it either means "poppy bag," or "Hamen's Ears." My mother is inclined to say poppy bag, but in Israel, they are referred to as Oznei Haman, literally Hamen's Ears, and since the word Haman is in the name Hamentachen, I will assume the tachen means ears. As kids, we were taught it was his hat: 3 cornered, like the pilgrims!

Haman, of course, is the villain of Purim, the vizier of a Persian (babylonian?) king who set out to destroy the Jews because he was publicly dissed by the incredulous Mordechai, who then sent his adoptive niece Esther to woo the king with her sexual and emotional beauty, thereby culling political favor for "the jews" in general, and Mordechai in specific. Mordechai then functioned as a puppet-master of sorts, working behind the scenes, using intel gathered from Esther (now the King's main mistress), to orchestrate a reversal of the King's order to kill the Jews (thank you, Haman) to an edict to actually kill Haman. Of course, the winner's write the history books, and while this paints the Jews as a pitiful victim who through some miracle managed to escape utter death, I suspect otherwise. It seems to me that what occurred in purim was a sort of political upheaval by Mordechai, who having married his daughter into power, was now able to kill Haman and all of his supporters, many of whom resided in Shushan. This is bloody business, and dirty business, and rather than the much more homiletic reasons given by the sages for the absence of any mention of God in this book (the hidden hand of God in all matters, etc), I suspect that such dirty business does not merit the invocation of God's name: sex, power, killing. My sagely wife noted that after 26 years of celebrating purim, only now did she recognize that the King actually suspected Haman of trying to sleep with his wife, while prostrated on her bed begging her forgiveness once he realized that she was a Jewess. Many have used Purim as an example of how the Goyim interact with the Jews in exile, a repetitive pattern of subservient serfdom, with leaders now-and-then intervening (IY"H, of course!) to save us from imminent peril. I take a different tack with this story: this is the story of Jewish self-determination, the willingness to sink to whatever level to obtain power. After all, marrying off a family member to secure power is nothing new, but only with the ghettoization of the Jews over the subsequent 1000 years did the idea of intermingling of the races/religions become so taboo. Ah, but that is for another time.

That is my purim-synopsis. Now that you've suffered through that, here is the recipe for the delicious hamentachen, reproduced without Julz's permission, with pictorial documentation. I filled them with apricot, strawberry, or melted chocolate. Mmmmmmm!!!!

Hamen Ears (yield about 3-4 dozen)

1/2 C margarine
1 C sugar
1 large egg
1/3 C orange juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 C all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg, beaten
Cinnamon-sugar

1. Beat margarine at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy; gradually add sugar, beating well. Add egg, orange juice, and vanilla.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to margarine mixture; stir into a uniform dough.
3. Shape dough into a flat disk. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 15 minutes (may be made 2 days ahead).
4. Roll out chilled dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut 3-inch circles with a cookie cutter or drinking glass.
5. Place 1/2 tsp of filling in the center of each circle.
6. Shape into a triangle by folding 2 sides of the circle to the center and pinch together at the sides. Fold remaining side up to the center and pinch together at the sides. Some of the filling should be visible in the center.
7. Place hamentashen 1 inch apart on a greased baking sheet. Brush with egg and sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar.
8. Bake for 20-30 minutes (I baked for less than 20 as my oven gets pretty hot).

Shmuel Spidermin

2010-03-03T17:11:00.001-05:00

Shmuel Spidermin at the Kotel

Fish Child

2010-03-02T12:16:00.002-05:00

Why is it that these sort of things seem to happen so much in the Orient: children turning into fish, into trees, into Ghidora!

Intrepid reader Justin, Esq., clued me in to this condition, and because its medical, and strange, it is blogworthy, or rather blogkoveworthy. So the disease is Lamellar Icthyosis. I was led to believe from the article and from my extensive training in rare genetic diseases that this would be a central disorder, effecting the hypothalamus and the body's thermostat. Oh, but how the weak have fallen! It is actually a problem with what appears to be keratin synthesis, the layer of proteinaceous tissue that covers your outer layer of skin, rendering you for the most part water and foreign-body impermeant. In Lamellar icythosis, it appears as if a defect in the keratinocyte transglutaminase is causing the malformed keratin layer. The boy's associated overheating is somewhat paradoxical, as the chief concern early on in the child's life is actually hypothermia, as they cannot retain heat with their crappy epidermis. Unfortunately, there is no cure or treatment, and the child is relegated to a tough, and unfortunately, probably shortened, life.

Interestingly, the rate of this RARE disease is 1:600,000. I nor any of my cohorts have heard of this before. Yet everyone makes a big freaking stink about Guillan-Barre and the flu vaccine, which has an incidence of 1:1,000,000. Yet, the mortality of influenza is roughly 1:10,000. Lord Help Us All.

Targeted Therapy: Woe Unto Thee!

2010-03-01T14:00:00.003-05:00

After a brief haitus dedicated to continued success in medical school, the blogkove is back. With a vengeance.

Intrepid reader Henry sent me this article (continued here) about the tribulations of a B-Raf inhibitor trial. My executive summary of the situation is as follows: the good Dr. Flaherty took part in a trial of a new inhibitor that halts growth in melanoma in a promising way, both theoratically and practically. However, the melanoma, ever the wily contender, switches its signalling pathway to avoid utilizing the now-inhibited B-Raf, and thus is able to complete its evil mission of "grow ad infinitum." The oncologists and patients, needless to say, were shocked at how after 6 months or a year of successful treatment, the melanoma suddenly turned deadly again, laughing in the face of the targeted drug therapy.

This is no novelty. Prior to my matriculation at MCG, I worked for several years in the laboratory of Dr. Jack Arbiser, whom I consider a professional and personal mentor. He is an astute researcher, with a strong grasp of cancer biology. However, his ideas on cancer therapy have been dismissed by some of his colleagues for several reasons. Some feel uncomfortable with his conclusions on tumor growth and signalling because he hasn't beaten them over the head with data. The problem is he is almost always correct in his assertions. Also, he has a bit of a fetish for phytopharmaceuticals, and the current thinking of oh-so-many-drug-developers is that the best drugs come out of labs, not from plants, and that the most efficacious ones are gigantic molecules of inordinate complexity, not the simple honokiol, MW 266, of which I personally took part in the development thereof (I also wrote that wiki article). I have a feeling that the FDA's and many researchers' obsession with targeted-therapy has much to do with the successes of Gleevec in the treatment of CML. Gleevec is a targeted therapy that has done wonders for CML, but it is illogical, considering the diversity of tumor subtypes, to apply that paradigm to all tumors. We already know better (and more) than that.

Dr. Jack has spent a great deal of his professional career characterizing the dynamic nature of melanoma signalling: how melanoma will switch pathways to avoid an insult (a drug, in this case). Here is a good paper penned by him on the issue. He has stood up at conferences and made the very point that a B-Raf inhibitor alone would not be curative of melanoma, but alas it fell on deaf ears. At Harvard, Jack studied under Judah Folkman, who himself was mocked by the grey-beards because of a revolutionary idea that made sense, was true, but would stand in the face of the "established way." He would hold the fresh hot tumors being pulled out of kids, and he just knew that they were establishing a new blood supply. They had to be. They were so warm, so alive. Of course, many of the researchers of his time thought that angiogenesis, the development of new blood vessels and supply, could only play a marginal role, if any, in cancer growth, and rather like the economy, it was growth, growth, growth that drove the process. So they continued for years with the cytotoxic drugs, and have created the classic cancer victim: bald, jaundiced, sick. For some cancers, it is more worth it to forgo chemotherapy, because certainly it would kill you before the cancer could. Folkman knew, as many innovators do, that limiting angiogenesis would slowly strangle a rapidly growing cancer. He then set out characterizing the process and simultaneously developing angiogenesis inhibitors (in an act of shameless self-promotion, here is an article I wrote on Dr. Folkman's first angiogenesis inhibitor, fumagillin). And my, how things have changed. Now angiogenesis is taught in schools, and it is steadily becoming "the way." Folkman went from being forced into a basement office to being a tenacious hero, cancer's nemesis. His discoveries were so great, they surely would have won him the Nobel Prize, as his research has contributed to a new understanding of cancer that has amounted to a paradigm shift in the way we approach tumors. He was never awarded The Prize, perhaps because too-innovative ideas aren't what the Nobel Committee is looking for, they want something that is good but not great, nothing that shakes foundations or upsets the current balance. Dr. Folkman died of a heart attack in early 2008. I drove him to the airport after a talk at Emory shortly before he passed away; he was a very gentle, kind, and modest man.

