Minimalism

People are very busy, with themselves and their things.  Everything people need for sustenance and entertainment and communication is contained in our massive suburban houses.  Screens of all shapes and sizes shoot images and information into our eyeballs.  Why go outside and take a walk down to the corner store, or chat with a neighbor?  You can get whatever you want delivered and you can text your friend.  If there happens to be a reason to leave the house, people take their car of course.  They travel on highways of immense girth, speeding over wastelands of noise and pollution.  Inside the car, people transform into simple-minded machines, hypnotized by their music and determined to reach their destination as fast as possible, oblivious to their surroundings.  Cars have destroyed the social, nurturing neighborhood of past generations.

All of these screens and cars leaves no time for two important human activities: socializing and thinking.  In the NYTimes this weekend, Pico Iyer writes how some people are choosing to escape the daily madness to pursue these activities (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/opinion/sunday/the-joy-of-quiet.html?src=me&ref=general).  Iyer describes Internet and computer vacations, which are used by many individuals and corporations to increase productivity by giving people time to think critically, versus the usual swamping with information.  I agree that it's essential to spend a little time doing some pure human endeavor each day.  For me, a run or a bike ride does the trick.  I refuse to run with an mp3 player because I've found I don't feel nearly refreshed upon returning if I listen to music while running.  I prefer my run to be uncontaminated by the digital world.  I could probably do with a lot more "silent time"...perhaps I'll try meditation.

I'm currently reading Walden by Henry David Thoreau, which was written 167 years ago but is immediately relevant to our time.  The book is spectacular--I could choose so many passages to quote, but here's a straightforward one from the beginning:

"Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance or mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them.  Their fingers, from excessive toil, are too clumsy and tremble too much for that.  Actually, the laboring man has not leisure for a true integrity day by day; he cannot afford to sustain the manliest relations to men; his labor would be depreciated in the market.  He has no time to be anything but a machine.  How can he remember well his ignorance--which his growth requires--who has so often to use his knowledge?  We should feed and clothe him gratuitously sometimes, and recruit him with our cordials, before we judge of him.  The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling.  Yet we do not treat ourselves nor one another thus tenderly."

From this passage, we see that the workaholic American culture is not new.  Working hard makes people think they are accomplishing and learning things, but are they really?  When I was firefighting, we spoke of "tunnel vision"--you're trying so hard to do something and are so engrossed in one tiny detail, you miss all the other important events around you.  Hard work, by itself, could mean you are tackling a problem like a brute, impervious to alternative ideas.  Stubbornly pursuing a goal just to "finish it" is just as passive as letting information flow over you without responding.  I think wisdom is acquired by relaxing so you're capable of analyzing all that you sense.  You have to step to the side of the information tidal wave for a moment, get out of the car, escape the cubicle--if you want to create new ideas, if you want to be human.  Philosophy, science, religion--all the thoughts and concepts central to our humanity, were conceived during leisure time, which technological advancements gave us the opportunity to enjoy.  We cannot allow our current technology to override its ancient purpose--to give us time to think.

Here's some minimalist music (Philip Glass is coming to Ann Arbor later this month to preview a revival of Einstein on the Beach that will debut in France in March of this year)


And here's a clip from the Breakfast Club, my new favorite movie that I discovered over winter break:
  

The SweeTango Apple

This week the New Yorker had an article on the history of apples and the University of Minnesota apple breeding program.



http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/11/21/111121fa_fact_seabrook

Minnesota's newest apple, the SweeTango, is a cross between the Honeycrisp and Zestar varieties, both of which were also developed in Minnesota.  The article points out that until the last twenty years or so, there were only a few types of apples available at supermarkets--Red Delicious and McIntosh and not much else.  Minnesota turns out to be an apple breeding leader and is one of the institutions responsible for the explosion of new delicious apples available.  The apple breeding process reminded me of high-throughput drug screening.  Breeders start out with two decent apples, but the offspring from the mating can be dramatically different from the parents.  So thousands of offspring are tested, and there's one guy (David Bedford), who tastes them all (500-600 apples per day).  I have now discovered what I'm going to do with my life if MD-PhD doesn't work out.


