bookofjoe

BehindTheMedspeak: In the MRI machine, not all metals are created equal[ly dangerous]

In the May 16 New York Times Science section's weekly "Q & A" feature by C. Claiborne Ray was a clear, succinct explanation of something many non-radiologist doctors don't know.

Here's the piece.

Magnetic Metals

Q. I have a titanium screw in my skull for a bone-anchored hearing aid. Does this mean I cannot have an M.R.I.? What elements make something attractive to a magnet?

A. You can still have magnetic resonance imaging with a titanium implant.

In fact, titanium is used for many medical implants because it does not interfere with CT scans and M.R.I.'s the way steel implants can, implant manufacturers say.

Titanium may obscure specific areas of an image, but it is not affected by even strong magnetic fields.

Not all metallic elements are attracted to magnets, and most orthopedic implants are made of nonmagnetic alloys.

The four strongly magnetic elements are iron, nickel, cobalt and gadolinium.

The strength of magnetic attraction depends on the way moving electrons are aligned in the atoms of a substance, sometimes forming minuscule internal magnets.

In some substances, the tiny magnetic fields cancel one another out or are always randomly oriented.

In materials attracted to magnets, the internal magnets within the material line up with the magnetic field of the magnet.

That gives the material a magnetic field, and it is then pulled to the magnet.

The fields vary with temperature, becoming stronger as it grows colder and disappearing at high enough temperatures.

In the four ferromagnetic elements, the internal magnetic fields can stay aligned even at normal temperatures.

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Some disasters in the MRI suite involve anesthesiology equipment such as ferromagnetic steel cylinders containing compressed gas (the dark object in the photo below)

which become bomb-like projectiles once the MRI machine is turned on.

Portable Whirlpool Bath

Not quite the equivalent of a museum in a valise but definitely on the right track.

From the website:

Instant Whirlpool Bath

Unlike traditional massaging chairs and pads, this soothing mat combines a massage and powerful 300-jet whirlpool to transform an ordinary bathtub into a whirlpool spa.

Fully padded, the mat spreads easily along the length of your tub, providing rotating foot rollers, a separate powered neck massage and a dual back massage to relax aching muscles with vibration and fully adjustable therapeutic whirlpool bubbles.

A floating, water-resistant remote allows easy, one-touch control and a 9-foot air hose lets you place the motor safely out of the way.

The mat easily folds away for convenient storage.

The neck massaging pad and the remote require a total of six AAA batteries (not included).

12-1/2"W x 48"L.

17-1/2 lbs.

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Finally — you can bring the party with you.

$139.95.

American Names — by Stephen Vincent Benét

I have fallen in love with American names,
The sharp names that never get fat,
The snakeskin-titles of mining-claims,
The plumed war-bonnet of Medicine Hat,
Tucson and Deadwood and Lost Mule Flat.

Seine and Piave are silver spoons,
But the spoonbowl-metal is thin and worn,
There are English counties like hunting-tunes
Played on the keys of a postboy's horn,
But I will remember where I was born.

I will remember Carquinez Straits,
Little French Lick and Lundy's Lane,
The Yankee ships and the Yankee dates
And the bullet-towns of Calamity Jane.
I will remember Skunktown Plain.

I will fall in love with a Salem tree
And a rawhide quirt from Santa Cruz,
I will get me a bottle of Boston sea
And a blue-gum nigger to sing me blues.
I am tired of loving a foreign muse.

Rue des Martyrs and Bleeding-Heart-Yard,
Senlis, Pisa, and Blindman's Oast,
It is a magic ghost you guard
But I am sick for a newer ghost,
Harrisburg, Spartanburg, Painted Post.

Henry and John were never so
And Henry and John were always right?
Granted, but when it was time to go
And the tea and the laurels had stood all night,
Did they never watch for Nantucket Light?

I shall not rest quiet in Montparnasse.
I shall not lie easy at Winchelsea.
You may bury my body in Sussex grass,
You may bury my tongue at Champmedy.
I shall not be there. I shall rise and pass.
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee.