Currently we have nothing approved: resection is curative, and there is one adjuvant therapy, interferon, which has many untoward side-effects, and is essentially intolerable. Yet we use a multi-drug cocktail for the treatment of HIV, called Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (HAART), the success of which is a testament to the successes of modern drug design. People can now live a long time with HIV. When someone walks into the clinic with the signs and symptoms of community acquired pneumonia, they are started on empirical antibiotics: broad-spectrum coverage, to kill every bug you can, and once you have culture results, you can then dial back your treatment to a more bug-specific antibiotic. Why, when we have so many growth inhibitors, and such a sophisticated understanding of tumor signalling, are we focused on hitting just one target. It only makes sense to use a multi-drug approach. When someone walks in with angina, they walk out with a beta-blocker, a statin, an ACEI/ARB, plavix/ASA, and nitro. Under the B-Raf Trial paradigm, when someone comes in with melanoma, they get 1 drug. So all the tumor has to evade is 1 stinking target. Now, obviously, cytotoxic chemotherapy is steadily becoming the way of the past, but in doing so, let the therapies keep up with our understanding. It was predicted after Folkman's discovery of angiogenesis' role in tumor growth that cancer would be cured in 2 years. Now we can inhibit angiogenesis, block signalling via multiple predictable pathways, and pulse the tumors with cytotoxic drugs; how is it that we still are struggling?

Update on Sourdough

2010-02-22T23:11:00.000-05:00

The sourdough bread culture: Doing great! After watching Dr. Strangeloaf episode of Alton Brown's Good Eats, I realized that by following Mark Bittman's recipe, I had in fact violated the cardinal principle of sourdough; my sin being the innocent innoculation of my starter culture with active dry yeast, rather than allowing the local yeast-lactobacilli flora and fauna to take hold, thereby providing that particular East Georgia Flare of which we are so well known. Irregardless, I will press on with the current culture. It is bubbling nicely, being stirred each day, and is gradually, gradually developing the pleasant/unpleasant odor of sourdough bread. Here is the full-episode of Dr. Strangeloaf. I recommend watching this show often, and this particular episode immediately.

Sourdough, The Legend Begins

2010-02-21T13:49:00.006-05:00

Upon a reflection of my recent posting, which have been myriad and varied, I noticed one might get the impression that my sole interests are 1) bitching about my religion, 2) watching weird youtube videos. While those two things do take up a good deal of my intellectual time, I would say that it does not reflect my time best spent, and most enjoyably spent. So in order to give a more complete picture of the kove behind the blog, as well as to "blog about the things you (I) love," I want to expand this blog to my other interests as well.

Of late, I have taken up baking bread. Last night, I made my first sourdough culture.

Here is the recipe:
1.5 cups of bread flour
1/8 tsp active dry yeast
1 cup of warm (but not hot) water

Mix them together in a bowl, and let them sit for 1-3 days (depending on how warm your kitchen is). I am waiting for the culture to take on a smelly, sourdoughey malodour. I checked it this morning, at t=12h, and noticed distinctive bubbling, a rather pleasant yeast-smell. More to come as things develop.

Sourdough Culture at 0 hours

Sourdough Culture at 12 hours

Closeup of Sourdough Culture at 12 hours

Best of: Infomericals, Part II

2010-02-20T16:01:00.002-05:00

There is a strain of infomercial I like to call the fauxlanthromercial (a conglomeration of faux, philanthropic, and -mercial), which usually follows the formula of fake interview/newscast, where the interviewee hocks his wares: debt cures, weight loss cures, cancer cures, you name it. So let's first discuss a few issues here.

1. The Fake Show: they usually start with "welcome to healthTV," or "You're watching Total Body Network, today our guest is," is if this is a normal show, and you are just tuning into today's show, not the only show they've ever produced because this is 100% staged and paid for by the "guest."
2. This is a great sales psychology bit, but the whole idea of the show being about giving information to the viewers that will help them in the future is such larceny. In the words of the my father, "to be a salesman you have to have a bit of ganif (yiddishism for thief) in you." But still, the unsuspecting, and I suppose there are many of them out there, would definitely fall for this, and think that this is fair and balanced journalism, and this is a guest speaker with something true to offer.

