Anyone here read "CommComm"? Good to see he's getting his FPP due.
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 1:26 PM on August 5, 2008

Maybe you guys could take the stem-cell debate/circle-jerk elsewhere. As usual in cases like this it would be great if someone can read between the lines and break this down a bit further. Just the fact that we now may have a supply of material with which to conduct research into ALS is, to me, absolutely incredible.
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 3:29 AM on August 2, 2008

Is it supposed to make me laugh? Because I am.
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 10:30 PM on July 17, 2008

I am always curious about the trajectory from big to massive, from obese to "super-obese" as it is known now. That is, does one truly not notice the change, even without a scale, from 225 to 275 or something similar? Because when we weigh people in this range they express genuine, profound shock and amazement at the change, as if they truly had no idea or worse yet had no reason for alarm at 250 but now, at 310, well, maybe it's time for a change.

That said,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 3:47 PM on July 14, 2008

I know I'm just a trainee and I hope that my skills will improve but sometimes I worry that my patients who are obese are not getting an accurate/thorough enough exam.

You are 100% correct.

And thanks for sharing, Omiewise. Seriously.
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 7:12 PM on July 14, 2008

I've been a reader for a decade. Anyone that doesn't immediately see the point of this, i.e. to make the unceasing poorly-veiled race-baiting and/or ideology misdirection out to be the fodder of cloven-hooved inbred chromosomally under-funded cylopean mouth-breathing retards (no offense intended) is a fucking idiot. The Obama camp should've shut up and let this fly under the radar.
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 10:38 AM on July 14, 2008

I'm not sure how one defines satire as successful. Is it unsuccessful if people don't find it palatable? Satire is subjective, of course, but you don't get to call yourself a champion of free expression and then turn around and vilify it's practitioners. It's fine to say you think it's trash. Projecting any further, especially such hyperbole as it possibly contributing to the electoral downfall of a candidate, is embarrassing.
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 11:04 AM on July 14, 2008

delmoi, I challenge you to show me anyone who can tell you what the last New Yorker cover showed, including their own readers. To most people the very mention or sight of the magazine induces a soporific haze. Perhaps "the Obama camp" is a misnomer (I was just quoting what seems to be the convenient meme. Maybe it's the VanPattens.
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 11:30 AM on July 14, 2008

It takes some impressive stones to be in such a public role with the sorts of chronic illnesses he faced. I'd be hard pressed to come up with too many other conditions that rival the misery of inflammatory bowel disease. Really, at this point, the role of press liason is such a joke and such a complete and obvious platform for spewing lies and bullshit you almost have to wonder why anyone still demonizes people in the role. It's not worth the effort. I'm more embarrassed for the press corp... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 9:25 AM on July 12, 2008

I haven't seen it, but from the reviews and numerous scenes I've seen it seems like a simplistic, but unfortunately very accurate, depiction of one facet of how the future might play out. I mean, right now bariatric surgery really isn't even all that successful at reversing obesity (going from 400 to 195 is still obese). So unless someone can come up with a scenario whereby we reverse cultural and instinctive forces I'm not sure how the obesity rate doesn't continue its climb toward 100%.
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 3:47 PM on July 10, 2008

does anyone actually give a fuck?
posted by quonsar at 3:47 PM on July 10 [+] [!]

That's really what I was trying to say.
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 3:48 PM on July 10, 2008

Man, that bit about getting him to sign his name on the "consent form" was pure balls law enforcement awesomeness.
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 11:14 AM on July 9, 2008

Also, I love the spoiler - the fact it's in small print with an extra link all the moreso. I can't get through all this in the next couple hours. Knowing they survived makes me less depressed and more interested to read the article.
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 11:16 AM on July 9, 2008

That album defines most of the first year of residency for me. I couldn't begin to try and explain what I love so much about it but after 14 years I've got nothing else in my collection that resembles it. To this day if Explain It To Me comes up on my iPod I get chills.
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 7:04 PM on July 8, 2008

dr. bronnerfilter
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 1:27 PM on July 8, 2008

This was debated on the Blue once. That is, the feasibility and sense of a suicide barrier on the GG. I was somewhat surprised at the level of resistance to it given the research into the sheer impulsivity of suicide. Watching the Bridge clearly shows this as well. It's just not a topic most people feel is worth addressing, I guess, since most people feel like it isn't germane to them personally.
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 2:31 PM on July 7, 2008

This is pretty cool. Thanks. And yeah, the icons will potentially obscure the wallpaper, but part of the fun of owning a device like an iPhone is pimping it out just so.
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 8:47 PM on July 6, 2008

My interpretation of the article suggests we're seeing one side of the issue. I don't get why there isn't a plan for tiered day care options. There seems to be this push to create an incredibly rarefied plan focussed around the latest fad science of child development, when I suspect most parents would be profoundly grateful for any on-site safe haven for their children that didn't involve a steady curriculum of TV.

