Out Of Hospital

You'll be pleased to know that I got out of hospital at 2pm or so today, and am recovering well. They did a hemihepatectomy, removing the right (larger) half of my liver - Couinaud segments 5, 6, 7 and 8. This was a success; my liver function is now normal and, over the next couple of months, the remaining half will grow in size and capacity up to 90-95% of the original. The scar across my stomach is slightly less than a foot long, and there's a 4 inch vertical section up the centre as well. The Wikipedia article calls it a Caine or "Mercedes Benz" incision, which isn't far from the truth. I might take a photo when I get a chance.

So I'm back in the position of having no known cancer in my body. Of course, I've been here several times before :-) Thank you to all those of you who were praying for me. God is sovereign (in all adjectival senses).

I opened my Bible during recovery and it fell open at the following section (not that I recommend that as a general method of deciding what parts to read):

But now thus says the LORD,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
"Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the LORD your God,
The Holy One of Israel, your Saviour."

-- Isaiah 43:1-3 (ESV)

Also, if one's own Wikipedia entry acquires a "notability" tag (although this was rather quickly dismissed last time), is it permitted to perform the necessary expansion oneself? I thought that was rather frowned upon. If it is something that's not done, then if anyone else wants to have a go, please feel free :-)

Music Review: Britney Spears -

Britney's best album comes out of the haze of her personal life just in time.
Britney Spears released Blackout, somehow, in October of 2007. Despite all of the hullabaloo and rubbish embedded in her personal life, this is the best album Britney’s ever made. It is deeply produced, often chaotic, and often obnoxiously breathy. Nevertheless, Blackout is also amazingly captivating, precariously danceable, and damned...

Music Review: Dream Theater -

22 reasons to explain the history and mystery that is Dream Theater.
Well, with Dream Theater off to pastures new for their most recent album Systematic Chaos, it was inevitable that a compilation from their old paymasters would appear on the shelves. So welcome to the knowingly titled Greatest Hit.That hit, "Pull Me Under," opens the show with a new remix from Kevin Shirley, one of three new mixes...

Music Review: R.E.M. -

This isn't a review; it's a snapshot.
This isn't going to be a review of R.E.M.'s Accelerate; well, not exactly. A review, to me, implies past tense. It implies a verdict has been reached and a decision will be rendered. I liveblogged the record when it was released Tuesday. I knew then my opinions would evolve as my first impressions were nullified by subsequent...

Senator Clinton Will Be The Next President, Because She has Found Great Favor With God.

God Loves Hillary because she the most amusing candidate in the most amusing party. Hillary will win!
There are those who believe that the Gods decided to create man for their own amusement. My personal belief is that once upon an eon long ago, they became tired of throwing thunder bolts and other stuff out into an infinite but empty universe, couldn't think of anything else to do and were bored stiff. Finally, one of the cleverer Gods...

TV Review: - "Canada On Strike!"

What, what... in the butt! Brilliant South Park satire of the recent writers' strike.
Season twelve of South Park continues to hit high notes with “Canada On Strike!” This is what South Park does best -- lining up the confluence of power and self-righteousness and gleefully hanging it with its own rope. Trey Parker and Matt Stone despise the arrogance of authority and privilege. One of the most common satirical...

Music Review: Indie Round-Up - Michael Veitch, Josh Fix, Keith Killgo

Josh Fix's densely produced, rocking, accessible pop will remind some listeners of Ben Folds.
Michael Veitch, Painted HeartThe latest release from Woodstock-based singer-songwriter Michael Veitch takes the listener through the mostly dark recesses of the heart, but with sweet tones and an appealing sense of weightlessness. With a little Cat Stevens and a little Al Stewart in his flutey voice, a lot of skill and soul in his songs, a batch...

Reality TV Casting Call Weekly Wrap-Up: , The CW: New Makeover Show, Sci Fi's , (Season 6), and More!

Do you need a shrink? Would you like to lose 100 pounds? Do you live out in the boonies and need a complete makeover?
Here are the latest reality TV casting calls. Are you ready for your 15 minutes? Check out what we have on tap this week. Good luck!Now Casting LA ShrinkThey’re young, beautiful… and all seeing the same shrink! LA Shrink is a modern day reality show that follows four twenty-something girlfriends all juggling work, complicated...

Presented By: Communicate with the team any time or place.

Communicate with the team any time or place.   Adobe Acrobat 8 lets you instantly review, comment, mark up and share your thoughts and send a PDF to the whole team. Keep track of everyone's changes. All with the ease and security of Adobe Acrobat: a great tool that helps your business flow. www.adobe.com
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Music Review: Emily Saxe -

Emily Saxe's fourth album is like breakfast for the soul.
The sun rose this morning and poked through the mist in the backyard. Emily Saxe’s Keeping You in Mind found itself in heavy rotation again and worked a little like breakfast for the soul. The album’s sweetness and down-home feel gives it a tender quality, making it ideal for watching the day unfold.Saxe issued her three previous albums...

