Life as an Extreme Sport

Author: Kelly

Portable Dialysis Passes First Trial

AJOB Editors Blog, Bioethics

A portable dialysis machine has somewhat successfully completed its first clinical trial, raising hopes for many that one day, dialysis will not be a three day a week intensive at a clinic, but instead, a continual process occurring 24 hours a day.

In other words, a small and portable external kidney.

As anyone who is familiar with dialysis — personal use, friend, family member, working in a unit — knows, being attached to not only the machine but its location is a limiting lifestyle. No spontaneous road trips, impulse trips anywhere — even into the City to catch a show — have to be weighed against risk of missing a dialysis appointment.

Weighing in at approximately 11 pounds, a weight the California inventors hope to drop down to around 4 pounds, the portable dialysis machine looks something like a toolbelt wrapped around someone’s waist. Using miniaturized components, it contains a bevy of devices to test and monitor blood, as well as thin and filter it.

Eight patients were part of this first trial, and they were encouraged to eat, drink, sleep, and generally live life as normal while they had it on. Those who tried sleeping found that they could, raising hopes that this could become a nightly home ritual rather than outpatient procedure. Maybe of more interest is the fact that of those eight patients, three were women — still something of a novelty in research studies not geared specifically at women.

Of course, being the first clinical trial on patients with end-stage renal disease, it didn’t go without error — three of the eight patients had severe reactions. Two of those were because the heparin dose was off, creating blood thickness/filtering problems, and one was due to a temporary disconnection because of a dislodged fistula needle. Even then, though, all of the patients enthusiastically recommended the device.

And why wouldn’t they? Slower rates of dialysis cause less pain for the patient and is easier to tolerate by the body, and perhaps more importantly, the device gives back a sense of freedom to those formerly weighed down with the giant anchor of immobile dialysis.
-Kelly Hills

Originally posted at the American Journal of Bioethics Editors Blog.

Ayn Rand, Craigslist, Philosophy

...and everything else, Academics

Laurie passes on beautiful post from the “best of Craigslist”, which includes this gem of a sentence:

It was only when you went on to explain to me that it is only now, through Ayn Rand, that philosophy has started to be “taken seriously as a science” and is no longer “useless,” that I really began to regret this missed opportunity to engage in discussion.

Personally, I think I’ll skip trying to sell people on the idea that Ayn Rand is the only thing/person that makes philosophy useful. I like having all my limbs, for one thing…

Planetary Politics

...and everything else

Today’s NYTimes Book Review is worth the read – they explain what books presidential hopefuls (and people hoped will run, regardless of what they’ve said) should read. Includes such advice as:

RUDOLPH GIULIANI
Former mayor of New York

Should tell reporters he’s read “Childhood’s End,” by Arthur C. Clarke: An advanced intelligence arrives from above, creating a utopia by integrating all of humanity into a single mind that thinks and acts as one.

Might also consider reading “The War of the Worlds,” by H. G. Wells: During a cataclysmically destructive event, an observant bystander happens to be in the right place at the right time and thereafter never stops talking about it.

and

AL GORE
Former vice president of the United States

Should tell reporters he’s read “The Andromeda Strain,” by Michael Crichton: Working in quiet isolation, a team of scientists manages to avert catastrophe through the systematic application of reason.

Might also consider reading “Foundation,” by Isaac Asimov: A supergenius with a knack for predicting the future determines that things on Earth are about to get very bad very soon. In return for his service, he is arrested.

Delightfully snarky!

Kanye West

life and living

Kanye West has a blog, and I’ve spent a good chunk of time browsing the posts – they’re actually really interesting. Quite often he’s just posting things that inspire or interest him, but there’s also an interesting collection of rap videos and the occasional commentary on the industry, fashion, and art. Strangely compelling.

And as a bonus, a version of the “Jesus Walks” video I haven’t seen before – one he apparently paid for himself, in order to have creative control, as well as own the imagery. And what interesting imagery it is..

(For the curious, the other video is – some of the imagery is identical, but most is different. I actually like both videos, for different reasons.)