Cord Cover – 'When you can't hide them, dress them up!'

That's what it says on the website.

More:

Now you can dress up unsightly computer cords and lamp cords the way professional decorators do.

Handmade of rich, crisp dupioni silk, this cord cover goes on quickly and easily.

Patented tube design makes it easy to install and even allows you to shorten cords without having to rewire your lamp or appliance.

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In Pebble, Champagne, Chardonnay,

Garnet or Olive.

9 feet long x 2" diameter — cut to size.

Dry clean only (the cover — not the cord and lamp, booboo).

$29.95.

Peach M&M's?

How about Black Cherry, Dark Chocolate Mint, Raspberry, and Orange?

Not a joke or a cruel Bizarro World spam but the real thing, it would appear.

Last night I was just moseying along here on the treadmill at 0.7 mph, doing something close 2 nothing (from different than the day before) when, at precisely 10:53 p.m., in came an email with the following subject line:

"8 New M&M's. Taste 'em first!"

Here is the body of the email:

Now, as a rule when someone demands I do something that costs money and and says I have to do it right now, I walk away.

99+% of the time you're better off saying no to such imperatives.

But this is the exception that proves the rule.

A chance to taste a Peach M&M?

Be still, my heart — where do I sign?

And so I did.

They're not cheap: a 24 oz. tin consisting of 8 pie-shaped segments (top), one for each flavor, costs — after postage, tax and whatnot — $76.44.

That's over $50 a pound, as much as the very best smoked salmon.

But then, world-class smoked salmon is just chopped liver next to Peach M&M's.

Then I got to wondering how it was that I made it onto M&M's exclusive email list.

Must be because Shawn Lea, back in the day, ordered me some special bookofjoe M&M's and they kept my mailing address.

Thanks, Shawn!

The email says these eight new flavors are "Limited Edition" and that the offer is "only valid through this email while supplies last."

Which I take to mean that only people who received the offer directly are supposed to be able to order them.

Let's see if we can game the system, what?

Here's a link where you can order your very own Limited Edition M&M's.

Sweet.

Freedom Digital TV USB Stick

Why can't we buy it in the U.S.?

I just read a glowing review by Jonathan Margolis in his May 19 Financial Times "technopolis" column of this remarkable device.

Long story short: It turns your laptop into a television, digital TV recorder and digital radio.

Bonus: "You can even burn programmes you record onto a CD or DVD."

Lucky you if you live in England — Amazon U.K. sells it for £33.95.

Kyoji Asada is 'Toilet Geek'

Anthony Faiola got down with one of the world's top toilet designers for a refreshing story that appeared in the May 14 Washington Post.

Thirty-five-year-old Kyoji Asada (above, inspecting one of his creations for Toto in situ at Kitakyushu International Airport) is the man to see when you want the very best in toilet function.

Here's the Post article.

Flush With Success

An Afternoon with Japan's 'Toilet Geek'

Darting through the 3:30 p.m. passenger rush at a new airport here, a hurried 35-year-old in a gray business suit made a beeline for the men's room.

Heading for the nearest open stall, Kyoji Asada threw aside his briefcase and quickly got down to business -- a spot inspection of the toilet bowl.

For more than a decade as a top designer for Japan's bathroom appliance giant Toto Ltd., Asada has been responsible for developing the Rolls Royces of porcelain thrones.

There are toilets with heated seats.

Toilets with cleansing water sprays and drying-action air blasts.

Toilets with built-in deodorizers and soothing river sounds to cover up embarrassing smells and sounds.

"Going to the toilet should be about relaxation, comfort and cleanliness," he said.

"I strongly believe the Japanese have the cleanest and most comfortable toilets in the world."

He is here to make sure of that.

During his 50- to 60-hour workweeks, random bathroom inspections are one way Asada keeps himself and Toto's first-rate team of toilet engineers on their toes.

