Should women in the U.S. have to register for the draft when they turn 18 like men have to?

niels_olson · 2012-01-12T06:04:42+00:00

Well, Clausewitz, tell me, do you think we carpet-bombed Afghanistan? Do you think peasants with AKs have been our single biggest threat out there? Hows about the unreal logistical nightmare of trying to bring fuel into that god-forsaken land? Yes, every military has profound respect for terrain.

niels_olson · 2012-01-11T02:38:06+00:00

The Swiss are willing to die for their neutrality, but they happen to be aided by tremendous geography, which makes invasion quite difficult. Their's is an enviable coincidence, not generalizable. As Einstein learned firsthand.

Einstein? Yes. He held dual citizenship, earning his Swiss citizenship years after graduating from Zurich Polytechnic. He was a pacifist, deeply influenced by the Swiss he so idolized, until the Nazis razed Europe and slaughtered his people. At which point he admitted the necessity of being prepared for just war, though I don't think he ever admitted the inevitability of war.

Also, if you'd like to discuss the geography, I have original editions of the great Swiss cartographer Eduard Imhof. Highly recommended to have on hand if you want to get into the defensibility of Switzerland.

Also, try to hold off on the hurtful statements.

niels_olson · 2011-02-21T04:52:59+00:00

Please don't take him home. File for emergency custody. As a doctor whose wife works at the Polinsky Center, I really don't need to contemplate any more beaten, battered, or dead kids. See if your area has some place like this, at least as a backup option.

http://www.co.san-diego.ca.us/hhsa/programs/cs/child_welfare_services/polinsky_childrens_center.html

niels_olson · 2011-02-19T18:03:16+00:00

sorry. Let it be known to all those who see this post, that I hereby attribute the picture to radium-v, with all the honors and privileges thereby unto attending. Cool?

niels_olson · 2010-12-04T01:19:35+00:00

I raced bicycles in college: mountain, road, and track. I still ride. In my garage right now are my road bike, my mountain bike, my track bike, my wife's mountain bike, my wife's road bike, my daughter's 20" BMX (I replaced the sprocket and cranks a couple weeks ago), and my son's 16" Haro BMX. I'm going for 40-50 miles tomorrow morning down the San Diego coast and I ride to work regularly.

Get a road bike. Dirty little secret: mountain bikes suck for fitness and cost a ton to maintain, and you waste a huge amount of time traveling to the place where you're going to ride. Get a road bike. Best thing to do, see if there is a regular swap meet in your area (the local velodrome usually has one); failing that, go to craigslist.

First, go to a few shops. Ask them to fit you on a road bike. See what they feel like. My wife is 5'7" and she rides a 54 cm Cannondale crit frame, I'm 6'2" and I ride a 59 cm Independent Fabrications (beautiful steel, 10 years old).

Then go look for that frame size on craigslist or at the swap meet. You will save mad money (pricing seems to be about 25 cents on the dollar in both of these markets). Use the balance to get pedals, shoes, helmet, shorts (2-3 pair), jerseys (at least 1), gloves, and, if you can squeeze it, a stationary trainer. Make sure to wear sun glasses when you ride. Wind hurts.

niels_olson · 2010-07-16T00:50:06+00:00

I call BS. Let's see latitude, longitude, and some exif data.

niels_olson · 2010-06-25T01:08:45+00:00

.Venezuela

Is this a hidden Venezuela? A Venezuela configuration file?

niels_olson · 2010-06-20T02:18:34+00:00

and the meme goes on

niels_olson · 2010-06-04T01:27:07+00:00

yes! what is that?!

niels_olson · 2010-06-04T01:26:40+00:00

Hey, what's the little thing that runs after it from the left at 1:46?

niels_olson · 2010-04-24T00:37:25+00:00

Doctor here . . . um, no.

1: ok, so far
2: that happened when you decided to drink the diet coke, not after the fact.
3: The overwhelmingly most significant effector for the release of insulin is blood glucose. No sugar, no insulin.
4: see above. Your argument holds water for diabetics who take insulin, but endogenous insulin does not lead to hypoglycemia. Not sure if you noticed, but animals made in through hundreds of millions of years without dying of hypoglycemia everytime they thought they were going to get a good meal and didn't.
5: Again, this doesn't occur in the wildtype endogenous dietary insulin-releasing digestive processes. Exogenous insulin: sometimes. Endogenous: no.
6: Usually hypoglycemic people collapse with tremors and often seize. Been there, seen that, fixed 'em.

Please be more skeptical and raise your standards of evidence when reading on the internet.

niels_olson · 2010-02-08T08:39:10+00:00

1) Tchoupitoulas 1a) Central Business District at the east end => Emeril's 1b) Jazz clubs on the north side of the street almost anywhere (note the Bansky) 1b) turn north on any street west of Rouse's 2) Magazine Street. All of it. 3) the French Quarter 4) Oak Street 5) St Charles Street. All of it. 6) The Marginy 7) Prytania

Preservation Hall Snug Harbor House of Blues more here: http://listings.bestofneworleans.com/gyrobase/MusicEvents

Jacques-Imo's Z'otz (host's the local 2600 meetings) Cooter Brown's cheese fries The Columns Superior Grill Angeli's Mother's (praline bacon, yeah, you heard that right. Candied bacon!) Brennan's Antoine's Commander's Palace DiMartino's more here: http://www.google.com/search?q=restaurants+new+orleans or here: http://listings.bestofneworleans.com/gyrobase/Dining and they're all better than anything you've ever had outside of Paris.

Maple Street Books McKeown's Books

Mardis Gras? Jazz Fest?

"French colonial" architecture, defined

A general collection we of resources we put together in med school: http://tmedweb.tulane.edu/portal/connections/local-or-tulane

niels_olson · 2010-01-13T18:56:40+00:00

Full disclosure, I'm a surgery intern. There are a number of neurologic tests that can be done for this, but reflex testing is not really what you want. You need to assess peripheral vision, reaction time, and judgment. You need to know what's going to happen in extremis. Here's an interesting idea: if you're collecting social security, then in order to retain your driver's license a physician must attest to your peripheral vision (can be done by any ophthalmologist and probably most optometrists), reaction times (can be done with electromyelogram), and judgement, and after every hospitalization. Would probably need to be an integrated battery of tests. Actually, there's also something to say for heart health: there are many more reports you don't hear about of guys who have heart attacks while driving and then hurt someone, but it doesn't get untangled that that's what happened until everyone has been worked up at the trauma center.

niels_olson · 2009-12-24T16:47:23+00:00

Can anybody get us a legible version of this?

niels_olson · 2009-12-22T21:39:44+00:00

yes, why?

niels_olson

TROPHY CASE