1.13.2008

Politics

I noticed something today. If you go to the websites of the republican and democratic candidates running for president you will notice something interesting. Scroll on the issue bar and scan which issues are listed and the order in which they are presented.

Hillary Clinton has the following top 3 on her list:

1. strengthening the middle class
2. providing affordable and accessible health care
3. ending the war in Iraq

Mitt Romney:
1. keeping Americans safe
2. confronting radical Jihad
3. combating nuclear terrorism

John McCain:
1. McCain tax cut plan
2. Government spending, lower taxes and economic prosperity
3. straight talk on health care reform

Barack Obama:
His issues are in alphabetical order

Out of all the websites, Mr. Obama's is the most elegant. Check it out for yourself http://my.barackobama.com

Both Clinton and Obama provide PDFs (15 and 16 pages respectively) for their health care plan. I could not find one for Romney, McCain or Huckabee. I will look further. Next time, I hope to comment on the health care ideas coming from Clinton and Obama

A joke at every end:

How do you fit four elephants in a van?
Two in the front, two in the back.

ten second pause

How do you know if an elephant has been in your fridge?
There is a track in the butter.
How do you know if two elephants have been in your fridge?
There are two tracks in the butter.
How do you know if three elephants have been in your fridge?
There are three tracks in the butter.
How do you know if four elephants have been in your fridge?
There is a van outside.


1.01.2008

Resolutions

Happy New Year,

This 2008 I hope to be a good year. The last was surely memorable. The next should live up to its sisters and brothers. The year started with a book by an incredible writer by the name of Atul Gawande.

This man is a cool man. He proposes the following five suggestions to live a better life as a doctor of medicine, but this should apply to life:

  1. Ask unscripted questions
  2. Change
  3. Don't Complain
  4. Count Something
  5. Write
He has written two books: complications and better. Both are notes on the act or better yet art of medicine. Dr. Gawande writes through many questions and ideas. Some have a clear point in noting improvements in medicine (how did Warren Warwick establish the best CF clinic in the country) and others are more theoretical in scope (should medicine push to save without assuring some quality of life after care - Dr. Gawande discussed the difficulties faced by the heroic men and women coming back from Iraq with previously un-treatable injuries and now leading lives with disfigured bodies).

Interestingly and relevantly, the most recent issue of Chemical and Engineering News highlights a new polymer that is potentially well suited to connect live tissue with artificial limbs. PEDOT or poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) should be able to carry electric current from biological ions in tissue to synthetic electrons in artificial limbs. This technology is being developed by Biotectix, a University of Michigan spin off company.

A joke at every end:

What did the momma Buffalo say to her son when he went to college?

BiSon