As you can probably tell, I’ve started back up on an all-hours rotation in the hospital. I’ll try to keep up, but judging by my performance the other times I’ve been on the inpatient wards, I don’t know how well I’ll do.

Oh, by the way, I can tell all of you that there’s not a chance in hell that any doctor would perform a cardiac catheterization if there weren’t an urgent need. The White House is spinning this one big time. (Update: Salon has the president-elect of the American College of Cardiology saying the same thing, and in addition, pointing out the strategic wording that the White House has used to not have to admit that Cheney had another heart attack.)

Finally, AdCritic has the Nike ad, heavy in rotation right now, with all the NBA players dribbling and squeaking their shoes. I love this ad.

Controversy is brewing in Japan because a woman, the first female governor in the country, wants to present an award in a sumo wrestling ring. The traditions surrounding sumo prevent women from entering the ring, because it is ostensibly a sacred place in which the “unpure” (a group in which all women are included, apparently) are prohibited. Nice to see that the U.S. doesn’t have a solo grasp on ignorance and intolerance.

Gawd, was this the storm that wasn’t. Yesterday, the hospital cancelled many clinics and services in anticipation of the worst of it; today, despite it being much worse out than yesterday, everything was open — probably because it still isn’t that bad out.

Napster gets smacked down by Judge Marilyn Hall Patel. Particularly damaging to the service is Patel’s response to the objection that it would be difficult for Napster’s people to ferret out all the attempts to circumvent the banning of copyrighted material — she acknowledged the problem, but noted that “this difficulty, however, does not relieve Napster of its duty.” (The entire five-page ruling is here.)

I still have yet to figure out this parody fan site run by Slate. Why does it exist? I’m confused. It’s not their only one, either, but none of them make any damn sense. (Update: Dan pointed out that all these sites are part of Slate’s Blorple Falls, West Carolina site — but it still makes no sense.)

Cool — it’s my corner. I wonder how much they paid the poor people who had to go and take all these 360-degree panoramas, and how long it took them. (Thanks to Heather for the site.)