The so-called "global warmings"

A few posts ago I talked about Al Gore's thoughts on global warming. Well, in the interest of unbiased blogging, I thought I would share with you George W. Bush's thoughts on the issue...

Nebraska sunset

There's something about the way the sun sets over Nebraskaland that just does it for me.

It's back!

It's back! But only for a limited time.


And I'm not talking about the McRib sandwich, Ben.

It's Peppermint Stick Ice Cream!







Nothing says winter holidays like peppermint stick ice cream. Ok, so it's freezing outside - but forget that and just go ahead and have some - it's a special time of year.

Thankfulness

I realize several of my last entries have been kind of heavy and maybe came across as pessimistic or downers. So here's one to bring you back up - get your warm and fuzzies ready...it's that time of year again. What I am thankful for:

Parents whose love for me and eachother was never in question.

Good music.

5 senses.

The spectrum of colors - so unnecessarily opulent.

An imagination that is so vivid that I can conjure up images of what heaven might be like, but am unable to imagine a color that doesn't exist.

An intellect that tells me that the most wonderful of my imaginings of heaven isn't even close.

Being born in a place where I have the privilege of studying and complaining about having to study so much, believe in and argue about religion, choose to go anywhere, with anyone, in anyway whenever i choose, you get the point.

Mountains - again unnecessary, with no real purpose other than bringing my heart joy and filling it with awe.

A Creator that has created in me a heart that is wooed by His colors and mountains and music.

Friends close enough that I can say "I love you" and it isn't weird.

Friends who forgive me when I don't deserve it.

A Savior who forgave everything I've ever done wrong and will do wrong, asking only for my love in return.

Squirrels.

Rocks to climb, and daydream about climbing, and the ability to climb.

Sunshine.

Mashed potatoes.

And gravy.

Glaciers for our grandkids

So everyone knows that Al Gore invented the Internet, but did you know that he also invented Global Warming? Alright, maybe he didn't invent global warming, but he is certainly doing his part in bringing it to the forefront of the American consciousness. If you are interested in the issue (and I guess you probably should be since you are, by default, an inhabitant of the planet Earth), you should see the movie/documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" or visit the website climatecrisis.org.
While I don't necessarily buy into the "doomsday panic" message and tone of the movie, agree with the not-so-subtly-hidden political motives, and some of the extrapolations they make with the trends are a bit hard to believe, nevertheless the facts and data are shocking and pretty hard to dismiss. Perhaps the claim that I agree with most from the movie is the thought that this isn't a political issue, it is a moral issue.
In my mind it is almost a spiritual issue. We have been placed in the middle of a creation more beautiful beyond all imagination, one that has deeply inspired and moved generations. And you don't have to believe in a god or creator to agree with that. In fact, I would guess that the majority of people currently leading the way for environmental protection are agnostic, atheistic, paganistic, Buddhist, anything but certainly not Christian. Why have Christians been so far behind on this issue? Shouldn't they be leading the way? Wasn't it the God of the three great monotheistic faiths that gave the mandate, rule and subdue the earth and all that is in it? There can be many interpretations of the phrase "rule and subdue", I'm sure. But I can't believe that "pollute and destroy in order to preserve your comfortable lifestyle" is a valid one.
But the problem isn't as bad as you are making it sound, right? Maybe not, but stand in the hills above L.A., or Quito Ecuador, or pick your nearest metro area and lift your eyes to the sky. Look at some of the pictures of the receding glaciers, past vs. present.
Realistically, I know that not everyone can rush out and purchase a hybrid car. I'm just suggesting we start thinking about what we do everyday in tiny little ways. I'll start a list, and you can add to it, or make your own:

Turn off the lights in an unoccupied room.

Next time your light bulb burns out, replace it with an energy saving model - a couple bucks more expensive, but you will certainly get your money back in your energy bill.

Make sure your vehicle's tires are fully inflated - a few minutes taking advantage of the free air pressurizer at the gas station can pay off in fuel economy.

Turn off the water when you are brushing your teeth - not necessarily an energy issue, but anything wrong with saving drinkable water while we're at it?

Only wash full loads of laundry.

Only run the dishwasher when it is full.

If possible, walk to where you are going instead of driving - dual benefit: health + energy saving.

Turn your thermostat down at night and when you are not at home, or better yet, replace your old thermostat with a digital programmable one.

Use open windows instead of air conditioners when the weather permits.

Keep going...

This is just a start, there are innumerably more. And none of them are difficult or life changing, but yet, I can safely assume, if every one of us chose just one and lived it, the effects would be profound.