Book Review: by Dr. Lisa Love

This book will teach the law of attraction to those who were turned off by the original version.
As a follower of The Secret, I couldn't wait to read this book. When I saw "Spiritual Power," my curiosity peaked. But it turned out not to be the "new age" type of spiritual power, but rather that of a religious viewpoint. Which in itself isn't a bad thing, and Dr. Love did a great job explaining her views and how they work. I'm sure there will...

Facebook Getting Nasty About Lock-In

As I have mentioned before, Facebook put images, rather than text, of email addresses in Facebook profiles. They suggest this is a privacy-enhancing measure, but given that it's fairly easy for someone with nefarious intent to circumvent it, it's quite clearly done to encourage your average person to use mechanisms within Facebook to communicate, rather than normal email. Chris Finke wrote the Image-to-Email extension to turn the images back into HTML clickable links.

Now, Facebook have sent him a cease-and-desist regarding Facebook Image-to-Email (and another extension of his). According to Chris, their stance is that both extensions violated the section of the TOS which says "you shall not use automated scripts to collect information from or otherwise interact with the Service or the Site".

For Image-to-Email, at least, this is wrong in two ways:

1) The extension doesn't violate the section of the TOS they claim it does
2) The extension is not a threat to user privacy

1) This extension cannot count as an "automated script", unless a web browser counts as an "automated script". A web browser takes the HTML that Facebook sends to a user and, instead of displaying it as plain text, renders it in a different way which is more visually pleasing and easier to read and interact with. Facebook Image-to-Email takes an image Facebook sends to a user and, instead of displaying it as an image, renders it in a different way which is also easier to interact with. Both tools do exactly the same job; you cannot prohibit one without prohibiting the other.

Image-to-Email doesn't follow links, walk your social graph or any of the other things that might cause it to be labelled "automated".

2) Facebook Image-to-Email saves people having to retype email addresses in order to email their Facebook friends. This cannot be a threat to privacy because any email address I could use it on, I could already see. There is no way I can use it to access email addresses I don't already have access to.

Facebook should come clean and admit their real reason for threatening Chris ("We will be forced to become more formal... Hopefully you won't choose that path") is to maintain platform lock-in.

Updated Licence Policy

For quite a while now I've been working on an updated mozilla.org License Policy. This document has two parts:

• A prescriptive part which says what licences are and aren't permitted for what parts of our code. There have been no changes here so this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, but it is now hopefully explained in a clearer way.
• A descriptive part which says what licences currently apply to what parts of our code. This information has never been gathered in one place before, and should hopefully be helpful to people wanting to use our code in other contexts.

Please review the draft document, particularly if you are the owner of a mozilla.org project like Bugzilla, Rhino, Tinderbox etc. and make sure that you understand the prescriptive parts, and that the descriptive parts are correct :-) If either of them seems wrong, let me know and I will investigate.

Inefficient GreaseMonkey Scripts

I've been having performance problems with my Firefox (2) for months. Opening lots of tabs at once, or even a particularly large page, would cause the browser to freeze for several seconds. I finally got around to tracking this down, and it turned out to be a couple of GreaseMonkey scripts.

These scripts fire on every page and scan the page text for particular things (in my case, UK postcodes and Bible references) and hyperlinkify them.

The postcode linkifier puts together an XPath expression:

var xpath = "//text()[(parent::" + allowedParents.join(" or parent::") + ")]";

where allowedParents is an array of 50 tag names. It then evaluates it, and applies a complicated postcode regexp (although not quite the full thing):

const pcRegex = /\b[A-PR-UWYZ][A-HK-Y0-9][A-HJKSTUW0-9]?[ABEHMNPRVWXY0-9]?
{1,2}[0-9][ABD-HJLN-UW-Z]{2}\b/g;

to all the text. I can imagine that this is inefficient, although I wouldn't like to guess at which part takes the lion's share.

The Bible refalizer uses simpler XPath:

textNodes = document.evaluate('//text()', document, null,
XPathResult.UNORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE, null);

but a much more complicated regexp involving various abbreviations of the names of the 66 books of the Bible.

So the question is: is there a way of providing this type of full-text search and modify function which has acceptable performance? Does the Firefox platform need to provide more help with this particular use case? It seems to me that it might be quite common.

