It's 65 degrees, sunny, and breezy. What a beautiful day. I think living in Michigan makes me appreciate good spring days a lot better. This week I've spent a lot of time working on my last American Culture paper. The assignment was to propose a change to the status quo in America regarding privatization, or illegal markets. I chose to write about a national health care system called "single payer." Right now, 45 million Americans don't have health insurance. A single payer plan could insure everyone in America with equivalent health care, for the same amount of money we are spending now. The subject became pretty complex, so I had to spend a lot of time re-reading other proposals, statistics, etc. The paper is posted here, but I don't know if anyone would want to read it, or what kind of grade I'll get. I think it's an interesting subject, but it might be a little complicated for leisure reading. Finally, remember that I had to propose this change. As I got further and further into it, I wasn't so sure a national health plan was such a good idea. I don't think anyone knows if a plan like that would benefit America in practice. But because I had to propose it, I did my best to make it sound like a great plan. For more information, visit Physicians for a National Health Plan.

On a more laid back note, I received my Iron and Wine albums in the mail a few days ago. They are both great. I bought Our Endless Numbered Days and The Woman King EP. The EP only has six songs on it, but five of them are amazing.

Note: 2 of my housemates went to scrimmage against our girls varsity basketball team today. This is a Division 1 team that practices together everyday. The guys my housemates went with have played together once. They used a girl's ball, so their shots were probably off. And apparently, they just handed it to our girls team, beat them pretty badly. Our woman's basketball isn't that great, but come on....

Final note: I linked to a doctor last post that reviewed Terri Schiavo's CAT scan. Today, I came across another doctor that says something quite different about the exact same scan. I guess medicine is an art...but this is crazy. This doctor says:

To the medically trained person this scan appears grossly abnormal and sickening. The blue areas are remaining brain tissue but most of the scan shows black areas [Cortical regions] which are essentially fluid (cerebrospinal fluid). The normal body reaction to irreversibly damaged tissue is to replace it with fluid and this is clearly what has happened after Mrs. Schiavo suffered severe anoxic damage to her cerebral cortex.

"Cortical regions" are not and can not be filled with spinal fluid....The most alarming thing about this image, however, is that there certainly is cortex left. Granted, it is severely thinned, especially for Terri's age, but I would be nonplussed if you told me that this was a 75 year old female who was somewhat senile but fully functional

The same blog I linked to on monday has a new post up about the purported CAT scan of Terri Schiavo's brain that University of Miami released. Take what he says about the scan with a grain of salt. He's been very against letting her die from the beginning, I think. On the other hand, if this is her CAT scan, the doctors that frequent that site bring up some interesting and disturbing points. All the while, time is running out. Earlier today, courts denied the parents' emergency request to restore her tube. The parents are now asking Florida legislators to pass a new law allowing them to restore the tube. Link.

On a different note, the Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs) union here is threatening a walk-out because of conflicts regarding their contract negotiations. On top of that, they're asking that no students go to class on Thursday, the day of the walk-out, in show of support (even if they don't have a class with a GSI that day). I have no complaints about a day off, but it doesn't quite sit well with me that someone is telling me I shouldn't be going to class. Anyhow, I'm lucky that my professors won't be holding class that day if the walk-out occurs, so I won't be torn between attending class and crossing picket lines. What about the kids who are forced to cross picket lines in order to go to class on Thursday? The University has sent out an email telling us all to go to our normally scheduled classes on Thursday. It's unfortunate that the students have to be caught up in this, almost like a bargaining chip for the GSIs. "See how much power we have? We kept the students from coming to class. We can shut this University down if we like." Big accomplishment. That is not to say I don't think the GSIs have some legitimate points. They probably do, but the issues seem to be too complicated for the time/motivation I have to research them. The main issues seem to be salary and health benefits for same-sex partners. The University has an interesting site explaining their position on the matters. The Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) also has a website explaining their views. Being in Ann Arbor, maybe I am just a little cynical because of the number of protests and strikes I see. It's a very active community, but if everyone around you is complaining about something all the time, it gets annoying (no matter how noble the cause. Last year, we went through the same thing with the lecturers. Hopefully, after the walk out, they can come to an agreement and a longer strike will be avoided.

