For a nice Sunday, try Project Gutenberg

For a pleasant Sunday, try browsing in Project Gutenberg. The thing to do is to go to "Bookshelf" and browse the bookshelves by category. I've missed having an on-line Dewey decimal system, since that's how I browsed libraries. This, I think, is a good replacement. (When you download, pictures don't seem to be available in the ascii format. Maybe they're present in html?)

"Browse the bookshelves by category" must be a categorical imperative.

If you're like me and couldn't understand philosophy (I couldn't and Kant), you could try reading the authors in their native tongue. It couldn't be any more confusing.

Brad Evans

And you thought you had it rough...

I can't imagine anything harder than diving into ice cold water, no matter what you've got in, on, or around your skin. AND YOU THOUGHT YOU HAD IT ROUGH. Let's not hear complaining.

The photo is from Wikicommons.

Brad Evans

Obviously, the new shirts are out...

Liverpool's home shirt has an inner lining of a red and white checkerboard pattern, like Croatia's home kit, which has been compared to a table cloth.

Brad Evans

Kanoute to Spurs?

Rumor is that Freddie Kanoute may return to Spurs. If he does, would he wear their shirt? For Seville, he refused, for religious reasons, to wear a shirt advertising gambling.

Brad Evans

Shirt sponsorships in Europe

Aston Villa and Barcelona have "given" their shirt sponsorships away to charities. This is worth $4-5 million annually. They get good guy awards.

Brad Evans

Employees' ESOP at Fannie/Freddie now 15% of what it was

No surprise I guess. Don't keep your retirement money at your own company!

Brad Evans

Author of Holocaust hoax wants to keep money

The woman who wrote she fled from Nazis and was raised by wolves lied. Now she and her co-author want to keep the book proceeds. I'm putting this in the humor section, but it's not humorous, just funny.

Brad Evans

Russia threatens to cut oil supply

"Russia may cut off oil flow to the West." I think the threat is worse than Russia actually cutting supplies.

Brad Evans

Tetrabenazine approved for Huntington's

Tetrabenazine, available for decades in Europe, has been approved by the FDA for treatment of Huntington's disease. Tetrabenazine is symptomatic treatment of the chorea; it is not expected to alter the disease course.

Brad Evans

Epilepsy and Drowning

People with epilepsy have a 15-20X increased risk of drowning. They should shower, not bathe, and they should be under direct observation while swimming.

Brad Evans

Medicare rates hospital quality

Medicare is providing information on quality of care for individual hospitals. I have high deductible insurance, so, what I want is price information on common hospital charges, like the emergency room.

Brad Evans

Arsenic poisoning and l'affaire Lafarge

The story of Marie and Charles Lafarge. Did she kill him by poisoning him with arsenic?

Brad Evans

Razadyne (galantamine)

Razadyne (galantamine) may be out as a generic soon. My question is: does this mean that prices for other medicines in the same category will decrease?

Brad Evans

The artist Arthur Szyk and Nazism - 1942

Put the name Arthur Szyk up as a person who, early on, recognized Nazism for what it was.

Brad Evans

Cialis: I think I don't remember...

Some men, after taking Cialis, develop transient global amnesia.

Brad Evans

Tysabri and PML

Tysabri is a monoclonal antibody used to prevent attacks in patients with multiple sclerosis. It binds to white blood cells and prevents them from entering the nervous system. For MS, it seems to a strong medicine, as strong or perhaps stronger than other available immune modulating agents. The concern is that, by preventing white cells from entering the nervous system, Tysabri might predispose to certain rare brain infections, such as progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML).

That fear was stoked by the findings in studies that, of patients who received Tysabri and other immune suppressing agents, the risk of PML was about 1/1000 for the 1st two years of treatment. Now, there is a report that two patients receiving Tysabri alone developed PML, a risk of about 1/10000 in the 1st year of taking the drug.

Brad Evans

Azilect slows Parkinson's disease?

The pharmaceutical companies Teva and Lundbeck are reporting that the "ADAGIO" study shows that rasagiline (Azilect) slows Parkinson's disease. The study used a "delayed start" methodology which is a fairly new study design. So far, I've not seen their data. The questions will be: does it really slow Parkinson's? if so, by how much?

Rasagiline improves Parkinson symptoms by inhibiting the breakdown of dopamine by the enzyme MAO-B. A major concern is that rasagiline might also inhibit MAO-A and thereby predispose patients to the MAO syndrome. This means that there may be significant drug interactions with the drug. So far, fluoxetine (Prozac), propoxyphene (Darvon and others), the quinolone antibiotic Cipro, tramadol (Ultram), methadone, and Demerol look to be the worst medicines to use in combination with rasagiline.

The concern about drug interactions is made more serious because patients may get admitted to hospital and inadvertantly be administered an interacting medicine, which would produce the MAO syndrome that could lead to death.

Brad Evans

Coupons for Online Shopping

Coupons for online shopping here.

Brad Evans

Learn Languages for Free

Learn languages for free at the BBC.

Brad Evans

Freebies

Freebies from Kiplinger, via Lifehacker.

Brad Evans

Manchester City is in financial trouble

Former owners are lending money to keep it afloat.

Thaksin Shinawatra, main owner, may be on his way out.

Brad Evans

Bank Changes Password Without User OK

Why would this guy keep his account at Lloyd's if he didn't like the service? If Barclay's is better, why not switch to them? Think how good Lloyd's customer management is, to keep an unhappy customer using their service.

Brad Evans

Cheese

Cheeses of France. Quelle fromage!

Brad Evans