Blue Cross of California starts pay-for-performance program for hospitals (BizJournals)

Blue Cross of California starts pay-for-performance program for hospitals (BizJournals)
San Ramon Regional Medical Center, a Tenet HealthCare Corp. hospital in the East Bay, is one of 23 California hospitals where Blue Cross of California will introduce a new pay-for-performance program.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois Announces 2007 Charitable Donations (PR Newswire via Yahoo! News)
Blue Cross promotes health and wellness through nearly $3.5 million in gifts supporting medical care for the uninsured, human services, education, and arts organizations in Illinois

Blue Cross of California Introduces Pay-for-Performance Hospital Program (The San Francisco Examiner)
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. ( Map ) - THOUSAND OAKS, Calif., March 19 /PRNewswire/ -. Blue Cross of California (Blue Cross) today announced the introduction of its Quality-in-Sights Hospital Incentive Program (Q-HIP) in 23 California hospitals.

Medicare Part D - Cancer patients covered only by Medicare face problems in getting

Cancer patients covered only by Medicare face problems in getting chemotherapy (Muskogee Phoenix)
Federal Medicare cutbacks have put some cancer patients in a tough spot, said the chief executive officer at Oklahoma Oncology. Ken Butcher said Medicare-only patients seeking treatment at Muskogee Regional Cancer Center may have problems if they need chemotherapy.

Medicare Announces Expanded Coverage For Warfarin Patients Monitoring Clotting Time At Home (Medical News Today)
Medicare Part B will now cover and pay for meter training, equipment and supplies for all long-term warfarin users who monitor their prothrombin time at home with a portable handheld meter. The change opens the door to greater convenience and potentially fewer complications for a broader spectrum of anticoagulation patients.

137 In Congress Send Letters To CMS On Medicare Bidding Concerns - AAHomecare (Medical News Today)
Tuesday, bipartisan groups of 120 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and 17 U.S. Senators sent letters to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) raising concerns about the impact of a new Medicare competitive bidding program on small durable medical equipment (DME) providers.

Florida Hospital looks to sign new radiology team (Orlando Sentinel)

Florida Hospital looks to sign new radiology team (Orlando Sentinel)
Florida Hospital is looking for a new radiology group to take over the radiology services for its seven hospitals in Central Florida.

Highlights of bills passed (Detroit Free Press)
Highlights of bills passed by the Michigan House and pending in the Senate Four bills promoted by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan would change pricing and rate-setting policies for people who buy their own health insurance.

Medicare won't cover retiree's medical costs (The Post-Standard)
Q. When I turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare, will I need any other health insurance? A. Medicare will not cover all your costs.

Seniors' Issues: How do you find a new doctor? (Muskogee Phoenix)
DEAR JUDY: I just read your article on Medicare and assignment. Thank you for the info. My parents are in their 80s and have lived in their home for their entire lives. My two brothers and I all live in another state.

Medicare Part D - Medicare Announces Expanded Coverage For Warfarin Patients Monitoring Clotting Time

Medicare Announces Expanded Coverage For Warfarin Patients Monitoring Clotting Time At Home (Medical News Today)
Medicare Part B will now cover and pay for meter training, equipment and supplies for all long-term warfarin users who monitor their prothrombin time at home with a portable handheld meter. The change opens the door to greater convenience and potentially fewer complications for a broader spectrum of anticoagulation patients.

Medicare Announces Expanded Coverage for Anticoagulation Patients, Opening the Door for More Patients to Test PT/INR ... (PR Newswire via Yahoo! Finance)
Medicare Part B will now cover and pay for meter training, equipment and supplies for all long-term warfarin users who monitor their own PT/INR results at home with portable meters, such as the CoaguChek XS System for Patient Self-Testing.

Medicare Announces Expanded Coverage for Anticoagulation Patients, Opening the Door for More Patients to Test PT/INR ... (PRWeb via Yahoo! News)
Medicare Part B will now cover and pay for meter training, equipment and supplies for all long-term warfarin users who monitor their own PT/INR results at home with portable meters, such as the CoaguChek XS System for Patient Self-Testing. This expansion opens the door to increased patient access to testing, which could lead to better outcomes.

Medicare Announces Expanded Coverage for Anticoagulation Patients, Opening the Door for More Patients to Test PT/INR ... (PRWeb)
Medicare Part B will now cover and pay for meter training, equipment and supplies for all long-term warfarin users who monitor their own PT/INR results at home with portable meters, such as the CoaguChek XS System for Patient Self-Testing. This expansion opens the door to increased patient access to testing, which could lead to better outcomes. (PRWeb Mar 20, 2008) Read the full story at ...