I've always been interested in medical ethics. The story getting nationwide attention right now is the Terri Schiavo case. For those of you that don't know, Terri Schiavo has been in a vegetative state for the last couple of years, kept alive by a feeding tube. Her husband has moved on and is living with another woman, but wants the feeding tube because he says she expressed the desire not to be kept alive in a situation like this. Her parents are fighting the husband's wishes. As of right now, the courts have sided with the husband, the feeding tube has been removed, and it is a matter of days before she dies. To complicate things, congress is now getting involved. They passed a bill this afternoon that will allow a federal judge to review the case. Her family is hoping that the judge will order the tube reinserted before it is too late.

The bill passed this afternoon has been highly partisan. It seems that the republicans are siding with the parents, and the democrats are siding with the husband. Sadly, the issue in congress is a political one as much as it is a moral one, as seen in this memo to republicans (Link).

On moral grounds, there are many that believe in Terri's right to die. Bill Maher, a political satirist, said on his show the other night that he didn't know of anyone who had ever said "If I'm in that state, just keep me going." At first, I would agree. I wouldn't want to be kept in a persistent vegetative state if there was no hope of improvement. But there's the problem. The family believes there is hope of improvement through therapy even though doctors have testified in court that there is no hope of improvement. They believe that she can respond to stimulus and is aware of her surroundings. However her reactions are not interpreted by everyone as conscious. The courts thought that the reactions were no more than reflexive, and couldn't be reproduced. The brain can do strange things when it isn't wired properly. Still, who is to say that with the current research on neuroregeneration, some new treatments may come out within the next few years that improve her condition? The courts found that her brain had deteriorated in over the span of the last decade and that a lot of her cerebral cortex was replaced by spinal fluid. The opinion went on to say:

"Medicine cannot cure this condition. Unless an act of God, a true miracle, were to recreate her brain, Theresa will always remain in an unconscious, reflexive state, totally dependent upon others to feed her and care for her most private needs."

On the other hand, what if Terri's wishes really were to die in this situation? The courts ruled just that: that there was "clear and convincing evidence" that Terri would not want to continue prolonging her life in her current state. There are some people who feel that letting a person starve to death is especially inhumane. Numerous doctors have said that it is actually a very serene way to die, given that her cortex has deteriorated and she will not feel the pain of starvation or dehydration.

The decision isn't easy, and the case has polarized most of those who read about it. There are a lot of people who are very passionate about this case, but I wonder about how many of them take the time to gather all their information and honestly examine their ideology. So I would suggest that before anyone gets in a heat about this, take some time to look at all the angles. If that's too much effort, at least realize that the issue is probably a lot more complicated than I've presented here (there are also issues with money, religion, organ donation, etc.). I really don't know all that much about it, since I've only followed it for a little while. There are plenty of websites talking about this. One that offers a lot of information in a pretty unbiased way is Abstract Appeal. One that offers some convincing arguments to keep her alive is at Code Blue Blog. And finally, Bioethics Discussion Blog is a site that is devoted to bioethics debates and has some recent posts on the issue.

Probably a lot of you have filled out brackets trying to predict the outcome of the NCAA tournament. I joined a house pool so I also filled one out. I printed it out and left it around the living room when we had a few people over for St. Patrick's Day because that was the first day of the tournament. I was sitting in a chair and I overheard someone say "whoever filled that bracket out knows absolutely nothing about basketball. It's absolutely rediculous." First off, it was Mike Markey. If any of you reading this know him, enough said. Secondly, that might even be true, but at this point, my bracket is doing pretty well. I am writing this post now because it's about to go downhill abruptly, and I want my few minutes in the sun. Right now I'm ranked 1354 in the country on espn.com, in a nationwide pool of about 2.5 million. Espn.com's math might be a bit off, but they say I'm in the 100th percentile. I don't know how that's possible but it's sweet. I even had fleeting thoughts of $10,000 and a plasma TV. Unfortunately, Louisville is about to beat Georgia Tech (update: has beaten. Where was Isma'il Muhammad!? 0 points!? I was banking on him getting healthy and catapulting GaTech to the TOP! Hah, oh well.), who I had going to the elite eight. And in the next round I have Villanova upsetting UNC, which is a huge longshot. On the other hand, WVU played an amazing game last night to beat Wake Forest, so it could happen. Wake Forest was a very popular pick for Final Fours (mine included). Anyhow, I really didn't put a whole lot of thought into the pool this year. I went with who I thought was playing well, and I picked Oklahoma State to win it all because I was tired of people picking UNC. How boring. It's interesting because I took a lot of time making my picks last year, and didn't do nearly as well. At any rate, I have to say it's been a pretty great tournament. If anyone's interested, my Final Four in this pool is: Oklahoma State, Wake Forest, Villanova, and Kentucky. *Disclaimer, I am in one other pool and am not doing so well. I'm not quite sure why I didn't pick the same teams in each pool because now I don't know who to root for in each game. My Final Four in this pool is defunct. I've got Oklahoma State winning it all in this one as well, then Georgia Tech, Florida, and Oklahoma. What can I say? I like the long shots.

