Billions and billions of dollars have been spent in the pursuit of new drugs but vanishingly few useful drugs are actually being developed. Dr. Safi Bahcall, the president and C.E.O. of the biotechnology company Synta Pharmaceuticals, and Malcolm Gladwell talk about how mistakes lead to great scientific discoveries and how big drug companies hamper innovation.
Check out their talk, Surrendipity: 2012 from the 2007 New Yorker Conference.
I just finished watching Michael Moore’s new movie, SiCKO.
A lady in Utah once broke into conversation about the differences in superiority between the health care system in the United States and the one in Canada. It took me a moment to process her argument that the United States system was far superior because it allowed anyone to pay for any treatment they needed without delay.
I asked her, well isn’t it better that people in Canada who couldn’t afford health care in the States can go to a hospital and not be refused treatment? Her rebuttal, though with no apparent reason for saying so, was that, “no, the American system is much better.”
And now you can make your own decision as Michael Moore takes a look at health care around the world, and in the good ol’ US of A.
Hit play or watch SiCKO fullscreen at Google Video. The video is down, but you can still see it in theatres when it comes out June 29th.
Universal health care, just one more reason I’m glad to be a Canadian.
Oh and for you conspiracy theorists out there, check out what appears to be a secret handshake 38 minutes and 04 seconds into the movie.
When I was in San Francisco last month, I came across this interesting sign outside a medical marijuana shop not far from City Hall. I didn’t really think about it much, other than the initial thought that it’s something I wouldn’t see at home, but apparently hocking medical marjuana is big business in California—so says the recent article, The Great California Weed Rush, from Rolling Stone Magazine.
A doctor’s note is the gateway to the wonderful world of pot clubs, which in the new lingo are called “dispensaries.” In California—unlike the eleven other states with medical-cannabis laws—there’s some vague legal protection for Amsterdam-style shops selling medical marijuana. Usually named something like “Compassionate Caregivers,” “Earth Healers” or, less obscurely, “Kush Mart,” these stores are like dying and going to stoner heaven. They look like old-timey apothecaries, with glass cases of prescription bottles with twenty to thirty different kinds of bud, nearly all of exceptionally high quality, ranging from $35 an eighth to $100 for OG Kush. Any self-respecting dispensary owner also sells hash, kief, jellies, infusions, cones, clones, pot lollipops (”Hydropops”), pot candy bars, pot peanut butter, pot ice cream and at least a half-dozen flavors of pot sodas—sometimes sold out of a vending machine. One store owner told me excitedly that when Nevada OKs dispensaries, he’s opening a club on the Vegas Strip. We were talking in a parking lot, and when he drove away he forgot a can of soda on the roof of his car.
Michael J. Fox Talks To Katie Couric about Parkinson’s, Rush Limbaugh, and stem cell research.
Press play or watch here.
A few weeks ago, when I visited my sister and her family in Drayton Valley, she was so kind as to send me home with a few odds and ends of food from her storage room. One of the items was a can of beef broth with an expiration date of October 2006.
The other day I made Chicken Stir Fry with my friend Heather and she suggested that I use chicken broth instead of water to cook the vegetables. It was a great idea.
So the next time I cooked Stir Fry, this time just for myself, since I didn’t have any more chicken broth, I decided to use the can of beef broth that Jackie gave to me—even though it said October 2006 on the top of the can, I thought, well, technically it’s only the beginning of October, so it’s probably still good.1
BIG MISTAKE.2
The first time I ate it, it was not bad. I had a bit of an upset stomach but I thought it must just be heart burn. As I packed up the leftovers into plastic containers, I poured the broth from the bottom of the pan right over the rice. MMMM, extra flavour I thought to myself—extra food poisoning is what I SHOULD have been thinking.
The next night as I regurgitated the leftovers, I thought to myself—even though I know I’m not going to die, food poisoning does feel mighty close. Since I had thrown up about as much as I could and still felt sick, I decided that it might be a good idea to eat a heaping bowl or two of Raisin Brain, you know to “push the poison through”.
Moments later I was revisiting the entire contents of my two bowls of cereal in several terrific “oooaghhhs”. I quickly came to realize that I should take deep breaths between bouts of vomiting because you can’t breath while your digestive track switches direction.
The next few hours were long and painful. I decided that unless I felt totally better, I would not be going into work this morning. This was not a bad prospect considering how much work “work” actually is and it would be a good chance to let the 7 blisters on my feet heal. However, number one, I didn’t want to call in sick on only my third day of work and on the Friday leading up to a long weekend (how suspicious) and besides, at 6:00am I was miraculously and disappointingly healed (disappointingly because hey, four day weekend) so it was off to work I went; other than another slightly upset stomach at lunch it now appears as though the food poisoning has completely cleared up.
The story of my blisters is another matter. Suffice it to say that the first three days of work have been an adventure. I need to get some new work boots ASAP and hopefully I’ll beef up in the muscles department so that lugging those heavy blocks around won’t be so hard. Here’s to the working life.
And for supper tonight, I went back to my trusty staple… frozen pizza cooked in the oven.
1. This is where one comes to realize how important it is to have a girlfriend/boyfriend to bounce ideas off each other, like hey do you think this mould can just be cut off or is this dark grey block of cheese a write off?
