this week i

published my most significant contribution to the r community, even though i didn't really do anything.

helped myself to all four seats across the atlantic.  yum thanksgiving dinner.

watched goodfellas - timeless.  best line: "whoever sold you those suits had a wonderful sense of humor."  also decided the best line from any movie, ever, is: "do they speak english in what?"

figured out what i didn't like about lincoln: his speech patterns matched the bane villain from tdkr.

landed in maputo late night..

..one year older than my grandfather.
 

buildings out of place anywhere but here

the choicest street names..
 
..but so much for communism.  nothing says 'every man for himself' like de-centralized air.

stark gender disparities

sewage system pizazz

i know a few hermit crabs back home who would love to try on that outfit..

..and for upper-body strength, nobody beats this critter.

summertime christmas lends itself to all sorts of new interpretations of santa

noted only two modes of transit.  the wedding brigade..

 ..and the chauffeured businessman.

feel safe anywhere they advertise huggies.  it's a good rule of thumb.

crossed the bay.






found the city worn, warm.

think best, work hardest when i move.  pictured here combating both sunburn and sql.

made it to cape town.

read..

(1) end of life law

although the michigan legislature enacted a law against assisted suicide mainly to stop kevorkian, and he was prosecuted four times under it, juries refused to convict him

the american medical association opposes physician-assisted dying altogether, stating in its code of ethics that is "is fundamentally incompatible with the physician's role as a healer."  but the american medical association now represents no more than 30 percent of physicians, and other medical organizations, such as the american medical students association, the american public health association, and the american medical women's association, supported assisted dying


(2) the evolution of computing


mathematicians, he continued, 'are the freest and most fiercely individualistic of artists'..'after all everybody has to do his thinking alone.'

(3) in prison

(4)
capture mission

bin laden had not been armed when he was killed, administration spokesmen conceded.  he had not used any woman as a shield.  nor had there been a "firefight" in the house where he lived

holder said, "you're talking about a hypothetical that will never occur.  the reality is that we will be reading miranda rights to the corpse of osama bin laden."

their heads on pikes

rules of engagement that made bin laden's surrender all but impossible

(5) predictions and skepticism of medicine in the next two decades

medical care will no longer be controlled by physicians.  neither will medical information be based on the results of studies of large populations, which..give less precise information than do studies of individual patients.  instead, patients will largely manage their own care, based on their access to detailed and digitized information in the world's medical literature and to information about their own bodily functions and individual genetic makeup

if major parts of topol's vision are eventually realized, as unlikely as that may seem to skeptical physicians like me, it will only be in the distant future.  for now, i remain unpersuaded that the "creative destruction" of medicine is imminent

11/29