I knew I wasn’t drinking it for the taste:

Coffee buzz: Java drinkers live longer, big study finds; regular and decaf are equally goodBy Associated Press, Published: May 16MILWAUKEE — One of life’s simple pleasures just got a little sweeter. After years of waffling research on coffee and health, even some fear that java might raise the risk of heart disease, a big study finds the opposite: Coffee drinkers are a little more likely to live longer. Regular or decaf doesn’t matter.The study of 400,000 people is the largest ever done on the issue, and the results should reassure any coffee lovers who think it’s a guilty pleasure that may do harm.“Our study suggests that’s really not the case,” said lead researcher Neal Freedman of the National Cancer Institute. “There may actually be a modest benefit of coffee drinking.”

via Coffee buzz: Java drinkers live longer, big study finds; regular and decaf are equally good – The Washington Post.

Now, how long until I can take it off on my taxes…

Frankly, I’d wee on Superman’s Cape before I stole a Troopers’ car:

CISCO — A 40-year-old Fort Worth man was in the Eastland County jail Thursday, accused of briefly stealing a state troopers patrol car. The car was wrecked after officers shot the tires, authorities reported.

via Fort Worth man arrested in theft of DPS patrol car | Crime and Safety | News from Fort W….

This won’t end well.

It’s been out for a while, and I just realized I hadn’t linked it here.

The increasingly entertaining ZDoggMD.com!

Enjoy!

Keep us in the ED here in your thoughts this weekend, as our area, along with Mother Nature and some unfortunate timing are conspiring to build the Perfect Storm for ED saturation.

Here in Fort Worth we will have the following:

• The two largest nearby hospitals are going to new EMR’s this weekend
• Cinco de Mayo
• Mayfest (traditional bringer of atrocious storms)
• and a Perigee Full Moon (Super Moon)

So, if we’re not seen for a while you’ll know where to find us. Under the people tsunami in the ED.

Sent in by my eldest (not her accident, just a witness to the aftermath):

Find the Sign

No prizes. Void where prohibited.

I think that was a WWII title for a series of propaganda trailers. (Maybe not).

Mohammad Ashan, a mid-level Taliban commander in Paktika province, strolled toward a police checkpoint in the district of Sar Howza with a wanted poster bearing his own face. He demanded the finder’s fee referenced on the poster: $100.

via Taliban commander turns self in… for reward on ‘Wanted’ poster – BlogPost – The Washington Post.

Yep. Saw his own visage, turned himself in for the reward.

As usual, the Government stiffed him.

I watched those debates. Wish ‘d thought to take a pain killer, too.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry was under the influence of painkillers during televised presidential debates over the last year to help relieve severe back pain, according to a soon-to-be released eBook on the 2012 Republican race for president obtained by The Daily Caller.“It became an open secret that he was using painkillers in sufficient dosages to keep him standing through the two-hour debates,” write the authors of “Inside the Circus.”

via Rick Perry | Painkillers | Inside the Circus | The Daily Caller.

We got about 4 inches of rain a few weeks ago, which must have been perfect timing for the bluebonnets (State Flower of Texas, by the way). They exploded, and they’re beautiful.

Here’s a pic from today (and this is just a convenience photo, there are much more dense collections around, but I was cycling and trying not to croak during the ride):

The red flowers, by the way, are still bluebonnets, but they’re called maroon bluebonnets. There, you learned something today.

Wind Map.

Go there, and refresh it from time to time. It’s a very nicely done and immediately intuitive measure of winds on the Continental US.

A way to improve the Visual Analog Scale…

In a innovative project to improve on our management of mild to moderate pain in the emergency department, and to provide alternate therapy modalities (particularly in response to potential analgesic sourcing issues following the recent multi-drug shortages from pharmaceutical companies), we are trialling these new happy traction kits.

via Happy Traction. ».

…to add a ‘follow me on Twitter’ button to this site?

I think the answer is either I’m losing it, or I’ve lost it.

Via a good local blog Fort Worthology,  a video by Erik Clapp.

Worth watching, very cool. ABout the time I was ready to say, ‘yeah, if I had a slowmo camera I could do that, too, the pictures start to pan. Nice….

Shoot the Lights Out from Erik Clapp on Vimeo.

The music’s not for me, but it’s fun to watch.

A fisking of a grossly awful article.

(Reuters) – Anti-government extremists opposed to taxes and regulations pose a growing threat to local law enforcement officers in the United States, the FBI warned on Monday.

These extremists, sometimes known as “sovereign citizens,” believe they can live outside any type of government authority, FBI agents said at a news conference.

Well, no! Nobody’s above the law (unless they’re elected).

The extremists may refuse to pay taxes, defy government environmental regulations and believe the United States went bankrupt by going off the gold standard.

