February 4 – 8 This week, Erika’s back! And she’s not happy about “informed consent“. Cameron considers the endangerment of the world’s apex predator, some of which are only as big as a chocolate bar! Cassie throws shade at the dodgy sleep aids of the 70s. Jessa tells us how architects are like psychoactive drug […]
Month: February 2013
The other day, just as I was about to go out on the water on a nine-foot piece of epoxy-covered foam, a man stopped me on the beach. “Aren’t you scared to go out there by yourself?” he said. “Because of the sharks?” I had been trying to forget about them, even though the sun […]
Last year, after years of writing about research studies, I agreed to become a research subject myself. I agreed to allow a local medical center to use my tissue, health records, fluids, cells, and other “specimens” for research. Not only that – I also allowed the researchers to use the same types of information and […]
Ahh, the 1960s. A simpler time when women wore pant-skirts and insomnia could be cured by the soothing sounds of Liadov’s Musical Snuff Box. Well, not quite. Flip open this album and you’ll find a two-page ad for a sleeping pill called Placidyl. The tagline reads: “But when music fails, you can rest assured with […]
When Rosemary Pryde was four years old, 63 years ago, she lost her hearing. No one knows exactly why: maybe the high fever, maybe the medications, maybe genetic – her father and his mother lost their hearing as adults. She didn’t lose her hearing completely; she had some residual in both ears. When she was […]
January 28 – February 1 The most urgent question of the week falls to Richard: what’s going to become of all his books? Time for you to pitch in with some advice, dear readers. Christie wonders how Facebook will irony-proof their new search feature. Erik makes a fairly solid case for the idea that “tools […]
What can you say about a fifty-seven-year-old book that has outlived its usefulness? That it was beautiful. And brilliant. And taking up valuable space in my personal library. Our household has six 84-inch bookshelves lining two living room walls, and four more in the bedroom. All of the living room bookshelves and two of the […]
