Podcasts and Automobile Auto pilot

Commuting has for me been ad tedium. Once I’ve shaved, dressed, read my emails and answered my texts and read Facebook I’m often left with nothing else to do driving to and from work.
Sirius radio was a salvation for a year with excellent classical music which unfortunately occasional played Brahms that puts me instantly to sleep.  The Gospel music was however excellent and gave me pause to consider the concept of sin.  Drivers who do not use their turning signals are sinners.  There is a special place in hell prepared for them.
I have liked my hands free telephone but found after a while until strangers and distant family members came to recognize that I was only phoning them to talk because I was particularly bored in traffic congestion.  I don’t think it was considerate of me to say, “gotta to go, traffic moving so no need to talk to you anymore.’
What has saved me most are the Pod Casts, I university and Audio books.  I really do need an automobile auto pilot and do appreciate all the effort that various inventors and engineers are putting into developing such.  I like to read when I’m commuting and find that when I’m sitting in the back seat reading and there’s no one driving the car doesn’t move or swerves about erratically on the freeway.
The pod cast I’m most enjoying now is Ancient and Medieval Church History by Covenant.  I just learned the seven Sacraments yesterday, though St. Francis said there were some 30, 7 seemed the agreed number, Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist/Mass, Ordination, Marriage, Last Rites. I’ve missed one but having married 3 times I expect I’ve made up for that and done sufficient penance as well.  Ordination obviously isn’t for everyone and my doctor has suggest my girth gives reason to lay off the bread and I passed my life’s share of wine decades back so am beginning to look forward to the last rites as probably not something to sneer at.  I’ve listened to some thirty or so of these and they’ve all been incredibly informative teaching me all manner of things about Wycliffe, and Acquinas, Murder in the Cathedral, various Creeds and Popes and much the average Christian doesn’t know a thing about. It’s equally true that Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Pagans and Aetheists are wholly ignorant of much of this material and would do well to listen.

The University of Arizona Medicine Grand Rounds are particularly good. The Neurology Grand Rounds from the University of Arizona are the best but it’s hard to pay attention driving to the MRI’s and CTScan’s presenters are pointing to with all the bad drivers one encounters on the Vancouver freeways these days.  The Psychiatry Grand Rounds from the University of Arizon are indeed very detailed and informative but being a psychiatrist I find I’ve tended to know most of what they’re talking about and have momentary bouts or road rage because I disagree and begin shouting at the presenters.

The Seattle Pacific University podcasts have been very well put together with the Sex ones particularly hot.

The Stuff You Missed in History podcasts are a blast with all manner of dirt and detail that really is entertaining.  I love these as much as I like the Why Factor by the BBC World Service.  The Why Factor series dealing with shaving and high heels and other fashion matters was especially entertaining.

I have listened to the Oxford University pod casts but so far they’ve been less appropriate for driving and seem more made for listening in a lecture class.  The material is good but they could learn a trick or two from the Boston Blackie Old Time radio shows.

These are just some of the pod casts I’m enjoying this last month or so but the material on any given day is so much better than the increasingly propagandistic and stupid CBC news material which is aired during commute time for maximum Cultural Marxism brainwashing and other Liberal cowshit.
Further the music on AM/FM radio is as bad today as my father found the music I listened to years past.

IUniversity also has superb podcast material even is the art presentations and art history presentations have the most interesting visuals that make driving a major distraction.  Audiobooks are good too but whereas podcasts are commonly a half hour to an hour an audio book is often 10 hours. Recently on a long drive we so enjoyed Evanovitch’s Hard Twenty Four novel because it was light and fairly fast moving.  I wouldn’t think Dostoevsky would make for a good audio book experience. In the past driving all night I’ve found war and sci fiction written in a kind of comic book manner all I could manage as more intelligent pieces tend to put one to sleep on long drives.

I miss commuting on trains in England when I had a seat and could write and read while glancing at the beautiful country side.  Riding on buses standing isn’t at all enjoyable by comparison so one gets the impression that the designers consider moving people as a kind of freight rather than consideration of the experience.

Hence the need for Automobile Autopilots.  I can’t wait!

University of Arizona Neurology Grand Rounds Podcasts

University of Arizona Neuroscience Department has an excellent podcast series of their Neurology Grand Rounds which I have accessed through iTunes U on my iPhone 6s.  I’ve been listening to these driving to and from work for the last couple of years.  They have always been most informative and extremely well presented.   The presentations have visuals  which I cannot access given I’m driving but I’ve gone back and reviewed some later.  However the presenters seem to appreciate that a lot of us aren’t watching them so make a point of explaining the most relevant information.
I’ve just listened to Sheena Aurora MD presenting on Migraine Pathophysiology and it’s been a real treat. She’s an amazing researchers with obviously well deserved awards and credits. Much to my surprise she explained that the MRI and fMRI angioplastic imaging blow the old idea of vascular migraines right out of the water. I’d heard this was being challenged as a theory a few years back but now it’s clear that the old idea of vascular constriction and ischemia just doesn’t occur.  What does occur is a hyper perfusion of the brain with a cortical depression. It appears that there is an increase in blood flow but that the brain is unresponsive .
The genetic predisposition for migraine phenomena has been found in variations on Chromosome 19.    80% of migraine sufferers have first degree relatives with migraine also.  There appears to be an channelopathy abnormality , the very area of neurology Dr. Robert Stowe studies here at UBC.  It appears that the presynaptic channel gate allows greater flow of potassium causing changes in the sensitivity of the tissue.  The techniques with various perfusion and scanning approaches used first in animals and later in less invasive forms in humans has been a long hard struggle to delineate the actual problem areas.
The generation of pain appears to be in the brain stem but the actual location is uncertain, though the research focus now is the hypothalamus.
The attempt too is to sort out why the variety of medications used in treatment of migraines appear to work with some not all.  Tryptans, topiramate, Coenzyme Q-10, possibly magnesium, etc.  The issue of inflammation exists too because the standard anti inflammatory medications like ASA, and NSAids (ibuprofen, and naproxen) continue to be beneficial.
There was much more that Sheena Aurora MD covered but those were the points that mattered most to me clinically. I certainly will be trying Coenzyme Q - 10 and watching for newer medications to come along shortly given the advances that are really coming along quickly.
I really did enjoy my commute to work thanks again to the University of Arizona and Sheena Aurora.