Category Archives: Uncategorized

Whitecoat has the details, calling flip flops the orthopedist’s favorite footwear. They’re good for business.

Details are at Forbes: 

Perhaps the biggest single change in the new document is the adoption of a single systolic blood pressure target for almost all patients: 140 mmHg, This replaces the previous, more complicated target, which included both systolic and diastolic recommendations for different levels of risk (140/90 mmHg for moderate to low risk patients and 130/80 mmHg target for high risk patients).  One of the authors, Robert Fagard, commented: “there was not enough evidence to justify two targets.”

Thirty or 40% of Europeans have high blood pressure, a risk factor for heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, and premature death.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

…I’d reconsider.  According to an article a MedPageToday:

Soccer players who repeatedly “head” the ball had changes in brain microstructure and performance on neurocognitive testing, suggesting that this popular maneuver may lead to long-term subconcussive brain injury, researchers reported.

 That doesn’t sound good.

…according to Swedish researchers in a report at MedPageToday. They found more problematic atrial fibrillation and bradycardia in high-level competitors.

Could you be exercising too much?

From an article at UK’s The Guardian, Snowden…

…has had “a very comfortable life” that included a salary of roughly $200,000, a girlfriend with whom he shared a home in Hawaii, a stable career, and a family he loves.

***

“I’m willing to sacrifice all of that because I can’t in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they’re secretly building.”

—Edward Snowden

…whether you want it or not.

Would you rather buy food, clothing, pay off student loans, help out your sister who’s on the verge of bankruptcy? Too bad. Health insurance is your top priority now. What’s that? You say you’re young and healthy and can get by without insurance for now? The government needs your premium money in particular!

Click for details at CNBC:

Under the ACA, uninsured Americans have until the beginning of 2014 to purchase insurance through health-care exchanges being set up nationwide or other venues—or face a financial penalty. That penalty is equal to $95 per adult, and $47.50 per child, up to a maximum of $285—or 1 percent of household income, whichever is greater.

Those penalties will escalate in future years.

I’m not sure those penalties are right. I’ve heard higher.

From GQ:

Kim had also established an institute dedicated to his longevity. Its staff of 200 approved every element of Kim’s diet. Each grain of Kim’s rice was hand-inspected for chips and cracks—only perfectly shaped rice, grown in North Korea, was approved. According to Fujimoto, the rice had to be cooked over wood harvested from Mount Paektu, the sacred mountain where, North Korean propaganda claimed, Kim was born under a double rainbow and a newly born star. All were impressed when Fujimoto served the freshest meal of all: still-living fish he’d fillet alive by cutting around the organs—a skill he’d learned while working at Japan’s Tsukiji fish market.

For special occasions, Fujimoto traveled great distances to procure ingredients for elaborate banquets. He would take a North Korean Air Koryo plane to Beijing, then a commercial airliner to either Moscow or Prague, places Kim stored a private jet. From there, it was off to France for wine or Denmark for ham. Mostly he flew to Japan to buy fish, where the first stop was always a ramen stand at Tsukiji run by Fujimoto’s old friend Inoue. Fujimoto brought many officials to eat Inoue’s noodles, including Kim Jong-un’s brother Kim Jong-chul.

Read the rest.