vo2maxer

Not at all. I share your sentiment. Many topics are beyond my intellectual grasp at this time, but I’m always hopeful that my curiosity will lessen their obscurity given time and persistence.

Where else but in MUBI can you discover the works of Andrea Arnold and her most recent film, Bird? The same goes for countless other directors whose oeuvre was unknown to me, someone who was introduced by my Father to Bergman and Kurosawa when I was barely seven.

There is also The Criterion Channel where I saw La Jetée for the first time after years of reluctance to immerse myself in a film essentially made of still photos. I have now gone back and watched it three more times, both in French and English. That’s how large of an impact it’s had on me. And I originally meant to get through it quickly (28 minutes duration), in preparation to rewatch 12 Monkeys.

Netflix does show some films that cater to a non mainstream audience, but may take more effort to find them. I recently saw Aftersun directed by Charlotte Wells, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. You will sob quietly.

I have not read anywhere that she discovered Dark Matter but rather that her observations confirmed its presence as “first proposed by Fritz Zwicky in 1933 but rejected by most scientists.”

[1] https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/medalofscience50/ru...

$6.33 with free shipping in AbeBooks and that’s no baloney.

I’m not sure why you’re not crediting the uncut original 1966 version of the film titled as The Passion According to Andrei which is available in The Criterion Collection released in 2018 in both DVD and Blu-Ray. It is also available in The Criterion Channel. Are you saying that The Passion is not the pre-cut version and if so, can you provide a reference?

Criterion has both the The Passion According to Andrei clocking at 3:25:55 and Andrei Rublev at 3:03:12, this last being the closest to Tarkovsky’s preferred version.

Great suggestions. Thank you.

That’s a fair criticism. I apologize if I came across as dismissive but it was not towards the OP. My adding quotes around hernia expert was more to show my indignation that any number of other physicians according to the OP failed to make a correct diagnosis thus requiring the “expert” to step in. My comment was poorly worded and difficult to decipher my intention with it.

I also come from a large academic based health center.

Not a thing but this is the setting: I’m a physician who follows many other physicians on Twitter. I’m already there with the Twitter client in my phone. I see this great threat. I read it right there and share it with other colleagues who have already become accustomed to exchanging important clinical information this way: quick and easy. I previously explained how the information shared this way during the past couple of years may have saved lives. Extra steps directing me to a blog are just a waste particularly as many fellow physicians jumped (during the worst COVID periods) from one intubated patient to another. Tony Breu is a Hospitalist after all. He is caring for the sickest patients compared to an outpatient office.

Remember that in the chronology, the infection occurs after the second surgery, the hernia repair. The mass develops after the first surgery. I agree with you otherwise. Internal Medicine here.

Well, the history is not clear. All we know is that post-first surgery, an abdominal mass develops which becomes painful over time. I assume the “hernia expert”, which is just another name for a general surgeon, followed a simple algorithm: Protruding painful abdominal mass -> Hernia? Incarcerated? With possible increasing risk of vascular compromise to bowels > CT Scan. Go from there. Period.

I’m sorry to hear this and of the incredible suffering your mother and her loved ones have had to go through. I am quite aware that there is a significant number of physicians who are careless, apathetic, rushed, eager to get home after long working hours. Many are incompetent but I would venture to say that a larger number is plenty competent. It’s just gotten to a point in their career where they are “burnt out” for whatever reason and they are aiming for speed. It becomes another consumer transaction and as the patient load increases during the night, the clinician just tries to simplify things as much as possible, taking shortcuts, working under weighty incorrect initial diagnoses. Once you’re seen by that first doctor who makes what should be a tentative diagnosis, that opinion carries a great deal of psychological force. Of course this depends on the docs seniority.

In your mom’s specific case, it is inconceivable to me that any trained physician would see her post-surgical history and subsequent development of an abdominal mass and not think immediately of a hernia and possible strangulation as it grew. A first-year medical student can palpate the abdomen and readily tell there is herniation through the abdominal wall. Is it reducible or not? An abdominal CT scan should be reflexive. It’s even more maddening when more than one physician misses the obvious or at least the way it sounds to me given the information you’ve provided.

Physician burnout is a real alarming phenomenon with emergency room doctors having one of the highest rates. This was already an issue pre-COVID-19. I can’t help but worry about how worse it may get.

I understand your family’s frustration but it’s hard for me to think that the only presentation (both by history and hematologically) was a Hgb of 4-5 and physicians just proceeded to transfused with no further questioning or consideration for the large number of diseases in the differential diagnosis. Did she have low platelets (thrombocytopenia)? Had she had a rash previously? Was she outdoors in areas where ehrlichiosis or rickettsia carrying tIcks are known to be endemic? I’m sorry but you provide minimal information and then dump on physicians. Yes, it’s possible that you dealt with dozens of careless physicians but what information did your wife provide to that one female physician, which triggered the battery of serologic tests, and that no other doctor could elicit in the flood of previous medical evaluations. It’s not as if your wife just shows up with vague malaise and fatigue but everything else is normal in her history and in the examination. She has a Hgb of 4-5. Was a hematologist called in? Was ID called in after she remembered that fever and rash she’d previously experienced, for example.

