Fix it in documentation - prescription drugs

Consumer Reports and other outlets are reporting that Diabetes drugs Januvia, Janumet may pose dangerous risk. The article notes that there have been reports of 88 cases of acute pancreatitis in patients taking these drugs.
And, so how does the FDA tell the pharmaceutical manufacturer to deal with this dangerous side effect. By updating the documentation, of course.

We can be confident that the FDA is taking this very seriously. It's printing the guidelines to the healthcare professionals in bold text.

Information for Healthcare Professionals - Acute pancreatitis and sitagliptin (marketed as Januvia and Janumet)

I hope that my fellow students are smarter at the end of the semester

In the parking lot at Quinsigamond Community College. These are cellphone pictures because I was on my way to take the first quiz of the course.
First, these don't look 15-passenger vans to me:

Next, you may not be able to see the sticker in the rear window, but it offers the declaration, "My other ride is your mom."

Stay classy, you seekers of knowledge and truth. Stay classy.

I get all the news I need on the weather report

We're burning the first wood from December's ice storm damage, a pallet-load of maple. It dried well and gives a good hot flame. We need it this morning.
There's a skim coat of frost on the deck, enough to show the foot prints of some knucklehead who went out barefoot to fill the bird feeder.

Your TV show is so lame that ...

not only are you canceled, but they're gonna run a picture of Ashton and Demi, who have nothing to do with your show, just to get people to read the article.

Boston.com -
CW's 'Beautiful Life' axed after just 2 airings

Why we read newspapers (or, for that matter, pretty much anything)

Reminded by Dan Kennedy, I decided to give the Boston Globe's electronic newspaper, Globe Reader, a try.  It's free for print subscribers. (We still have Sunday delivery.) The Globe Reader is a separate product from the Globe's Electronic Edition;The Telegram, as you may know, has something similar. Both sites charge extra, even for print subscribers.
The reading experience is pretty good, emulating the experience of flipping through print pages as well as one could expect.
One aspect, however, is a game-stopper. There doesn't seem to be a way to send a link to a friend, post it in blog, or otherwise bookmark a specific article. This applies to the Globe Reader and, as best as I can tell, to the electronic editions of the Telegram and Globe.
As a result, when I see a report that EMC is expanding its presence in North Carolina and I'd like to send that article to current EMC employees and to friends in North Carolina,

well, I think that I have to go to the Globe web site.

Reading something interesting in isolation is never as good as reading something interesting and being able to share it.

Crime in suburbia

From The Landmark (subscription required):

[Editor's note: 31 suspicious somethings]

Holden

Monday, September 14

12:03 a.m. Suspicious motor vehicle with smashed windshield, Main St.
12:22 a.m. Suspicious motor vehicle, Sunnyside Ave.
7:07 a.m. Dog wandering in neighborhood, Lexington Cir.
8:18 a.m. Air conditioning unit in grass at Shrewsbury St./Woodridge Rd.
8:56 a.m. Vehicle on Rte. 68 spilled asphalt onto roadway
9:17 a.m. Cat stuck in tree; advised it will come down on its own
12:26 p.m. Wires down and pole leaning into trees, Stearns Ln.
1:03 p.m. Teacher at high school with question about officer in building
1:19 p.m. Question regarding divorce; advised it's a civil matter
3:24 p.m. Counterfeit $10 bill brought to station
3:37 p.m. Mailbox knocked over, Salisbury Street; owner says it was kids
4:07 p.m. Caller complaining about HMLD truck parked on Thorny Lea all weekend; advised to contact HMLD
4:23 p.m. Vehicle with no plates, Doyle Rd.
5:38 p.m. Caller regarding civil issue, Pleasant St.
10:51 p.m. 911 abandoned call, Bullard St.;noise in basement
11:48 p.m. Small dog in and out of yards, Highland St.