In other, much less exciting news, I have completed the neurology sequence of second year med school, which is supposed to be one of the most challenging.  It was three weeks of stroke, multiple sclerosis, infections, epilepsy, sleep, migraines, neurodegenerative disorders, neuropathies, muscular dystrophy, eye and ear disorders.  All of it was very interesting, although the ear has got to be one of the most amazing organs:

The Cardiac Exam

We just finished two weeks of Clinical Foundations of Medicine, which included practice with the history and physical as well as two electives! My electives were Health Policy and Video Making for Physicians. In the health policy elective I learned about who's winning (drug companies and device manufactures) and who's losing (everyone else) as health care costs skyrocket. We talked about the idea of a monopsony (single buyer), and how in other countries having the government as the sole buyer of health care helps keep costs down. And we discussed Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), which are networks of primary care physicians, specialists, and hospitals. These organizations are paid a set amount per person assigned to the ACO by the insurance companies, so there is an incentive to keep costs down rather than ordering unnecessary tests and procedures. There would also be bonuses for health care providers who improve quality metrics while keeping down costs, further incentivizing high-quality, low-cost care. ACOs are a major component of the Affordable Care Act.

In the video making elective, we made a 2-minute video showing some parts of the cardiac exam. The idea was that videos are an excellent way to convey medical information to colleagues and patients. Here are both groups' videos--me and my deranged jugular vein are in the first one.

Greatest game ever?

The Michigan Wolverines beat the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 35-31 last night, after 3 touchdowns in the last 1:12. At 1:12, Wolverine phenom Denard Robinson threw a touchdown pass to Vincent Smith to make it 28-24 Michigan. The Fighting Irish stoically marched down the field and responded to make it 31-28 with 30 seconds left. With 2 seconds left on the Notre Dame 16, Michigan showed remarkable courage by going for the TD rather than kicking a field goal to tie it. Robinson connected with Roy Roundtree to win it for Michigan. This game would have been incredible under any circumstances, but it turns out that it was the first ever night game played in the Big House, with a record attendance of 114,000.

I moved into a new house last weekend with four other med students and 1 undergrad. The place was an absolute mess: there was a hole in the ceiling that leaked water during a storm; the dishwasher is broken; there were leaks in the basement; the kitchen was full of dirty dishes and soggy rags; the refrigerators were stocked with months-old rotting food and were growing mold; the living and dining room were trashed and the carped badly stained; the backyard was buried in old furniture, mattresses, and decades-old desks and chairs; and the front yard was overgrown with bushes and weeds. Last week all of us have put huge amounts of money and effort into the place to get it in working condition. Here are some pictures after we removed all the trash, scrubbed, painted, mowed, and brought new furniture.

Dining room

Living room

Kitchen with new pegboard for pots and pans I installed. Moderately tacky but functional.

New cabinet we installed

Two fridges

My room

Deck

Behind house/parking (we have a shed to the right of this)

Addendum to previous post

Sky Cowboys

Up and Down From Ground Zero

WTC

As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, I thought I would write a quick post about the new World Trade Center complex. I haven't heard many people talking about it, but as of March 2011 (the last date when updates were available), 1WTC was 56 stories and growing. Here are some neat pictures of the construction.

The new WTC will have five skyscrapers and the 9/11 museum & memorial. 1WTC will stand 1,776 feet tall and will be the world's 3rd highest building when it's completed in January 2013. It will have quite an arsenal of safety features:

In addition to structural redundancy and dense and highly adhesive fireproofing, the building will include biological and chemical filters in the air supply system. To assume optimum egress and firefighting capacity, extra-wide pressurized stairs, multiple backups on emergency lighting, and concrete protection for all sprinklers and emergency risers will be provided, in addition to interconnected redundant exits, additional stair exit locations at all adjacent streets, and direct exits to the street from tower stairs. All of the building's life-safety systems - egress stairs, communication antennae, exhaust and ventilation shafts, electrical risers, standpipes, and elevators - will be encased in a core wall that will be three feet thick in most places.

