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baron_steffan's LiveJournal:
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| Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 | | 7:09 pm |
| | 12:05 am |
"House" Watch
No lumbar puncture! At all! No polyarteritis! No lupus! I'm shocked, I tell you. Shocked! Okay well, there *was* multiple organ failure. And there *was* gratuitous radiation therapy. And penicillin. And steroids. Ya *gotta* get yer steroids. | | Monday, January 25th, 2010 | | 5:03 pm |
On Homeopathy
A recent article on homeopathy has been circulating on both LJ and Facbook. (See
http://timesonline.typepad.com/science/2010/01/homeopathy-by-the-mindboggling-numbers.html).
I regret that I sell (but do not recommend -- it isn't my store) some homeopathic remedies, including the notorious Oscillococcinum flu "remedy". I hadn't had a full understanding of homeopathic dilution until this discussion, but what I've recently learned only reinforces my distaste for homeopathy.
My local chain pharmacies carry several homeopathic remedies. Let's look at some of them. "Cold Calm" contains Belladonna 6C. That means a 1:1,000,000 concentration. There may actually be some belladonna in there...but not enough to have any effect. "Chestal" is a little better: Ipecac (an emetic) in 1:1000 concentration. A couple gallons of this might actually get you to spit up some phlegm.
But my favorite is Oscillococcinum. This leads to an interesting pharmaceutical problem. Say you have some 100% ethyl alcohol. For the purposes of argument, Everclear is close enough. You make a 1% solution of Everclear. How much of the 1% solution do you need in order to get 1 mL of ethyl alcohol? The answer, obviously, is 100 mL.
Okay. Oscillococcinum lists its ingredients as "Anas barberiae hepatis et cordis 200 CK". That's Latin: it means "liver and heart of Muscovy duck" and "200 CK" means 200 standard homeopathic dilutions. You take some "active ingredient" and dilute it 1:100. Then you take some of *that* and dilute it 1:100. You keep doing that *two hundred times*. The end result has a concentration of 1 to (10-to-the-400th-power). There is one part of "stuff" in 10-followed-by-400-zeros parts of solution.
That's pretty dilute. How dilute? Well...there are supposed to be 10-to-the-80th-power atoms in *THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE*. If there was only *ONE* atom of a substance in all of creation, that would be a 1:10^80 dilution. I don't know what the actual active principle of the duck liver is supposed to be: liver contains a *lot* of stuff, from iron to B-vitamins to enzymes. Let's make this easy and consider the iron. One iron atom weighs about 92.725 yoctograms (a yoctogram is a septillionth, 10^-24, of a gram). (For the geeks: that's the molecular weight of iron times the mass represented by one Dalton, which is 1/12th the mass of a Carbon-12 atom, or approximately the mass of a hydrogen atom). Now, here's the really important part: an atom is indivisible, right? If you split an iron atom, it isn't iron anymore. So the absolute *least* amount of iron that you could *possibly* have is 92.725 yg.
Okay, so if you have a 1:10^400 solution of iron, how much solution do you need in order for that quantity to contain 92.725 yg of iron? It contains 1 g of iron in 10^400 mL, or 1 mg in 10^397 L, or 1 zeptogram (1,000 yg) in 10^376 L. You need a little less than a tenth of a zeptogram of iron, so you need just under 10-to-the-375th-power liters of solution. Considering that the *ENTIRE FREAKING UNIVERSE* contains "only" 10^80 pieces of *anything*, in order to get just *ONE ATOM* of iron out of your Oscillococcinum, you need more of it *THAN THERE IS OF ANYTHING IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE*.
Oscillococcinum is...water. Very expensive water. | | Thursday, January 21st, 2010 | | 10:02 am |
TV Review: 24's new season (mild spoilerage)
"24" is still a fun ride, but just when you thought the standard has been set for "most implausible plot evar", they raise (lower?) the bar. Lessee... You contract a prionic brain disease. These usually take decades to manifest, but yours is weaponized. You're moments from death. You get a blood transfusion. All betta! It's made abundantly clear that CTU is at the cutting edge of US security tech. The NY digs make Starfleet HQ look like Valley Forge. Chloe tosses off gibberish about how the flux capacitators are optically-enmeshed with multifocal polynomial algorithm clusters with chrome pipes and integrated digital passback inductors. And then, when she has to access another terminal on the down-low, it's "Can you hack into it?", she answers "Sure" and 8.7 seconds later, she's in. Sleep well, America: we've got your back. Oh, and while we're on that line: how do you make up a new false identity, and still pass the security checks necessary to land a job as a CTU analyst? CTU is established after 9/11. CTU is abolished. CTU is back. Way to waffle, guys. You gotta move the Bad Guy 5 blocks in Manhattan. You walk. They do have these things called "cabs" there.... I really hope that this isn't supposed to be Taylor's 2nd term. Not even the US electorate would re-up a president who (a) got a divorce (b) put her own daughter in prison for treason and (c) allowed the White House to be invaded, and herself to be held hostage. But the one thing that most bugged me was this. You're a Russian in deep cover who speaks such absolutely spot-on American English that you can get a job as a NYPD cop on foreign-head-of-state protection duty. Oh, that's certainly not the implausible bit. What I don't get is...when your cover is blown, why is to then being drop into Boris-Badunov Rooshin Exyent? | | Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 | | 3:18 pm |
That's damned cold, Mr. Marketing Wonk....