Tuesday, September 15

3:08 a.m. Suspicious motor vehicle, Main St.
6:06 a.m. Suspicious vehicle, Adams Rd.; OK, belongs to tree company
6:13 a.m. Dead raccoon, Main St.
7:10 a.m. Kids on High St. headed toward high school
8:05 a.m. Cat missing, Princeton St.
9:43 a.m. 911 hang-up, Malden St.; OK, child playing with phone
9:56 a.m. Suspicious motor vehicle, Fruit St.
10:53 a.m. Fraudulent charges, Main St.
11:15 a.m. 911 from senior on Wachusett St.; broken faucet; water dept. advised
11:25 a.m. Stuffed animals dropped off at station
12:03 p.m. 911 misdial; supposed to be 411
12:52 p.m. Suspicious vehicle in driveway, Mountview Dr.
3:48 p.m. Parent reports son has friends at the house that aren't supposed to be there
3:57 p.m. Cat stuck in tree, Dorothy Ave.

Wednesday, September 16

7:30 a.m. Contractor asking for whereabouts of detail officers
7:42 a.m. Detail officers still waiting for contractor
12:16 p.m. Vehicle dropped brush and debris on Reservoir St.
1:53 p.m. German shepherd in road, Main St.
5:47 p.m. Suspicious person at business, Main St.
6:36 p.m. Caller asking to be contacted for road kill deer
7:08 p.m. Vehicle off road at Kendall Reservoir is on fire; one taken into protective custody
7:43 p.m. 911 hang-up, Spruce Ln.
7:50 p.m. Two large trucks parked in front of residence, making it difficult to exit/enter driveway, Main St.
8:10 p.m. 911 report of vehicle driving very slowly, Salisbury St.

Thursday, September 17

8:11 a.m. Suspicious motor vehicle, Sunset Dr.
8:31 a.m. Bus driver reports car that keeps passing bus didn't this time due to detail officer
9:59 a.m. Worcester PD found empty suitcase on West Boylston St. belonging to Lincoln Ave. resident
11:08 a.m. Resident with Craig's List issue; possible fraud
12:43 p.m. Suspicious sedan with one male near open garage door, Jamieson Rd.; OK, contractor doing work
1:21 p.m. Unattended motor vehicle, Summer Ln.
2:36 p.m. Squirrel in yard acting strangely
3:30 p.m. Elderly folks found wallet and eyeglasses at Walmart
3:43 p.m. Larceny, Main St.
5:24 p.m. Parties not using sidewalk and causing traffic hazard
7:36 p.m. Dog ran away from residence, Manning St.

Friday, September 18

8:06 a.m. Tractor trailer off-loading hay, Doyle Rd.
10:12 a.m. Stray animal returned
6:40 p.m. Three given first warning about loitering/ trespassing
7:27 p.m. Two kids hanging around front lawn, swinging on pole, Pleasant St.
8:02 p.m. 911 call from kid about her mom; OK, mom playing a joke
8:16 p.m. Kids at senior center advised to move along
9:26 p.m. Car drove over double solid lines, Elmwood Ave.
10:19 p.m. Suspicious motor vehicle, Malden St.

Saturday, September 19

3:15 a.m. Suspicious motor vehicle, Main St.
3:2 a.m. Suspicious person, Main St.
9:34 a.m. Inquiry about disputed belongings; advised it's a civil matter
11:30 a.m. Verizon network down in 508 area; no incoming cell phone calls
4:30 p.m. Low water pressure, Lovell Rd.
4:31 p.m. Suspicious motor vehicle, Reservoir St.
4:45 p.m. Water main break, Lovell Rd.
5:44 p.m. Skateboarder in front of library going into Rte. 31
5:48 p.m. Several kids in lot, Main St.; advised of new policy
6:18 p.m. Suspicious person on Reservoir St. may be drunk; no contact
6:32 p.m. Several calls regarding water main break, Lovell Rd.
7:32 p.m. Male hitchhiking, Rte. 68A; taken into protective custody
8:20 p.m. No water reported at residence, Dorothy Ave.
8:35 p.m. Vehicle trying to pass on right, Rte. 68
9:48 p.m. Loud party, Chapel St.
10:56 p.m. Parent argument reported by teen, Flagler Dr.

Sunday, September 20

12:11 a.m. Garage door went up, Greystone Dr.
6:59 a.m. Several calls regarding water problem
11:22 a.m. Chipper in bad location, Manning St.
11:48 a.m. Large dead raccoon, Reservoir St.
4:50 p.m. Suspicious motor vehicle, Main St.

