MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'infinite'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:39:55 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4355874&cid=t_177946_136_f&fid=35302&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FWhitePebble%2F%7E3%2FD-_B8hTIfwc%2F Image by Rockies via Flickr I dragged up my copy of Infinite Jest last night before going to bed. I suppose that I thought I would make some kind of headway into it at last, after more than a year of ignoring the poor thing. Now it sits on the radiator, staring at me. I left off reading the book last year after it was far more effective at making me feel the cultural emptiness that inhabits and surrounds all of the characters. I needed a time out. I suppose that a year is enough of a time out. I have also skimmed the end of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet and am looking for my next book. Thus, the reasoning behind dragging Infinite Jest upstairs. Anthony Powell‘s books — A Dance to the Music of Time — are in the running as serious candidates. Not sure about Don DeLillo —... white pebble blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4355874 Sun, 16 Jan 2011 14:19:01 +0100 4355874 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2774886&cid=t_177946_136_f&fid=35302&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FWhitePebble%2F%7E3%2F3GxrldRrmUc%2F David Foster Wallace’s writing is like a firework, always fading away. A.S. Byatt’s writing has life in it. It is solid, and will happily last and live as long as is possible for a book to live. DFW’s Infinite Jest frightens me with the possibility always of its frivolity, its center of nothingness, despair, entertainment as a main goal in life and entertainment as ultimately empty and leading literally to death and decay and waste around us. It is amazing that DFW lived long enough to create that work. It is amazing that he lived through all of the experiences that he must have in order to write of these subjects, of addiction to substances and activities and of recovery from these addictions. You can’t simply make up stuff like the monologues and descriptions of A... white pebble blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2774886 Mon, 07 Sep 2009 20:27:08 +0100 2774886 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2737985&cid=t_177946_136_f&fid=35302&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FWhitePebble%2F%7E3%2F_bMHLXUKUlQ%2F … and sleeping too little, I think. I am just realizing how daunting the list is. Infinite Jest (which you might have guessed already) The Shadow of the Wind The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society The Children’s Book (by A. S. Byatt, not in print over here yet until September) On the back burner: War and Peace The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance So, I can’t really lay a claim to boredom at the moment. Related articles by Zemanta Q & A: Author Carlos Ruiz Zafon (time.com) Carlos Ruiz Zafon Novel Debuts on Top of Indie Bestseller List (mediabistro.com) Vacation Reading 2009 (literatehousewife.com) Omni Daily Crush: “The Inner Game of Tennis” (omnivoracious.com) The new generation’s Catch-22 (gu... white pebble blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2737985 Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:48:29 +0100 2737985 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2727381&cid=t_177946_136_f&fid=35302&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FWhitePebble%2F%7E3%2Fxa5N8aT-EM0%2F The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you. — Lyle, in Infinite Jest, page 389 (Source: white pebble) white pebble blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2727381 Sun, 23 Aug 2009 22:07:57 +0100 2727381 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2725228&cid=t_177946_136_f&fid=35302&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FWhitePebble%2F%7E3%2FZAWo0TbxBQE%2F Posted via email from Patti’s posterous (Source: white pebble) white pebble blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2725228 Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:41:48 +0100 2725228 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2716196&cid=t_177946_136_f&fid=35302&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FWhitePebble%2F%7E3%2FQqzdoJ6_sjY%2F Image by qousqous via Flickr I am still, as stated earlier, reading Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. I have decided that it’s not a novel that I am continuing to read because I like it, though I do. I’ve given up on a lot of likeable novels. There is also the allure of actually finishing a “cool” and “important” novel, and therefore having a license to drone on about it to everyone within earshot. That’s not been a deciding factor ever since I gave up reading Gravity’s Rainbow when it came out when I was in high school. That book was immediately made cool by some sort of critical osmosis that I could never quite fathom. I chucked it after about 54 pages of humor (I think) that I simply didn’t get. I have decided that, unlike mo... white pebble blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2716196 Thu, 20 Aug 2009 02:24:43 +0100 2716196 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2699859&cid=t_177946_136_f&fid=35302&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FWhitePebble%2F%7E3%2Fb_3du4H8aR0%2F