Doctor and Patient: Afraid to Speak Up to Medical Power

The slender, weather-beaten, elderly Polish immigrant had been diagnosed with lung cancer nearly a year earlier and was receiving chemotherapy as part of a clinical trial. I was a surgical consultant, called in to help control the fluid that kept accumulating in his lungs.During one visit, he motioned for me to come closer. His voice was hoarse from a tumor that spread, and the constant hissing from...

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Cardinal Health Buys AssuraMed for $2 Billion

Cardinal Health, the second-largest distributor of prescription drugs, announced on Thursday that it was buying a large medical supplier in a $2 billion deal aimed at expanding the business into the growing area of home health care. The medical supplier, the privately held AssuraMed, supplies products for home use to aid treatment of diabetes, wounds, incontinence and other conditions. It...

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Defense Nerds Strike Back: A Symposium on the Battle of Hoth

So. You guys have really, really strong opinions about the Battle of Hoth. Many took issue with my argument that Hoth represented a military debacle for the Galactic Empire. Some questioned the (meta)factual premises of my case (are TIE Fighters even capable of in-atmospheric flight?). Others argued that Vader was deliberately trying to lose, rendering my essay myopic. Still others desired...

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Nicole Kidman, Halle Berry, Reese Witherspoon, Sandra Bullock presenting at Oscars

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Four former Best Actress winners will converge on stage at this year’s Oscar telecast, the show’s producers said Wednesday.Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon will present an award, although the show’s producers were mum about whether or not they will take the stage together. If they do, it may mean a return to a format that was deployed and...

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Phys Ed: Getting the Right Dose of Exercise

Phys EdGretchen Reynolds on the science of fitness.Fitness TrackerMarathon, half-marathon, 10k and 5K training plans to get you race ready.A common concern about exercise is that if you don’t do it almost every day, you won’t achieve much health benefit. But a commendable new study suggests otherwise, showing that a fairly leisurely approach to scheduling workouts may actually be more beneficial than...

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Cisco Tops Expectations With Rise in Profit of 44%

SAN FRANCISCO — Cisco Systems reported surprisingly strong results for its second quarter despite concerns about weak demand in some areas. Cisco, the San Jose, Calif., networking giant, said that net income in the second quarter rose 44 percent to $3.1 billion, or 59 cents a share, from the year-ago quarter. The company said revenue climbed 5 percent, to $12.1 billion. Excluding...

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Guantanamo witness testifies on courtroom eavesdropping allegations

FT. MEADE, Md. -- Top officials at the terror detainee prison at the U.S. Naval Base on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, began testifying...

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Intel Teases Set-Top Box to Compete With Cable

Intel is developing a set-top box that delivers video on demand and live TV over the internet, a move that would place it in competition with the likes of Roku and your local cable company.There’s no word on who’ll provide the all-important content we’d see on such a box or what we’d pay for it when it appears later this year, but Erik Huggers, Intel’s corporate vice president of media, promises...

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Director Panahi defies Iran ban to make another film

BERLIN (Reuters) – Iran‘s Jafar Panahi has defied a 20-year ban on filmmaking to secretly co-direct “Closed Curtain“, a multi-layered portrayal of how restrictions on his work and movement have brought on depression and even thoughts of suicide.The movie, in competition at the Berlin film festival, has its premiere on Tuesday, but Panahi was not expected on the red carpet despite festival organizers...

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Well: Straining to Hear and Fend Off Dementia

At a party the other night, a fund-raiser for a literary magazine, I found myself in conversation with a well-known author whose work I greatly admire. I use the term “conversation” loosely. I couldn’t hear a word he said. But worse, the effort I was making to hear was using up so much brain power that I completely forgot the titles of his books.A senior moment? Maybe. (I’m 65.) But for me, it’s complicated...

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