Paxton

Monday, September 14

5:15 p.m. Disabled motor vehicle near highway dept., Holden Rd.
9:16 p.m. Suspicious motor vehicle, Dunkin' Donuts, Pleasant St.

Tuesday, September 15

7:22 a.m. No power on Ledyard Rd.
1:42 p.m. Large dog loose on Anna Maria campus, Sunset Ln.
1:43 p.m. Request for officer to assist with large tractor truck unit backing onto Pleasant St.
5:20 p.m. Traffic hazard, utility truck blocking Rte. 31 in Grove St. area
5:49 p.m. Officer with vehicle at Anna Maria College, Sunset Ln.
6:15 p.m. Possible bobcat sighting, Pleasant St.

Wednesday, September 16

8:42 a.m. Possible bobcat sighting in area of baseball/ soccer field, West St.
9:46 a.m. Pickup truck backed into another vehicle, Dunkin' Donuts, Pleasant St
6:40 p.m. Broken windows in basement of home on Davis Hill Rd.; determined to be broken from lawnmower
9:57 p.m. Officer checking on motor vehicle in Market Place parking lot, Pleasant St.

Friday, September 18

7:46 a.m. Possible gunshots, Pond St./Streeter Rd.
1:22 p.m. White van being driven erratically on Grove St. headed toward Holden

Saturday, September 19

1:46 p.m. Request for officer to speak with youth who has been acting up, Davis Hill Rd.
9:03 p.m. Report of loud music in area of Marshall St.

Princeton

Monday, September 14

12:15 a.m. Suspicious motor vehicle, Main St.
12:31 p.m. Abandoned call, Worcester Rd., investigated

Tuesday, September 15

8:30 a.m. Officer investigation, Town Hall Dr.

Wednesday, September 16

3:33 p.m. 911 misdial, officer investigates, Laurel Ln.
8:13 p.m. Public service, Sterling Rd.

Thursday, September 17

7:35 a.m. Traffic control duty, Sterling Rd.
7:26 p.m. Public service, Mountain Rd.
8:33 p.m. Request for animal control officer, Coal Kiln Rd.

Friday, September 18

3:24 p.m. Public service, Beaman Rd.
6:59 p.m. Suspicious incident, Brooks Station Rd.
7:01 p.m. Officer investigation, Town Hall Dr.

Saturday, September 19

12:30 a.m. Suspicious motor vehicle, Fitchburg Rd.
12:51 p.m. Assist fire department, Beaman Rd.
1:35 p.m. Assist fire dept., Fitchburg Rd.

Sunday, September 20

5:58 a.m. Assist animal control officer, Sterling Rd.
10:48 a.m. Public service, Beaman Rd.
7:30 p.m. Public service, E. Princeton Rd.
7:38 p.m. Suspicious motor vehicle, Fitchburg Rd.
7:59 p.m. Suspicious motor vehicle, investigation, Fitchburg Rd.

Rutland

Monday, September 14

9:02 a.m. Person at station with found passport, Main St.
4:26 p.m. General police services, provide key to individual, Main St.
5:02 p.m. Erratic operator, Main St.
5:07 p.m. Erratic operator entering Rutland, all over the road, Maple Ave.
6:17 p.m. Suspicious motor vehicle, Maple Ave.
8:59 p.m. Erratic operator on Rte. 122 coming from Oakham, Barre Paxton Rd.

Tuesday, September 15

7:14 a.m. Officer wanted to speak with person about incident at Pout & Trout Campground
3:26 p.m. Traffic enforcement, Main St.
4:37 p.m. Person calling about dog she lost in Barre
4:38 p.m. Cow stuck in fence, Pommogussett Rd. ACO reports cow no longer stuck
7:56 p.m. Report of two kids behind Dunkin' Donuts are going to fight, Main St.

