uberuberuber's comments

I completed my first 10 day Vipassana course recently, and genuinely believe that a slightly modified version of the course should be an essential component of any person’s psychological maturation/development. The course I did was the ‘Goenka course’ (dhamma.org), and I would recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about meditation. It is free of charge to attend, and you can actually only donate to the organization if you complete the full 10 days.

The course is almost entirely rational and in the spirit of honest scientific inquiry. The rules seem arbitrary and silly but they are very helpful in quieting your mind, and enabling you to focus entirely on the practice at hand. It took me until Day 3 to let myself relax and enjoy the absence of tweets, posts and text notifications rather than feel anxiety about being disconnected. Assuming one is there for 240 hours, I only have an issue with ~5 of those hours being a bit ‘woo-woo’ as The Amazing Randi would say. I think of Goenka (the videos used in the evening lectures are available on youtube) as a kindly grandparent who just wants the best for you but occasionally tangents into bullshit. Despite his continual admonishments to only believe what is rational, he seems to genuinely believe the magical stories surrounding the Buddha, and it was distracting to have to segue from ‘this is a genuine insight into how the mind generates its own suffering’ to ‘oh wait he is talking BS’. If one replaces some of his more magical terms that are almost Freudian (ie Sakarnas) with 'Maladaptive neuronal connections' they actually make sense.

The sheer number of hours one is able to practice in this setting really accelerates the development of concentration/mindfulness. I think of the ~110 hours spent meditating during the course as equivalent to 220 days worth of 30minutes/day practice, and feel like I have ‘time traveled’ past 60% of a year of training. Happy to answer specific questions if anyone is considering attending a course.

Daniel Ellsberg discusses this in a great talk at the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. The US didn't think Khrushchev was insane enough to delegate control over the weapons (which we did and still do), but he in fact had. He revoked delegation at some point after Kennedy's speech if I recall correctly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk1-2qtWph0

While the doctor's office may have been the proximate agent asking him to 'lie', the true culprit is the incomprehensible, self-contradictory system that elected and unelected bureaucrats in the US have cobbled together over the decades. If the doctor doesn't maintain that privacy paperwork (which as rms noted the police can view at will anyway), they will not receive reimbursement from CMS. There are likely other statutory issues with HIPAA that I'm unfamiliar with. It's difficult to fault them for not wasting their limited time/money resisting the paperwork requirements when it would only detract from patient care resources.

If he were actually In Extremis, the physician/nurse/EMS would treat him under implied consent. Technically a patient of sound mind can refuse care but in practice someone who looks like rms (beard discrimination) ranting about his privacy would rather quickly be hit with a B52 (50mg Benadryl, 5mg Haldol, 2mg Ativan). Emergency providers are in a bit of a quandary as they must choose between the possibility of missing a subdural hematoma on a patient refusing care and facing a wrongful death lawsuit, and facing a lawsuit for unlawful imprisonment and assault.

Most definitely. If the patient's presentation suggests hypoglycemia, it isn't uncommon for a medic to test the glucose level with their machine and administer oral glucose (D50 IV if obtunded) without even getting to a detailed physical that would reveal the implanted pump/monitor. If an amp of D50 failed to raise the blood sugar, then we'd start hunting for other causes like exogenous insulin overdose.

ror.y.h.and

I have a deck with ~40,000 facts for the USMLE Step 1 & 2 licensing boards that I use daily just for fun. My goal is to have flashcards that cover an entire medical school curriculum.

Here's the spreadsheet that I am making the flashcards from...it is primarily medical facts but lots of assorted knowledge as well.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21526819/Master%20Memorize%20List.xl...

I'm just postulating. I am a cubicle monkey in medical publishing nowadays and use support staff for tasks that don't require a higher level of expertise, thereby freeing up my time to produce more value.

I understand the importance of learning to do things for oneself within an organization, but at a certain point doesn't it become wasteful to have someone making $50/hr fetching packages when it could easily be done by a lower wage earner, thereby ensuring that the "brain power" (in this context...not denigrating intelligence based upon career path) can focus on what they're getting paid for?

I'll second the first commenter.

A NPO just needs to reinvest profits towards whatever its mission is...

I work for a non-profit medical association, and there is every bit as much of a concern about turning a profit on our products, its just where the profits end up that is different.

Heck, we're even getting xmas bonuses. 5% Base salary + $1,000.

I work for a medical association that publishes a top-100 journal (I work on different products, not the journal), and we have ~20 full time staff members internally working on it. Actual delivery of web content is handled by an outside vendor with their own staff. Tack on the declining $ available from advertising, plus ever more onerous pharma restrictions and there is no way that the content could be delivered for free.

And almost more than the GDP of the The Bahamas (7B)!

For a company with no unique technology or equipment to turn down an offer that ranks them as a mid-cap company is mind boggling to me.

Delta Air Lines has a market capitalization of 10B! And they have 725 freaking jets!

Dr. Pepper has a market cap of 8B! And they have the pepper song!

CarMax has a market cap of 7B! And they have fleets of cars!