Wait, defy environmental regs? Like not exactly calculating the amount of fertilizer per hectare to put on their lawn? I can see how that’s an FBI concern.

Routine encounters with police can turn violent “at the drop of a hat,” said Stuart McArthur, deputy assistant director in the FBI’s counterterrorism division.

“We thought it was important to increase the visibility of the threat with state and local law enforcement,” he said.

In May 2010, two West Memphis, Arkansas, police officers were shot and killed in an argument that developed after they pulled over a “sovereign citizen” in traffic.

That’s awful. Dangerous nutjobs are everywhere. Were Police not aware of that already? This needs FBI intervention?

Last year, an extremist in Texas opened fire on a police officer during a traffic stop. The officer was not hit.

An officer shot at but not hit. Terrifically bad for that officer, but this isn’t evidence of a tsunami of lawlessness. It’s one dirtbag who (fortunately) can’t shoot. I hope the Officer ended him (there’s no information in the article about that).

Legal convictions of such extremists, mostly for white-collar crimes such as fraud, have increased from 10 in 2009 to 18 each in 2010 and 2011, FBI agents said.

Wha? These are White Collar goofballs? So these (scarequotes) ‘sovereign citizens’ are lawyers and accountants and doctors and such? That would explain their not being good shots, but none of the rest of the story.

And, an INCREASE from TEN to (hold your breath) EIGHTEEN in twelve months? It’s a tsunami of lawlessness! Now I see why the FBI is in on this.

“We are being inundated right now with requests for training from state and local law enforcement on sovereign-related matters,” said Casey Carty, an FBI supervisory special agent.

FBI agents said they do not have a tally of people who consider themselves “sovereign citizens.”

So far you’ve described two dangerous morons and 28 non dangerous idiots. One killed two cops, and here’s for his dying in prison, dunno about the other ones. So, 30. 30 of these ‘sovereign citizens’ in a citizenry of about 300 Million. It should be easy to make a tally of them. Just sayin’.

J.J. MacNab, a former tax and insurance expert who is an analyst covering the sovereign movement, has estimated that it has about 100,000 members.

Sovereign members often express particular outrage at tax collection, putting Internal Revenue Service employees at risk.

Let’s give then that 30 of 100,000 are bad people. 3/100k= .0003 which means a 0.03% risk from these people.

via FBI warns of threat from anti-government extremists | Reuters.

Okay, I have family in Law Enforcement. I’m not Anti Law.

This doesn’t mean this alleged group (which they cannot even describe in a way to identify anyone in it) is a danger more than the general population.

Reuters fail. Weird there’s time spent putting this out.

It’s only on in Canada (eh).

It’s good.

Yeah, it’s a Budwiser ad, but since they paid for the stunt (I guess), so they get a lot of credit from me.

via SFGate

All,

Sitemeter tells me people still visit this site. Probably from a sense of nostalgia, and I thank all of you for checking in here from time to time.

I’m working a lot of shifts, going to a lot of meetings, and still trying to have a semblance of a life. This leaves no time for original writing here.

The meetings: our Gigantic Corporate Overlord has graciously agreed to part with a Princely Sum of Cash, and in March we break ground on a new ED. Nice! (Figures off the top of my head: currently we have about 96 beds in 24K sq. feet and see 96K/yr, and we’re going to 81 rooms and 48K sq. ft.).

In case you missed that, we’re not scheduled to get the same number of beds as rooms, but a bunch of our current beds are hall beds. I hate hall beds. And, many of the new rooms are to be designed to ‘double up’ so we can put 2 beds in 1 treatment room, so we’re going to net more than we have now.

Additionally, 2 CT’s, an MRI, and 24 hour sono. And a designed environment rather than the hodgepodge of assumed spaces we currently have. (When I describe our current condition it sounds like I’m down on it, but I’m not. It’s functional. And our staff is terrific. Fortunately they’re going to make the move too)!

Bizarrely, I am one of three docs to work with the team that engages the architects, and it’s a fun if time consuming process. It’s fun to play ‘what if’ with these differently trained pros, and I feel like the time I’m spending there is worthwhile. I get to help design the ED I hope to retire in, and not many get to say that.

And did I mention we’re remodeling the kitchen in the homestead? No? We (had) a mostly original 1986 kitchen that was awesome 10 years ago when we moved in, but now is worn and dated. Well, was. Now it’s torn out to the walls. Our former bulkheads (fir-downs in Texas) were pulled out so we can go all the way to the ceiling, but they contained a lot of wires and plumbing (which are being moved).  It’s very expensive entertainment watching the trades do their thing, and a tiny part of me wants to be one of them. Yes, my brain, thanks…

Speaking of the trades, the electricians liked our garden trolls, and decided they needed to be fed. Heh.

More to come.