The quintessential fauxlanthromercial is the Kevin Trudeau series. Ahh, Trudeau....now here is a savory character. He hocks debt cures, weight loss, natural cures, and all with the appended suffix, "...that they don't want you to know about." They. This is so crisp, because it plays on many sorry saps' inherent paranoia, and his whole premise is that these are secret cures that the government and ruling bodies are suppressing. Of course, this is targeted at poor fools sitting on their sofas, who have or feel they have been wronged by "the man," and feeling powerless, Trudeau can break through this barrier that the FDA/AMA/USDA/FTC/SEC has erected and re-empower the obese, the addicted, the impoverished. He also likely grabs an audience with the highly gullible crowd amongst the very new-agey types, a topic which I should address in its own post, but will likely forget about it forever after this period. forgotten.
Now Trudeau's personal life and career are simply incredible. Convicted of fraudulent whathaveyou as early as 1996, he has been the subject of numerous lawsuits from "skeptical clients.": In 2004 a US federal judge ruled in favor of the FTC, awarding $37 million to wronged consumers for misrepresented claims of cancer cures using Coral Calcium, whatever the F that is. I guess "they" didnt teach me about that one in medical school. Throughout his illustrious tele-career, Trudeau has been consistently embroiled in lawsuits, convicted of felonious deeds numerous, yet he won't be stopped! He continues to practice his schemes, despite repeatedly and continually being litigated, and having verdicts handed down against him. He gets an E for Effort, but also a D for Douchebag. Somehow, and this attests to the net foolishness of the public en masse, his weight loss cures book is still a NY Times best seller, even after he was convicted of felonious misrepresentations in that very book! I love it, love it, love it. His shows are awesome, especially because they make the highly scientific claim of "you can see it working!". and you know it works, praytell? because you are shitting out ropes of feces!! that's right, on the feux-show (fo' sho?) he illustrates the results through pictures of real live fecal ropes. Obviously, fecal ropes are proof of nothing but that fecal ropes exist, a claim of which I am already highly suspicious. But even better is the remote possibility that this is true, that his client actually held in the very hands and photographed their serpentine turds, and sent them in. Well, unfortunately for you, gentle reader, I could not find on the youtube a copy of the medical cures they don't want you to know about informercial (possibly because they don't want you to know about them). But I could find his debt cures one, which is a known pyramid scheme. So without further ado...the solution to all your debt problems:

Leg Holster!

2010-02-19T09:50:00.001-05:00

I went ahead and ripped a Leg Holster for you from Enter the Dragon. There are better scenes than this, but I have work to do, so I'll leave that compilation for another day. You're welcome.

Kung-POW!

2010-02-18T20:10:00.005-05:00

Yesterday at the gym, while moving in an elliptical fashion, I watched Enter the Dragon. That is an awesome movie, but that goes without saying. I love kung-fu sounds, and people getting their melons kicked off their shoulders, and Kareem Abdul Jabar. But my most favorite part is when Bruce Lee holds his leg out at you, aims it, panning, ready to fire off a head-busting Kee-YAH!, and then slowly holsters it, with a look that says, "Watch your nuts, cause they're about to get smashed into oblivion."
I searched for a youtube video that has the leg-reload in it, but alas, I could not find it. If any of my faithful readers can locate said scene, you will be thoroughly rewarded. In the meantime, feast your eyes on this tasty lick of 10 awesome moments from Enter the Dragon.

Best Of: Informercials, Part I

2010-02-18T19:28:00.004-05:00

I would like to start a new (first) series on this blog, called Best Informercials. The reason for this is single fold: I LOVE informercials. I don't know what it is about them, either its the cheesy hucksters, the glorification of crap you don't need (and perhaps that's more like it, because for that same reason I also will read the skymall cover-to-cover given the opportunity). One of my most memorable past times is watching and mocking informercials with BenPoodi. So here are two of my favorites, one old, one newly discovered.

The original magic bullet is my first love. It has all the form elements for greatness: a cast of shitty characters, a faux dinnerparty where jerk-off australian dude and his faux wife/girlfriend/life-coach show the unwitting and ornery guests how to use the MAGIC BULLET BUY NOW!, and most importantly, the black-and-white dramatization of someone bumbling through an easy, everyday task. My favorite character is the fat slob, "Oooh Nachos, those are for me." Let's also not forget about the nasty smoking Aunt. Whose Aunt is she? Why is she smoking around a food prep area? The magic bullet represents everything that is wrong with society today. People too lazy to take out a knife and learn how to actually cook. Instead, let this bizarre crappy substitute do it for you. How much can you actually prepare in a blender? How many food are tasty with that texture? It's so inauthentic, plastic, perfect.