Wednesday, September 16

7:36 a.m. Suspicious vehicle with male sleeping in it, Maple Ave.
8:56 a.m. Possible rabid skunk, Campbell St. near Pommogussett
4:42 p.m. Officer at station working on police report, Main St.
6:47 p.m. Officer serving community service paperwork, Simon Davis Dr.
7:24 p.m. Officer serving community service paperwork, Charnock Cir.
7:39 p.m. Officer serving community service paperwork, Irish Ln.

Thursday, September 17

1:00 a.m. Person wants to speak with officer, Main St.
2:04 p.m. Missing small black cat, Welch Ave.
2:29 p.m. Loose dog, Sumac Circle
5:33 p.m. Report of female out of control, Orchard Hill Dr.

Friday, September 18

11:18 a.m. Assist Worcester PD to find out who was operating vehicle in Worcester and pan handling in front of a businesses, Maple Ave.
11:38 a.m. Report that two brown dogs charged person out walking, River Rd.
4:30 p.m. Person at station looking for place to park her car overnight, Main St.
5:43 p.m. Report of underage drinking going on, Maple Ave.
6:37 p.m. Officer doing follow-up, Main St.

Saturday, September 19

8:54 a.m. Report of gun shots in area of Pommogussett Rd.
8:58 a.m. Person at station to speak with officer about her children, Main St.
10:18 a.m. Person at station to speak with officer, Main St.
10:24 a.m. Suspicious male walking toward house, Turkey Hill Trl.
12:13 p.m. Missing small white cat, Brintnal Dr.
5:10 p.m. Caller has a bird in her fireplace, Crestview Dr.
7:50 p.m. Suspicious tan car near rest area, Rte. 122

Sunday, September 20

10:18 a.m. Caller reports someone put lawn furniture on overnight camp fire and it burned, Peters Ave.
11:20 a.m. Caller regarding parking at St. Patrick's Church blocking driveway

Sterling

Monday, September 14

8:41 a.m. No-trespass order issued to female at church, Bridge St.
10:09 a.m. Young golden retriever puppy running in road, Redemption Rock Trl./Crowley Rd.
6:52 p.m. Report that dog broke chain and bit neighbors' dog, School St.

Tuesday, September 15

8:30 a.m. Traffic counter services, Osgood Rd.
10:52 a.m. Officer wanted, male in area of Gates Rd.. acting suspiciously
12:44 p.m. Male reportedly acting suspiciously returned to area on Gates Road, has fishing equipment with him
3:22 p.m. Assist Leominster PD looking for person walking/hitchhiking, Heywood Rd.
5:05 p.m. Person at station for fingerprinting, Leominster Rd.
10:24 p.m. Suspicious motor vehicle in driveway of home, Pikes Hill Rd.

Wednesday, September 16

9:12 a.m. DPW reports DCR trucks speeding on Legg Rd.
9:18 a.m. Raccoon in Dumpster, Pratts Jct. Rd.
2:32 p.m. Vehicle blocking driveway, Clinton Rd.
9:09 p.m. Suspicious motor vehicle in parking lot for two hours, lights on, motor running, Leominster Rd.

Thursday, September 17

5:32 p.m. Loose hound dog puppy, Fitch Rd.

Friday, September 18

11:50 a.m. Stray dog in yard, Boutelle Rd.
9:30 p.m. Complaint about barking dog, Flanagan Hill Rd.

Saturday, September 19

10:45 a.m. Stray black Labrador dog in business parking lot, Dana Hill Rd.
11:43 a.m. Fluffy gray cat showed up at home, Westland Farm Rd.
6:51 p.m. Report of loud party, Bean Rd.
8:00 p.m. Report of suspicious male, Evergreen Cir.
8:01 p.m. Report of some type of light in orchard, Chace Hill Rd.
8:42 p.m. Suspicious male came out of woods, Jewett Rd.

Sunday, September 20

1:45 a.m. Clinton PD requesting assistance to intercept subject that might be involved in rockthrowing incident, Albright Rd.

