Strong words from Rick Mercer: “It’s no longer good enough for us to tell kids who are different that it’s gonna get better. We have to make it better now”. The statement comes from Rick’s latest rant, which was inspired by the suicide of 15-year-old Jamie Hubley, and was broadcast on this Tuesday’s episode of […]
Category: Uncategorized
Peer review and citations: Measuring research influence
I was tidying up the other day and came across an email from Caroline Finch with a link to a paper I had neglected. The paper “The Association between Four Citation Metrics and Peer Rankings of Research Influence of Australian Researchers in Six Fields of Public Health” was published in an open access journal. The […]
Talk about texting while driving!
Thanks to David Lawrence. But I must confess: In the old days I used to do my dictation while riding my bike to and from the hospital! […]
Lower highway speed limits get you there more quickly (from Slate)
A fascinating article in Slate provides evidence suggesting that slower highway speed limits may actually get you to your destination more quickly! This apparent paradox has some seemingly good evidence behind it. For example, some recent trials on a congested highway in Colorado had highway patrol vehicles “riding in tandem with lights ablaze” travelling at […]
Barry’s Blog #5
Cheap imports can be dangerous The safety of items ordered from cheap Asian online shops is being questioned. Although these products appear to be of good quality, many are dangerous and potentially lethal. This is especially true of electrical appliances. It is often difficult for a consumer to know if the appliance has been tested […]
Barry’s Blog #8
NHL star hockey player wants ‘head shots’ banned After being sidelined by 2 successive concussions for much of last season and likely some or all of the upcoming hockey season, the NHL’s star player, Sidney Crosby, has proposed rule changes that would ban all head shots, intentional or not. He began by noting that only […]
Barry’s Blog #7
Authorship: How many is too many? Ana Marusic is a frequent contributor to WAME discussions and one topic that crops often crops up is authorship, and specifically, are there times when many authors are justified. After a systematic review, it appears the answer depends entirely on the discipline. In the Introduction to this report, Marusic […]
Barry’s Blog #7
Hearing loss: most common work injury According to CDC the most common work-related injury in the U.S. is hearing loss with about 22 million workers exposed to hazardous noise at work, and 9 million exposed to ototoxic chemicals. A report by the Children’s Hearing Institute found hearing loss among children and young adults to be rising. About one […]
Barry’s Blog #3
TBI database Related to the concussion issue, it is noteworthy that the National Institutes of Health’s Center for Information Technology and the Department of Defense in the U.S. are developing a central database on traumatic brain injuries. The Federal Interagency Traumatic Brain Injury Research will receive $10 million in funding over 4 years to aid […]
Barry’s Blog #2
Note: As an aging person I am still not entirely clear what blogs are all about. But I have agreed to do my best to keep ours fresh by contributing more often. Some of what I will submit are left-overs from the News and Notes section I edit. I also intend to bring to your attention items of interest that I come across on the web and elsewhere. I will comment on some of these and I encourage readers to add their views. […]