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I am not part of the cult of randomized clinical trials: For many questions they are often inappropriate, poorly designed or both. But when the clinical trial method is skilfully applied to the right question, the results should be taken seriously. As I describe on Stanford’s SCOPE blog, that’s why I have started wearing compression [...]
Archive for September, 2011
September 30th, 2011
Category: Popular Culture
They say ignorance is bliss…but bliss is not ignorance – it’s the opposite of that, which is knowledge. And there’s a lot of people who have fear. Basically I feel fortunate to have realised what the goal is in life. There’s no point in dying having gone through your life without knowing who you are [...]
September 29th, 2011
Category: Uncategorized
This new Michael Lewis piece is worth reading. It must be fun to go for a bicycle ride with Arnold. To my fellow worried home owners in California, let’s go back to basics. 1. We are an urban nation. 2. The key determinant of urban growth is attracting and retaining the skilled. 3. California has [...]
September 28th, 2011
Category: Sports
It’s hard to believe someone isn’t scripting this stuff. Tonight, the very last of the season, both wildcard slots were in play in four games. St. Louis blew off .346 Houston early. Boston was up against the worst team in its division, while Atlanta and Tampa Bay were facing the best teams in baseball. Obviously, [...]
September 28th, 2011
Not long after I arrived at Stanford, our medical center entered into a disastrous union with the UC-San Francisco’s health care system which ultimately poured tens and probably hundreds of millions of dollars down the drain. I could tell an enormously complicated story about why it didn’t work, bringing in issues of risk-pooling, local cultures [...]
September 27th, 2011
Category: Watching Conservatives
Should the MTA really be compelled to help her spread her racist message? That may be the law, but I don’t have to like it.
September 27th, 2011
Pamela Geller is an idiot and a bigot. And like all such, she has a clear First Amendment right to express her ideas in the New York subway.
September 27th, 2011
Category: Blogging
The creator of Binge Inking, a fine UK-based blog about addiction and recovery, has decided to end his blog. I will miss reading it, but also find something satisfying and admirable in a blogger making a clear decision and acting on it. Many blogs seem to just slowly peter out, as the blogger loses interest [...]