rantlust

Posted by meerkat on September 22nd 2007 in Agriculture, Disease
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Just when I was all set for making more tomato dishes before the end of the season, looks like there is something else that is bringing an end to the tomato season, at least for my farmer, Nigel Walker of Eatwell Farm in Dixon.

According to the article in Sacramento Bee, Dixon in Solano county seems to be the ground zero for the Mediterranean fruit fly, which is a dreaded agricultural pest. In order to cease the movement of the fruit fly from the affected area, agriculture officials have placed a quarantine on certain produce within a 4.5 mile radius. This places Eatwell Farm within the quarantine, and they are not allowed to move any tree fruit, eggplant, tomatoes, or peppers off the farm. The potential cost to Eatwell Farm is about $8000 to $10000 for the next six weeks, until the summer produce runs out. Read my farmer’s blog for more insight.

An infestation by the fruit fly can make fruit inedible and cause it to drop too early from the tree. Supposedly, the fruit flies got a free ride from Hawaii in the bags of vacationers, who could not help bringing some mangoes back to California.

PS If the Sacramento bee asks for a login(damn!), try dontbugme/dontbugme as login/password.

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Posted by anupcs on May 22nd 2007 in Disease, Health & Fitness, Medicine
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I live in a nation full of hypochondriacs. And though I don’t consider myself one of them, I might start using a new web application called Who Is Sick?. This new “Beta” (are there any other kind of web apps these days?) site is for finding out who in your neighborhood has what. A sudden surge of the common cold in your neighborhood might tempt you to head for the mountains or take that vacation to Greece. In Who is Sick?, you can enter your own sickness(es) by zip code and you can search for the same. The results are displayed visually on a Google map for the chosen area.

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Posted by anupcs on May 11th 2007 in Disease, Medicine
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About a month ago, I “enjoyed” my first journey in an ambulance. The two fine looking paramedics ripped off my shirt and attached tubes all over my body to see if I was having a heart attack. After doing some preliminary tests (including EKG), and because I was talking and breathing normally despite the incredible pain in my chest area, they didn’t turn on the lights and were going with the normal traffic flow to the nearest ER. In that agonizingly long three mile journey, I learned a lot about heart attacks and chest pain in general.

The drama began while I was at work on a Monday afternoon when a sudden but intense pain started appearing near the chest. At first I thought it was heartburn and rushed to the nearest first aid kit to chow down a few antacids. Normally, this would have immediate effect but after fifteen minutes, the pain was still there and I realized that I might be having a heart attack. After finding out that the Stanford University hospital was the closest, I decided to drive myself there. I only reached the entrance to the company campus before I realized that I was in no shape to drive. I turned back and parked near the closest building and called my friend Vanessa who was in that building. She came down and called 911.
(Read more…)

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Posted by crewcut on November 20th 2006 in Disease, Statistics
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A final year MBA student from my alma mater committed suicide last week after having been diagnosed with Niemann-Pick Disease, a fatal genetic disease.

According to Wikipedia, the highest occurrence of NPD is in the Ashkenazi Jewish community, with an incidence of 1 in 40,000. Given this incidence and a test accuracy of 99.9%, the chance of actually having the disease, if tested positive, is just 2.4%. If the test accuracy fell to 99%, the chances drop to 0.25%.

Could this be a case of the test providing a False Positive?

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Posted by anupcs on October 04th 2006 in Disease, Travel
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The daily newspapers here in Kerala are fully of accounts of the spreading of a viral fever called Chikungunya. Every day, there are reports of new cases and fatalities from this weird sounding disease. Chikungunya is caused by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. It has symptoms similar to Dengue fever (Northern India is having a mini-outbreak of Dengue now). The disease is rarely fatal (except in those with weak immune systems such as the old or very young) but can cause debilitating joint pain. The pain can be so severe that it causes the body to sort of “bend” at the joints. The term comes from a Makonde language word meaning “that which bends up.”

The locals are quick to attribute any fever here as Chikungunya and be unnecessarily scared. The media has done a good job of exacerbating this. We are supposed to go for a houseboat tour starting from one of the districts most severely affected, Alleppey. Everyone is urging us to reconsider. There is no real cure for this disease. The symptoms last for 5-7 days and then die off. The disease is only transmitted though infected mosquitos and is not contagious from person to person. In today’s newspapers, there are also accounts of a few people getting infected with “rat fever.” What’s becoming of my home state?

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Posted by maria on April 14th 2006 in Disasters, Disease, Health & Fitness, Medicine, Rants
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Now that is the best idea ever! How can you possibly go wrong with that? Convenient, inexpensive, and you can do it in four easy steps.

I am particularly fond of the IKEA-like illustrated instructions with the guy just zapping his eyeball with the laser.

In fact, I think this should be a new trend: Do-it-yourself brain surgeries, heart transplants, quadruple bypasses are just around the corner (or in your basement).

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Posted by bab on March 16th 2006 in Disease, Health & Fitness
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The influenza pandemic of 1918 killed millions of people mostly young adults between the ages of 20 to 40. This was unusual because influenza usually kills the elderly and children. Even with the current bird flu, most cases have occurred in previously healthy children and young adults. With the fear of another influenza pandemic looming, is old gold at the moment ?

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