Image by CarbonNYC via Flickr So I had given up on this book that I had deemed somehow unlikeable, Infinite Jest, that is, and had gone off to other, more accessible works, like Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, but I was drawn back into the book — just one glance, mind you — by my own blog’s tag line. How could I resist? And now, to make a short story even shorter, I have taken the book back up again. I doubt that I shall make it to the end by the time that the other summer readers are done, but there it is. I wish that it would cease feeling like homework. I also suppose that the good old Roman Empire will have to be put off until further notice. Pity — I was working up a good momentum in that book. Related articles by Zemanta Mathematics in Infinite Jest (kottke.org)... white pebble blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2699859 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 01:01:18 +0100 2699859 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2641481&cid=t_177946_136_f&fid=35302&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FWhitePebble%2F%7E3%2F_mWlSvgWY9U%2F Image by the queen of subtle via Flickr Ideally, in even a very large and sprawling novel, which David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest certainly is, all the parts of the book are necessary to the whole. The sum of the whole is greater than the accumulation of its parts, etc. This is emphasized in the quote from Infinite Summer, below So yes, I am glad that I read footnote #24, and all of the rest of them. Footnote #24 contains much useful knowledge about the characters in the story, but you have to dig through the seeming oddity of a filmography of a fictional character in order to get it. Have patience. Those digressions that don’t serve the plot (or at least provide a satisfying coincidence that may or may not serve the plot, such as Gately’s role in a separatist’s death or... white pebble blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2641481 Sun, 26 Jul 2009 12:52:57 +0100 2641481 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2637983&cid=t_177946_136_f&fid=35302&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FWhitePebble%2F%7E3%2FpFlDPpkDp1s%2F Image via Wikipedia I am still slogging along through Infinite Jest, or rather dragged through it: yes, “dragged” is the right word. I have become terribly intrigued by it, and thus am a properly devoted reader. The book occasionally reminds me of James Joyce’s and Virginia Woolf’s experiments with stream-of-consciousness writings. The yrstruly section of the book, the first one, is looming before me now, looking as difficult as, say, a passage from Joyce just a bit more complex than his Portrait. For me to remember as I read: read lots of this aloud, which helps it make sense. DFW is definitely going for the rhythms of real speech here, and the heck with punctuation. Related articles by Zemanta Why I Hope Conspicuous Consumption Dies in the Age of the Kindle (andrewsullivan.t... white pebble blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2637983 Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:31:28 +0100 2637983 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2622011&cid=t_177946_136_f&fid=35302&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FWhitePebble%2F%7E3%2Fqg2B1Tazw18%2F Image by dorywithserifs via Flickr I have completed the first week’s worth of reading in the Infinite Summer read-a-thon of Infinite Jest. I must confess that I have a small bit of a problem getting myself connected to any of the characters in it, with the possible exception of Mario Incandenza. I was never any good at either tennis or recreational drugs, so personal experience is not much of a help here. The constant switching of voices — and these voices are very different from one another — also adds a bit of choppiness to the reading experience. It is a very well-done switching, I want to emphasize, but distracting to me in this process of reading the first part of an admittedly difficult novel. I have gotten through the notorious footnote #24 and the introductory Erdedy c... white pebble blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2622011 Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:40:30 +0100 2622011 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2606194&cid=t_177946_136_f&fid=35302&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FWhitePebble%2F%7E3%2FkWM1ndBrVJs%2F With regard to Infinite Jest, I would like to announce that I have actually read all the way through footnote #24. This is a bigger deal than it sounds, if you have ever taken a look at that book. The book is almost 20% footnotes, written often in a dry, footnote-y tone. Sometimes they contain nothing more than “Ibid. page N” or somesuch. More than a few times, they spin off on their own, with footnotes of their own, as is the case with footnote #24. Many readers use this as an instance of David Foster Wallace foreseeing the Internet, or at least the Web. Not so. The Web was already around, and at the time of the book’s publishing, I had already made and abandoned roughly five personal home pages and sites. It was not long after that I sat down and purchased this domain. ... white pebble blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2606194 