“one of those very rare technology changes that bring really interesting

potential in several dimensions”: a unanimous May 11 decision by the FCC opens the way to the use of ultrawide band wireless technology that makes leaps in data transmission rates and also relieves pressure on the crowded wireless spectrum by operating in frequency ranges already occupied without causing interference. “The technology allows a range of science fiction-like applications. Initially, the services were created as radar tools, which can see

through walls when traditional radar is blocked. That could allow such things as devices allowing firefighters to see who or what is in

burning buildings or helping rescue workers find earthquake victims trapped underneath rubble.

It also acts as a positioning device far more accurate than ordinary global positioning services. Time Domain has signed a deal with

a golf company that plans to use the technology to give golfers exact measurements from tee to hole. That

application could be used to keep track of children in crowds or find lost pets”

“I only wish I lived there there because I could put it on my

headed notepaper.”

Nature Makes the Man.

“Two studies published on Friday confirm that sex-reassignment surgery for boys born with deformed sex organs is misguided and possibly cruel.

The studies of 25 genetically male children raised as girls because of genital deformities showed all of them

retained strong male characteristics, despite hormone and other treatments. Most reassigned themselves to

be males when they got older, the researchers at Johns Hopkins University said.” But anyone who’s tried to raise a boy in a more gender-neutral way has already known that maleness is “built in”!

Keep cell phones out of reach of nematodes as well as children, new study warns.

“Ginzu” school of journalism

To our great societal shame IMHO, a new study shows that medical bills accounted for

40% of bankruptcy filings

last year. About 500,000 Americans filed for bankruptcy protection in 1999 largely because of heavy medical expenses, according to the study,

which is to be published next month in a finance journal, Norton’s Bankruptcy Adviser.

Mirrors Help Deter Suicide Leaps? Rising numbers of Japanese suicides (attributable to the economic downturn in what many consider one of the world’s most stressful societies) are a headache for Japanese railway companies, since leaping in front of trains is a favored way to go. ‘East Japan Railway Co, which reported 212 suicides at its stations last year, will set up large, adult-sized mirrors opposite platforms

hoping this will deter potential leapers.

“Specialists say it makes it difficult for a person to jump if they think someone is looking, say from the opposite platforms,” said a

spokesman for JR East.

“We hope the mirrors will serve a similar effect,” he said. “When a train stops after someone has jumped, we get many angry complaints from other passengers,” he said.’

A letter to the British Medical Journal warns that natural remedies can be harmful.

Certainly a few

treatments such as kava (Piper methysticum), which is rich in coumarins which interfere with warfarin, have been mentioned in the BMJ

in the past year.

In our practice we have seen a case of severe dyspepsia caused by zinc, which had been bought by mail after hair analysis by mail, being

taken at six times the recommended daily allowance; a patient with blood pressure that was difficult to control because of ginseng; a

patient with severe headaches on waking caused by evening primrose oil; and a patient with myopathy caused by creatine, to mention

only a few. These conditions necessitated an endoscopy, a medical referral, and a computed axial tomography scan, as well as numerous

blood tests. The aetiology was only ascertained by direct questioning. All cases resolved when the patients stopped taking the substance.

We suspect that these cases represent the tip of the iceberg.

Caution should be exercised in condoning the use of any supplement or herbal preparation without checking with a pharmacist or reliable

source. Many herbal remedies are dangerous to patients with epilepsy or diabetes and to those taking warfarin; they also have the

propensity to cause illness in those who are otherwise healthy and not taking drugs.

By coincidence, just today, I discovered that the troubling cognitive dysfunction I’ve seen in a hospitalized patient of mine is probably attributable not to her psychiatric condition, nor her serious medical conditions, but to poisoning with dietary supplements she had been taking unbeknownst to her doctors.

Another letter to the editor of the British Medical Journal proposes a peer-reviewed, not-for-profit, global medical knowledge database.

Realistically it is practical for a clinician to question, search, select, acquire the paper(s) and appraise them, and act only three or four

times a year. Importantly, the knowledge acquired remains inaccessible to any other professional. If we could share these appraisals on a

web based (and CD Rom) database we could avoid a massive duplication of effort. We could also make access to the knowledge much

faster.

The global medical knowledge database will match each clinical query as closely as possible with both answered and unanswered

questions. If there is an answer the software will display it automatically, in the form of a critically appraised topic. If the question is

unanswered the doctor will be able to see whether someone is trying to answer it (and could offer to help). If the question is not on the

database then the doctor will be prompted to post it.

I know that I, in the course of my medical practice, do several dozen literature searches a year to answer clinical dilemmas I face. The gathered citations remain on a hard drive of a machine at the hospital, and my synthesis and conclusions remain in my head. Occasionally I summarize them for a small community of medical peers on a mailing list in my subspecialty. But, I agree, it would be powerful and not that much extra work for each of us to make the results of these queries accessible to one another worldwide.

I’m honored to have been noticed by at least a couple of my favorite weblogs today. Both Jorn Barger’s Robot Wisdom and Chuck Taggart’s Looka pointed to “Follow Me Here…” As you know if you’ve been reading awhile, I’ve always wondered if anyone’s out there. It’ll be interesting watching my own reaction to knowing I’m writing for more of an audience. To start with, no more blatant plagiarism from other weblogs [grin], ‘cuz you might notice! One immediate reaction I have — if they like me, it means they value content over style (the apparent polarities in the perennial weblog aesthetic debate).

New security flaw in Internet Explorer for Windows: cookies stored by IE are readable anywhere. IE for the Mac does not appear to be affected, and Netscape is unaffected. I use Netscape, but I’m already being inconvenienced by some sites (e.g. Blogger) disabling their “remember me” features which work via storing cookies. Now I have to log back into Blogger anytime I want to work on my log. The workaround in IE for Windows is to disable Javascript, says Peacefire.

Chernobyl’s effects linger on. “Levels of radioactivity from the Chernobyl explosion in 1986 remain unexpectedly high in some parts of northern Europe, researchers

have found.

They say restrictions on some foods in both the United Kingdom and the former Soviet Union will have to remain in place for up to 50

years.

They found that the environment is not cleaning itself as fast as previously thought, and that radioactivity can be released to the soil

again after it has been absorbed.”