Web credibility fail

So, I find a link to a PDF document titled What Makes Web Sites Credible? A Report on a Large Quantitative Study. I download and open the file. At the top of the page, I see a link to the organization's web site:

A click on the link brings me here:

On medicine, time, God, and immortality

A very nice person called from my doctor's office yesterday afternoon. She informed me that my most recent blood tests came back OK and that I could start the medication for the treatment of this latest defliction. The doctor's staff would be sending the prescription to my local pharmacy. The staff will also be scheduling follow-up blood tests and office visits. Things are in motion. We know where we are and what we need to do next.
As I've often noted, I like my doctors. They're good doctors - smart, compassionate, affable. I also know that my experience is not typical.

Many people, even if they're fortunate enough to have a decent insurance plan and access to good medical teams, feel that their doctors don't care, that the doctors are hurried or distracted or just interested in pushing pills.
In a variant on the placebo effect, it appears that what the doctor does or doesn't prescribe matters less than the belief that the doctor is acting in our best interest.
A Dutch study compared patients' anxiety levels after doctors ordered a series of blood tests or prescribed a period of watchful waiting (i.e., paying attention, but taking no specific action). The results were intriguing, showing that patients were affected by the doctors' attitudes than by the medical process. 

Apparently, primary care physicians overestimate the effects of additional testing in patients seeking care for unexplained complaints and underestimate how much they themselves can contribute to the well-being of their patients by discussing their worries.

This is becoming increasingly important because we, as a nation of patients, waste a lot of money on treatments and tests and the demand for same. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article,

An estimated one-third to one-half of the $2.2 trillion Americans spend annually on health care in the U.S. is spent on unnecessary tests, treatments and doctor visits. Much of that merely buys time for the body to heal itself.

Doctors, sensing our anxieties or tired of our demands, give us, by some estimates, $1B of unnecessary, counter-productive, and even dangerous antibiotics to treat viral infections that will generally go away in time.
The mystery of when to do something and when to do nothing requires considerable skill, knowledge, and empathy to unravel, just the traits that we expect in our doctors.
As an aside, we'd often have heated planning meetings at work as we tried to decide the optimal organizational model for a company or group. You can organize your business by projects, by functional areas, by markets, or combinations thereof.What matters most is the attitude of the person at the top. If the boss has a clue, then the organizational model doesn't matter much. If the boss doesn't have a clue, the model doesn't matter much, either.

So, too, with medicine. If your doctor has a clue, you'll do better as a patient.
And, then, in a curious twist, a study published last March showed that patients with strong religious beliefs were more likely to seek aggressive (and expensive) end-of-life treatments than patients whose religious beliefs were less pronounced.

“To religious people, life is sacred and sanctified,” Dr. [Holly G.] Prigerson [the study's author] said, “and there’s a sense they feel it’s their duty and obligation to stay alive as long as possible.”

In another development, Ray Kurzweil tells us that immortality may be just 20 years away. In other words, if we can live long enough, we can live forever.
I knew a doctor who successfully treated a patient with a difficult condition. "Thank God," said patient, learning that recovery was at hand.
"Thank God?" said the doctor. "Thank me."

* Pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism

Why we studied heteronyms in school

Sewer job in Worcester, MA on SimplyHired.com:

which has nothing to do with Belmont Street Sewer Work. (See also Belmont and Lake.)

You know that you've been something too long ...

when you go to the Hallmark store to pick out a card for your granddaughter, select a Hanna Montana card, and can't buy it because the message contains a split infinitive.

You studyin' hard and hopin' to pass - OntheCommon.com

OntheCommon.com: "The young man leaned forward on the desk and put his face in his hands. He'd just learned that the textbook for this class would cost $185. He didn't seem impressed that, at somewhere north of 800 pages, the book was a good value, about 23¢/page. Wait. Is that right, 23¢/page? Let me check my math. Yup. Yikes."

On TJL and handwriting

Editor's note: my mother passed away on this date in 2000.

