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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: August 4th, 2023

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  • Blood speed isn’t a particularly useful metric. We’re typically more interested in the volume of blood circulated, as that is a better measurement of blood (and therefore oxygen) delivered to end-organs. Most organs are very good at regulating the speed of flow through their supply, and are more dependent on volume of flow.

    One of the more useful measurements we look at is cardiac output (CO). It’s just the stroke volume (how many ml of blood is squirted out of the heart every heartbeat) multiplied by the heart rate. This tells you how many ml of blood are sent into circulation every minute. Doppler imaging can be used to show flow speed, though that’s much less useful. Measuring CO is relatively easy to measure and is a useful measurement of how much blood is being made available to end organs. The heart rate is very easy to count or calculate, but the stroke volume does require an ultrasound study (preferably a transesophageal study). For an even more useful measurement, you can divide that CO by the person’s total body surface area to get the cardiac index (CI) this gives you a more standardized number from person to person, which allows a more meaningful comparison than CO alone.







  • I’ve been on a Larry Niven kick again and just finished Lucifer’s Hammer. I last read it back in high school, so like 20+ years ago. Definitely hit differently than back then. Before that I had wrapped up Adrian Tchaikovsky’s “Children” series. Most of those were pretty great. None come close to the first one though. I’m about halfway through Project Hail Mary with my daughter, so that’s been fun. And I’m almost to the end of “Mort” by Terry Pratchett.







  • Yes, facing adversity does build resilience. However, creating adversity for another just because YOU had to face it is wrong. I had a professor who called our career a “brotherhood of suffering” and would purposely create artificial stumbling blocks and make things more difficult because he had the same done to him. It’s perpetrating a cycle of abuse. I’ve now gotten to the point where I’ve taught in university and in the hospital and I try to break that cycle. It’s still a very difficult path, the content and pace are still taxing. Many still don’t make it to graduation, why make it harder then it needs to be?



  • 100% firearms. Easier to aim and keep on target and easier for people of any strength,size or handicap to use moderately well with minimal training. The only place bows are really better is that they are functionally more simple.

    A complete novice can pick up a gun and with minimal coaching be on target after a short time. To get close to the same proficiency and accuracy with a how would take exponentially more time and practice.