He was about the only scientist I knew that didn’t covet the Nobel Prize. Sure, he won every (ok, almost every) other honor (deservedly so) available- but still.
Continue reading Stanley Falkow, A”H
Most of you know that I have a very long queue. (A queue- not a tail. Come on!)
As such, if something really timely appears in my blog, it’s because I evaluated whether it was a critical piece of data to share with you- and decided it is/was.
Continue reading EMERGENCY ALERT. THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Back when I was a little boy, my father used to travel across the USA for business. At first, that meant he left home on the 1rst of May in our family’s red and white Plymouth Belvedere. It wasn’t a big deal, since my mom (as was true for most native New Yorkers) had never learned to drive. It also meant, once I was five years old, I got to ride my bike 2 miles a few times a week to FC Whitney’s or Bohack’s to pick up stuff we needed to eat.
Continue reading Up, Up, and Away…
Darn it! Another “if it’s Monday, we need a holiday” version. I grew up in the days when “Decoration Day” was always the 30th of May. Now, for our convenience, we’ve moved Memorial Day to be the last Monday in May.
Continue reading A time to honor…
This is like a mystery novel. (Actually, most scientific studies ARE mysteries- because if we knew what we needed to know, there’d be no need to experiment and test. We need to develop a sound hypothesis, based upon what we learned, and then examine how we can extend that knowledge.)
What does it mean for us all if Alzheimer’s doesn’t originate in the brain?
That’s not as far-fetched an idea as you might think. After all, Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD) can be acquired by ingesting infected meat products- or even via blood transfusions. (These contain the contagion of prion proteins.)
Continue reading No warning for this Scarlet A’s approach
OK. It’s bogeyman time.
Alzheimer’s! Yes. Even more than cancer- this word scares the bejesus out of us.
Continue reading Early. Onset.
Several years ago, I complained about the payday loan industry. This ‘financial system’ makes the neighborhood loan shark look downright welcoming. After all, if one needs to borrow $ 200 for a week until payday, s/he is slapped with a (loan origination) fee of $ 15 and an interest charge of $ 20. That is exactly what Lenny the Arm used to charge when he operated on the back streets of Brooklyn. (In case your math is weak, the fee for this loan is about 300%!)
Continue reading STSDC Corrections
Tonight, Saturday night is when the holiday of Shvuot, the Feast of Weeks, begins. It means I- and a bunch of other Jews- are going to spend all night long studying. Just like the Jews did on the first Shvuot, when we (we are supposed to consider ourselves to have been at Sinai when the Tora was given) received the 10 Commandments.
Continue reading All night long!
49, 50!
We’ve been counting the days since the Pesach (Passover) Seder. 50 days after we were freed from Egypt (Mitzrayim- a place of narrow straits); we have been anticipating a major event at the foot of Mount Sinai. (Sorry- Mount Sinai is really NOT found within the “Sinai Peninsula”, more likely it’s part of Saudi Arabia, near an active volcano.) We were asked if we would accept the laws of the Supreme Being- to which our reply was “we will do and we will adhere”. Obviously, that was easier said than performed, because we’ve often failed to follow the 613 mitzvot- and some of us even fail the 10 Commandments.
Continue reading 7 weeks- plus 1