Anyone who knew my mother knew her handwriting. It was her voice. What she thought, she wrote. She worked through her thoughts, feelings, memories, dreams, and reflections on any writable surface. 
The collections of the notes that she sent to us and her unsent notes are as good as recordings of her voice.
She thought a lot about handwriting, as a mechanical process when she was in college, learning about how to teach handwriting to children, as a glimpse into the soul. She studied handwriting analysis and, in spite of the commentary by skeptics, knew that there was something in the way that we put pen to paper.
You'd think that she would have stood proudly at the side of people who lament how penmanship skills are being slowly erased in a typing and texting age and mourning the death of handwriting, how writers pen their own letters to the lost art. 
Or, maybe not, during the lastt years of her life, she embraced email with an enthusiasm that rivaled seeing in color what had previously only been in black and white. Here, one could send a note immediately and send it for free. The Internet-based mail system was inseparable from the Web experience. Google was just getting on its feet and she found gems in all corners of this new world.
The issue of archives becomes a problem, to be sure. I think that I have an archive of her email from that long-since defunct ISP. Some winter's day, I'll dig through a set of CD backups to see what I have.
She was also a fierce champion of young people, knowing that her world would not be their world. She saw that any reading and any writing, in any medium, was a wonderful thing. She would have sent Clive Thompson's article on the New Literacy, celebrating that someone else could articulate what she would intuit - "What today's young people know is that knowing who you're writing for and why you're writing might be the most crucial factor of all."
She would have thought deeply when someone contended that handwriting was better for learning than writing on a keyboard or that cursive handwriting is better for hand-eye coordination than printing or keyboarding.  Legible handwriting is important, but at what cost. Wise people will disagree about the importance of old skills in a new time. Do I need to use a slide rule when there are better and faster ways to calculate sines and cosines? Bad example. She suffered through math. She was in college when I was in high school and I spent many evenings tutoring her in algebra. You get the idea, though.

So, today, we have her voice in these many notes. Had she lived longer, who knows what we'd have? And that's what she would have wanted, for us to think more about the future than the past, to remember, but to let go and move forward.

A life without wheat doesn't seem so bad

On the list of forbidden foods we can include SpongeBob SquarePants™ Chocolate Lagoon and Bikini Bottom Maple Brown Sugar Cream of Wheat.

Months of unwiredness

In July, we disconnected our landline phones and went all wireless all the time. We are, as the news shows, somewhere in the middle of a trend, neither far ahead nor way behind. This article, The Real Reason Verizon Is Backing Away From Landlines, shows that the phone companies are less interested copper-based phone lines, known by some as POTS,plain old telephone service, because the old systems are more expensive to maintain and less capable of expansion. According to a Nielsen survey, at the end of 2008, nearly one home in five in this country is without a landline.
So, what have we found?

• As noted earlier, it's still a bit unsettling to come home and not have messages waiting for us on the answering machine.
• We've figured out where to keep our phones at night in the case, well, just in case.
• I think that we're on the phone more because we don't have to wait until we get home to take or make calls.
• Reverse 911 was a concern. (In some communities, the municipal government can make emergency calls to all residents, alerting folks to some serious issues. This was used in Holden during December's ice storm.)
  Cities and towns are working on  ways of implementing R911 for cell phone customers, but it's tricky. Cell phone numbers aren't necessarily tied to your local exchange. (Because I moved our old landline number to my cell phone, we're still on the call list.) How will municipalities keep the lists up-to-date as people move in and out of town?
• As best as I can tell, we're no longer listed in the phone book, if there is such a thing anymore.
• As best as I can tell, our increased cell phone usage hasn't caused brain cancer, (although the Senate may investigate - U.S. senator promises look into cellphone-cancer link), destroyed my sperm, or stimulated one or more areas on a wearer.
• I'm still not consistent in my usage of cell phone vs. cellphone vs. landline vs. land-line vs. mobile vs. a whole bunch of other terms. 
• We try to be aware that no one else wants to hear our cell phone conversations.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Now that I don't need it, I've discovered that I have way too many phone cords, splitters, and sundry plugs-n-jacks in the cellar. It's still too good to throw away, but I can't justify the clutter as easily. Time for a note to Freecycle, I think.
  

Poetry and punditry

You don't expect to get commentary about the future of local newspapers and a classic poem in the same bit o' writing. With John Carroll, however, you rarely get what you'd expect. The giveaway of the Telegram and Gazette as a part of a Boston Globe deal has something to do with the Wild West.

Next up, commentary on the state of the airline industry by way of Howl:

via http://sprayberry.tripod.com/poems/howl.txt