A comment about the comments

Unbeknownst to me, when I set up this blog site, I must have selected an option that would only allow comments to appear after I had approved them. Not such a bad idea I suppose, but for some reason, I never received the emails when people left comments. I just thought either no one was reading my blog, or people didn't realize they could leave comments. Turns out, neither was true. After the problem was brought to my attention (thanks Ian), I promptly fixed it and also stumbled upon several comments from this summer that I had never seen before. So for everyone whose comments were seemingly lost to the nothingness of cyberspace: Ian, Trav and Becca, Dan, Nathan, Tim, Uncle Steve, Nate, Amber Eve, Rocket, Uncle Punjab, Marty, Mr. President - thanks for all your thoughts, and I have rescued and published them all.

Let's play doctor...

"You are an independent, licensed practitioner who works in an independent clinic. Which of the following actions would you be willing to take?

1) Provide a prescription for an oral contraceptive to a 16 year-old with severe premenstrual syndrome, irregular menstrual periods and dysmenorrhea (pain associated with menstruation). She has requested medication to establish menstrual regularity and minimize symptoms. She is not currently sexually active, but is planning to have sex with her boyfriend sometime in the next few months.

2) Provide the "morning after pill" to a woman who has just had sexual intercourse with a man and did not use any contraception. Her urine pregnancy test was negative when she arrived in the clinic. This medication is a high dose of levonorgestrel, which prevents implantation of any fertilized egg. The patient came to the clinic specifically requesting this medication.

3) Provide a prescription for a drug similar to RU486, which will result in a pharmacologically-induced "medical" abortion for a woman who is 8 weeks pregnant with an otherwise normal pregnancy. The patient presented to the clinic requesting this prescription. After open discussion of all options, she is certain and adamant in her decision. She requests, "Please help me to end this pregnancy."

4) Facilitate a referral for an abortion procedure to be performed by a colleague for a woman who is 16 weeks pregnant with an otherwise normal pregnancy. The patient presented to the clinic requesting this procedure. After open discussion of all options, she is certain and adamant in her decision. She requests, "Please help me to arrange an abortion."

5) Recommend against the option of abortion for a woman who is 16 weeks pregnant with an otherwise normal pregnancy. She came to the clinic requesting this procedure. After open discussion of all options, the patient feels ambivalent about either continuing the pregnancy or having an abortion. She states, "I thought I would choose abortion, but I can't decide."

6) A woman who is 16 weeks pregnant with an otherwise normal pregnancy requests information on an abortion procedure. She becomes distressed and hesitates before leaving. She asks you directly "What should I do? What do you believe about abortion?" Would you be willing to honestly and truthfully reveal to the patient your personal beliefs?

7) Do you agree with the statement: "Since the fetal abortion procedure has been legally protected in our society, medical professionals should always try to maintain a neutral status when discussing pregnancy with patients and in counseling patients who did not intend to become pregnant."

8) Do you think that you are capable of counseling patients with unintended pregnancy in a genuinely neutral manner?"

(taken from FCP III, Dr. Karl Thomas, UI Carver College of Medicine)



People always ask me what medical school is like. Here is an example of one of the assignments that we've done recently. This is just an assignment now, but in a couple of years, this will be reality - real lives, real situations. What would you do?

Obesity - America's #1 export

After sufficiently wrapping the globe and strangling the life out of any and all other cultures, the deep fat fried, extra crispy tentacles of KFC are now reaching to outer space...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,229308,00.html

Let's see if they can successfully achieve a 31% obesity rate among aliens, as they have achieved in the U.S. (31% "obesity" - not "overweight", which has a prevalence of 65% in the U.S. Obesity is neck and neck with smoking as the LEADING cause of death in the U.S.).

I can only assume that WalMart will be soon to follow in the intergalactic billboard advertising race. I'm sure they can't wait to reel in that lucrative UFO consumer demographic. And you know what that will have to lead to - yep, bigger parking lots. Because let's be honest - although Hummers and Excursions are big, they aren't UFO big. And then there's Starbucks - how are they going to build UFO friendly drive-thrus? They'll find a way - oh don't you worry. It might have to involve demolishing that cozy little local coffee shop next door - but that's not anything new I suppose. Ok, sorry, I'm getting off topic.

I can't imagine a better use of 87,000 square feet of this Earth's surface, can you?

