Dolphin-assisted Birth Comes Under Fire From Science Experts

As profiled in an article in the Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2331946/Dolphin-birth-Experts-blast-couple-flying-Hawaii-DOLPHIN-assisted-birth.html), a North Carolina couple is planning a birth "aided" by dolphins.  Yes, you read that correctly, dolphins.  Some of my observations:

• Since when are marine animals necessary for something humans have been doing successfully for thousands of years?  Did a regular midwife not cut it?  Why dolphins and not some other friendly creature like say, a porcupine?
• Expert Christine Wilcox, writing in Discover, claims that dolphins are known to "toss, beat, and kill small porpoises or baby sharks for no apparent reason other than they enjoy it."  So, dolphins regularly kill things that can breathe underwater, but this couple think their air-breathing newborn will be fine?
• Neither parent has a job, and they have no idea where they will live or how they will make money after the birth.  Yeah....on second thought, the baby may be safer with the dolphins.
• Neither parent has washed their hair in at least a year.  Maybe they should try a birth aided by shampoo.  I hear that they are all the rage in Portland.

If these people don't win a Darwin award, I am going to lose all faith in humanity.

New Series: Pre-M1 Summer

With medical school starting soon, I think it's time to start my inaugural blog series focused on my Pre-M1 summer activities.  As part of this series, I'll try to post photos of and provide commentary about what I am doing with the ~2 months of free time I have before medical school starts.  For this first post, I'm going to do an "About Me" so you all can get to know me.

About Me:

Personal

- 24 year old male
- Grew up in the SF Bay Area
- Graduated from UC Berkeley in 2011, majored in Molecular and Cellular Biology (Immunology emphasis)
- Spent the last two years doing biomedical research at the NIH near Washington DC
- Attending The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine starting August 2013

Interests

-Avid SF Bay Area sports fan (Niners, Giants, Warriors, Sharks)
-Technology and tech journalism (#TeamAndroid)
-Movies/film (especially neo-noir, favorite film of all time is The Usual Suspects)
-Fitness/weightlifting (amateur level, no steroid-infused meat head shenanigans)

The Origin of "401"

No, 401 does not refer to the area code in which I grew up.  It refers to a story amongst my high school friends about creative ways to deal with insomnia that frequently keeps you up until 4:01 AM.  Eventually, we ended up using 401 as a sort of group call sign that made us feel cool and cliquey.  401 didn't actually help us become cool or achieve any significant high school related social status, but it was our thing.  It has stuck since then, and any reunion of high school friends involves a lot of yelling of "401!" and bro-hugging.  It's all very cute, actually.

Hey!

This is my new blog, which I plan to use to chronicle my medical school experience.  I will be starting medical school in the fall at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (disclaimer: all views are my own and not those of The Johns Hopkins University).  I'll also throw in some posts about sports, the technology industry, the film industry, and personal fitness.  Hopefully you will find this blog enjoyable!