What a great weekend.

The last week and a half has been pretty busy. Once I got back from Spring break I had to prepare for two tests. One I took yesterday, an Art History test. One of the biggest problems I have with these classes is the over-analyzation of everything. I think that's a common reason to dislike Art History. It kind of parallels anything else in academia. These people need to make money by writing analyses (some teach, but they're generally just teaching what someone has published). I think the pressure to make money leads them to make some real obscure connections just to have something to write about. It's like a biology researcher that publishes insignificant, rushed papers just to show he's been working so he can keep his job. Regardless, I think (hope) the test went alright, but I can never seem to judge how I do on essay tests. The second test I have in a couple hours. Cell biology. It hasn't been too hard but I didn't have much time to study since the Art History test was yesterday. I think I'll be alright, especially since the NCAA tournament starts tomorrow afternoon, not to mention it's St. Patrick's Day. I can't wait. Speaking of the tournament, does anyone else feel like two #1 seeds are actually sleepers to win the title? I don't know a single person choosing Illinois or Washington to win it all.

Now for the Minority Report part of the post. If anyone has seen that movie, they remember the sweet computer screen type thing that Tom Cruise was able to manipulate with his hands. Wired magazine has a post about a computer screen that projects 3-dimensional images. It also responds to your gestures. How cool is that? Well...maybe no one else cares. When you click on the link, scroll down to the part that says "Look ma, no goggles." Link.

I'm getting kind of tired of the steroids fiasco in baseball. I used to wonder who was on the juice. I also used to get mad because Bonds was going to be homerun king and had taken steroids. Now I just want Sportscenter to cover something else. I came across this article in Wired that has an different perspective on the whole thing, and was interesting to me because it isn't about steroids or who's on them. It talks about performance enhancing surgery and where to draw the line, since surgery isn't under attack in sports. Link.

Apparently the idea that cellphones can cause massive explosions at gas stations has gained "urban legend" status. I think that's hilarious. Some people are afraid to hold conversations while they are pumping gas because an electrical discharge might ignite fumes or something. "Hold on, let me call you back while I swerve through traffic at 60 mph while putting makeup on. I'm worried about my safety." This article at engadget about a law proposed to keep the masses safe is pretty entertaining, especially the source of the legislator's fear.

Spring Break is over. I went home to Dearborn for a few nights and hung out with Mark, Kyle, and Jess. There wasn't much to do but talk, play cards, and watch Napoleon Dynamite. It's strange, the first time I saw that movie I wasn't impressed at all. But the second and third times keep getting funnier. There are a lot of fun one-liners in that movie. I hear people quoting it all the time now, I even over heard someone talking about people quoting it all the time. Apparently the title of most quoted movie has passed from Old School to Napoleon Dynamite. Whatever.

This weekend I went to visit Eric Baker in Grand Rapids. Calvin College, to be specific. It has a very different atmosphere than UM. It's a lot quieter, but that was kind of nice after the constant hustle and bustle of UM. I could see how it might get boring, but overall I had a good time. It even made me a little regretful that I don't go to a smaller college. The first day, we went to play racquetball with a few other kids and two of Eric's English professors. I'm trying hard just to have some kind of contact with my professors, and he's playing racquetball with them. Now that I'm looking for letters of recommendation the distance between me and my professors is even more apparent.

I also started looking at places to apply to med school. I've decided that a very good school for me would be one that uses problem-based learning (smaller groups rather than lectures), teaches in an organ-based manner, allows regular patient contact in the first two years, offers a wide choice of rotation sites in years three and four (think big city), and is located somewhere sunny and warm. I wonder if I'll find all that in one school, much less gain admission there. Right now a few schools that have caught my interest are: Cornell, UPitt, Case Western, Northwestern, and Vanderbilt. A few of these are long shots so I'll also have to look into some lesser-known schools. This is going to be a long process...