.

This next infomercial has been in the media a bunch lately, as evidenced by its over 2,000,000 views on youtube...But not for lack of good reason. Poody's personal favorite among the exercisomercials is the P90X. I agree, that one is awesome, but I give the award for best exercisomercial to the ShakeWeight, AKA the 'Sturb-orator. The exercise informercials appeal to a very low point in people: pure vanity. Fat cows sitting on their sofa, trying to get thin while putting forth as little effort as possible. Walking around the block and eating less is free, but more difficult, so why not have a jerk-ulator to get you buff instead?

.

Other Great Nature Clips

2010-02-18T09:52:00.005-05:00

I so much enjoyed looking through Planet Earth videos for yesterday's Cordyceps Fungus post, that I am now posting my two favorite clips from Planet Earth here.
If you haven't watched this entire documentire documentary seriesentary series, stop what you are doing now, and commence viewing.

I like the first one because of how it speaks of the human condition. In the end, we expend so much of our energies in trying to impress a mate: be it a woman, a family member, a boss, even our own egos.

This second video is perhaps my most favorite in the whole series. I like it because it is brutal, and scary, and real.

I changed the aspect ratio for this last video, but if you click on it you can watch it on youtube in it's true widescreen format.

Molestation of Power

2010-02-17T22:13:00.007-05:00

So I just heard/read about a new skandal. Apparently Rav Motti Elon, a venerated and respected Da'ati-Leumi (religious-nationalist) Israeli Rabbi has been accused by a rabbinical oversight board of "inappropriate sexual conduct" with his students. So what the shit is going on in the Orthodox Community in specific, and the Jewish Community as a whole?

FIrst a disclaimer. I want to state at the outset that I know that child molestation at the hands of Rabbis is of no greater amount than that of the general population. But because this is my family, I hold them to a higher standard. That's just how it goes. It's my blog, deal with it.

I have to count the child molester rabbis that I know on 2 hands now, and I even know several victims as well. And I'm not so involved in the community that I come into contact with that many people, nor am I that close with very many rabbinical leaders. I understand that these are people just like everyone else; I gave up idolizing and deifying rabbis a while back. But I wonder if maybe a certain personality type is drawn to positions of youth leadership. Perhaps people who have a dark-side. That combined with the carte-blanch authority and lack of oversight in the closed Orthodox world allows for such dark urges to grow into terrible acts. So what can we do about it? How suspicious should we be? Is this a cause for loss-of-faith?