I actually saw something in KFC last summer (besides the food) that almost made me throw up - BUCKETS of soda. They were selling buckets (literally) of soda, complete with a lid and handle. You could choose between the half- and full-gallon sizes...but with prices so low, how could you just settle for a half-gallon of soda? I saw about 31% of the customers happily walking out with their 12 piece meal in one hand and a gallon of soda in the other.

I thought I might be able to escape the pandemic in S. America, but no, they love KFC down there - it's considered a pricey, fancy restaurant that you only get to eat at for a special occasion. It's probably better that way. In fact, they have some great KFC products that we don't even have here:

KFC ice cream & toppings...finger lickin' good.

As long as we are being honest with eachother

I have made a disheartening discovery about myself recently...I seem to be entering the stage in a man's life when ear-hair becomes a problem. I thought that I wouldn't have to face this kind of obstacle until middle-age or even beyond, but I was wrong - 25 years old, ear-hair. Now, I don't look at myself in the mirror much, but the other day as I was shaving (which, by the way, is not very often due to my lack of ability to grow real manly facial hair) I noticed a couple little hairs in the ear. I thought they must be transient, so I tried to brush them away - but no, they were connected. I proceeded to angrily pluck them out as best as I could - painful, I might add. So explain this: I can't really grow sweet sideburns, but I seem to have no problem in the ear-hair department.

Mostly the issue seems to be focused around the tragus. Anatomically speaking, the tragus is that little cartilaginous protuberance on the anterior edge of your external auditory meatus.
Right about here:


And here is what it looks like in microscopic cross-section:


As you can see, it is characterized by superficial keratinizing stratified squamous epithelium, with underlying papillary and reticular dermis surrounding the central elastic cartilage. Most notably, you can observe those pesky little hair follicles. Sorry, I just can't turn it off sometimes. (But seriously, to all the nerds reading this - and you know who you are...you can admit it...come on, I'm telling the world about my ear-hair here - check out Virtual Microscope. It's my school's interactive histology website, and I'm pretty proud of it. It's like playing with a real microscope without the risk of breaking glass slides or squirting your lab partner with safranin stain - I've done both).

Ok, for all the normal (and obviously extremely bored) people still reading this, sorry about getting sidetracked there for a second. I guess I might be trying to distract you all from the fact that this blog is about my disgusting ear-hair. But that's Ok. Because honestly, what good is having a blog if you can't share personal things like this with your closest friends?









...and anyone else in the world with a computer?





















I guess it shouldn't come as any suprise, considering my genetic predisposition to male pattern ear-hairiness...






Marty, my second cousin































Uncle Punjab





































Just kidding, this guy isn't really related to me - I just found his picture on Google.







Bonus info/fun medical fact of the day: The other parts of your external ear have names, too:




Impress your friends. This is the kind of stuff that I get to learn and spend so many hours studying every day. So in a lot of ways, to answer all those questions - yeah, I guess my life really is like "Grey's Anatomy". That's that TV show where people just sit in a library and study all the time, right?

Stay tuned for future blog entries where we will explore the world of the middle and inner ear...and my earwax problems.

9

6 days until the US release of Damien Rice's new EP, "9"!!



How long have we been waiting for this?......well, actually - 3 years, 2 months, and 25 days.

Snakes on a plane...or under a rock...underwater?

On the account of an unseasonably glorious late October afternoon, Aaron and I went climbing last weekend at Kepler Palisades State Park, Iowa. For those who don't know, the climbing at Palisades is right along the river bank. Which means that if you are belaying from the bottom, you are right at the water's edge.










Such was the case last weekend. As I was belaying Aaron (who, I might add, was busy onsighting a sick route - probably like a 5.13d or something) I looked out across the river to take in the autumn splendor of amber oaks, bluebird skies, and warm sunshine.









When, out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of a flickering tongue. I looked down to the water a few feet away from me and I spied this little guy:












I didn't know what to think. The water must have been about 40 degrees F, and considering that snakes are poikilotherms, I thought "Oh no, Mr. Bullsnake must have accidently slithered into the river and now he can't move." I snapped a few pics, and tried to get a bit closer. But much to my and Aaron's (who by the way had taken quite the fall because I had abandoned my belaying duty due to the distraction at hand) suprise and amazement, Mr. Bullsnake calmly recoiled underwater and back under the rock. We watched and waited for several minutes to see if he would swim away to familiar dry land. But no, he had found a home - under that rock, and under the water! Aaron saw him pop his head up on the other side of the rock some time later.






Now, it was near Halloween - so I suppose it could have just been an eel disguised as a snake. Or was it a snake dressed up as an eel? Weird.











Oh yeah, here's a catepillar we saw, too. Neato.