Video: "You Can Never Trust Doctors"

Video: "You can never Trust Doctors", linked by one of my Facebook friends.

I'm sure some patients and doctors will not find this Eurosport commercial funny, and they probably have a point. Humor may be difficult to explain and interpret. Some social media "experts" even advise doctors not to use humor on Twitter, Facebook and blogs for fear of misinterpretation and legal repercussions.

However, humor is what makes us human. It can also help with the healing process and provide some relief at a time when you need it the most. Don't be afraid to use it appropriately and as needed, PRN. The commercial above may not provide the best example for that particular purpose but I think you get the point.

Comments from Twitter:

@scanman: Ha!! I do this ALL THE TIME!!!

"How to Conquer Your Fear of Doctors"

The term "content farm" describes a company that employs large numbers of often freelance writers to generate large amounts of textual and/or video content which is specifically designed to satisfy algorithms for maximal retrieval by search engines. Their main goal is to generate advertising revenue through attracting reader page views (source: Wikipedia).

This is what the content farms are producing nowadays:

How to Conquer Your Fear of Doctors (HowCast video). A mix of good and bad advice, don't take it seriously:

"How to Live to Be 100" (HowCast video). Some tips in the video may fall in the category "Do not try this at home":

Baby carrots: 'Eat 'em like junk food'

The satirical $25 million ad campaign is launched by a new alliance of carrot growers - “a bunch of carrot farmers” - and is designed to reposition baby carrots as snacks with sass.

Timeline of the evolution of the baby carrot

Around 2,000 years ago: Carrots are first grown in what is now Afghanistan.

1700: The Dutch cultivate orange carrots. Before then, carrots were often purple or yellow.

1986: A California carrot grower invents the baby carrot to avoid throwing out some of the broken and misshaped carrots taken from the packing line.

A baby carrot is an immature carrot. A baby "cut" carrot is different - known popularly thanks to effective marketing also as a "baby carrot"- this is a mature carrot that has been cut and peeled in the "baby-cut" style.

See the rest of the ad campaign videos on YouTube.

References:
Baby carrots: 'Eat 'em like junk food'. Chicago Tribune.

Extreme Baby Carrots: An Experiment In Marketing : NPR http://goo.gl/94WX

A licensed "doctor"

Did I Win?

A bicyclist falls into the finish and asked if he did win.

Whether it was staged or not, I am glad that he looks OK after the crash in the video.

Times have changed

@ConanOBrien:

http://twitpic.com/17lx53 - I no longer have health care. Could someone show this to a dermatologist and get back to me?

@pyknosis:

I'm a hematologist, not a dermatologist, but looking at that, I give you 7 months. Don't worry. That's a really long time.

That's just good humor, as Happy Hospitalist likes to say.

Coronary stent paper manual: All pages "intentionally" left blank

Video showing a Cordis Coronary Stent Paper Manual: There were no instructions in the manual... just pages "intentionally" left blank.

911 call: Eucalyptus drive?

Call transcript:

Operator: "911, what's your emergency?"

Man: "Yeah, my wife got attacked by a warthog really bad and I need someone to come up with an ambulance and pick her up."

Operator: "Okay sir can you give me an address?"

Man: "Yeah, we're at 1825 Eucalyptus Drive."

Operator: "Okay, can you spell that for me sir?"

Man: "Uh, I'm gonna drag her on over to Oak Street and you can pick her up there."

Source: http://failblog.org

Pre-test: Check to see if you have the brain for science

Do not take this seriously.

Pre-test: Check to see if you have the brain for science. Do you understand what this PubMed abstract is about? http://bit.ly/zkbss

(trans-1,4-bis[(4-pyridyl)ethenyl]benzene)(2,2'-bipyridine)ruthenium(II) complexes and their supramolecular assemblies with beta-cyclodextrin.

Toma SH, Uemi M, Nikolaou S, Tomazela DM, Eberlin MN, Toma HE.

Inorg Chem. 2004 May 31;43(11):3521-7.

Two novel ruthenium polypyridine complexes, [Ru(bpy)(2)Cl(BPEB)](PF(6)) and ([Ru(bpy)(2)Cl](2)(BPEB))(PF(6))(2) (BPEB = trans-1,4-bis[2-(4-pyridyl)ethenyl]benzene), were synthesized and their characterization carried out by means of elemental analysis, UV-visible spectroscopy, positive ion electrospray (ESI-MS), and tandem mass (ESI-MS/MS) spectrometry, as well as by NMR spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry. Cyclic and differential pulse voltammetry for the mononuclear complex showed three set of waves around 1.2 V (Ru(2+/3+)), -1.0 V (BPEB(0/)(-)), and -1.15 (BPEB(-/2-)). This complex exhibited aggregation phenomena in aqueous solution, involving pi-pi stacking of the planar, hydrophobic BPEB ligands. According to NMR measurements and variable-temperature experiments, the addition of beta-cyclodextrin (betaCD) to [Ru(bpy)(2)Cl(BPEB)](+) leads to an inclusion complex, breaking down the aggregated array.

Image source: OpenClipArt.org, public domain.

Rule of Twitter: When one million followers is actually... zero

From Twitter account of David Pogue of NYTimes:

Pogue 1 million followers today. A little scary: that's more than read the Times, more than watch CNBC, more than read my books... NO PRESSURE! 21 minutes ago from TweetDeck

Pogue via @ridgeley: 1M followers for @pogue, but most are spam. [DP sez: Probably true. Rule of Twitter: # of followers, divided by 10?] 8 minutes ago from TweetDeck

Pogue OK, you guys are telling me: 1/2 of my 1M followers have moved on. 25% are spam. 25% are auto-follow. So that comes to... NO FOLLOWERS! :) 6 minutes ago from TweetDeck