Liver Diagnosis: Lab Dx II review for final

1. Know why the enzymes on a hepatic panel are not necessarily good indicators of liver function and what tests are better indicators of liver function?
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2010 year end summary from PCI

What a wild ride 2010 has been! A Gulf oil rig blows up; a West Virginia coal mine explosion kills 29; Greece and Ireland teeter on the edge of default; governments around the world rearrange the deck chairs through austerity measures and quantitative easing; the hottest year on record creates catastrophic floods and fires across the globe; the International Energy Agency finally acknowledges peak oil (saying that it happened five years ago!); and US midterm elections promise another two years of gridlock and political grandstanding.

from the Post Carbon Institute

also interesting, a view of where we are in the pattern of resource and culture:
http://www.postcarbon.org/article/178709-the-end-of-growth

I have the ACLU chromosome

Jeff Sessions is not my favorite Senator, even though I also am from the south. He spoke at length on the senate floor about the threat imposed by judicial nominees who are affiliated with the ACLU. Really? I'll vote for candidates who offer their time and talents to the ACLU more reliably than I would for anyone like Sessions. What's wrong with the ACLU, anyway? Do you believe that they, and I, have a "liberal, progressive agenda"? He certainly does.

QotD: the Canoe

The first thing you must learn about canoeing is that the canoe is not
a lifeless, inanimate object: it feels very much alive, alive with the life of the river.
Life is transmitted to the canoe by currents of air and the water upon which it
rides. The behavior and temperament of a canoe is dependent upon the elements:
from the slightest breeze to a raging storm, from the smallest ripple to a towering
wave, or from a meandering stream to a thundering rapid. Anyone can handle a
canoe in a quiet millpond, but in rapids a canoe is like a wild stallion. It must be
kept on a tight rein. The canoeist must take the canoe where he or she wants it to
go, not where it wants to go. Given the chance, the canoe will dump you
overboard and continue on down the river by itself.
--Bill Mason