“A human being at rest runs on 90 watts,” he says. “That’s how much power you need just to lie down. And if you’re a hunter-gatherer and you live in the Amazon, you’ll need about 250 watts. That’s how much energy it takes to run about and find food. So how much energy does our lifestyle [in America] require? Well, when you add up all … Continue reading

The patient database of the private health clinic that conducts STD tests for California’s porn industry has been breached, exposing test results and personal details about thousands of current and former porn performers, some of which have been published on a Wikileaks-style website (via Gawker). This brings up a few issues: There is a group of people, porn stars, who are “internet famous” Hackers seem … Continue reading

Happy National Doctor’s Day everyone!!!!! Doctors Day marks the date that Crawford W. Long, M.D., of Jefferson, GA, administered the first ether anesthetic for surgery on March 30, 1842. On that day, Dr. Long administered ether anesthesia to a patient and then operated to remove a tumor from the man’s neck. Later, the patient would swear that he felt nothing during the surgery and wasn’t … Continue reading

NY Times: After staunchly defending the safety of artificial food colorings, the federal government is for the first time publicly reassessing whether foods like Jell-O, Lucky Charms cereal and Minute Maid Lemonade should carry warnings that the bright artificial colorings in them worsen behavior problems like hyperactivity in some children. Again, just eat food people. Update: It’s now been deemed safe!!! That doesn’t change the fact that you should … Continue reading

An anatomical heart made up entirely of the words from a dissertation. He put tons of effort into studying a particular cardiac arrhythmia, noted below the heart, and instead of hanging fancy diplomas on the wall, he chose to immortalize his time and efforts into a piece of anatomical art. (via Street Anatomy) Continue reading

External link to There are roughly five New Yorks

There are roughly five New Yorks

bobulate: E.B. White on the miracle that is New York: It is a miracle that New York works at all. The whole thing is implausible. Every time the residents brush their teeth, millions of gallons of water must be drawn from the Catskills and the hills of Westchester. When a young man in Manhattan writes a letter to his girl in Brooklyn, the love message … Continue reading There are roughly five New Yorks

Provenge is a $93,000 drug that has been shown to extend the lives of some advanced prostate cancer patients by an average of 4.1 months, to 25.8 months. Each course is three infusions. We can then assume that each month of life in a person with advanced prostate cancer is valued around $23,000.  The government is deciding this week whether or not Medicare will pay for this … Continue reading

theatlantic: Wheels of Change: How The Bicycle Empowered Women As much as we love bike culture and everything bikes stand for, we may have underestimated the profound significance of the bicycle as a cultural agent of change. Thanks to a brilliant new book, we no longer do. National Geographic’s Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (With a Few Flat Tires Along the Way) tells the … Continue reading