Google just figured out that it was sitting... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 10:54 AM on July 5, 2008

Ummmm.... Nope, I figure that after they finished beating their wives, sexually abusing their children, and in general acting exactly the same as all the other Compound Christians it makes perfect sense that they'd abuse animals.

The only reason anyone is startled is because there's this meme that says "oooh, Amish, cool, good, simple". Rejecting technology is, for some odd reason, seen as laudable in the minds of many Americans, who are quick to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 6:21 AM on July 4, 2008

Maybe someone can help me understand the link a little better? Is this about puppy mills (bad!), the Amish (curiously obtuse, possibly enlightened, maybe just a little fucking crazy, need to be taken down a peg) or the ne plus ultra - an AMISH PUPPY MILL - Holy fucking shit. These people are truly everything we suspected - just as depraved as every other cloistered society determined to shun the civilizing trappings of modernity.

If you ever actually spend any time... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 6:27 AM on July 4, 2008

Yeah, if one could snap a finger and jump ahead a generation or two to some system, any system, that guarantees a minimum level of care to all people, those kids would look at our system with the same horror and embarrassment as we do with Jim Crow laws. Any new paradigm for health care is going to look like a disaster in the making to some people and not others, but something will give. Just a matter of time. I can tell you, though, that waiting times are going to get horrendous. Currently,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 7:33 PM on July 2, 2008

Someone needs to be blamed for this because clearly, with our current societal emphasis on treatment of mental illness, the poor, and minorities, this should never, ever happen.
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 1:09 PM on July 2, 2008

see also
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 1:12 PM on July 2, 2008

Talk about it all you want, wring your hands in anger and frustration, etc. Really, this subject like so many others will get its ten minutes of indignation but shit-all will change because the same squalid hospital infrastructures will remain, the same shitty labor pool will exist with ever-increasing downward pressure to hire the lowest of the low in terms of training and skills, the availability of physicians to care for these people will remain as bad or worse than ever, and any tax... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 1:20 PM on July 2, 2008

Here in Oregon this patient wouldn't have a prayer of getting a bed in a psychiatric unit unless she was brandishing a weapon. It's not just inner cities.
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 1:24 PM on July 2, 2008

Hopkin green milk.
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 1:51 PM on June 30, 2008

Quite a few people making a go of it in these newer suburban neighborhoods could only do so with every cost nailed down tight and a promise of rising equity, since the only real savings any of them had was home equity lines of credit. All rising gas has done is illuminate how tenuous their ability was to match income to cost of living. I doubt any of these people will really move into the urban "core" since those areas are just as high priced if they have any appeal. More likely is... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 12:35 PM on June 25, 2008

This thread is about to become a self-congratulating urbanite circlejerk

maybe, and I probably didn't help with my comment, but really, the size and cost of these homes, especially in light of just how incredibly badly they are constructed, is sickening. It's not the fault of the buyer, really, imo. The allure of creating a spacious, safe place to raise your kids is an intense one, and I can understand what some of these people must be thinking.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 12:40 PM on June 25, 2008

Why is it presumed that all people living in the suburbs are in newly-built, enormous, energy-inefficient snout houses? I live in the suburbs, and none of the houses around here fit that description.

That was the implied thrust of the article, THITL. I grew up in a long-established lovely suburb of DC. Our house was 2000 sq. feet if you included the garage and attic. While the commute is a bitch still, they long ago put in light rail and before... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 3:09 PM on June 25, 2008

Did he purposely choose vehicles from the sixties and seventies?
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 2:45 PM on June 24, 2008

Yes, clearly what pisses people off is that that they can only impotently rage at these girls, casting the worst kinds of aspersions on their intellects, their morality and their ability to parent, accusing them of being freeloaders and cheats, sluts, ditzs, the worst examples of irresponsible living and of having not "turned out right" before most of them have even given birth, without any actual knowledge that a single one of them will ever take a penny in government aid,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 9:59 PM on June 20, 2008

If they have made the patient's state clear to the family and they still wish to continue treatment then that is the family's call not the doctors. To do otherwise is to give doctors far too much control over all our lives which I believe would be a far greater harm.
posted by srboisvert at 1:13 PM on June 18 [+] [!]

