Monday, March 22, 2010

Health Care Reform was sooo Last Year

What!? The healthcare reform bill passed? No f@#$ing way!

I thought the government gave up on that around the time the final season of LOST started... I hear Rahm Emanuel is a big fan. Despite being someone who passionately believes we need serious reform (much more than is what included in this bill) and who 'studied' political science as an undergrad, even I was almost completely checked-out of the ongoing debate that so many thought was over once those liberal yahoos in Massachusetts elected Scott 'Pickup Truck' Brown.

Well it seems the Democrats realized that their ship (the S.S. November Election) was sinking whether they pushed a reform bill through at the last minute or not, so I'm glad they gave it the 'ol college try (where did that phrase come from? no one tries in college). Apparently Obama will sign the bill into law on Tuesday, while the Senate presumably squawks about the alterations the House made before those additional elements can also become law.

BUT: I still hate Nancy Pelosi. Here's why...



... 'nuff said.

Anyways, glad things are moving forward. Here's a few links if you care what this 'groundbreaking' bill is going to do for (or as the Republicans would say 'to') this country.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

The Best Thing Ever

Thank you Ryan Marriott for bringing this to my attention. Much better than studying for my lab practical...


Wednesday, March 10, 2010

News Flash: Bikes & Banks

Big news, important news... LOFTY news

Number 1: Finally! GoogleMaps has finally added directions for cycling. According to the NYT article published today, bike routes for 150 cities have been incorporated into their online software. Obviously the Bay Area is included in that count, so I checked it out. It seems to do the trick, and even highlights all the various bike trails in green. I'm happy.



Number 2: In advance of the new Fed rules that will go into effect this summer that would require bank customers to actually enroll in overdraft protection, rather than be automatically subject to it, Bank of America will be doing away with overdraft charges. Goodbye $38.00 cup of coffee.

Of course, I'm sure the folks that helped bring us the worst recession in a century and who, even worse, charge me an additional $2.00 on top of the fees I pay at non-BoA ATM's have some fancy scheme up their sleeve to make up for the billions they'll lose in overdraft fees. It probably involves trading derivatives or some other such manipulation of imaginary money that I can't possibly comprehend.

I should keep my cash in a shoebox.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Sickness!

I'm going to need more N-95 respirators...

Everyone around me is sick... classmates, labmates, friends, roommates. I suppose it doesn't help that most of these sick people inhabit the overlap of these categories in my Venn-diagram of life.

Word on the public health street is that its a new round of rhinovirus, otherwise known as the dreaded 'common cold'. The sad irony of being an infectious disease student is that despite your rather impressive knowledge of infectious microbes, there's often very little you can to do avoid the more ubiquitous ones without resorting to some extreme measures.

Yes, I used the word ubiquitous. Look it up.

I've been lucky enough to avoid getting sick since I moved to California in August. I feel as though that's a fairly impressive feat, all things considered... go ahead, consider those things, those of you who know me. Now, what can I do to avoid catching this latest round of respiratory infections? I've outlined my options below.
  1. Use of personal protective equipment, including latex gloves, lab coat or surgical gown, N-95 mask, and goggles. Perhaps a full-body Tyvek suit would be in order. Reference Eduardo's picture for an idea of what I might look like.
  2. Move to Canada. I hear they have universal health coverage there.
  3. Inject myself with large doses of mucosal IgA antibody. And Scotch.
  4. Remove all ICAM-1 receptors in my respiratory epithelial cells. That's where the virus gets ya.
  5. Sleep well, drink plenty of fluids, eat healthy and wash hands often.
  6. Hide.
Speaking of getting sick, watch out for Pringles, your two most favorite flavors may be contaminated with salmonella... thats right, 'Cheeseburger' and 'Taco Night'. Guess you'll have to stick to 'Sour Cream & Onion' for a while.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

The Scotch Night




Scotch Night #1: The Macallan 10-Year Fine Oak

Price: $41.00 at the booze, snack and porn shop (i.e. overpriced)

Taste: Aged in a combination of Sherry & Bourbon oak casks. Good balance. Do I detect a bit of fruitiness in there? Maybe. I don't really know what I'm talking about.

Paired With: Danish Bleu & Holland Gouda cheeses; Alcoholism; French Bread.

Consumed By: Adam, Paul, Megha, Robbie

Immediate Effect: Rambling about toxoplasmosis; Discussion of fiscal conservatism.

Short-Term Effect: Walk to 'The Graduate' for more drinks (Racer 5 IPA).

Long-Term Effect: 3 cups of coffee and no desire to go to lab this morning.



