Tuesday Takeaway (Oct. 25th)

Around Latin America.

Obama to send 100 soldiers to fight against LRA.

Lord's Resistance Army crisis tracker.

Diet is an outlet to express oneself and a make or break for dating.

Sheex: Bed sheets for performance. NY times.

U.S. dumping illegal immigrant criminals for fiscal reasons.

Could China take over the moon?

Facebook friends correlates with brain size.

Where can Libya go next?

Health and Medicine:

Parents and vaccines.

UCSD's technology is moving up.

The Medical School Mini-Rant

“Too much of a good thing is never a good thing.”

Let’s just say the past two weeks has been nothing short of spectacular. But like almost every week in medical school, it’s been a sustained, almost enslaving spectacular that makes liberation frighteningly revitalizing. I’ll explain.

Over the past two weeks, I’m convinced I’ve done, seen and learned more than the average person does in months. I saw multiple patients at the free clinic one night, then gave a tour of it the next. I shadowed a cardiologist and saw an EKG of a patient on the brink of a heart attack. I interviewed a pregnant actress who experienced physical abuse. I’ve memorized almost 45 drugs and their mechanism of action. I studied cardiac electrophysiology, anatomy and histology. I also cut a human heart out of a deceased person’s chest and examined it. I helped diagnose a patient with aortic stenosis. I housed an interviewee and a friend from another medical school. I scrimmaged in ultimate frisbee, and flag football, danced salsa and went to church. Interspersed with those activities, I studied my butt off for dozens of hours. Tomorrow will include an 8 mile hike and a football game and three days from now I’ll be shadowing a pediatric cardiologist.

And with the exception of some non-medical school fun things here and there, it has been a constant track meet. Every day must be planned to the hour in efforts to stay somewhat on pace with school and avoid burn out. Each fun event and study plan must be screened meticulously for it’s value before commitment is given. An hour that produces mediocre fun or sub par understanding in academic preparation is quickly thrown out.

When I visited with one of my non-med school friends tonight, I was refreshed by nothing more than simple dialogue. I stepped out of my medical school suit, and forgot about memorizing, and performing. We talked about random stories and funny situations. For several hours, our only goal was to laugh and have a good time. (Something I’ve become accustomed to doing in medical school within small, 1-10 minute pockets of time). He had no idea what I had gone through this past week. And I appreciated that.

I didn’t want to think about everything I had done. I didn’t want to regurgitate more information. I wanted to laugh and think creatively. To ask questions without a specific acronym with which to guide them. To drop my notepad and just live.

So that's what I did and it was spectacular.

Tuesday Takeaway (Oct 18th)

Buy slavery free candy this halloween!

Occupy Wall Street protests reach universities.

Uruguay gives more laptops to it's kids than the U.S.

Alabama bringing back slavery. This time to Latinos.

Hugo Chavez has just 2 more years to live say doctors.

Marathon runner goes the distance at age 100.

Landslides in Central America.

Rap Snacks.

How rich are you, relatively?

Biodegradable shoes.

"Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking that you have something to lose."--Steve Jobs.

The Dream Act comes to california.

Jerry Brown signs in a law against shark defining.

Healthcare and Medicine:

Magic Mushrooms. Was this written by a hippie or a scientist?

Technological analysis in Hospitals predicting outcomes with accuracy

Text messaging increases adherence to malaria medication in Kenya.

"The Kaiser Family Foundation released recently its latest estimate of what health insurance will cost in the future. By 2021, average family premiums are set to double, to more than $32,000. This year alone the premium is $15,073, up 9% from 2010" But...Don't blame doctors for high medical costs

ADHD can now be diagnosed and treated at age 4 :-(

California Medical Association looking to pass marijuana legalization.

Malaria soon to be eradicated in 1/3 of affected countries.

A new test for Downs Syndrome.

Tuesday Takeaway (Oct. 11th).

There are just a few readings for today. Mainly, I've been caught up on school work, playing frisbee and flag football. Ok, maybe just a bit more of the former. Today, for instance, I took a 2 hour final, went to cardiology class for 2 hours, ate lunch at the beach, and then went to the downtown clinic to see two patients. Tomorrow is more 8am class...brutal!

Tuesday Takeaway..here we go!

How many slaves do you own?

Churches filling in the gaps of underserved care.

Woman finishes a marathon and then has a baby.

Healthcare and Medicine:

Quantifying improvement and using peer pressure to induce health changes.

Most people believe the US is well off, and therefore neglect the families that are 'food insecure.'

Genetic testing for freshmen at UC Berkeley.

Peanut butter and Haiti

Tuesday Takeaway (Oct. 4th)

Hank Williams Jr. flagged for offensive Obama comment. Monday night football will never be the same.

Man opens fire on the San Diego 805 Freeway.

