Week of July 17, 2023
Last weekend, my wife and I visited Berkley Springs, West Virginia - a glimpse into our impending transition from family vacations to child-free middle-aged getaways. The warm springs, live music events, U-pick farms, and antique malls (selling toys and books of our childhood) tacitly showed us life in a demographic of empty nesters. I uncovered several gaps in my knowledge - like "When is denim appropriate for upscale vacation-casual dinners for two?" and "Calculating the time-value of U-pick berry farm work without kids." While we still have a year until child #2 leaves home, I have much to learn.
I should have guessed there is a body of academic work on the customs and practices of recreating childless middle-aged adults.
https://study.com/academy/lesson/cultural-differences-in-middle-adulthood.html
and
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9377163/
and
---
Hospitalization rates are still trending down, per The N.Y. Times COVID Tracker. Remember, these data are based only on CDC-gathered hospital data as a surrogate (lagging) indicator.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/us/covid-cases.html
Wastewater data demonstrates increasing quantities of coronavirus mRNA in ALL regions of the U.S. Wastewater monitoring is more of a LEADING indicator.
------
COVID articles
The San Francisco Chronicle highlights the problem of monitoring COVID surges in a post-PHE (public health emergency) world - "Is California's COVID calm coming to an end? Here's what the numbers show
Declines in hospitalizations and ICU admissions have leveled off while the test positivity rate is rising."
https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/numbers-show-california-s-period-covid-calm-18201207.php
Dr. Bob Wachter, UCSF chairman of Medicine, had his first COVID infection last week and experienced a complication (he blacked out in the shower), which resulted in facial injuries. He shared his story in detail, including a good description of the mechanisms of injury older adults when experiencing illness.
and update
https://twitter.com/Bob_Wachter/status/1680673564620640257
MIT Technology Review published a good "State of the Pandemic" article this week:
Medical Trends and Technology
Several recent articles discuss the excess work that patient-to-physician messaging places on clinician time. Some hospitals charge patients for asking complex or lengthy questions via tools like Epic's MyChart.
https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2023-02-10/emailing-your-doctor-could-soon-cost-you
and
STAT News (firewalled)
https://www.statnews.com/2023/07/13/hospitals-patient-portal-message-bills-insurance/
Epic (the electronic health vendor) is now piloting A.I.-driven responses to ease the burden of patient messages.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/27/openai-powered-app-from-microsoft-is-coming-to-epic-systems.html
What qualifies as a genetically modified organism (GMO)?
Is there a difference between lab-based genetic engineering and selective cross-breeding? At the most basic definition, the former can speed up and optimizes the work of the latter, conventional breeding practices. Seedless watermelons opened this rabbit hole for me, and the more I read, the less I understand the terms "GMO and non-GMO."
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/genetically-modified-organisms/
and
https://www.scienceworld.ca/stories/how-do-seedless-watermelons-get-way/
https://cosmosmagazine.com/earth/secret-life-of-watermelons/
and
The National Watermelon Promotion Board has some strong opinions about whether or not seedless watermelon is a GMO.
https://www.watermelon.org/the-slice/where-does-seedless-watermelon-come-from/
They also have a fantastic education section featuring J. Slice, the skateboarding and surfing watermelon character, helping kids understand the importance of a healthy (watermelon-filled?) diet.
https://www.watermelon.org/audiences/educators/j-slice-healthy-eating-tips/
Infographics
Oh, oh, the data on Ozempic
Look at the slopes on these graphs.
https://read.chartr.co/newsletters/2023/7/16/the-rise-of-ozempic
Things I learned this week
During our Berkley Springs visit, I learned it is the oldest spa in the United States, with a natural mineral spring that comes out of the mountain at 73°F. George Washington frequented the natural springs "for the healing properties" (whatever that means). The walking path along the springs has a cut-out area labeled "George Washington's bathtub." Sadly, it is a replica - an example of the numerous small trenches dug into the ground where people bathed.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/george-washingtons-bathtub
I found myself pondering several questions: When were bathing suits invented? Did people swim naked before then? Did George Washington bathe naked outside, right here? (It's good that 18th-century paparazzi didn't have cameras.) Here is what I learned:
The Romans had bikinis.
Bating naked or with loin clothes was the way to go (for Men) after Rome, but before the 1800s, more or less.
https://blog.myswimpro.com/2023/05/23/this-is-what-swimsuits-looked-like-300-years-ago/
And the bathing suit has evolved from then till now:
https://artsandculture.google.com/story/the-radical-history-of-the-swimsuit/CwWRYuCmuuxYLg?hl=en
Related - the history of underwear. Even more interesting?
https://art2130araceligarcia.wordpress.com/2016/11/07/mens-underwear-1700-1870/
The South American waxy monkey tree frog (Phyllomedusa Sauvagii ) not only secrets a natural sunscreen, but those same secretions contain Dermorphin - a natural opioid that, when synthetically produced, is (amongst other things) a doping agent in the horse racing industry. In the future, when consumer gene editing allows us to genetically hack our bodies, acquiring the ability to sweat heroin-laced sunscreen seems like a fascinating "upgrade" to consider.
and
Wax-on! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce8a5bFQexA
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dermorphin
Living with A.I.
If you read nothing else this week, I strongly encourage you to look at Dr. Eric Topol's fantastic roundup of A.I. tools in healthcare:
https://erictopol.substack.com/p/medical-ai-is-on-a-tear
and
https://erictopol.substack.com/p/medical-ai-is-on-a-tear-part-two
Deepfakes are on the collective mind of the internet this week.
An anxiety-provoking Deutsche Telekom commercial warns viewers about the potential uses of internet-shared photos and videos.
Listen to Frank Sinatra singing Gangster's Paradise
https://twitter.com/LinusEkenstam/status/1680318074778447872
and how did they do that?
https://www.youtube.com/@LaceEditing
A.I. gaming engines do more than gaming. MIT Technology review illustrates how fundamental aspects of programming can be (surprisingly) optimized. In this case, Google's Deep Mind (the A.I. engine) found faster ways to sort information, which works for games like chess and Go, cryptography, and many other mundane applications by optimizing the assembly source code.
A.I. art of the week
A photo of a South American waxy monkey tree frog wearing a men's vintage horizontal-stripe bathing suit (tank-top style), smoking a cigar, wearing a straw hat, floating in the ocean, and typing on a laptop - black and white 3200 ISO film.
Clean hands and sharp minds,
Adam
Comments
Post a Comment