Report Filed 3/4/10 in the Annals of Infectious Disease Scotch Consumption

Sunday, February 28, 2010

A Letter to Eduardo

Dear Eduardo,

Thanks for doing such a swell job of keeping my blog neat and tidy. You always know just where to put all the posts, the right tags to insert and are always there to remind me that I use far too many commas. Sadly I like commas too much for this to ever really be remedied, but its great that you try. You're the best stuffed pig ever, and you look great in that mask, but I'm sure you get that all the time.

Anyways, I wanted to update you on the goings-on in my life, since we haven't stayed in touch so well as of late. I'm sure you've been busy doing fit-test demonstrations for N-95's, but hopefully with flu season dying down you've had some time to relax. I've been busy with schoolwork, as usual, but it so often takes a backseat to my more pressing interests that I guess its hard to say I'm actually busy with it. Hmmmm.

Of semi-importance is that I've decided to stay here in Berkeley for the summer, rather than going to Zanzibar. Not an easy choice to make, but I think it is the best decision at the moment, and will allow me to stay with my job at CIDER and work full time there during the summer. You should come visit sometime.

Bethany will be here on Thursday to visit for a few days, which is sweet, seeing that our sibling powers grow exponentially when we're not separated by a bunch of worthless states that have no coastline. A week later I will be going to Tahoe to fall down a mountain over and over (I've only snowboarded twice, and the last time was 9th grade) and hopefully escape with only stress fractures and minor lacerations. In April I'm going to the Coachella music festival, and myself, Gail, Megha, and Mary have received a small grant award to purchase a bulk-order of condoms and pass them out for free at the festival to promote safe-sex and STD education. Even when doing something as seemingly cool as going to a 3-day music festival in the desert, I've found a way to nerd-it-up.

Speaking of nerds, as we were leaving Safeway in North Berkeley yesterday (we being myself, Megha, Rachel, Colleen, and Karen) in Megha's tiny Mini-Cooper, as we pulled out of our spot and rounded the corner to exit the lot, some random dude just looked at us and shouted 'Nerds!'. That guy had no idea how right he was. Its not every day you have a car full of infectious disease grad students to insult. Bravo sir.

Lastly, I'm still very much planning on getting a dog. Its going to have to wait until I get a new place to live in July, but its happening, and here's why:



Chloe is an 8-week old German Shepard ball-of-fluff who belongs to my friend Emily. How can that not make you want your own dog? My only requirement for a dog is that it be intelligent enough to chase down and return discs for me. I've been looking for a new best friend to play catch with and a dog seems as though it would do the trick. So stay tuned for that.

I'm also still adamant about getting a vehicle. I'm trying to justify getting a truck because it would not be a commuting vehicle, but would instead be reserved for trips and whatnot to god-knows-where. Also I could chop wood and leave it in the bed, and would feel like more of a man. Also I just really want to take advantage of that cheap insurance that comes with turning 25.

Anyways, sorry to get off-track Eduardo. I hope everything is well back home. I'll see you over my spring break.

Yours Through Hell or High Water,

Dr. W

Saturday, February 27, 2010

The Results Are In!

Dear Faithful Readership,

I was impressed to find out that you actually exist (nice to meet you). By putting that little poll on my blog, I figured I was setting myself up for a winning 'next blog topic' based on whatever I put my one vote towards. Well, apparently 11 other people actually managed to read this at least once and vote on what my next topic should be... I must say I have no idea who you are. Well, I know who maybe 4 of you are (hi Charles!). Regardless, thank you for your valuable time.

Winning Topic: Those Aren't Funny, Write About Beer

I'm glad enough of you voted in such a manner that I don't actually have to write anything about public health, because public health is the worst. But, since I'm a strong believer in the whole 'will of the majority with respect to the minority' concept (hooray Constitution), I'll indulge the nerds that threw some votes to two of the other topics I presented. This will also be an exercise in presenting to you how horribly illiterate and braindead your children will be once all cogent thoughts are reduced to to Twitter updates and Facebook statuses. Thus I present to you, two Twitter essays...


Yes, H1N1 was a Pandemic

h1n1 a pandemic due 2 worldwide spread, high rate of infctn & change in disease demographics. Pandemic ≠ high death rate necessarily. OMG!


138 Characters


What I Learned at the Public Health Preparedness Summit

ATL not so great, LOL. Use grad students 4 CERT teams. Google Earth = open source GIS tool. Use cluster sampling for vax plan. Hotel nice.


139 Characters


Stayed tuned for my next post: Those Aren't Funny, Write About Beer