Health Care Reform- In Comic Form

Pretty awesome explanation of the health care reform and ACA (Affordable Care Act) in video and comic form by MIT economy professor and advisor to president Obama when he wrote the ACA. He also wrote a comic explaining the healthcare reform.
(video at bottom of link)

Weirdest Phone Convo

Oh friends...they're the best.

*Phone rings*
Me: Hello?
AL: What's that weird music in the background?
Me: It's my study music?
AL: I bet you're doing something weird, aren't you? Like kidnapping a kid!
Me: What?!
AL: He's screaming for help, and you're covering it up with music!
Me: *choking with laughter*...I can't talk b/c I'm laughing, sick, and eating grapes.
AL: I bet those aren't really grapes either

What NOT to say on the ward

After I talk about various hypothyroidism symptoms the patient has:
Attending: So what about the patient's eyebrows?
Me: Oh, he has them.
(Proper response would be thinning of lateral eyebrows)

...

Love Lies

Lecture Series at the Journey regarding misconceptions of love:
Love is a feeling

• Lie 1) Love is basically a "skill set" compatibility business.
• Evaluate whether I'm using this person to help me achieve something (entertainment, profit, God) vs. the goal is to love this person.
• Lie 2) Love is only sacrifice
• But in Christianity, love is both duty and delight (possible to have both)
• Lie 3) Love is only a feeling
• Feeling follows action, so a vow is a daily choice to be loving.
• You may think you do things for others b/c you love them, but in reality, you love people because you spend time on them.
• Nature of true love: 
• Love is the ends, not the means
• We think we do for others, but actually we often do stuff for ourselves
• Farmer + carrot story: love others for their sake, not for ours
• Perfectionistic - wait a minute, God's doing all of this.
• 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
• Start actively receiving love [from God]

Talk is Cheap

• Silence vs. encouragement:
• We all remember distinctly encouraging words from our past
• But we forget what we didn't hear/silence
• E.g. Darrin wish he had heard: "You are not a dumb jock," "You are better than this," etc.
• Silence kills
• There are people around who desperately need to hear your words of encouragement
• Criticism and correction
• Criticism tears other people for our own good
• Correction is for other's good
• Fans vs. friends: friends wound you (for your own good) whereas fans never wound you.
• Criticism is general
• Tear down words
• Gossip - words you wouldn't say if they were in the room
• comparison - to make yourself look better
• Flattery - manipulate others with kind words to get something
• Loose lips -refuse to hold tongue, must have the last word, always tries to one-up someone with story
• vs...Build up words: think - would I want to hear that when I'm in emotional distress?
• Slander vs. Prayer
• Slander: some of it kind of true; exaggerates weakness and defines a person by that weakness, often something you're strong in.  Attempt to gain control over a person.
• Prayer: acknowledge God is in control.
• Tongue tied to heart
• to deal with words, need to deal with the heart
• If you are utterly grateful for what God has done for you, your words will show it.
• What you say is what you hear. 
• Listening to other voices vs. being attune to God's voice
• You can't affirm yourself.  We are made to need affirmation from outside - specifically from God (not job, hobby, significant other, etc.)

Non-violence...with a cow?

This has gotta be the strangest weapon ever:

Source: facebook

Can Genesis Be Compatible With Evolution?

Very interesting discussion:
Can Genesis Be Compatible With Evolution? at University of California Veritas Forum.

Some interesting points:

• To read the Bible, you have to ask, "what type of literature am I reading?" Historical, poetry, law, wisdom, letters...?
• Genesis: God breathed into Adam and gave him life.  But God is a spirit, so breath is a comment on humanity and its dignity (vs. Babylonian creation - from spit and blood of a demon God)
• Two creation stories in Genesis, and they have different order of creation - indication that it should be taken figuratively?
• Genealogy of Bible doesn't correspond with scientific date of earth:
• Genealogy of Bible skipped generations
• Days in Genesis are figurative: How can you have a day when you haven't even created the sun, moon, and earth? Genesis was written as rivaling Babylonian texts and other creation texts, saying it was Yahweh (God) who created everything.
• Adam as a historical figure?: 
• Genesis 1 illustrates man's relationship with God. Genesis 3 tells how God didn't create man as sinful, but man chose to rebel.  And regarding actually there being one couple? - can't say; overly speculative.  But based on genetic evidence and patterns of diversity mapping, humans are one blood, one origin. Polyphyletic theory is incorrect, and belief in it has spurred holocost and other ethnic cleansing.  "There's ambiguity, interpretive room"
• Humans on being unique: 
• Being able to feel guilt
• Altruism - no genetic basis b/c less selfishness will die out (although I disagree with this point - there have been groups of bird that have been known to be altruistic for the colony)
• Are there places that science shouldn't go?: 
• Not that there are questions science shouldn't ask, but that there are some questions that science can't answer.  Like does one person love another person.
• How do you know that your religion is the right one? And not all the others?
• God approaches us and engages us in concert with our personalities and gifts.
• God approaches people differently, some rationally, some more anecdotal
• Prof. Schloss: went through a period of voraciously examining religions and their denials.  Had a "period of despair... had a dramatic, life-changing encounter with the presence of God. This may sound shockingly irresponsible, but it was for me self authenticating. I lack the capacity to doubt it...I was enmeshed in a variety of self-destructive patterns...those were gone.  My father is Jewish, ... my uncle was giving me flack and said, 'Why have you become Christian?' and my dad said, 'Shut up Gary, I don't know who this Jesus is, but the change he's brought about in my son's life, all I can say is God bless him.' "
• "The heart has reasons that reason knows not" - Pascal
• "If I allow it for the possibility that there is a God, the most sensible historical interpretation of the gospel accounts was that there was a man named Jesus, who claimed to be God, who predicted his own death and resurrection, who then died and resurrected."

What Do Doctors Do and others..

Haha, right on (yup, from facebook):


And ode to Washington, the best state:

Novelty seeking

Very interesting article. I wouldn't say I'm a fast thinker, quick tempered
, thrive in conditions that are chaotic to others, and definitely not anti social disordered, but I can get bored sometimes and k to do novel things. Maybe it's because the teenager in me never gto come out when I wa teenager. anyhow, this article makes me feel not so bad about always wanting to do something different or go somewhere new.
Novelty seeking personality

MIT Tourists

Oh...this has got to be the best:

Why Americans Think My Name Means One

Thanks http://curiosities-abound.tumblr.com/page/3

Poor MD: The Best Time to Buy Airline Tickets

Good to know!

Poor MD: The Best Time to Buy Airline Tickets:

With interviews for medical schools and residencies coming up, many applicants will be finding themselves booking airline tickets. I'm a huge fan of Southwest Airlines for the obvious benefit of being able to cancel the flight without penalty.

Here are some other tips for getting the best deal on airfare:

• Shop Tuesday at 3pm Eastern for the best prices
• Sale prices are removed from websites on late Thursday
• Airlines start discounting tickets 3.5 months before departure
• Airline ticket prices dramatically increase 14 days before departure
• Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday are the cheapest days to travel
• Monday, Friday and Sunday are the most expensive days to travel

For detailed explanation on how this works, read more at Farecompare.com.