Category: History

  • 22nd Anniversary Commemoration of 9/11 Attacks

    22nd Anniversary Commemoration of 9/11 Attacks

    The 22nd Anniversary Commemoration of the 9/11 attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center will be observed today. I remember where I was on September 9, 2001. I was climbing the stairs at the hospital on my way back to my office. I was on duty on the psychiatry consultation service. I happened to glance…

  • “I Have a Dream” Speech 60 Years Later

    “I Have a Dream” Speech 60 Years Later

    Today is the 60th anniversary of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. I was too young to remember it. However, I have a deep appreciation of the meaning it has not just for Black people, but for all of us. It’s not…

  • Hawaii Memories

    Hawaii Memories

    The wildfires in Maui are so devastating. We wish everyone the best. We also had a wave of nostalgia back to 1997 when we visited the Hawaiian Islands on our first vacation in a long while after I finished my psychiatry residency in 1996. The plane trip was very long and what I remember most…

  • What Kind of Census Does This Make?

    What Kind of Census Does This Make?

    We finished our Census Bureau survey and it seems like we just did this not long ago. It’s taken every 10 years but it seems like we got this form a few years ago. They say it takes about 40 minutes to complete, but it sure felt like there were many more questions on it…

  • Raccoon in the Mulberry Tree

    Raccoon in the Mulberry Tree

    I was not sure what exactly I saw this between 6:30 and 7:00 this morning shaking the mulberry tree branches in our backyard. It seemed too big to be a squirrel and I dismissed the thought, telling myself that it was most likely the usual squirrel getting its mulberry breakfast. Just prior to this incident,…

  • The Skinwalker Ranch Connection to Nikola Tesla

    The Skinwalker Ranch Connection to Nikola Tesla

    I watched one of the new episodes of The Secret of skinwalker Ranch the other night. The use of special imaging techniques led to finding what looked like little tunnels running underground in one area of the property. That led to trotting out the little excavator and digging up the ground. They found some light-colored…

  • Memorial Day 2023

    Memorial Day 2023

    Today is Memorial Day 2023. A moment of silence. There will be a public ceremony at Oak Hill Cemetery in Iowa City at 11:15 a.m., May 29, 2023.

  • Thoughts on Gaming Disorder

    Thoughts on Gaming Disorder

    I just read an interesting article in the latest print issue of Clinical Psychiatry News, Vol. 51, No. 5, May 2023: “Gaming Disorder: New insights into a growing problem.” This is news to me. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual lists it as an addiction associated with the internet primarily. It can cause social and occupational…

  • Racial Affinity Group Caucusing Separate But Not Equal to Segregation

    Racial Affinity Group Caucusing Separate But Not Equal to Segregation

    I read the New England Journal of Medicine perspective article “Racial Affinity Group Caucusing in Medical Education—A Key Supplement to Antiracism Curricula.” I did not see the word “segregation” anywhere in the paper, although the Daily Mail news item used it frequently in a manner that I suspect was intended to incite indignation over separating…

  • Update to Chat with Bard

    Update to Chat with Bard

    My recent chat with Google Bard, about which I posted on April 11, 2023, contained an error by Bard on all those strikes by physicians. Today I asked some follow-up questions: How many physician strikes have occurred in the United States? “There have been a few physician strikes in the United States, but they are…