Doctors can and should make this call. There are hospital legal teams for just such issues. Families very often are... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 1:53 PM on June 18, 2008

Oh my Christ that was annoying. I made it to ten seconds the first time and fifteen the second. What's it going to try to bludgeon me with once the annoying music and Flash stops?
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 7:14 AM on June 17, 2008

I think the Japanese effort is a sensible one for the fact that if nothing else they are going to increase cultural awareness of the slippery slope of obesity before it takes hold of their young. Getting a population over 45 to lose weight may be impossible, as it seems to be in my practice. Unless the payoff is somehow immediately tangible (looking svelte if you're appealing to vanity, or the elimination of a symptomatic health concern if you are in self-preservation mode - people don't... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 8:20 AM on June 15, 2008

58 and obese does not make a heart attack a complete surprise. People have a tendency to imagine they'll have warning symptoms if they have heart disease when the opposite is likely the case. Sadder still, I wouldn't be surprised if the word is he "just had a full check-up" or some other meaningless comment implying his good health, since a guy of his stature is unlikely to skip exams. Even a relatively clean hearth cath doesn't mean you won't get a plaque rupture and keel over.
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 1:02 PM on June 13, 2008

I nap every work day from 12:50 to 1:05 at my desk. I know for a fact I'm part of a small but growing demographic that is unapologetic in their need for a nap. It's my salvation.
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 3:09 PM on June 11, 2008

How does a state struggle with diversity?
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 2:33 PM on June 11, 2008

The opening paragraphs sound deliberately overly dramatized for effect and clearly, judging by the assured conviction of posters here wishing ungodly despair on the son it has had the intended effect.

I've watched dozens of people navigate the years between loss of functional autonomy and death, and watched the sons and daughters as well, and I have no better roadmap now than I did then. Every case is completely different but every case is hard as hell and brings out... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 12:36 PM on June 11, 2008

dead man walking
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 8:32 PM on June 10, 2008

someone go wake Matt
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 8:59 PM on June 10, 2008

Someone Riddle Me This, then:

Unlike a housing bubble, or tech, or tulips, what pulls the plug if oil is speculated out of proportion to actual supply, since "supply" seems like a huge unknown, or at least cryptically guarded secret. Does some geologic think-tank publish a groundbreaking report that says oil reserves are triple that which was previously believed to exist and extraction techniques are going to improve tenfold?
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 8:41 PM on June 10, 2008

4" x 6" x 3 mil poly bags jumped from $8 to $11 per thousand (in lots of 50 thousand) last month.

Not to mention shovels and quicklime.
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 8:43 PM on June 10, 2008

If you live north of the equator, much less beneath the squalid cloud ceiling of the UK, you are risking vitamin D deficiency. Meat has nothing to do with it.
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 3:19 PM on June 10, 2008

Also, zealous defenders of the necessity of eating animal protein are insane, moronic, or both. There's nothing healthy about it. It happens that we can certainly tolerate animal protein well, and in modest amounts it certainly seems to be harmless. But healthy? Not even close.
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 3:23 PM on June 10, 2008

Are the kids without access to videogames the poorest kids in the neighborhood?

God no. Hell no. The kids who unequivocally have videogames in my practice are in the poorest families. I'd say amongst professionals it's 50/50. Parents in education close to zero. This shit isn't rocket science.
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 4:47 PM on June 9, 2008

If Roe is overturned in the near-future (next 10-20 years), and it certainly could be with one or two new Court appointments, I suspect we'll be treated to two parallel scenarios. One will be safe abortion services readily available to anyone with the means to pay and transport themselves in Mexico and Canada, thus ensuring that anyone with the likely socioeconomic means to possibly raise a child reasonably well is likely not to. The second, of course, will be a flood of perinatal disasters... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 6:55 AM on June 7, 2008

If MC is bitter then you've got more targets for your remonstrations than minutes in your lives. There's an oblivious grotesqueness to churning out that many kids, along the same line of thinking of prayer as a means of medical treatment.
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 4:50 PM on June 6, 2008

As someone that gets to look at similar views every day, this is a pretty damn good pictorial if only so any man or woman can see just exactly what things look like deep in the vaginal canal. Good job.
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 12:45 PM on June 4, 2008

I'll out myself as a male "Sex and the City" fan, unwise as that may be in terms of opening myself up for ridicule. I'd love to say I only watched it so I could have an activity to share with my wife, but that wouldn't explain why I watched the show for years before we met. Personally, as a guy, I enjoyed the insight into dating and relationships from the female perspective (and yes, I realize this show didn't represent the dating attitudes of ALL women). I thought the first... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 1:20 PM on June 1, 2008

It's not the first time, apparently.
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 3:04 PM on May 27, 2008