At the pharmacy where I work, we got a new desk calendar from the greeting-card company whose cards we sell. It has several "reminders" every month to stock such-and-such cards for such-and-such impending seasons. On February 11th, there is this helpful note: "Keep Get Well and Sympathy cards in stock, since it's cold and flu season". I'm not making this up, I swear. Current Mood: indescribable | | Thursday, January 14th, 2010 | | 6:10 pm |
| | Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 | | 11:29 am |
"House" Watch
It can't be a "House" episode without a lumbar puncture. This ep was 22:20. I'm sure there was also the obligatory mention of polyarteritis, but I failed to note the time. | | Sunday, January 10th, 2010 | | 12:45 am |
Joss Whedon's "Dollhouse" (Spoilers behind cuts...I hope)
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) auntie_elspeth and I are huge Joss fans, and we've been talking lately about where this thing came from and where it's going. Joss tends to dive under the shark: his shows initially kinda suck, but if you give 'em half a season, they get awesome. He gets the shark over with, quick %^). (Think "Angel", first season. Compare to later seasons. Discuss.)
So I was watching the other night when we finally meet the Big Guy at the head of Rossum ( (Spoiler) ).And I sat up straight. Gobsmack.
By gawd, one of the Senior Plays when I was in high school. R.U.R., by Karel Capek. The work that introduced the word "robot".
Then there was the earlier off-hand mention that Echo originated as a Doll in Bennett's house. Echo fits. ( Why. ) But now she's at Adelle's house. And Echo fits. ( Why. ) Gobsmack.
( More spoilerage )
| | Saturday, January 9th, 2010 | | 11:29 pm |
| | Wednesday, December 30th, 2009 | | 8:54 pm |
Coyness & Pro Football
Not two things I'd normally associate with each other. But am I the only one who gets annoyed at this time every year with all the coy references to "The Big Game"? It appears that there are copyright/licensing issues involved with mentioning the Holy & Ineffable Name of the US pro-football championship game, so any promotion or ad that refers to it has to say "The Big Game" (nudge, wink, know-whut-I-mean, 'eh, Guv?). Superbowl Superbowl Superbowl. Nyah-nyah-nyah. | | Monday, December 28th, 2009 | | 4:07 pm |
Nine plus 9 plus 9 equals?
Possible confusion? There are two (well, maybe three) films currently out. One, called 9, is an animated film about creatures living on a post-apocalyptic Earth. The other, called Nine, is a remake/update of Fellini's 8 1/2. There is also a Spanish short, also called 9. I'm just surprised that I've seen no mention of this in the media. | | 11:36 am |
| | 11:32 am |
Avatar (3D): capsule review, very minor spoilers
Overall: Awesomely good entertainment. Amazing production design. Highly recommended. Don't wait for the DVD: you have to see this in a theater. From what I understand, Cameron invented a technology that can be best described as a 3-D greenscreen "environment", and it seems that the result is that if you can imagine it, you can now film it, end of discussion. Nitpicks: 1. We never find out what Unobtainium is good for, only that it's very valuable. My internal rationalization is that it has some anti-grav property, which explains a lot of the Pandoran terrain. But really, none of that matters. 2. The conclusion is satisfying, but when you think about it...is it really all over? I detect the faint aroma of a sequel. 3. The plot has fairly been described as "Dances with Smurfs" (the cast even includes Wes "Wind-in-his-Hair" Studi) but at least there is a plot, the characters are engaging, and the film is not a 3-hour Hasbro commercial. | | Thursday, December 24th, 2009 | | 11:23 pm |
From the recent Laurel Acceptances
*Brunissende Dragonette de Brocéliande. * Alternate name Margarita Martini and badge. (Fieldless) On a goblet argent a pomme. Commenters were split on whether or not this name and badge combination rose to the level of being returnable for being obtrusively modern. The name, itself, is no more obtrusively modern than other joke names, such as /Drew Steele/, /Miles Long/, and /John of Somme Whyre/. The fact that both parts of this name are the names of modern drinks does not detract from the fact that this is a well-formed 14th century Italian name. We feel that most Society members are not experts on the date that particular mixed drinks were invented, so this would simply be considered a reference to alcohol rather than a reference to the 19th century. While the armory could be considered reminiscent of an olive in a martini glass, it is a standard SCA style of heraldry. We find ourselves agreeing with Longeley Herald, who says "I think we're too quick to assume that SCA participants, in general, find such allusions