Bank of America to charge for debit usage

Getting kids excited about reading
"Teachers and school administrators might want to consider this: in many schools, there's a tendency not to reward boys for reading books like "Guinness World Records" or "Sports Illustrated Almanac" or "The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll." Too often, boy-appealing books are disproportionately overlooked on recommended reading lists.
Big mistake. Tragic mistake. Avoidable mistake. It's all about attitude. If your kids' school library isn't a boy magnet, the school probably needs to check its attitude"

A practical step by step guide to setting up your own business.

From the Limits of Empathy: "Nobody is against empathy. Nonetheless, it’s insufficient. These days empathy has become a shortcut. It has become a way to experience delicious moral emotions without confronting the weaknesses in our nature that prevent us from actually acting upon them. It has become a way to experience the illusion of moral progress without having to do the nasty work of making moral judgments....People who actually perform pro-social action don’t only feel for those who are suffering, they feel compelled to act by a sense of duty. Their lives are structured by sacred codes....They would feel a sense of shame or guilt if they didn’t live up to the code."

Twitter study suggests that our "moods are driven in part by a shared underlying biological rhythm that transcends culture and environment."

Income taxes by country

The moment of revolution video of the protests in Wall Street.

More on the protests and mass arrests

Arrested Development coming back!

Amanda Knox can FINALLY breath a sign of relief.

Healthcare and Medicine:

Sometimes achieving global health goals is as easy as taking turns

Hi, I'm a doctor (of nursing). Why physicians are angry.

The battle between health access and overspending in Washington

Making women with cancer feel beautiful

Staging breast regression Hilarious.

The autism and vaccine rumor went a little too far...

Quotes that Move Me

Below is a collection of my favorite quotes. Some of them are inspirational and others just make me think or reconsider my perspective on certain aspects of life. Although most of these people are famous, some of the names you won't recognize at all. I took a few of them from blogs and articles from common people like you and me. I like the idea that anyone can make an impactful statement regardless of notoriety or reputation. Read them and use them as your circumstance lies.

“Meals embody the principles and the disposition of the person who eats them. Food means choices and choices mean a chance to fulfill our principles.” --Ryan Holiday

“Our greatest fear as individuals should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.” Francis Chan

"Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character." --Albert Einstein.

How will someone know you love them if you don’t tell them that you love them too? --Spongebob.

"If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough."
- Mario Andretti

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." -Albert Einstein.

"Find something you love to do and you’ll never have to work a day in your life." --Harvey Mckay.

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, stop and reflect.” --Mark twain

“The best means of benefiting the community is to place within its reach the ladders upon which the aspiring can rise…forms best calculated to do them lasting good.” – Andrew Carnegie

“Neither the individual nor the race is improved by alms-giving.” – Carnegie

"Dancing is silent poetry."
- Simonides

“When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too." - Paulo Coelho

“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.” --Paulo Coelho (The Alquimist).

“Whatever you do, work at it with all of your heart, as working for the lord, not for men.” Colossians 3:23

"We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are." - Max Dupree

“We don’t beat the Reaper by living longer. We beat the Reaper by living well.”
-Randy Pausch (1960-2008)

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” -James 1:27

“If you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is too.” Tim Ferriss

"Life was always a matter of waiting for the right moment to act." - Paulo Coelho

"Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance."
- Will Durant

"It takes a long time to grow young." - Pablo Picasso

"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." - Albert Einstein

"You need to find a way to live your life, that it doesn't make a mockery of your values." - Bill Ayers

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things." - Robert Brault

"It's never too late to be what you might have been." - George Eliot

Tuesday Takeaway (Sept 27th)

4% of the photos ever taken-->Facebook.

Today's racist bake sale at Berkeley.

Could public biking outcompete the subway and bus system?

The great school depression...SAT lows and spending highs.

Could you live on $30 a week of food?

Time Banks. A way to exchange time and help people.

Facebook's newest target: Music

Creating business sectors in impoverished areas that did not exist before. "The best of philanthropy and capital coming together." Skip to 9minutes in for the meat.

Sad reports and studies from border control mistreatment.

Are our bodies restricted by exhaustion or a mental barrier?

Why our government isn't working.

The world's rudest hand gestures.

Development is often constrained by tradition. Persistance rules over grants and alms giving.

Foods in the shape of flags.

The power of forgiveness. "One of the great secrets of this life is that when we are hurt, we have all the power. We have the power to hold onto the offense, grasping it like a thumb screw in a torture device. But we may, if we choose, unscrew it; we may release the one over whom we have power."

Philosophy of Quirky: Using regular people to innovate.

How to execute your $1,000,000 idea. Check out the tips "Find your (profitable) idea."

Health/Medicine:

Virtual advice from 5000 doctors.

Drug shortages in hospitals.

Incredible cyborg devices could allow for patients with Parkinsons and other debilitating diseases to regain abilities.

Are our bodies restricted by exhaustion or a mental barrier?

Using vinegar to treat HPV.