The best license plate on the road

Standing in line yesterday to renew my car registration (or "renew the tags" as I've always heard growing up) I spotted this gem of a license plate casually displayed with 30-or-so other specialty plates available for purchase.

I then decided that this is HANDS DOWN, *THE* MOST AMAZING LICENSE PLATE IN THE ENTIRE UNITED STATES.

After further research, The Wall Street Journal wrote a story in 2001 [note to self- why did it take you 8 years to find out about such a cool tag?!] about license plates across the US and briefly mentioned the "nuked veteran" tag:

"Alabama offers what has to be the single most bizarre plate on the road today, a tag that reads "Atomic Nuked Veteran." Those who would like to advertise this particular fact of their personal history must get a letter of verification from the Defense Nuclear Agency proving that they "were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation due to atomic bomb and weapons tested from 1946 to 1962."

Of note: Even though I think you should never, ever be given a traffic ticket if you are one of the few surviving people in this world with this plate, apparently you still have to follow all the rules. On top of that, you also have to pay a "...commemorative tag annual fee of $3.00 plus the normal tag and issuance fee and ad valorem taxes."

Couldn't someone have gotten that waived for these guys?!!?......

Unfortunately, The Answer Is "Yes..."

Let's Learn about Hemochromatosis!

I came across this fact while studying a few minutes ago and thought it was pretty cool. I knew about the disease already, but never knew about the airports!

"Hemochromatosis is a disease caused by the buildup of hemosiderin (iron) in the body.
In these patients, the Total Body Iron content may reach 50 grams.....enough to set off metal detectors at airports."

Here is a really good link to the CDC's page about Hemochromatosis. It's not too technical, and it has some good information about getting tested for the disease (it runs in families) and how it's treated (treatment is phlebotomy-- the same procedure as when you donate blood).

Figure to the Right: Some crazy sketch I found on Google Images that made me laugh a little..

Figure Below: The main events in the causation of Hemochromatosis

Studying Begins...

Today marks the beginning of my official studying for USMLE Step 1.
I thought I would kick things off for everyone with just one simple concept to memorize for the test. This will get you one....maybe two...answers on the entire 8-hour-long exam.
Click on the image to view it in all its glory so you can see every wonderful enzyme.
Study hard--there will be a pop quiz tomorrow!

Clowns Eating Lunch

I ate lunch at Children's Hospital today and had to snap a quick camera pic of two bright-pink clowns that sat nearby.

Eye movements in Autism

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that becomes appearant early in life. These children (and adults) struggle daily with this disorder's effects on social functioning, including language and communication, learning, and unusual behavioral patterns.
An interesting study focused on understanding some of the ways that autism affects a person's view of the world, and how that in turn can make social situations so dreadfully complicated for them.

Interpretation of social situations often requires your eyes to "scan" or search another person's face for clues to what that other person is thinking, saying, or feeling.

The figure below, taken from this study, shows the importance of understanding the manner in which the speakers are conversing, rather than just what the speakers are saying.
This is crucial to understanding social scenerios, and is the reason why people with autism have such a hard time in public.
Figure: Visual Focus of an Autistic Man (Red tracing) and a Normal Comparison Subject (Yellow tracing) when shown a film clip portraying a flirtatious exchange

From the Article: "The figure shows the visual
scanning paths of the two participants during this 7-
second shot. The data are shown collapsed onto one still
image. From the scanning pattern in this figure, the viewer
with autism (red path) seemed not to understand the inviting,
flirtatious nature of the interaction—or the impact
of these behaviors on Martha’s husband in the back, since
he did not once glance at the action in the background. In
contrast, the normal comparison viewer’s visual scanning
does track the important social clues."

Defining and Quantifying the Social Phenotype in Autism
Am J Psychiatry 159:6, June 2002

The Historical Perspective of the Spleen

The spleen was felt by the ancient Greeks and Romans to play a significant role in human physiology. Aristotle thought that the spleen was on the left side of the body as a counterweight to the right-sided liver.¹ He believed that the spleen was important in drawing off "residual humors" from the stomach. The spleen was also felt to "hinder a man's running," and Pliny reportedly claimed that "professed runners in the race that bee troubled with the splene, have a devise to burne and waste it with a hot yron [AKA they burned it away by jabbing themselves in their left flank with a hot iron] ."²
The exceptional speed of giraffes was felt to be related to the erroneous belief that giraffes were asplenic [without a spleen]. Early references to removal of the spleen to increase speed make it apparent that it has
long been known that the spleen is not absolutely necessary to sustain life.

[PS- A study in 1992 in rats confirmed that after their spleens were removed they could indeed run faster]

The Amazing Phone Ride

So I got to school this morning and realized that my new (AKA expensive) cell phone was no longer on my hip.
I had a feeling that it fell off this morning as I wiped Heather's windshield with a towel to remove the frost/dew so that she could see well on her drive to work (which is about an hour trip each way).
I left school and drove back home as fast as I could to try and find my phone before someone else would find it and become the proud new owner.

No luck. I searched everywhere in the parking lot. Multiple times.

I just knew it was gone for good. I caught Heather on Google Chat to tell her that I lost my phone.
After talking to me, she went out to the Faculty parking lot, looked at her car, and found my phone on her windshield wiper!

It survived an hour-long drive on the interstate without falling off.
Amazing.