I always enjoyed watching Norm work. His workmanship was, well, workman-like. I'm no pro, but I can follow a set of instructions, and occasionally I can design something serviceable, like my desk. But I enjoy nit-picking his technique, and I always thought he used nails too often.

This week's NEJM: Cerebral Cystic Echinococcosis A previously healthy 14-year-old boy who lived on a farm presented with a 1-month history of episodic headaches associated with vomiting. Physical examination was notable for papilledema. Magnetic resonance imaging of the head showed a multiloculated cyst measuring 6.0 cm by 6.2 cm by 5.8 cm in the right temporoparietal region of the brain (Panel A, sagittal view, T1-weighted) with a hypointense rim and small projections in T2 phase (Panel B, axial view, arrow), findings suggestive of cystic echinococcosis. Computed tomography of the body showed no other sites of disease. A craniotomy was performed to excise the cyst. Saline irrigation was used to separate the cyst wall from the brain to avoid rupture (Panel C and video). Histopathological examination revealed an echinococcal laminated membrane lined by a germinal layer with daughter cysts (Panel D, arrows) and protoscolices (inset, arrows) with hooklets (arrowhead). A diagnosis of primary cerebral cystic echinococcosis from Echinococcus granulosus was made. Echinococcal cysts — also called hydatid cysts — most commonly form in the liver. The infection is transmitted to humans through contact with infected livestock or canine feces, as was likely to have happened in this case. Symptoms evolve if the cysts exert a mass effect. A 3-month course of albendazole was prescribed at discharge. At the 2-week follow-up, the patient’s symptoms had resolved. [image: 1675519465640-image.jpeg] This case is the one with the video I posted earlier. "A previously healthy 14-year-old boy presented with episodic headaches associated with vomiting. Magnetic resonance imaging showed a multiloculated cyst in the right temporoparietal region of the brain. A craniotomy was performed, during which saline irrigation was used to separate the cyst wall from the brain to avoid rupture."

Draft is thin this year...

Thanks!

@Horace said in Going out at the bottom: @jon-nyc said in Going out at the bottom: @Copper said in Going out at the bottom: The KC record is unfortunate And the fault of his ill-advised “unretirement”. But for last year, he’d have winning or tying records against every other team, and an unbroken string of winning seasons as a starter. But no, he had to be told when to leave instead of leaving on top. Losers gonna lose. Only Jim Kelly has lost more Superbowls. Tom Brady has lost more games than Robert Griffin III, and he was a huge loser.

@Aqua-Letifer Duh, Sherlock.

Speaking of Coumadin... We had the most success with a Coumadin Clinic. We didn't use the ACT POCT test because of cost and accuracy. The clinic was ran by a pharmacist, adjusting dosages to reflect what the infernal med guys wanted. I'd skip his guys to the head of the phlebotomy line, so we could keep the clinic moving. We normally did about four patients/hr, sometimes more. Total clinic numbers for the day were 30-40. There were some patients that I don't know if we ever got right.

By the way, all those laid off tech workers get nice severance packages. 6 months pay at the low end from what I gather.

Still very funny, if a bit dated.

@Horace said in Who will the singularity eat first?: @Horace said in Who will the singularity eat first?: @Doctor-Phibes said in Who will the singularity eat first?: @Horace said in Who will the singularity eat first?: @Doctor-Phibes said in Who will the singularity eat first?: @Aqua-Letifer said in Who will the singularity eat first?: @Doctor-Phibes said in Who will the singularity eat first?: @Aqua-Letifer said in Who will the singularity eat first?: Are most people making money off of those online streaming chess games? Obviously not. People generally don't play chess for money, unless they're Magnus Carlson - even he doesn't play for money - his wealth is just a fortunate by-product of his ability. But some folk are. Hikaru Nakamura is undoubtedly making a lot more money from his streaming endeavours then he ever did as a top Grandmaster. And Danny Rensch wouldn't have made a red cent out of chess in the old days based on his playing strength, but is probably doing very nicely out of chess.com Yeah, my point was only that "there's a lot of activity" and "more popular than ever before" are very different things from "earning enough money on which to live." (Although yes, I'm glad the interest has gone up. I blame Queen's Gambit.) It's also worth noting that the amount of innovation that has been introduced to the game is significant - there have been a lot of ideas and new ways of looking at the game introduced by Alphazero that have been adopted by human players. Like new openings? Do the computers substantiate that the classic openings are the best? Not so much new openings, but new strategies - the engines really love pushing wing pawns on the king-side, which in the old days was considered too weakening, and a lot of grandmasters do this now as a matter of routine. I know it doesn't sound like much, but you see this a lot now. Twenty years ago this wouldn't really be seen. I'm not a good enough player to understand the details, but based on what I've seen the nature of play at the top has changed. That's interesting. I'm curious which opening is objectively the most advantageous? I assume white always wins if a perfect player is matched against a perfect player. or maybe it's always a stalemate. I mean there must be the theoretically perfect game out there, if computers have solved chess. I googled. I guess chess isn't actually solved to that extent and it's still unknown what perfect play on both sides would yield. That also means that the standard openings can't be evaluated completely. No, it's not solved. Computers don't play perfectly, and probably never will, they just play a lot better than people do. And actually, in some cases they still get it wrong, at least from a strategic perspective. Different engines will also find different moves, and have different positional assessments.

@Copper said in Does anybody know what time it really is?: It takes some patience People with true patience never care what time it is. All you have to do is wait, and eventually it's whatever time you want it to be.

The “urban” curves for China and India in 2018 don’t look all that far apart from the China/India curves in 2005. It’s like only the urban cities improved their incomes for these two very large nations. The USA curve may look less over-achieving if we also throw in the curves for Japan, Western Europe, and/or Australia. Don’t even want to think about what the curves would look like for the oil exporters not engulfed in wars, like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UEA, Kuwait, or Brunei.