anything but amusing (if they catch the joke at all)." Were the charges in this submission actually an olive and a conical martini glass, rather than a goblet and a roundel, it would certainly be returned for obtrusive modernity. However, since the badge is composed of standard charges in a standard heraldic arrangement, it is registerable. I'm quite eager to be educated on the differences between this case and that of Elisabeth Borden of Kent, particularly what makes EBoK's arms unacceptable for their blatant "jokiness" and "obtrusive modernity" while these are just peachy-keen. (For those unaware of the issue, EBoK has been getting grief for her name and arms "Azure two candles in saltire argent enflamed at each end proper between 4 tau crosses argent"." Apparently the arms are too blatant a pun, too "obtrusively modern", and a pretension on a well-known post-period figure. Do you get it, without being told?) Current Mood:  aggravated | | 11:03 pm |
Hey, girlygothic I think I missed your birthday, so...Happy Way-Belated Birthday (& Happy Tattoo, too!). | | Saturday, December 5th, 2009 | | 10:20 am |
Smartphone review: HTC Pure
So my Palm Centro bit it about a month before I was due for an upgrade with AT&T. (Wouldn't sync, and the screen developed one of those LCD "blemishes".) AT&T was, of course, pushing the iPhone, but I'd been warned away from that. Thanks, jducoeur and alexx_kay. Not that my reasons were theirs: I'm not personally concerned with open-source development, after all. But I did need good POP email and a reliable web browser, a robust calendar and e-reader, the certain knowledge that I could get ePocrates (my drug database, used constantly at work), and other stuff that iPhone doesn't tout, while I did not need the stuff they do push. I mean, my killer app for ordering pizza is called a telephone, and I don't need an app to find a ferret dentist in Istanbul at 3 AM, thenkyew.
I initially ignored the HTC line, since I simply hadn't heard of it, unlike LG, Nokia, Motorola, and the rest. But after some online comparison shopping, the Pure seemed to have everything I wanted and little that I didn't. So, long story short, that's what I finally got.
Setup & Conversion
Conversion was the Epic, Apocalyptic, Monumental Fail. Oh, it got done, but only the Smith-Barney way: I earned it. The Centro, of course, was Palm OS. This is Windows Mobile 6.5. I loved Palm. I wanted a Palm Pre, the successor to the Centro. But that meant switching to Sprint, which was a no-go: we're happy with AT&T, and auntie_elspeth loves her Razr. (Digression: that's like saying "Oh, your cable is Comcast, so you can only use a Sony TV". Ridiculous. For more on that subject let me plug osewalrus. But I digress...). I was told, of course, that you could convert easily from Palm to Win, but I knew a "Bullwinkle moment" when I heard it. So it came as no surprise when the conversion method for my contacts, calendar, etc. utterly failed. And as I expected, I had to enter all the data by opening both the Palm Desktop and MS Outlook (which I'd never used) on my computer and hand-copying all the records from one to the other. That was a fun day %^(.
Learning Curve
It's like playing the recorder: easy to do, hard to do really well. The easy-start guide will get you past turning the thing on, but to do anything useful you have to read the 270-odd-page online manual. Everything is there, but sometimes the "where" part is pretty obscure. Is it under "settings" or "tools" or "personal" or....?
Keyboard
It's a touchscreen, 'nuff said. I've already had to realign it a few times. But I've worked with touchscreens before, and figured the other features of the Pure outweighed it, so it wasn't a deal-breaker. And it is pretty cool, with multiple input options, and force-feedback. I'm getting used to it.
Display
Widescreen, portrait or landscape with accelerometer, so it auto-aligns. Zoom slider for those web pages. Neat.
Phone
Why do they call this thing a phone? The phone is one of my least-used apps, actually. It is a decent one, but takes some familiarization. One negative is that when you get a call, there's a bar with "Answer?" and "Ignore?" with a slider button between them, and (maybe I'm dyslexic, but) it's unclear which way you're supposed to slide. I've accidentally Ignored some of the calls I've received. There is an easily-accessible Speakerphone option, but it isn't very loud, even at peak. Unless I'm missing something. Which is certainly possible.
Syncing
With MS Outlook. The cable's USB, unlike the Centro's unique doohickey. And I had an incident where my contacts went away, and I had to call Customer Service to figure out how to get 'em back. (It has to do with accidentally getting multiple sync profiles -- thank you, Windows %^J -- but I know what to do now).
