Author: Kirk

Water Intoxication Is Real

As a big fan of water I long ago learned about the dangers of drinking too much water. I remember learning about it in the context of psychiatric patients not being given unlimited access to water in their rooms for fear of their over imbibing. Apparently a few people at a radio station have never heard of it though … they held a contest to see who could drink the most water without going to the washroom. One lady tried so hard she ended up dying. Seriously – she went home complaining of headaches and died later that day. Sure, the station fired the people involved but come on – no medical supervision? Some people suggest that this contest is the same thing as poisoning a person inadvertently, through negligence. Is this a crime? Was this involuntary manslaughter?

After the contest, Strange called in sick to work, crying and saying she was heading home in terrible pain. About five hours later, Strange – who had three children – was found dead by her mother at her home

The news article mentions a similar frat party death from water a few years ago and the frat boy pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. Is this any different? In our litigious world I would not be surprised to hear about court cases surrounding this event. But from my perspective – what are her children going to do? She died trying to win them a Wii. How does one come to grips with this event on a personal level?

A Father Can Do Wrong

Last year this article about a father (allegedly) beating his 17 month old daughter to death for breaking his video game console would have made me grimace and shake my head. Today, reading it is a different experience.

This version of the story has a few more medical facts – though the two articles contradict one another somewhat.

“She pulled the cord and the whole game console fell over,” Spellman said in his statement, read by Homicide Detective John Cummings. “I thought it was broken. I popped her in the face. I picked her up and tossed her in a chair.”

Anger mismanagement doesn’t even enter into the picture here – this guy, provided he is guilty, needs to be “adjusted” to a better attitude.

Most of the references to this story seem to be from video game sites – strange that it was not picked up on regular news channels. Strange and, frankly, sad. Violence against children – video game related or not – is a crime that needs to be extinguished. Period.

The Ship Is Leaking – Rejoice!

We’ve all heard at some point or another about some document being leaked and ruining a plot, a conspiracy or a career. What if a global repository was created that allowed the world over to pick apart these leaked documents, documenting their veracity or their fallacy?

Enter Wikileaks …

Wikileaks is developing an uncensorable Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis. Our primary interests are oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we also expect to be of assistance to those in the west who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their own governments and corporations. We aim for maximum political impact; this means our interface is identical to Wikipedia and usable by non-technical people. We have received over 1.2 million documents so far from dissident communities and anonymous sources.

It’s not live yet (apparently its existence was leaked before it was ready for public scrutiny) but it looks like an interesting endeavour – one well worth watching.

My Future Master’s Thesis Topic

Health Care is an interesting field to work in. So is Open Source. Combine the two and you might read an article titled Tivo Healthcare. What is Tivoization? I’m sure you’ve herad me mention DRM? This is a nice, complex topic that I think is going to become a massive, massive problem in our technologically-oriented health care industry. But that’s just me – what do I know.

What the Tivoization traps is the data, which for Tivo means movies and television shows recorded digitally. But what happens when the data that is trapped is infinitely more valuable? When we discuss DRM, we should be thinking of an EHR that has been Tivoized, (perhaps a health-Tivo) rather than a television recording device.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about – let’s talk! I’m serious about there being a looming problem in the health care industry. Well, I actually see two in the States – technology and policy. I’ve been meaning to post something about the “Choice Paralysis” idea since, well, the summer. I’m still reading a related book though so look for that in the future. I’ll link to this topic in that future post. You’ll read it in the future and the light will go on and you’ll sit back stunned and say “Good Lord … what are we doing to ourselves!?” You just wait, soon I promise.

Happy 30th Birthday Alisa!

It seems my beloved wife is turning 30 today. This will be her last official Birthday. From here on out she’ll be celebrating anniversaries only – the 3rd anniversary of her 28th birthday is next year, I believe.

Let’s all join in and wish our favorite lady a Happy Birthday!

P.S. For those curious about her gift from me, check out “Belle’s Trip” in the menu at the top – see if you can figure out what’s going on without any narrative.

Starting The Year Off In The Wrong Way

After reading this article I simply had to vent a little – not the nicest way to start the year off but a sharp contrast with the warm fuzzies of the holiday posts.

Wake up people! Evil abounds in the world, even in such non-Evil states as Oregon. Yes, Oregon. There, nestled in the humble towns of Portland and Corvallis, tucked away at the Oregon State University and the Oregon Health and Science University, “scientists” are attempting to find a cure for homosexuality. Not content with the wishy-washy realm of psychology and its “Reparative Therapy“, these researchers are concentrating on finding a chemical cure.

The scientists have been able to pinpoint the mechanisms influencing the desires of “male-oriented” rams by studying their brains. The animals’ skulls are cut open and electronic sensors are attached to their brains.

By varying the hormone levels, mainly by injecting hormones into the brain, they have had “considerable success” in altering the rams’ sexuality, with some previously gay animals becoming attracted to ewes.

Success! Let’s all discuss visions of providing said cure via means of a patch, like the nicotine patch. They’ll be curing those homosexuals while they work and play! Think of the Utopia! Oh, oh, and then they mention the idea of providing pre-natal testing … followed (dare we hope) by in utero hormone treatment. We can cure them before they’re even born! Hallelujah!

This just makes me mad, mad, mad. Say it with me – “Sometimes I just shake my head”.

The good doctor mentions that little research is done on sexuality because it is such a touchy topic – true enough. My question to the good doctor would be “why?” What do you hope to accomplish through this research? Increase ram mating ratios? Bollocks. What happened to social responsibility — think about how your research could be used by our (often times short-sighted) culture. Good lord, even Martina Navratilova has spoken out against this research …. Why is our society so quick to dismiss the contributions homosexuals can make to our world? Why do we see homosexuality as something that needs to be cured, fixed, taboo?

Predictably the researcher doesn’t want to take any personal responsibility for his work, shrugging his shoulders because

it is up to policy makers to legislate on questions of ethics

As a final note, I think this Wikipedia entry on animal sexuality is, to say the least, very interesting. Homosexuality in penguins, fetishistic behaviour, faking orgasms, sex for pleasure – it’s all there. But it makes me wonder what happened to the argument against homosexuality that humans are the only ones with that “sickness” – that it simply isn’t natural? What? Oh? That argument changed to say that homosexuality displays a lack of evolution, of higher brain function? You get to argue both ways? How convenient, er, hypocritical.

Well, welcome to 2007 people!

P.S. Marley Got Her Christmas Wish

All Marley wanted for Christmas was her two front teeth – I think this photo is evidence enough that she’s been a good girl this year.

Marley's first tooth

Ignore the extraneous rice cereal. I took the picture single-handed while feeding her this morning. You can see the looming spoonful on the left. It is the only way to get a look at her mouth without fighting with her prehensile tongue.

The one on the right (her left) is most certainly there as we can feel it. The little white spot to the left of that tooth looks to me like her second one coming in fast. Click the picture for a larger, higher resolution image if you’re not convinced. No doctoring of photos here folks!