"I often do this at friends' houses or when I'm a dinner guest," said the man Japanese newspapers have dubbed "the Toilet Geek."

"I seize the opportunity whenever I can."

The bathrooms at the two-month-old Kitakyushu International Airport in southwestern Japan contain some of Toto's newest, top-of-the-line toilets -- elegant egg-shaped units that seem to hover above the ground.

During his first chance to get up close and personal with them since installation, Asada's passion for his job overflowed.

"We developed them without a base. Their pipes attach from their backs directly into the wall," he explained with excitement, caressing the toilet with his hand.

"With nothing underneath, you can see how easy it is for someone to wipe the floor. It makes a bathroom easy to keep spotless."

He lifted the toilet seat and winced at a few drops of seepage dried underneath.

"This is what these visits are all about," he said.

"I'll report back to the team that we need to find a method to keep this cleaner."

As Asada shared his theories on toilets with the three people with him, two women and a foreign reporter, an elderly man burst through the men's room door, reaching for his zipper.

Startled by the gathering inside, he turned on his heels in search of more tranquil facilities.

Bathrooms, Asada explained an hour later en route to Toto's factory labs in the heart of this city of 1 million, are accorded a special place in Japan.

In a cramped society, toilets offer a rare form of personal escape and, these days, a chance for a refreshing wash.

In two decades, Toto has sold more than 20 million of its electronic Washlets -- high-tech toilet lids with bidet-like sprayers first inspired by a short-lived American invention for hemorrhoid sufferers.

Washlets are now almost ubiquitous in Japan, a fact Asada credits to the national obsession with hygiene.

A Japanese proverb says that pregnant women who keep their toilets sparkling clean will give birth to attractive babies.

The Japanese word for clean -- kirei -- is the same as the word for beautiful.

Japanese almost always use moist towelettes to wipe their hands before meals.

"Why shouldn't it apply to other places on the body?" Asada said.

Around 4 p.m., he walked through a line of freshly kilned urinals on the Toto factory floor, heading toward the test unit for his pièce de résistance, the Neo Rest.

After listening to feedback from housewives ashamed about the unsightly marks they occasionally left inside toilet bowls, Asada invented a unit fitted with a tornado-like flush and cleaning cycle that wipes away all the evidence.

Other special features include music, a massage with pulses of warm water and built-in emitters of fragrance, including the scents of rose and cherry blossoms.

Even with its $4,000 price tag, the Neo Rest has become one of Toto's hottest sellers.

Actor Will Smith became smitten during a 2004 trip to Japan; his staff later requested the stateside version from Toto's American division.

After running through tests of Toto's new easily cleanable porcelain, Asada passed through the company's toilet museum -- which includes an extra-wide seat of honor for sumo wrestlers -- on his way to the factory's top-secret research lab.

There, he and his team are on a tight deadline to produce a new breakthrough in toilet technology.

Even after the factory's 5 p.m. whistle blew, Asada's technicians were busy observing flushing action on artificial human waste in an experimental model.

Soon, Asada would roll up his shirt sleeves and join them.

But he refused to discuss the new toilet, citing jealously guarded trade secrets.

"Maybe we can't build the perfect toilet," he said, showing his guests out of the factory.

"But we can build the toilet that no one has yet imagined. That is our mission."

Grill Rings — 'Eat a peach'

Selected by both the T.S. Eliot and Allman Brothers fan clubs

as a notable item for 2006.

You don't often see an overlap in the Venn Diagram

of those two groups.

But I digress.

From the website:

Grill the unexpected!

Now you can grill almost anything — artichokes, potatoes, even fruit!

A spike conducts heat so food cooks faster; also keeps food upright and prevents it from rolling.

We like these stainless steel rings for cooking onions but you can also use them for grilling the unexpected: apples, pears, bell peppers, even artichokes!

Dishwasher-safe stainless-steel.

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A perfectly-matched set of 3 is $9.95 (fruit and vegetables not included).