What He Said

This is worth reading if you are wondering what were some of the persuasive people and their writing that attracted some of us to the practice of medicine.

Found in the somewhat mis-named blog Scepticemia. (http://www.scepticemia.com)

I must have been freshening my drink when this was broadcast

There Are Such Things As Conservative Teachers In This Complicated World

I wish my children had had teachers like this guy or gal. He or she starts to make the case that the Danish scientist Henrik Svensmark's theory that the sun is what makes our world warm. Check him out.

Harry Hole: Anti-Hero

I read Jo Nesbø's—I have no idea what the"o" with tilted line running through it sounds like or is called; I pronounce it with a long "o"—The Leopard a couple of days ago. Then I read hisI like the attention to local geography and the occasional reference to some outside influences just to orient the reader to time and place.earlier The Snowman. Both are excellent violent Norwegian murder mysteries. The science  is up-to-date, and the characters all seem appropriately dark Scandinavian

My advice is read them in the order they were written because the building suspense is a necessary part of the thrill of reading these gritty police page-turners. And the later Leopard reveals some essential stuff about the Snowman you don't want to know 'til the end.

I like the attention to local geography and the occasional reference to some outside events just to remind the reader that Norway is a place in the real world.

Better than a lot of other similar entries in this genre. The geographic place names remind me of the special emphasis that Ian Fleming used to put on his character's use of well-known brands of shaving lotion and cigarettes and everything else we use in everyday life.

As usual the author gets to give his opinion of a lot of other cultures and the oddities of human nature. Worth reading both but be sure to read them in the right order.

I like the mixture of good and bad in all the main characters, even extending to the police.

Your Will Be Done

Cartoon by William Warren. Not as funny as usual. I guess cartoons don't have to be funny. This "compromise" that the President is offering now makes him sound even sillier than this.

Your Faithful Correspondent Notes This In Passing

The story appeared in the LA Times but the hamburger lover was supposed to be an Arizona resident. Those are not white trousers on his lower half. I suppose one could suggest that maybe the mental illness was caused by excessive consumption of McDonald's hamburgers. I prefer to think that his bizarre behavior was caused by a deficiency of burgers, and that he became more rational after getting his fix.

Does smoking kill? A study of death certification and smoking.

A MEDLINE abstract of an article from J Clin Pathol, a British pathology journal reveals an interesting contrast between reporting smoking as an underlying cause of death versus reporting alcohol abuse as an underlying cause of death. Apparently the people who fill out death certificates seldom if ever mention smoking in the "cause" sequence, but over 50% of the time in the case of alcohol abuse.

More evidence that medicine is more of an art form than a science-based practice.

A Place To Go Back To

Sunday lunch time a few weeks or so ago: Village Inn seemed to be too crowded so we took a chance on China City Super Buffet, right behind the Village Inn. A big place with lots of different dishes. It would probably take at least a month of visiting every day to go through the whole menu.

We went back today after church and tried a few more of the dishes. They have a huge variety of Oriental stuff, the waitresses are quick to remove your used plates, and every thing seems very fresh. Mongolian buffet is part of the whole together with some nice sushi. Highly recommended.

Dalrymple's Verdict on 'Downton Abbey'

The reason for the popularity of the British soap-opera and PBS's Masterpiece Theatre Downton Abbey, according to British essayist Theodore Dalrymple, pen name for Dr Anthony Daniels, is that we Americans really do love the idea of social class rather than that 'all men are created equal' claptrap: my guess is that Dr Daniels is seeing himself reflected in his own eyeglasses.

Of course, we commoners like a good story, even if it is a soap opera; and we enjoy comparing and contrasting the upstairs characters and their way of dealing with the world with their downstairs counterparts. Just like our British cousins. But to say that we Americans like Downton Abbey in the same way that we like using the 'N' word is just silly.

The decline of the aristocracy in England in the latter part of the 19th century and early 20th century is a grand collection of a great many interesting smaller stories. We Americans may see some prospect of declines in our own fortunes in the late 20th century and early 21st century, and thus we may look to earlier times for help.

Nobel Peace Prize Hoaxes Under Investigation

Recent winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, dis-credited alarmist Al Gore in 2007 for his silly and mendacious documentary An Inconvenient Truth; and the hopeful President of the USA Barack Obama in 2009, soon after he took office may not have deserved their awards according to John O'Sullivan at Climate Realists.

Perhaps the Committee counted improvement at the time and future improvements in his golf score.  The last will and testament of Alfred Nobel seems to be the reason for the investigation. Apparently Mr Nobel had a different definition of peace than what the Committee is using these days. I seem to remember other stooges like Jimmy Carter and Yasser Arafat winning the prize some years ago.

Nobel was born in 1833. He amassed a huge fortune from his many inventions, especially dynamite. The income from the fortune—or 94% of it, anyway—was supposed to be given to those who confer "the greatest benefit to mankind," as judged by various Swedish committees of high mucky-mucks.