Webcomic – from a while ago…

From the most awesome questionablecontent.net:

Doctors Doctors EVERYWHERE

Sometimes it’s really annoying being around MD’s all the time. It gives me great pleasure torturing them by withholding computer advice/services. Being married to a physician means there is a perspective on the medical field that others may not have. Here’s a fact – they are often WRONG. Not to say that they don’t know what they’re doing, but rather, medicine is as much an art as a science. Also, it’s easier to eliminate what you DON’T have than to determine what you DO have. It’s a very expensive process of elimination.

I remember listening to a very good friend of mine who’s an interventional radiologist (radiologists that perform procedures rather than just interpret film) and he described a procedure where one blindly goes into the liver to find the blockage. Not fun. I have a orthopedic surgeon friend who did a double knee replacement on a patient and the patient died. Apparently, it’s not a good idea to do two knee replacements at the same time.

It goes on. If you really want to piss your doctor off, just say, “But Jenny McCarthy says so!” They love that shit. And speaking of shit, when did the discipline of proctology become GI? I have a friend who’s a pediatric GI doc and all he does are colonoscopies and flex sigs. Sounds proctological to me… and don’t get me started on colposcopies. I have never seen more unappealing pictures than a diseased cervix. Ugh. Unless it’s Jocelyn Wildenstein.

So this morning, I was thinking of our close friends and tried to think of all the disciplines in medicine that they practiced in. We have neurologists, nephrologists, endocrinologists, sports medicine docs, internists, orthopods, cardiologists, hospitalists, dermatologists, allergists, ER docs, family medicine docs, psychiatrists, radiologists and surgeons (both plastic and general). Oh and GI docs. But no proctologists. And the one consistent thing about all our friends, they and most physicians REALLY do care about your health. You don’t see the arguing with insurance companies to get you approval for that test, or the mounds of paperwork required to be reimbursed $0.30 on the dollar for their services. They don’t like failure and they beat themselves up over their mistakes. You all don’t see that. Understand that when you’re being chastised or lectured to, or tests are being ordered for you, it’s being done by your advocate.

Take ownership of your health and see the physician as an partner helping you feel the best you can be.

Since it’s Lent and all….

From thisisindexed.com:

Plea Bargain

Figure Skating is NOT a Sport

Before I begin, I want to emphasize that I believe that figure skaters are talented, hard-working ATHLETES. That being said, any event that requires its competitors to wear sequins IS NOT A SPORT. Look, I know it’s the most popular event in the Winter Olympics. I understand that there are years of work put into the perfection of the routines; however, it is a spectacle rather than a sport.

I believe that circus performers work at their craft for years. They entertain the masses with their incredible feats of athleticism in the circus (check out any Cirque de Soleil production and you will be amazed at the capacity of humans to perform marvelous feats.

Look, ballet dancers are amazing physical specimens who have grace and beauty in their movements. I would posit that ballet has more in common with figure skating than the biathlon, cross-country skiing or short track speed skating.

Wow. Just, wow.

Bought from Fredericks of Hollywood

#FAIL

It seems to me that the crux of the matter is the definition of sport. So I went to Wolfram|Alpha and put in “sport” and came up with this:

an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition.

Hmm. By that definition, apparently figure skating IS a sport. So is Ballroom Dancing. And Paintball. But apparently diving, which requires gravity to do all the work, ISN’T a sport.

Anyways, by my definition, which is SOLELY my definition, sport must encompass the following things:

1. Uniforms are required. Not feather boas, not sequins, not taffeta.
2. Subjective scoring is not acceptable for winning, the winner must be determined objectively.
3. Claude Debussy’s “Claire de Lune” cannot be used as a part of the competition.
4. When done with the Olympics, the next step to “becoming pro” does not entail you skating with large stuffed mascots in the Ice Capades or Disney on Ice.
5. You, your sport and Liberace should never be mentioned in the same sentence

I will continue to watch the grace and beauty of figure skating but please don’t tell me that figure skating and downhill skiing should be mentioned in the same breath. Unless of course Debussy is playing…

Webcomic for the day

From xkcd.com and the warped mind of Randall Munro:

I’ll be posting all about my Valentine’s Day misadventures tomorrow. Tonight I am seeing The Musical Box doing “Trick of the Tail” concert tour (which was the first Genesis tour I ever saw. Excited!)

Pie Chart

True.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 License.

From Laszlo Thoth

HTML5 is coming, HTML5 is coming! (nerd alert)

HTML5 Structure

From eWeek.com:

The HTML5 specification defines the fifth major revision of the core language of the World Wide Web: the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), also known as the lingua franca of the Web. The Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) started work on the HTML5 specification under the name Web Applications 1.0. As of October 2009, the specification is in the “Last Call” state at the WHATWG.

The HTML5 specification is not expected to be finalized until 2022, although work on the spec began in the mid-2000s. HTML4 was published in 1999.

Ian Hickson, editor of the HTML5 specification, said he expects the specification to reach the W3C Candidate Recommendation stage during 2012 and W3C Recommendation in 2022. However, many parts of the specification are stable and may be implemented in products now. According to Hickson, the timeline for delivery of the HTML5 specification is:

• First W3C Working Draft in October 2007
• Last Call Working Draft in October 2009
• Call for contributions for the test suite in 2011
• Candidate Recommendation in 2012
• First draft of test suite in 2012
• Second draft of test suite in 2015
• Final version of test suite in 2019
• Reissued Last Call Working Draft in 2020
• Proposed Recommendation in 2022

Also, HTML5 replaces HTML4, DOM2 HTML and XHTML 1. In addition to specifying markup, HTML5 specifies scripting application programming interfaces (APIs). There are also new APIs, such as:

• The canvas tag for immediate mode 2D drawing
• Timed media playback
• Offline storage database
• Document editing
• Drag-and-drop
• Cross-document messaging
• Browser history management
• MIME type and protocol handler registration

HTML5 aims to reduce the need for proprietary plug-in-based rich Internet application (RIA) technologies such as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight and Sun JavaFX, though it would take many years to do so. HTML4 did not allow the embedding or control of multimedia content, whereas HTML5’s new audio and video elements enable developers to embed and control multimedia content without Flash. [This will help mitigate vulnerabilities in 3rd party add-ons, such as Flash, that lead to vectors for malware infection]

HTML5’s local storage capability enables users to work in a browser when a connection drops, and the Web Workers technology makes applications responsive by pushing long-running tasks to the background. All the major browser vendors—Mozilla, Opera, Microsoft, Apple and Google—are involved in shaping the HTML5 spec and are implementing support for it, despite the spec not being finalized. [Opera leads the pack in terms of optimizing and using HTML5 technologies.] HTML5’s Web Sockets API enables two-way communication with a server so developers can implement games, chatting, remote controls and more.

[Of course, Microsoft is behind all the other browsers in updating to support the new technologies, but they have] begun implementing parts of HTML5 in Internet Explorer 8. The software giant is adding such HTML5 features as local storage, AJAX navigation and mutable DOM prototypes.

[In short, ]HTML5 delivers: a new, sensible tagging strategy; localized databases; rich animations without plug-ins; and real apps in the browser, among other things.

It’s a Dalek Christmas

For all you Dr. Who fans – and you know who you are – my tweep, Tricia Adams (@trish1981 – FOLLOW HER, NOW) found this on the interwebz. This would be the pride and joy (esp if you have a red phone booth and a long ass scarf lying around) of any Dr. Who fan. Best thing is IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE CHRISTMAS for you to set it in your house!

Brilliant, just brilliant.

EXTERMINATE!

What is real? Webcomic

From Sinfest: The Webcomic to end all webcomics: