Concupiscent Curds

Medicine & love

Going into medicine is a lot like falling in love.  You never know if it's the right thing or not until it's too late.

~Curds Writer

You say tomatoes, I say diarrhea, cha cha cha!

The FDA says it's safe to go back in the water--er--it's okay to eat tomatoes again.

He can't bend the spoon with his mind, but neither could Uri.

Uri Geller, move over.  There's a new monkey in town.

From Scientific American August 2008

Neuroprosthetics took another step forward when University of Pittsburgh researchers got two rhesus macaques to feed themselves using mentally controlled robotic arms. The scientists connected a grid of 100 electrodes to neurons in the monkeys’ primary motor cortex. The grid picked up the neural activity and relayed it to a computer that controlled a nearby prosthetic arm. The monkeys succeeded in grabbing and eating fruit dangled in front of them 61 percent of the time, which, though lower than hoped, compares favorably to similar efforts in which monkeys (and humans) have moved objects in virtual environments [see “Controlling Robots with the Mind”; SciAm, October 2002]. Many challenges remain, however, before people can ever be fitted with mind-controlled limbs—the electrodes, for instance, must be made more durable and the gripping force of the prosthetics more variable. Grab onto these results in the May 29 Nature.
                                  —Nikhil Swaminathan

Life

Failure teaches us that life is just a [first] draft, a long rehearsal for a show that will never play. 

                                                                        ~From the 2001 French film "Amelie"

Don't be a dumbass

Measles has hit an eleven-year high.  Why?  Not all kids are getting their vaccines.

Be wise.  Immunize.  Your child's risk of measles, polio, rubella, mumps, pertussis, etc. is far greater than any risks associated with immunizations.  Decades of data backs up this statement.

Tartelette

Check this out: blueberry swirl vanilla ice cream recipe

....The only emperor is the emperor of ice cream.

Amelie

I give the 2001 movie "Amelie" 4.5 out of 5 stars. Here's why:

Released in 2001, this French film stars Audrey Tautou--whose eyes, I must say, are rivaled only by my C-'s--and it received an unwarranted "R" rating in the U.S. for an innocuous scene where Amelie is wondering how many couples are having orgasms in Paris at that very second. (Answer? According to Roger Ebert who apparently counted them: fifteen). But don't let this fool you.  Amelie is a superb movie and is not filled with sex and gratuitous violence--you know, the usual mainstay of American blockbuster films.

I take away one-half star from this beautifully-filmed movie--which makes me long for Paris more than I already do--because Amelie could have used at least fifteen minutes of trimming. However, if you find yourself alone this weekend, rent "Amelie." This lonely waif finds happiness in helping others. And you'll find a little bit of happiness yourself just by watching.

The Literate Gourmet

The Literate Gourmet Collection is "a trove of coveted recipes from some of history's greatest icons."  For example, there's Miles Davis's chili:  "'Shut up, look, and learn.' That's how Miles taught me to cook, says Frances Davis, the first of trumpet legend Miles Davis's three wives." 

There's also Andy Warhol's--what else?!--soup and Thomas Jefferson's ice cream recipe. 

Cool stuff.

Source:  Best Life Magazine online.

 

Now I know why I like watermelon so much

Eating watermelon may cause Viagra-like effects in men. Just like looking at Marissa Miller.

Say, huh?!

The American Academy of Pediatrics now recommends screening your two year-old for high cholesterol.  Yes, I typed that correctly, T-W-O!  It should be done no later than age 10 and should be done in children as young as two if there's a significant family history of hyperlipidemia or cardiovascular disease.

Safety Fourth

Have a happy Independence Day!  Drive safely.  Think safety at the pool.  (Didja know pools kill far, far more children in the U.S. than handguns?!  True dat.)  

Happy Independence Day America!

Washington bust by Jean Antoine Houdon. Courtesy of the Mt. Vernon Ladies' Assoc. From Amazon.com

For a great book on our nation's birth, I highly recommend David McCullough's 1776.  McCullough paints a picture of just how remarkable a man and leader George Washington was and how unlikely it was that the Colonies' defeated the mighty British

~

Here are some curious facts about George (Washington).  Also from Amazon.com: 

"1. The famous tale about Washington chopping down the cherry tree ("Father, I cannot tell a lie") is a complete fabrication.

2. George Washington never threw a silver dollar across the Potomac River--in fact, to do so from the shore of his Mount Vernon home would have been physically impossible.

3. George Washington did not wear wooden teeth. His poorly fitting false teeth were in fact made of cow's teeth, human teeth, and elephant ivory set in a lead base.

4. Early in his life, Washington was himself a slave owner. His opinions changed after he commanded a multiracial army in the Revolutionary War. He eventually came to recognize slavery as "a massive American anomaly."

5. In 1759, having resigned as Virginia's military commander to become a planter, Washington married Martha Dandridge Custis. Washington’s marriage to the colony's wealthiest widow dramatically changed his life, catapulting him into Virginia aristocracy.

6. Scholars have discredited suggestions that Washington's marriage to Martha lacked passion, as well as the provocative implications of the well-worn phrase "George Washington slept here."

7. Washington held his first public office when he was 17 years old, as surveyor of Culpeper County, Virginia.

8. At age 20, despite no prior military experience, Washington was appointed an adjutant in the Virginia militia, in which he oversaw several militia companies, and was assigned the rank of major.

9. As a Virginia aristocrat, Washington ordered all his coats, shirts, pants, and shoes from London. However, most likely due to the misleading instructions he gave his tailor, the suits almost never fit. Perhaps this is why he appears in an old military uniform in his 1772 portrait.

10. In 1751, during a trip to Barbados with his half-brother Lawrence, Washington was stricken with smallpox and permanently scarred. Fortunately, this early exposure made him immune to the disease that would wipe out colonial troops during the Revolutionary War."