MD here. This particular Twitter account maintained by Dr. Tony Breu is an outstanding repository of clinical information with a large physician following. His clinical threads which he has helpfully grouped (MedTweetorials) for easier access are a miscellany of medical information with even some surprises for old timers like me. The information he includes in his threads includes some interesting links specific to the particular tweet in the the sequence. He conveys the information in a way doctors can appreciate and learn from but also accessible to non physicians. He also runs a podcast. I mean, criticize Twitter threads if you must, but you’re missing how useful this format is in a platform such as Twitter. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, some of the most insightful and current information has been delivered this way by top virologists, epidemiologist, and many frontline clinicians learning and sharing the best diagnostic and treatment options known as of the time of the Tweet. I believe in many cases, this rapid real time sharing led to saving lives.

I can’t agree more. An author who can’t be bothered to follow well established forms of style, grammar, and punctuation in a technical article somehow deflates whatever else they have to say even if accurate. It’s not as if they are trying to emulate the works of E. E. Cummings, James Joyce, or Arno Schmidt.

> Im pretty suspicious, why does an MIT AI researcher have a youtube channel? Does he not get paid enough with his salary?

Could you please elaborate on why you think that an MIT researcher having a YouTube channel where is had some very interesting interviews somehow makes it suspicious?

Melted cheese on saltines, other types of crackers, or the best, on Melba toast is actually quite aesthetically pleasing specially at 2 AM. Attire while consuming this treat is entirely optional.

I have a 92 years old aunt whom I call frequently. She lives independently and has no financial concerns. All, yes all, our conversations have followed the same pattern for years: She lists all the obstacles she’s faced since our last talk; assures me that no one else has ever had such bad luck; briefly asks what’s up with me. I listen to her quietly, and reply with everything is fine. We then say the love you and goodbyes until the next time in a couple of days. I’ve discovered that you don’t have to be 92 or my aunt to pour the negative on every occurrence.

It’s about “viewing” the statue, not Teddy Roosevelt the person and his presidential accomplishments.

It is a great story and even more when you learn that it was written by a teenager, Mary Shelley. This episode In Our Time is very interesting as are all the others on the Romantic era [1].

I just finished reading Frankenstein with my 12 years-old daughter. We read the original 1818 version "annotated for scientists, engineers, and creators of all kinds." [2] If you want to get more of the flavor of the time in which Frankenstein was written, there is The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes. He discusses many of the interesting figures of the period including Joseph Banks and William Herschell (talk about makers, telescopes in his case). [3] There is a book which I can't wait to get now that I've gone down this rabbit hole, The Science of Life and Death in 'Frankenstein'. [4]

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01hjm2s

[2] https://direct.mit.edu/books/book/3542/FrankensteinAnnotated...

[3] https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/82017/the-age-of-wo...

[4] https://bodleianshop.co.uk/products/science-of-life-and-deat...

In my opinion, you only get “the overexcited storm of nonsense from Twitter” if the accounts you follow are so inclined. The great experience to be had is in a careful selection of you follow. An example: As a physician I have been following a varied group of epidemiologists, virologists, and clinicians with intimate knowledge of COVID. Some of them reporting findings from their own lab in real time. This same principle applies to quite a vast number of other disciplines that although may not be near your area of expertise, you can still peek on stimulating links and discussions by those who are in those fields. I don’t know of any other platform where such vibrant discussions take place outside of conferences.

It’s ironic to run across this article from 2005 after just reading an op-ed in the NYT by Jeanne-Marie Jackson where she shows with plenty of examples that,

“Everyone is saying it: 2021 was the year for African literature. Writers from the continent scooped the Nobel, Booker, Goncourt and Camões prizes. And these honors — arguably the highest-sheen literary awards in the world — do not make up even half the list. The Neustadt, or “American Nobel,” and International Booker Prizes went to Senegalese writers, and the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade to a Zimbabwean one.” [0]

[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/02/opinion/africa-fiction-no...

The study of the definition of words is Linguistics which is a science: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistics?wprov=sfti1

That’s not the case given the estimate of 107 billion people who have ever lived: https://www.prb.org/articles/how-many-people-have-ever-lived...

And all that blue blood private schooling, mathematical prowess and MIT education has led you to conclude that the solution to all of humanity’s problems, checks link, is the Bible.

In addition to the criterion channel, already mentioned, try MUBI [1]. It’s a cinephile’s dream: a film discovery nearly everyday while also curating the great directors.

[1] https://mubi.com/

The Castro brothers and their lackeys have used the embargo to explain away every disastrous strategic plan they’ve concocted over the last 60+ years: Es el bloqueo. El bloqueo.

Furthermore, take a look at the many countries which have trade with Cuba [0]. Their problem is mostly self-created through their monetary policy and the severe restrictions entrepreneurial Cubans face. The Castrista government must have its hands on every little thing that generates money. The slightest deviation from the party line results in significant punishment including prison.

[0] https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/isdb_results/factsheets/country...

Before all this fawning over Cuba’s health care system, consider that they use their physicians abroad as revenue streams and propaganda to show the world how high their physicians per capita is. Those Cuban physicians are heavily restricted in what they are allowed to do [0]. Unless you have lived under a dictatorship as I did, you naively assume honesty and integrity from Cuba’s version of their “great” health care system. Ask the many Cubans in exile, how often they have to send life saving medication to their families on the island.

[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/29/world/americas/brazil-cub...

Hey pseudolus, why is it that you frequently change the title and you’re not called on it. Your method of acquiring karma seems to violate the rules frequently enough, particularly as you mostly concentrate on major news outlets like the New York Times and editorialize their heading.