Sunday, January 11, 2015

top three [01.11.2015]

one of my favorites of the year: one | two | three
medicine
  • There's a blood disorder called beta thalassemia where the synthesis of hemoglobin is decreased. A certain variant results in extra bone formation in a pattern called a "crew-cut" appearance - and it totally looks like that!
  • Polychythemia is a disease where you basically have more red blood cells, which means you can carry more oxygen in your blood. Sometimes this is an inherited trait, as was the case for Eero Mantyranta. He was a Finnish Olympic cross country skier who was accused of "blood doping" and it wasn't until 30 years later, when they finally discovered his disorder by studying his own family, that he was acquitted of those charges. Yikes!
  • Back in the middle of the 1800s, a doctor noticed that many of his patients who had just given birth were dying (by what was called childbed fever), and that many times, the doctors that performed the delivery had just came back from working in the morgue. Ignaz Semmelweis is credited with instilling the first cleanliness standards in hospitals, making doctors wash their hands before performing a delivery. Interestingly, many doctors at the time didn't think his hypothesis was real, and he was eventually committed to an insane asylum. It'll be interesting to see what the medical community comes up with in the next 100 years that we don't know exists today!

on the internet

spotted

on franish

notable sales


personal 

  • Man, these next 4.5 months are going to be...something. We started school on Monday, and it's been full steam ahead since then. Not only do we have our normal school schedule (we are currently doing hematology), but all of our board stuff on top of it. Our schedule used to be a bit more relaxed, especially since we make our own, so if we got through all the school stuff we had to, we got a bit of rest. Now if we aren't doing school work, we're board studying. I've already covered 2 whole core subjects (which in school time took us 5 weeks to cover) and I am all fidgety about trying to get it all done. Bet you guys are going to get as tired of the word "boards" as I've been for the 6 months leading up to now! ;)
  • I made this chicken tikka masala (on top of cauliflower rice) and it was so good! A bit time-intensive, but I think I may make a huge batch next time and just freeze a large chunk of it. 
  • Have you guys heard all the fuss about Starbuck's "new" drink, the flat white? I actually drank a ton of these when I went to Australia/ New Zealand a few years ago, so I was excited that they now are going to be more popular in the US (I bet you kiwis disagree though!). While a bit rich to be an every day drink (both calorically and financially!), it was a nice treat on the way to the library yesterday.