I am friends with a guy who was victimized by Rabbi Matis Weinberg, a prominent youth leader and teacher in Yeshivat Derech Etz Chaim. I personally heard the story from the victim. He was very close with the Rabbi, who mentored him in how to lead a fulfilling life as a Jew. Little did my friend know, that this included the Rabbi getting in bed with him on a Shabbaton, kissing him on the lips, and cuddling up close. That story makes my stomach churn. Luckily, the victim's parents reacted relatively well, immediately getting him therapy and pressing charges against the Rabbi. The only problem is that they pressed charges via the Rabbinical Courts, who they felt could adequately deal with the matter. A quick rant-aside: we're not in the freaking ghetto anymore. We are in America, and are free to live amongst the nations. We do not need our own courts to deal in our own matters, there is a fair and equitable courts system in the United States that is more than equipped to deal with this kind of stuff. So the Rabbinical Court got together and heard the whole thing start to finish, frowned knowingly, and handed down the verdict of "A light slap on the tush." They said that the Rabbi couldn't teach at the Yeshiva anymore. Are you freaking kidding me?! Had he been convicted by a state or federal court in GA, he would have had to move into woodland homeless sex offender communities. I heard some of my other friends defend Matis Weinberg, saying that the whole thing was blown out of proportion, blah blah blah. And that is where the problem lies: these individuals yield so much power over their students, that even if they are in fact fucking sexual deviant perverts, no one will admit it. And the Orthodox Community has a LONG way to go in dealing with this, because I guarantee you that molestation didnt start in 2002. At YU, when the whole Baruch Lanner thing came to light, the YU rabbinical leadership were forced at the cajoling of the students and community to give a public apology for covering up Lanner's activity for so many years, and for stifling the victims, many of whom came forward to their "trusted" rabbis for guidance. The common pattern here is Rabbis molesting students, the rabbinical leadership doing nothing about it, and apologizing only after the harm-level has reached threshold. This is why I have lost alot of faith in Orthodoxy, because the belief system that is built on "the shoulders of giants," is really built on the backs of people. Nearly all of the laws we follow today are interpretations of the Torah by rabbis, dating from the times of the Gemara until Rav Moshe Feinstein. And these Rabbis are all people, and who is to say that they did not mishandle their interpretations of the law, just like they are currently mishandling both the students and their adjudication of child molestation within their ranks. Perhaps this speaks most to the benefits of an open society, a direction in which the Orthodox Community (sic Chareidim) is unfortunately not moving, in allowing all activities to be subject to the light of law, justice, truth, and reflection.
When I was in Yeshiva in Israel, a gung-ho young talmid looking for the way to live a meaningful life, I was fed hardliner dogma about the Ruach HaKodesh being present in Gedolim, how the Gedolim ARE daas torah, we are the chosen people. They stopped just short of saying, "we are god." But you know what I never heard? I never heard: "we are just people like everyone else, even just like those scary goyim." Jews need to get the hell out of their psychological ghetto. The fact that our current ideology is a reflection of 600 years of persecution is a shame, both that we were persecuted, and that we cannot leave the persecution, even when the persecutor is no more. For what do we need a rabbinical court, when the court can impose no meaningful punishment? The torah prescribes a court system with punishments for certain crimes. But now-a-days, the worst they can do is "cherem (excommunication)" which amounts to absolutely nothing contemporarily, as the shtetl no longer exists, and you can just move to a different part of the country or world. If the rabbinical courts would actually start whipping and executing people, it would be a different story. But they aren't, so those courts are castrated and irrelevent.

I feel awful for the victims, for the families, and most of all for all the people who looked up to these men for guidance in their lives. I suppose the final question (because all we are left with is questions) is does the awful fallacy of the teacher render his teachings incorrect? Can you still enjoy the fruit if the tree is rotten?

And the Fungi Shall Inherit the Earth...

2010-02-17T13:26:00.003-05:00

Fungi are the ~~scariest~~ best living things on earth. They are everywhere. In fact, the largest single organism on Earth is a fungus, whose mycelium spans several miles of a forest floor in Oregon. In the future, it will not be the meek, but the fungi, that inherit the Earth. I wrote a previous post a while back about mycelia as a basis for cellular intelligence, using a slime mold as a paradigm for a primitive neural network. This could help tie up some loose ends in our current understanding of evolution. My good friend Justin Michael FlimFlam sent me this article today about how sick ants will abandon the nest to die, thereby preventing infection of the entire colony. I was reminded of a, for lack of a better term, fucking awesome Planet Earth scene, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, who I want to narrate my entire life. The quote I find most interesting is:

"The parasites do play a role in preventing any one species from gaining an upperhand. The more numerous a species becomes, the more likely it is to be attacked by a Cordyceps Fungus."

Now humans number in the billions, but that pales in comparison to the numerousness of the arthropods. But perhaps it is only a matter of time until we become susceptible to the great equalizer cordyceps fungus. You are probably saying, "Nah dawg, we got fluconazole for that shizz." And I answer, in the words of Jeff Goldblum from Jurassic Park: "Nature, uh, finds a way [also don't forget this]." Perhaps we are seeing the beginning of a great equalizer in the growing MRSA, resistant TB, resistant-whatever-you-want strains that have jumped from mere nosocomial infection to community acquired deadliness. And the fungi shall inherit the earth...

Behold, the might of the Cordyceps Fungus!

Ben Ferencz is Awesome

2010-02-16T21:13:00.009-05:00

Ben Ferencz was the chief prosecutor for the US at the Nuremberg Trials. I remember seeing his speech to the American Bar Association a while ago (I logged alot of daytime CSPAN-time when I had a job "working from home" before medical school. And by working from home, I mean fishing and playing
and beating all Zelda games for 7 hours, and working for 1 hour), and I thought it was really interesting, though he gets into some of the gruesome details of the Holocaust, just FYI. He talks about his experiences in prosecuting the head Nazis, which was his first case (he won, convicting 17 SS commanders, resting his case after 2 days), and then speaks about the International Criminal Court and reflects on the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I've posted the entire speech below (6 videos total, it'll automatically play through all 6 using the player below). Also, check out his website.