Calendar
Pretty good. It allows one-shot exceptions to repeating appointments (rather common with me), but not as neatly as Palm did.
Email
Set-up of POP email was mindless and instantaneous, and the display is uber-readable. You're notified (but unobtrusively) when new mail arrives, and can adjust automatic retrieval. What's not to love?
Web
Landscape or portrait with zoom, multiple options for browsers. Nice.
Audio
No headphone jack: you plug a supplied dongle into the USB port, and the headset into that. Oh, the manuals say the headset is "supplied" as well: not.
FM Radio
With the headset acting as antenna, there's an FM Radio app. Auto-loads local stations into pre-sets. Cute.
E-Book Reader
Pretty display. Loaded my Palm format e-books without issue: these converted just fine. (Go figure). But it dims out annoyingly quickly, and I haven't figured out how to adjust that.
Calculator
Surprisingly puny. No percent button, for Heaven's sake? I suppose there must be an after-market app I can download, but I haven't found it yet.
Camera
Robust, 5 MP with zoom, and lots of adjustments (for white balance, virtual ISO, etc.)
More
There's lots more, like easily-accessible stock and weather reports, news feeds, and whatnot.
Overall
I'm bloody addicted, okay? After some initial epic tsuris, it's all good and I'm loving it. It wasn't easy getting here, though.
| | Friday, December 4th, 2009 | | 9:34 pm |
5 Questions Meme?
So, if anybody wants to play the currently-circulating "5 questions meme" with me, ask away. I'm kind of intrigued to see who would ask what.... | | Monday, November 23rd, 2009 | | 11:55 am |
MicroSoft is SOOO Helpful....
So there's supposed to be a File Converter downloadable from MS to convert Word Mobile .docx files to regular Word .doc files. Anybody know where it effing IS? Current Mood: frustrated | | Saturday, November 21st, 2009 | | 7:52 pm |
| | Monday, November 9th, 2009 | | 12:44 pm |
Another reason healthcare costs are rising
Don't think the pharmaceutical industry, and US regulation of same, is broken? Check this out.
There's a drug for gout, colchicine, that has been used for about a century and a half. It was first isolated in 1820. Maybe you've taken it; it's still widely prescribed. It's a generic, offered by a large number of manufacturers, and it's pretty cheap. Drugstore.com lists it for $12.99 for 30 tablets, last I checked, and that's at a pretty good profit. Generics are where the profit is these days: you can sell an Rx for thirteen bucks, and everybody's happy, whereas with brand-name-only drugs, you have to charge a hundred and thirty bucks, making very little profit, and no one's happy.
Colchicine has been on the market since long before the Food and Drug Administration was created, and it's "generally recognized as safe and effective": it never went through the FDA's modern evaluation process. Doctors had been prescribing it for years, they knew how, they knew the side effects, and it was all good. There are lots of drugs like that.
Now, the FDA has just issued new guidelines for the dosing of Colchicine, based on evidence of a number of serious reactions, drug interactions, and 117 deaths.
But here's the thing. What prompted them to look into this? Because someone has decided to put colchicine through the full, modern, FDA approval process, that's why. Oh, you thought the FDA would do this on their own?
No. Here's what happened. You see, some enterprising bloke can come along, look at one of these drugs, and say "I'm willing to spend the money and effort to put this drug through the modern FDA process". That person doesn't have to research and discover a new drug. It's all there. He just has to spend money, and administrative effort. And it's worth it to him to do that.
Here's why. Because when his application is approved, he can say he has "the only FDA-approved
colchicine". And everyone else's is NOT FDA-approved. And since there is now an FDA-approved product, the rest of 'em can't claim to be "generally recognized as safe and effective" anymore. Get it? Instant monopoly. Oh, you thought this was pure love of your fellow man?
Colcrys is the new branded version of good ol' colchicine. All the other versions are going away, soon.
Colcrys costs 65.6 times what colchicine costs. SIXTY-FIVE POINT SIX TIMES. Keep in mind this isn't a fancy new extended-release formulation or something like that. No, this is good old garden-variety colchicine tablets. And no, I'm not talking "average wholesale price" or "index price" or any of that BS. This is based on my true acquisition cost, what Cardinal Health actually charges my pharmacy when I order a bottle, bottom line.
Okay, new dosing guidelines, that's good. But this helps the American consumer exactly...how?
http://www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/SafetyInformation/SafetyAlertsforHumanMedicalProducts/ucm174596.htm
New safety information for colchicine and the approval of Colcrys. Pharmacist's Letter/Prescriber's Letter 2009;25(9):250902
Current Mood: pissed off |
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