Happy Birthday Morphine!

Apparently Morphine turned 200 yesterday. I forgot and didn't buy a present.

Kelly did not forget and collected some anecdotes in honor of morphine's birthday.

I'll send a card later.

Tangled Bank

Tangled Bank for the week is up at the Chronicles of a Medical Mad House. The Tangled Bank has evolved over the year to include medicine and topics closely related to science. If you read my blog you've read my entry already, but check out the others!

Blogging when people you know read your blog

Just read a post from an article about tips for bloggers (from the Right Wing News) Last on his list...

25) Given that there are plenty of people who've been fired or disciplined at work either for blogging on the job or for something they said on their blog, the fewer people at your job who know about your blog, the better.

I know at least 2 people at work know of my blog... should it affect how I blog... probably not. Does it... probably. I not only have to worry about getting fired. I have to worry about being sued and patient confidentiality. I don't blog at work.

Coincidentally... a friend of mine who has an incredibly insightful blog (and she didn't want to tell me about it -- I haven't linked to her at her request) said yesterday.

Even now, I am concious of what I write because of those who know about it or have ever visited it that may know me.

I think it affects what I write as well. One of the comments from the first article said it best.

Blog because you want to, ...It's the passion that readers will respond to.

Blog on.

Happy Mothers day

Happy Mom's Day. Thanks for everything.

Thanks to all the moms out there.

Vomiting Ferrets?

Fidgett the ferret (maybe it's Waffles the ferret... i don't know them so I can't tell) from ToyKeeper.net. Images used without permision

Today while hanging out with some of my smart friends, I learned randomly that ferrets apparently are used in lot of research for nausea and vomitting. I thought this to be rather strange. I also began to have images of a cage some where with liitle piles of ferret vomit in the corners.

I began also to wonder why this is. So I went to our friend the internet...

Most animal research on nausea is performed on ferrets, apparently one step up the evolutionary tree from rodents, which do not vomit.

-- From Palliative Care Perspectives, James L. Hallenbeck, M.D.