Culling in bird-flu hit town to be completed Sunday (Calcutta

Culling in bird-flu hit town to be completed Sunday (Calcutta News)
The slaughtering of 44,000 poultry birds in West Bengal's bird flu-hit Malda district is expected to be completed by Sunday, an official said. 'We expect to finish by Sunday the culling drive within a three km-radius from the epicentre of the fresh bird flu outbreak in English Bazaar town.

India expands culling zone to stop bird flu (Independent Online)
Veterinary staff has begun killing thousands of chickens after a fresh bird flu outbreak in India.

Booster patch helps bird flu vaccine: study (Reuters via Yahoo! News)
A skin patch helped boost a bird flu vaccine so well that people appear to be protected by a single dose, researchers at biotechnolgy firm Iomai said on Thursday.

Health Care Exclusions Targeted (Hartford Courant) As a diabetic, Rita

Health Care Exclusions Targeted (Hartford Courant)
As a diabetic, Rita Gould of Killingworth knows all too well the problem posed by "pre-existing conditions" when it comes to health insurance. It cost her a lot of worry and $1,242 a month in premiums.

Today's to dos (Kinston Free Press)
The planetarium at Neuseway Nature Park will be presenting an Easter planetarium show at 4 p.m. Saturday. The show will focus on recently discovered events, using astronomy software that shows the sky at the time of biblical Easter events.

Mark calendar with events from March 21 to 27 (The Adobe Press)
n Praise and Worship Under the Stars will he held from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at 750 Monarch Lane. Call Todd or Andrea at 931-0207 or Calvary Chapel of Nipomo at 929-2540.

Community Calendar (Arroyo Grande Times Press Recorder)
n Big Brothers Big Sisters Easter Egg fundraiser will be hosted by Rent-a-Center at 1446 East Grand Ave. in the Spencer s Market Shopping Center in Arroyo Grande through Saturday. Paper eggs can be purchased for donations of $1 or more and will be displayed at the store.

Florida May Suspend Life Insurance Company (CBS4 Miami) American General

Florida May Suspend Life Insurance Company (CBS4 Miami)
American General Life Insurance might be getting the boot from doing business in Florida. State regulators are moving to suspend American General Life after the company denied health insurance for a member of Congress.

State want to suspend American General over life insurance (Bradenton Herald)
Florida insurance regulators moved Wednesday to suspend American General Life Insurance from doing business in the state, in part as a result of a congressional member having her application rejected.

HCC names new EVP of life insurance subsidiary (Insurance Business Review)
HCC Insurance Holdings has promoted Daniel Strusz to the position of executive vice president of its subsidiary HCC Life Insurance Company. Mr Strusz will report to HCC Lifes president and CEO Craig Kelbel.

Medicare Part D - CMS Selects National Government Services To Administer Medicare Claims Payment

CMS Selects National Government Services To Administer Medicare Claims Payment - In Connecticut And New York (Medical News Today)
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today announced that National Government Services (NGS) has been awarded a contract of up to five years for the combined administration of Part A and Part B Medicare claims payment in Connecticut and New York.

Medicare Announces Expanded Coverage For Warfarin Patients Monitoring Clotting Time At Home (Medical News Today)
Medicare Part B will now cover and pay for meter training, equipment and supplies for all long-term warfarin users who monitor their prothrombin time at home with a portable handheld meter. The change opens the door to greater convenience and potentially fewer complications for a broader spectrum of anticoagulation patients.

Cancer patients covered only by Medicare face problems in getting chemotherapy (Muskogee Phoenix)
Federal Medicare cutbacks have put some cancer patients in a tough spot, said the chief executive officer at Oklahoma Oncology. Ken Butcher said Medicare-only patients seeking treatment at Muskogee Regional Cancer Center may have problems if they need chemotherapy.

Blue Cross parent hit with shareholder suit (Los Angeles Business

Blue Cross parent hit with shareholder suit (Los Angeles Business Journal)
WellPoint Inc., the parent company of Thousand Oaks' Blue Cross of California, is facing a shareholder lawsuit following a revision of its earnings guidance after market close March 10. (WLP)

Blue Cross of California Introduces Pay-for-Performance Hospital Program (The San Francisco Examiner)
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. ( Map ) - THOUSAND OAKS, Calif., March 19 /PRNewswire/ -. Blue Cross of California (Blue Cross) today announced the introduction of its Quality-in-Sights Hospital Incentive Program (Q-HIP) in 23 California hospitals.

Failed Blue Cross pact still hurts (The Fresno Bee)
Seven months after Children's Hospital Central California canceled its contract with Blue Cross of California, poor children in the central San Joaquin Valley are still suffering the effects, doctors and health advocates say.

Blue Cross of California starts pay-for-performance program for hospitals (Los Angeles Business Journal)
Blue Cross of California will introduce a new pay-for-performance program in 23 California hospitals.