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The Svengoolie Movie: The Deadly Mantis
I watched the 1957 giant insect movie, “The Deadly Mantis” last night on the Svengoolie TV show, and Sena watched some of it. At times, it was a little hard to tell if this was a romantic comedy or a giant insect horror flick. The reporter Marge Blaine (played by Alix Talton) and Colonel Joe…
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University of Iowa Will Lead NASA Space Mission to Learn the Music of the Spheres
The big news for University of Iowa will be a NASA satellite mission to investigate how solar wind interacts with Earth’s magnetosphere. You can read the whole fascinating story in this issue of Iowa Magazine. According to the story, “twin spacecraft known as TRACERS—Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites—will begin their journey to study…
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SAINT Therapy for Treatment Resistant Depression at The University of Iowa
First of all, if you looked up Saint therapy for depression, you might have accidentally found information on Saint Dymphna, the Catholic patron saint of those living with mental illness. Actually, SAINT stands for Stanford accelerated intelligent neuromodulation therapy. It’s a personalized protocol for using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to treat severe depression. The University…
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What is Foreign Language Syndrome?
I found a very interesting news outlet report about a condition called Foreign Language Syndrome (FLS) which you have to distinguish from Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS). I wrote a post about that a few years ago. The latter is common by comparison with FLS. FAS is a tendency to speak with a foreign inflection, not…
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The 2024 Distinguished Education Lecture by Russell Ledet, MD, PhD
Last year, I wanted to present this Distinguished Education Lecture by Dr. Russell Ledet, MD, PhD, given during Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration of Human Rights week. It took a while for my message to the University of Iowa to get through channels, but I want to thank Audra M. King, the Administrative Services Coordinator for…
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Politics on the Brain
I just discovered the news item about 5 Minnesota Senate Republicans who introduced a bill this month seeking to classify “Trump Derangement Syndrome” (TDS) as a mental illness. This is not a new idea, I think, and it targets Democrats as having the syndrome. There’s a big Wikipedia article about the history of the origin…
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The Not So Skinny on Exercise Associated Muscle Cramps
I’m just about fully recovered by a sudden case of shin splints and calf cramps in both legs this past Monday. I did no running, just walked for a little over 4 miles between our house and the shopping mall. I thought I was doing pretty well until I got about a half mile from…
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Rounding@Iowa Podcast: “Advances in the Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer”
This episode of Rounding@Iowa is about important medical advances in the treatment of pancreatic cancer. As you listen to Dr. Clancy interview Dr. Joseph Cullen about what’s new, you’ll hear a lot about high-dose intravenous Vitamin C. This can enhance treatment and improve response to chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Dr. Cullen’s most recent study about…
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It Turns Out I Did Not Invent the Term “Zamboni Effect”
Today’s post connects weirdly with the one I wrote yesterday entitled “The Zamboni Effect,” in which I mistakenly believed I had invented the term “Zamboni Effect” based on my observation of what an ice resurfacing machine did to an ice rink in a local mall. It clarified the ice and also metaphorically, by extension, clarified…
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Iowa Bills to Ban Vaccines and Require Vaccine Manufacturers to Waive Immunity Die
This week was what the Iowa Legislature calls funnel week. Today determined what bills stay alive and which one die. The bills opposing vaccines died for this legislative session: “mRNA vaccines: Senate File 360 proposed a ban on health care providers administering gene-based vaccines, like the COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna. Under the proposal, health care…
Go Retire Psychiatrist 