Traveling with Canadians. . .

. . . is funny because they are always extremely excited to see things like Starbucks and drive-by ATMs.

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The Modern: My New Favorite Restaurant

Yesterday we celebrated my sister's birthday at The Modern, which is a really great restaurant close to MOMA.

Of all the restaurants I have ever visited, this is probably the best. Not only is the food very good, but the service was absolutely outstanding. To give you an idea, they even keep chargers for all kinds of cell phones at the front desk so that the guests can charge their phones while they eat. And unlike many other restaurants, The Modern doesn't have the practice of sticking the bill in the customers' faces before they are finished eating.



We ate at the bar of The Modern, not the dining room. There, you have smaller portions that are not exactly tapa-sized but close to it. The best dishes amongst a really great selection are fish tartares. Even if you are not a huge fan of tartare, this one will still your heart.



And on the picture you can see Alsatian sausage with sauerkraut that I ordered. Finding good sauerkraut in the US is not easy but this one was very good. I think the chef went a little too far with decorating the plate but the food was delicious anyways.



I'm thinking of publishing reviews of restaurants on a regular basis. How does everybody feel about it?



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Fake Clinical Trial - Real Problems

Here at Neuroskeptic we've seen our fair share of dubious clinical trials over the years, but the Indian Journal of Psychiatry has just published one which really takes the biscuit, because it was completely made up.



Luckily, the trial is actually a rather neat spoof paper, written for educational purposes to highlight bad practices in the design and writing up of clinical trials. It's accompanied by a serious piece which analyzes these problems. They're both open access so you can take a look.

The sham study is ostensibly a trial of a new antidepressant, "placeboxetine", compared to an older drug for depression - but it was really written by one of the Editors of the journal via "Common shortcomings in manuscripts submitted to the Indian Journal of Psychiatry were collated into a single manuscript". These shortcomings are certainly not limited to Indian papers.

The problems included:

• No placebo group. This is extremely common in trials comparing two drugs, so it's "accepted practice", but it's still a bad thing.
  
• The "placeboxetine" was given at a higher dose, relative to its dose range, than the comparison drug but they don't say why.
• Side effects are reported but they don't explain how these were assessed. If you specifically ask about them you find a lot more than if you rely on patients to spontaneously complain.
• Subtle, but important, issues with the statistics, such as reliance on t-tests over more appropriate methods.
• The trial had some unusual features for a depression trial - with no explanation. Most patients were males in their 20s, while the norm is for about 65% females and an average age in the 40s; very few people dropped out; very few people who were screened were excluded, whereas most trials exclude loads of people for all kinds of reasons.
• The effectiveness of both drugs was remarkably high (75% cure rate over 6 weeks - better than any treatment, drug or therapy, would be expected to show.) Yet they don't mention this.
• It was badly written. The title in particular was far too long and clumsy.
• It turns out that the trial was sponsored by the fictional pharmaceutical company, and was probably conducted to help get placeboxetine sold in India - but we only find this out in the small print at the end.
• Hot pink and white is not a good color scheme for your graphs, or for anything except marshmallows. (I may have added this myself.)
  

Overall I think this kind of thing is extremely valuable. The author's final comments, however, are a bit questionable. He advises people running clinical trials to base their research protocol, and their paper, on previously published studies of a similar nature published in good journals. Unfortunately, even leading journals publish stuff which suffers from some of these problems...

Andrade C (2011). A 6-week, multicentre, randomized controlled clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of placeboxetine hydrochloride in the treatment of major depressive disorder in an Indian setting. Indian journal of psychiatry, 53 (1), 69-72 PMID: 21431013

Andrade C (2011). Placeboxetine for major depressive disorder: Researcher, author, reader, and reviewer perspectives on randomized controlled trials. Indian journal of psychiatry, 53 (1), 73-6 PMID: 21431014

Fake Clinical Trial - Real Problems

Here at Neuroskeptic we've seen our fair share of dubious clinical trials over the years, but the Indian Journal of Psychiatry has just published one which really takes the biscuit, because it was completely made up.



