Friday, September 23, 2016

Clinton's eyes: Today's news for September 23rd

The Hill:

A fascinating analysis of Hillary Clinton's health from an objective doctor. Here is the edited version:
Hillary Clinton exhibited abnormal eye movements during her recent speech in Philadelphia and they were not photoshopped.

Her eyes did not always move in the same direction at the same time. It appears that she has a problem with her left sixth cranial nerve. That nerve serves only one function and that is to make the lateral rectus muscle contract. That muscle turns the eye in the direction away from the midline.

...Like all things medical, there is a long list of potential causes but in my opinion the most likely one, based on Clinton's known medical history is an intermittent lateral rectus palsy caused by damage to or pressure on her sixth cranial nerve.

...Clinton's physician reported that she was placed on Coumadin (a blood thinner) to dissolve the blood clot. Actually, that is incorrect, because Coumadin has no effect on an existing clot. It serves only to decrease the chance of further clotting occurring...Clinton's physician has also reported that on follow up exam, the clot had resolved. That is surprising since the majority of such clots do not dissolve. The way it was documented that the clot had resolved has not been reported.

If, as is statistically likely, Clinton's transverse sinus is still blocked, she would still have increased pressure and swelling and decreased blood flow to her brain. That swelling would place pressure on the exposed portion of the sixth cranial nerve at the base of her brain, explaining the apparent lateral rectus palsy. And such a deficit can be partial and/or intermittent.

Additionally, when patients who have decreased intracranial blood flow becoming volume depleted (dehydrated) or have a drop in blood pressure loss of consciousness can occur. That could explain her witnessed collapse in New York City on 9/11.
If what this doctor is suggesting is true, I think we are witnessing something more commonly seen with professional athletes. Frequently, athletes will play with significant injuries to avoid what infamously happened to baseball player Wally Pipp (from Wikipedia):
...Pipp showed up at Yankee Stadium [one] day with a severe headache, and asked the team's trainer for two aspirin. Miller Huggins, the Yankees' manager, noticed this, and said "Wally, take the day off. We'll try that kid Gehrig at first today and get you back in there tomorrow." [Lou] Gehrig played well and became the Yankees' new starting first baseman. This story first appeared in a 1939 New York World-Telegram on Gehrig's career, in which Pipp was interviewed. Pipp was later quoted to have said, "I took the two most expensive aspirin in history."
Gehrig went on to play 2,130 consecutive games, which was a baseball record that stood for the better part of the 20th century. Pipp was traded to the Cincinnati reds in the offseason, where he played for 3 more seasons.

In Hillary's case, didn't have a strong "second string" player for the presidency. In hindsight, if Clinton had decided not to run earlier, Joe Biden could have stepped into the role, except for one thing:

Elite Daily:
Vice President Joe Biden just revealed that he’d planned on running for president this year, but was ultimately too heartbroken over his son’s death. 
...At a talk at the Council of Foreign Relations on Wednesday, Biden said, 
"I planned on running. To be completely honest with you, I had planned on running… 
"But… my son, Beau, a year before it was time for me to begin to really put this together was diagnosed with a death sentence, stage four glioblastoma. 
"Virtually nobody makes it, but you still hold out hope, you know, and things can happen, there’s so much happening. 
"When he passed, part of my soul was gone. And no woman or man should ever run for president unless they are capable and willing to give every ounce of their energy to the endeavor. And I just wasn’t."
He says that now, but would he have felt the same way if Hillary had decided not to run?

In other news....

CNN:
Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby was booked at the local county jail early Friday and released shortly after on $50,000 bond.

Shelby has been charged with manslaughter in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man, Terence Crutcher, after his SUV broke down last week.

Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler announced the charge Thursday. The criminal complaint against Shelby said her "fear resulted in her unreasonable actions which led her to shooting" Crutcher, 40. She is accused of "unlawfully and unnecessarily" shooting him after he did not comply with her "lawful orders."
I consider this a reasonable outcome to this situation. Cops need to understand that delivering a death sentence for simply failing to follow their orders is unacceptable. Even if the court finds her innocent, the message is sent.

And finally, on to more universal matters...

Cnet:
Stephen Hawking is again warning about announcing our presence to any alien civilizations that might be out there, especially those that could be more technologically advanced. 
..."If intelligent life has evolved...we should be able to hear it," he says..."One day we might receive a signal from a planet...but we should be wary of answering back. Meeting an advanced civilization could be like Native Americans encountering Columbus. That didn't turn out so well."
Hawking advocates looking for alien civilizations, yet he also says we shouldn't contact them. While he is probably right, I wonder what he would suggest we do if they find us anyway?

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