It's architecture is not particularly noteworthy, but check out the dinosaurian transportation hub:
The rebirth of the World Trade Center cite is inspiring and exciting. I'm glad that 1WTC will be even higher than the old twin towers (although the roof of 1WTC will be exactly the same height as the original 1WTC; only with its spire will it rise to 1,776 feet). Some developers wanted to rebuild the old towers pretty much exactly as they were before 9/11. In my opinion it was better to make a new design representing a stronger, reinforced New York. If only Daniel Libeskind's original design was used, New York's skyline would look like this:

Michigan LP Bike Trip

*Itching madly from mosquito bites*

I'm writing from the Detroit Metro Airport Super 8 Motel, the only major casualty from a 7.5-day bike trip in Michigan. Here's the route:

I started at the Ralph A. MacMullan Conference Center in Roscommon, Michigan on July 31. This was the last day of our MSTP retreat. There were two seminar sessions and one poster session at the retreat, with lots of games and drunken merriment mixed in. The day I started, I must admit I was suffering rather severely from hangover and lack of sleep. Fortunately I felt better once I started riding in the early afternoon after the morning's scientific talks. Here are some notes from the trip, with pictures at the end.
Day 1: Roscommon to Gaylord. Best sight was Lake Otsego on a sunny, breezy Sunday with lots of beachgoers. Spent the night in a motel to be sure I got a decent sleep.
Day 2: Gaylord to Mackinaw. Rode today on the Gaylord-Mackinaw Rails to Trails Project. Gaylord (aka the Alpine Village) is on a "plateau" of something like 1000 feet in elevation so the first part of the day was a gentle downhill. The trail was well-groomed all the way to Mackinaw. I dropped my things at the Teepee Campground a couple miles south of Mackinaw City and then pedaled into town to catch a ferry to Mackinaw Island. There I was amazed to find thousands of bicycles EVERYWHERE and horse-drawn carriages for the heavier loads and lazier tourists (automobiles are outlawed). I had a picnic on the lawn beneathe Fort Mackinac and enjoyed a sunny summer evening.
Day 3: Mackinaw to Fisherman's Island State Park (1.5 miles south of Charlevoix). It rained hard, pretty much all day. I was in northwestern Michigan now, so it was hilly as well. I took a wrong turn and ended up cutting across Michigan's middle finger (don't know any other word for it) rather than hugging the coast as planned. But this allowed my to see some very nice rolling farmland, so no problem. Rolled through the haughty resort town of Charlevoix and spent the night at a campsite on Lake Michigan.
Day 4: Fisherman's Island State Park to Traverse City. Relatively short day down to the surprisingly pleasant town of Traverse City. Had an awesome dinner at the Dish Cafe, and a slice of cherry pie from the Grand Traverse Pie Co.
Day 5: Day trip to Sleeping Bear Dunes. Best cycling day of the trip. Covered beautiful rolling farmland over Michigan's "pinky" finger. Somewhat serious climbs for Michigan, including a hill with a runaway truck ramp (!). Pedaled through Glen Arbor and Empire, the two main towns in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Seashore. I hiked up the "Dune Climb" and got a superb view of Lake Michigan.
Day 6: Traverse City to Highland Lake Campsite. Long and at times tedious day through unremarkable terrain, but terrific campsite on secluded lake, where I went swimming!
Day 7: Highland Lake to Grand Rapids. Rain again for much of the day. Rode on the White Pine Trail for the last 20 miles into the city, then followed the Grand River to the Holiday Inn in downtown. I felt like splurging a little bit. Most impressive thing about Grand Rapids is the Grand River, which actually is pretty big. I recognized a lot of sites from the entertaining Grand Rapids Lip Dub Video.
Day 8: Grand Rapids Downtown to Grand Rapids Airport. Hardest day of the trip, seriously. I started out by going to the Gerald Ford Museum, where I decided that Gerald Ford was a nice guy but not a particularly good president. Then I rode (in the rain again) through Grand Rapids, and after a couple turns noticed that I was seeing the same street names I had seen a half hour earlier. Mentally I was not prepared for a wet, confusing ride and got somewhat upset with myself before I got my bearings. Eventually made it to the airport where I picked up a rental car and booked it back to Ann Arbor to exchange my bicycle and soaked gear for hiking boots and fresh clothes, because I was planning on meeting my dad in Yellowstone for a few days. Unfortunately, delays that accumulated throughout the day led me to miss my flight, so here I am...stuck in a motel a few miles down the road from DTW, but content to have an extra rest day before flying out tomorrow.

110807 Michigan LP bike trip