Take me home!!!!!!!

A couple songs went through my head today. The first one is a song I heard Great Big Sea sing on one of their cds. The line that keeps running through my head is:
"We arrived in December and London was cold...TAKE ME HOME!!"
I have absolutely no idea why this song has been going through my head.
This pic is soooo Canadian


Masa and I went to an Irish pub last night with Etsuko and Mr. Topless and we had a riot. It's been a long time since I've had immature fun. You know like when you douse your salad in tabasco sauce and dare each other to eat it. Or when you tell your friend to jam the lemon wedge into his Corona really fast and the foam explodes everywhere. And I was the only one under thirty.

One kind of weird thing we saw at the bar was a Japanese man in his sixties and a Japanese woman in her late forties making out. Yes people that age don't usually make out in public. But in Japan no one makes out in public. I thought it was weird but my Japanese friends were appalled saying it was really disgusting.

Kirsten

The placebo effect

I have always been interested in research methodologies and while I was preparing to teach a lesson about health I came accross an interesting article on the Science Daily website. It is about the placebo effect. A group of researcheｒs did a clinical trial that studied the placebo effect of sham pills versus sham acupuncture. People reported they felt more of an effect from the fake acupuncture compared with the fake pills. There is something even more interesting. Each participant in the study had to sign a waiver form that listed possible side effects of the treatment. 25 percent of sham accupuncture and 31 percent of placebo pill patients reported experiencing the side effects listed on the waiver form. The power of the mind is very interesting.
Check out the article if you have the chance: All Placebos Not Created Alike: In A Trial Of Sham Acupuncture Vs. Oral Placebo Pill, Patients Experienced Greater Pain Reduction From Sham Device

The article came from Harvard Medical School.

Kirsten

昔から研究の方法に興味があるんですね。今日レッスンの準備をしながら、Science Dailyのウェブサイトに面白い論文を見つけました。テーマはプラシーボ効果なんです。プラシーボ効果の説明はこちら。偽の鍼の効果と偽の錠剤の効果の違いを研究しました。偽の錠剤より偽の鍼の方が結果がよかったんです。もっと面白いポイントがあるんですよ。研究の前に参与者は可能な副作用がかいてある承諾書を読んで、サインしました。偽の鍼を取った人の２５パーセントとピルを飲んだ人の３１パーセントは可能な副作用を発生しました。でも両方のトリートメントもプラシーボなんだー。
興味があれば、読んでください。All Placebos Not Created Alike: In A Trial Of Sham Acupuncture Vs. Oral Placebo Pill, Patients Experienced Greater Pain Reduction From Sham Device

カーステン