2. For those of you that skipped over this post because it seemed too long, the moral of the story is don’t play Russian Roulette with expiration dates, it will catch up with you.
Sleeping with a partner can save your life. From the author, Dr. Paul C. Rosenblatt,”It surprised me how many people thought they were alive today because they shared a bed”.
Did I mention that _I_ am a lifeguard?
I was reading about Dooce’s recent diagnosis of skin cancer, the other day, and today I came across a little health tip gem that might prevent you from getting your own dose of Basal Cell Carcinoma: Rubbing in suncream ‘cuts effect’! Sunscreen is most effective when left as a white film to dry on the skin.
Researchers said rubbing in sunscreen could even put people at higher risk because while it did not protect against UVA rays it did offer resistance to UVB which causes the skin to redden.
They said that could encourage people to stay in the sun for longer.
Please excuse me while I head off to apply some sunscreen before the soccer game at 2:00 (with communication in French of course—there is a reason you learn the swear words first and that reason is “sport”).
Yay! Alberta is going smoke free (somewhat) on January 1st, 2006.
The following is a list of places that must be smoke-free if minors are permitted to enter:
- Restaurants, banquet halls and entertainment facilities
- Healthcare facilities
- Public and private schools and school property
- Common areas in residential buildings (hotels, motels, apartment and condominium buildings)
- All offices and government buildings
- Work vehicles
- All enclosed public places including parking garages
- Day nurseries
- Reserved seating in sporting arenas or entertainment venues
Well it was bound to happen, and now it has. I woke up this morning at about 6am with a terrible sore throat and nobody to take care of me. I just hope it doesn’t turn into a full fledged cold/flu/pneumonia.
My throat has really been killing me, especially during the night. This morning I tried looking at it in the mirror and couldn’t tell if there were the little white bumps indicative of strep throat, but decided I’d better go to the Dr. and find out for sure.
Well, as luck would have it I have a case of the common cold. I’m guessing it’s all the weird sleeping hours and strange diet that is throwing my system off so much.
Other than that, the hospital was actually quite nice. It was clean, fast, and inexpensive. Maybe private health care isn’t so bad after all…
I made a quick phone call to Anna-Maria and invited her to join me here in Malaysia. She insisted that it was out of the question, but at the same time I know she was tempted. I am tempted to buy it for her anyway but I guess she wants me to “try” to make sure we don’t get back together. It’s a weird situation—nevertheless I’m really sad at her decision not to come.
I caught the train and a cab to my work and got there (here) basically in time to go for lunch. Which is where I’m about to go now.
It’s the start of my third day in Malaysia. I’ve been sick with a cold, and that coupled with my jet-lag has made sleeping an arduous task. Actually falling asleep is not the problem. The problem is staying up past 6:00pm and sleeping past 2:00am.
My plan for the day is to check out my workplace. I start there tomorrow and want to have some experience getting there before the actual day I need to show up for work. The deal is, I have to take the train for about an hour to the end of the line. From there I need to take either the bus or a taxi. Apparently the taxi takes about 15 minutes and the bus is anyone’s guess because public transportation doesn’t seem to be the most reliable here, not to mention buses are not as good at maneuvering through heavy traffic.
I’m still not used to the food, though most of it is quite tasty, it’s very greasy and I can feel my arteries clogging as I chomp through the deep-fried everything.
There is some kind of small bug climbing down the chair beside me. I guess that that will pretty much bring this post to an end.
I’m off to Malaysia next month and in preparation I went down to the health unit today and got a total of four shots—two in each arm. I’ve been avoiding my MMR booster shot for a few years now and I skipped out on the mandatory tetanus shot they give you in the 9th grade, but I got caught up on all of them in four foul stabs earlier today. The tetanus side is still throbbing slightly but it wasn’t nearly as painful as I had it built up to be. My biggest fear is that I will be part of the tiny fraction of people that have an adverse reaction to the vaccines. So far so good.
Anna’s mom gave her some sparklers a long time ago but we never ended up using them. She came into the computer room today and asked if it would be ok to light one in the house. I was surprised that she asked me, but she must have doubted something about the idea anyway I told her to go ahead. I said if something bad happens she could always run out the back door and throw it in the dog’s water. Um, about 6 seconds into the burning of the sparkler I suggested she write her name and burn it into her retina. Well the flinging motion of the sparkler caused a bit of hot burning metal to fall onto a piece of paper hanging on the bulletin board and then burned through onto the floor. All Anna could say in surprise was, “Oh no! Something bad DID happen.” We now have a little black mark on the hard wood floor to remind us of the dangers of sparklers.
Via Plastic.com:
A German pharmaceutical company have announced that they’ve produced a cure for Crohn’s Disease. It’s a simple concoction made from natural ingredients to be taken twice a month. Here’s the downside: the active ingredient is worm eggs. That’s right, worm eggs.
“Regular doses of worms really do rid people of inflammatory bowel disease. The first trials of the treatment have been a success, and a drinkable concoction containing thousands of pig whipworm eggs could soon be launched in Europe.”
The other day at his work, my roommate cut his hand and had to go to the hospital. He had three stitches and a week off work—paid. He said he was pretty happy about getting a paid vacation, but unfortunately for him he just got diagnosed with Strep throat so it looks like he’s going to be sick during the time that he is off. Life’s like that sometimes; maybe it’s karma?