Luckily, the trial is actually a rather neat spoof paper, written for educational purposes to highlight bad practices in the design and writing up of clinical trials. It's accompanied by a serious piece which analyzes these problems. They're both open access so you can take a look.

The sham study is ostensibly a trial of a new antidepressant, "placeboxetine", compared to an older drug for depression - but it was really written by one of the Editors of the journal via "Common shortcomings in manuscripts submitted to the Indian Journal of Psychiatry were collated into a single manuscript". These shortcomings are certainly not limited to Indian papers.

The problems included:

• No placebo group. This is extremely common in trials comparing two drugs, so it's "accepted practice", but it's still a bad thing.
  
• The "placeboxetine" was given at a higher dose, relative to its dose range, than the comparison drug but they don't say why.
• Side effects are reported but they don't explain how these were assessed. If you specifically ask about them you find a lot more than if you rely on patients to spontaneously complain.
• Subtle, but important, issues with the statistics, such as reliance on t-tests over more appropriate methods.
• The trial had some unusual features for a depression trial - with no explanation. Most patients were males in their 20s, while the norm is for about 65% females and an average age in the 40s; very few people dropped out; very few people who were screened were excluded, whereas most trials exclude loads of people for all kinds of reasons.
• The effectiveness of both drugs was remarkably high (75% cure rate over 6 weeks - better than any treatment, drug or therapy, would be expected to show.) Yet they don't mention this.
• It was badly written. The title in particular was far too long and clumsy.
• It turns out that the trial was sponsored by the fictional pharmaceutical company, and was probably conducted to help get placeboxetine sold in India - but we only find this out in the small print at the end.
• Hot pink and white is not a good color scheme for your graphs, or for anything except marshmallows. (I may have added this myself.)
  

Overall I think this kind of thing is extremely valuable. The author's final comments, however, are a bit questionable. He advises people running clinical trials to base their research protocol, and their paper, on previously published studies of a similar nature published in good journals. Unfortunately, even leading journals publish stuff which suffers from some of these problems...

Andrade C (2011). A 6-week, multicentre, randomized controlled clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of placeboxetine hydrochloride in the treatment of major depressive disorder in an Indian setting. Indian journal of psychiatry, 53 (1), 69-72 PMID: 21431013

Andrade C (2011). Placeboxetine for major depressive disorder: Researcher, author, reader, and reviewer perspectives on randomized controlled trials. Indian journal of psychiatry, 53 (1), 73-6 PMID: 21431014

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DVD Tutorial Photoshop(Murah) Top Secret

PHOTOSHOP TOP SECRET


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Apa bedanya DVD ini dengan DVD tutorial photoshop yang lain? di DVD ini anda tidak hanya akan mendapatkan tutorialnya saja tetapi juga akan diajarkan bagaimana cara untuk memanipulasi grafik dan membuat spesial efek dengan menggunakan Photoshop, karena inti dari Photoshop versi terbaru adalah fitur memanipulasi grafik dan spesial efek tersebut.

Meski tutorial dalam bahasa inggris tapi sangat mudah untuk diikuti karena tutorialnya dalam bentuk gambar bergerak (video) bahkan bila tanpa suarapun anda masih dapat mengikutinya.

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Mens Brazilian Wax St Louis

Una hora sin luz por el bien del planeta

Today, March 26 from 20:30 to 21:30, over four thousand cities in 131 countries from all continents of the world will once again join the global campaign of Earth Hour, which since 2007 is driven by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Involved!

Earth Hour is a universal message of hope and action.

In an attempt to promote a global attitude change, Earth Hour 2011 will go beyond the time and climate change, saying the time from which individuals, businesses and governments to undertake actions for the planet for the entire year. Homes, offices, official buildings and architectural icons of Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania and the Americas will darken to symbolize the actions of individuals to go beyond the hour.

Source: WWF-Spain