"Suppose everyone went around and decided he was going to kill in self-defense any presumed enemy, including the infirm, the aged, children. What would that world look like?"

"What kind of world do you want? Do you want a world like this poised on the verge of exploding at any moment? Freedom from fear, one of the 4 rights which Roosevelt was advocating after World War II, I've never seen the country so afraid"

I can only imagine what he thinks of fear-mongerers like Glenn Beck...

You's a HHO! Alternative Fuel and You!

2010-02-16T10:42:00.004-05:00

Here's an interesting clip via Ben Poody:

So according to wikipedia, my definitive source on everything, what's happening here is water is being
electrolysed into oxyhydrogen gas--aka HHO-- which is 2:1 molar ratio of H₂ and O₂ gases. Now this technology has been known about for some time, around 150 years, but what the man in the video suggests is running a car on it. Now, praytell, from where will the energy to lyse the water come? As Moshe pointed out in an email, eliminate the middle man, and just hook the cars directly up to electric motors. Like on of these, for instance (buy me one now!). And I agree, the electric car is better.

Apparently, the water-run car, using this very same technology, is a hoax, of classic proportions, but touches on the delicate concept of alternative fuel sources. I read a book a while back called Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy, by George Olah, a Nobel-Prize winning chemist, who invented the fear-inducing super-acid H4O+ (the one that burns, not that one that makes you like Pink Floyd and drinks out of cups). Olah's proposal is based on the fact that our natural gas reserves far exceed our crude oil reserves, and that the volatile, difficult-to-store natural gas can be converted to methanol, evidenced in the equation:

CH₄ + CO₂ --> CH₃OH

The astute observer will note that this reaction requires CO₂, thereby making the future burning of said fuel a carbon neutral process. Of course, energy is additionally requires in the conversion of CH₄ to methanol, and that energy Olah would provide through clean nuclear power, which America, for some silly reason, still shies away from. Regardless, irregardless!, Olah's methanol economy provides the added benefit of ease-of-transfer of natural gas, allowing cars to run on the volatile fuel by converting it to a handy, safe liquid. It's much more feasible and safe than high-pressure hydrogen tanks, because we all know what happened the last time we tried that. Methanol from natural gas is good because it is a carbon-neutral process and utilizes a fuel that is sufficiently energetic to be an octane-hexane substitute using our current automobile engines. However, this is only a crutch, which even Olah admits, as natural gas stores are finite resources, which only delays the inevitable Peak Oil Crisis, which already has some in an apocalyptic frenzy.

Obvi, nuclear is the way to go. How much is a kcal? It's roughly the energy required to raise 2 gallons of water by 1 degree celsius. The average energy content in 1 gram of coal is 7 kcal, 1 g of oil contains 10 kcal of energy. Gee whiz, that's alot. 1 g of uranium contains 150,000 kcal of energy. That's more than a little. In a once-through nuclear reactor, only 4.1% of the energetic material is waste-product, 94% is recyclable. Of course, if you are all worried about bombs and shit, which you should be, or perhaps worried about giving the Ruskies loads of baksheesh for their Siberian Uranium Stores, why not use a thorium reactor, which was one of the original test reactors, is proven to work, the fuel is nearly ubiquitous and evenly distributed throughout the world (including the good ol' US of A), and best of all! It cannot be used to make a thermonuclear device! YAY! Of note, the reason why uranium was switched to as the primary fuel for energy-produced reactors in the first place was so that some of that healthy energetic production could additionally be shunted into weapon-grade uranium production, which was actually done down the road from me at the Savannah River Site. Also, Iran needs a heads-up on that one, since we know, because we did it....

So why not eliminate the middle man, pour money into development of clean nuclear fission, which is 100% carbon neutral, is (like the author) incredibly energetic, and with only slight conceivable advances from our current technologic level, can provide energy for at least 1000 years (based on breeder reactors utilizing the 0.7% of U-235 occuring naturally 100 times over. This doesn't even take into account the use of Th-232).

I'm not nuclear physicist, but I am a certified genius, and using my preternatural gift, it is pretty evident that nuclear power, fueling everything from our cars to our homes to our airplanes, is the only way to go from here on out.

Just solved the energy crisis, no biggie.

Obama Lil Mama

2010-02-11T20:54:00.001-05:00