Wed, 15 Jul 2009 22:13:22 +0100 2606194 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2602192&cid=t_177946_136_f&fid=35302&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FWhitePebble%2F%7E3%2FS7L6bEx_wGY%2F Image by \ Ryan via Flickr This is my first full day of being a member of the Infinite Jest book group. As such, I have done not only a lot of reading, but have begun to realize the size of the task that I have set myself. This thought makes perfect sense if you have just plowed through both the Erdedy and Wardine sections at the same sitting. The amount of voices in that book are staggering. No, I can’t really explain it without having you read the book too. And so this is a bit of a difficult book to blog about. The need I have to try to write about it anyway is the same sort of need one has of dropping breadcrumbs along the way as you travel, hoping to give yourself some method of finding your way home. One may never actually get back home, or even try. But one feels a bit safe... white pebble blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2602192 Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:26:26 +0100 2602192 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2594602&cid=t_177946_136_f&fid=35302&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FWhitePebble%2F%7E3%2FIvVH8nn-MDA%2F Image via Wikipedia Following is one of the (many) websites that I have found that have to do with David Foster Wallace, and also his most famous work, Infinite Jest. This is a book that is, to say the very least, sprawling. Also huge. One that demands careful attention at all times due to quick changes of voice and viewpoint. I am certain that I can’t describe the plot. There is, this summer, a massive literary occasion online in which willing individuals, such as myself, have promised themselves to sit around and read the whole of Infinite Jest by, I believe, September 22. I have no idea why the choice of that date was made. Perhaps it even has something to do with the book, or DFW. This event sounds like the overwhelming, symbolic and not-entirely-meaningful event that I was l... white pebble blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2594602 Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:14:06 +0100 2594602 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2011078&cid=t_177946_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2008%2F12%2F04%2Fdr-fred-goodwin-update%2F I have little to add, but wanted to provide a roundup of updates about Dr. Fred Goodwin, the one-time director of the National Institute for Mental Health, a well-respected bipolar researcher, and host of a public radio program called The Infinite Mind. The Infinite Mind was called on the carpet earlier this year for what was largely a biased program emphasizing that there was little evidence linking suicidality to antidepressants (contrary to what the actual research shows). Undisclosed to listeners of the March 2008 broadcast (Prozac Nation: Revisited) was that all four of the commentators — including Dr. Goodwin himself — received funding from the very same pharmaceutical companies whose products they were defending. You can read a very interesting point-by-point analysis of... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2011078 Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:43:28 +0100 2011078 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2006392&cid=t_177946_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2F471708797%2F Former National Public Radio host Fred Goodwin is the subject of a great deal of talk these days. Earlier this year, an episode of his program, “The Infinite Mind,” which was heard on 300 NPR stations, featured three experts who discussed the controversial link between antidepressants and suicide. All of them, plus Goodwin, declared that worries about the drugs have been overblown. Yet the trio’s ties to pharma were never disclosed. Then, 10 days ago, Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the US Senate Finance Committee, revealed that Goodwin, a former director of the National Institute of Mental Health, also has substantial ties to several drugmakers. Since 2000, Glaxo, for instance, paid him more than $1.2 million in speaking fees and over $100,000 in expenses. The story, w... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2006392 Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:39:30 +0100 2006392 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1981284&cid=t_177946_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2F461204934%2F Two days after lashing into Fred Goodwin, who hosts “The Infinite Mind” on National Public Radio, US Senator Chuck Grassley is now investigating Best Practice, a pharmaceutical consulting firm that Goodwin helped establish in the late ’90’s. Among the many services that have been offered by the firm - marketing consultations to drugmakers and the “dissemination of new off-label information.” Doctors can prescribe a drug to treat an illness even if the FDA has not approved that use, but promotion of off-label activity is a big no-no. So in a letter sent today to Roger Meyer, who heads the firm (pictured right), Grassley wants to know more about Best Practice’s questionable practices. The Senator notes that the claims can be found on older versions o... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1981284 Fri, 21 Nov 2008 21:38:48 +0100 1981284 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1980626&cid=t_177946_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2008%2F11%2F21%2Fdr-fred-goodwin-and-the-infinite-mind-ties-to-undisclosed-drug-payments%2F On May 9, Slate published a rebuke of the independence of an episode of the Infinite Mind, a public radio program on mental health, brain and behavior topics. The show is hosted by Dr. Fred Goodwin, a former director of the National Institute of Mental Health. In question was a program devoted to discussing the link between antidepressants and suicide — a link that has been all but accepted now by mainstream researchers and clinicians. But in a bias not disclosed during the program, all four of the experts on the program, including Goodwin himself, have financial ties to the makers of antidepressants. That information was never told to listeners during the program and only finally disclosed because of Slate’s reporting. Naturally, such a report caught the eye of Sen. Grassley... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1980626 Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:03:06 +0100 1980626 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1443172&cid=t_177946_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2F290263079%2F Last week, we wrote about a controversy over a National Public Radio show called ‘The Infinite Mind,’ because a recent episode exploring links between antidepressants and suicide failed to mention that the host and three invited experts - who claimed the links were overblown - have financial ties to drugmakers that sell antidepressants. The show also received unspecified funding from Lilly. This was reported in Slate and quickly developed into a mud-slinging ruckus - and put NPR on the defensive. We twice rang NPR ombudswoman Alicia Shepard, but she never replied. She has, however, posted an essay on the NPR site and points out that the program should have disclosed some connections. Beyond chastising NPR for failing to list ‘The Infinite Mind’ as an independently p... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1443172 Wed, 14 May 2008 16:10:44 +0100 1443172 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1423660&cid=t_177946_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2F284856980%2F The latest saga of an undisclosed connection between experts and pharma comes to us courtesy of Slate. This is how a new piece begins: A few weeks ago, devoted listeners of National Public Radio were treated to an episode of the award-winning radio series The Infinite Mind called “Prozac Nation: Revisited.” The segment featured four experts discussing the controversial link between antidepressants and suicide. In their considered opinions, all four said that worries about the drugs have been overblown, Slate writes. The radio show, which was broadcast nationwide and paid for in part by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, was hosted by Fred Goodwin, a former director of the National Institute of Mental Health. But Slate writes that he never revealed to listeners t... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1423660 Tue, 06 May 2008 19:42:14 +0100 1423660 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1370734&cid=t_177946_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2008%2F04%2F14%2Fthe-infitinite-minds-update-on-prozac-and-violence%2F The Infinite Mind is a long-running weekly public radio show about health issues, psychology and the mind in society, produced by Lichtenstein Creative Media and hosted by Dr. Fred Goodwin. Dr. Fred Goodwin is a Professor of Psychiatry and Director of The Center on Neuroscience, Medical Progress, and Society at The George Washington University Medical Center. He is a physician-scientist specializing in psychiatry and psychopharmacology, and is the former Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). (Full disclosure: I produced LCM’s first website back in the late 1990s, but quit doing so in 2000.) The Infinite Mind is an established, well-respected program, with a mix of news updates and interviews with leading experts. Furious Seasons has an angry response to a recen... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1370734 Mon, 14 Apr 2008 17:29:25 +0100 1370734 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=810010&cid=t_177946_107_f&fid=36045&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbayblab.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F08%2Fcalculus-discovered-in-india-250-before.html George Gheverghese Joseph from The University of Manchester claims to have uncovered papers showing that Indian scholars described the infinite series, a cornerstone of calculus, 250 years before Newton and Leibniz. Interestingly, there is also evidence that this discovery may have been transmitted to Europeans at the time by traveling Jesuit scholars. His research is apparently part of a new (3rd) edition of his book, The Crest of the Peacock: the Non-European Roots of Mathematics, which details the often-neglected and highly significant contributions of non-european mathematicians. Sounds cool. (Source: Bayblab) Bayblab blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=810010 Tue, 14 Aug 2007 20:20:00 +0100 810010