Stuff we're reading / watching / listening to

[Whistler]

yes probably in my top 5 favorite professors. Not that I'm keeping a list

[yayfulness]

He's definitely the most quotable professor I've ever had. And I'm particularly grateful to him for having introduced me to musical minimalism as well.

[Yog in Neverland]

I took Music 202 with Johnson. I know everyone complains about him, but it was one of the most challenging, interesting growth experiences I have ever had. And the man knows music. The man knows music inside and out and makes you learn it inside and out, too. Definitely not as quotable or as Australian as Howard, but so genius.

[Katya]

TDKR

[Whistler]

I started making a visual novel in Ren'Py. It's a pretty easy-to-use game engine that uses Python? Well, some parts are easy to use. I can't for the life of me figure out how to put in a background image in my main menu, but whatever.

[Digit]

Interesting article by Dr. Sanjay Gupta about medical mistakes.

I will never forget when one of our most talented surgeons operated on the wrong side of someone's brain. The patient was bleeding internally; everyone was rushing, and someone had hung up the CT scans backward. Thankfully, the patient survived. The distraught doctor spent hours throwing up after the operation.

I would suggest that they always print a circle on the lower left corner of the scan sheets, so if the circle is on the right, you know the sheet's hung up wrong. Or always on the right; whatever. Then get everyone in the habit of checking the dot before looking at the scan. Even if errors like this only happen once every 100,000 times, not operating on the wrong side of one's brain is worth the cost of printing a dot on each sheet and forcing the habit of looking for the dot into people's heads.

[Yarjka]

Has anyone else taken Music 202 with Dr. Howard? Definitely one of the best classes ever.

201 & 202. I also took his special Classical Music and Popular Culture course (Whistler was there too).

Dr. Howard is my favorite BYU professor.

[Katya]

I will never forget when one of our most talented surgeons operated on the wrong side of someone's brain. The patient was bleeding internally; everyone was rushing, and someone had hung up the CT scans backward. Thankfully, the patient survived. The distraught doctor spent hours throwing up after the operation.

That's intense.

[Katya]

Finished Maphead. It was really fun. Everyone go read it.

[Whistler]

I'm so sad to read about Jonah Lehrer resigning from The New Yorker http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2 ... -his-book/

[Portia]

I'm so sad to read about Jonah Lehrer resigning from The New Yorker http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2 ... -his-book/

I was tempted to buy his Imagine from B&N yesterday, like it was a banned book that we'd all be reading in attics 50 years hence.

[Zedability]

The Violinist's Thumb isn't nearly as entertaining as The Disappearing Spoon, and I'm disappointed.

[Katya]

The Violinist's Thumb isn't nearly as entertaining as The Disappearing Spoon, and I'm disappointed.

His undergraduate degree in physics probably helped when writing The Disappearing Spoon.

I thought NPR had an interesting observation with regard to Lehrer (and it also applies a bit to Sam Kean):

"You know, I do think in some level this is the predictable outcome of expecting a young journalist to be the next Oliver Sacks," says literary agent Scott Mendel. Sacks spent decades as a practicing neurologist and psychologist, Mendel says, but Lehrer benefited too quickly from a system that likes its stars.

Being a reporter is not the same thing as being an expert. It takes decades to become an expert in an area, and you shouldn't be trying to write books that require expertise if you don't have it.

[Yarjka]

The Violinist's Thumb isn't nearly as entertaining as The Disappearing Spoon, and I'm disappointed.

I just started it today at lunch, but so far I'm interested.

[Whistler]

yeah, although his mistake was more with journalistic integrity than like getting some neuroscience wrong.

[Zedability]

The Violinist's Thumb isn't nearly as entertaining as The Disappearing Spoon, and I'm disappointed.

I just started it today at lunch, but so far I'm interested.

It's not bad, I'd probably even think it was good if his other book hadn't set such a high bar.

[Katya]

yeah, although his mistake was more with journalistic integrity than like getting some neuroscience wrong.

Right, but maybe he made that choice because he had too much pressure to be a star?

[Digit]

Very disconcerting medical mystery. What kind of allergic reaction could reprogram a huge proportion of, if not all, hair follicle cells to change from expressing the DNA for hairs to expressing that for fingernails? The link is to a video of a young lady who, after having an allergic reaction to steroids prescribed to her, started to have hard, fingernail material coming out of the hair follicles in her skin. To add insult to injury, if the medical stress of the problem weren't enough, her insurance is copping out, leaving her over $250,000 in the hole. Sometimes I'm ashamed of humans.

[Zedability]

That is so bizarre. Hair and fingernails are both made of keratin, right? It's probably just a switch on a couple of genes, or maybe a section of DNA got deleted. I see the connection, but...wow. That's unfortunate.

Also, soapbox, this is why the privatized insurance system is awful. She CLEARLY has a medical condition, and they're not treating her???? What the heck??????

[mic0]

Digit, that is SO WEIRD. Just... SO WEIRD. Poor woman!