Let me begin right off by saying that I am a college basketball diehard through and through. Like most sports fans, I cheer on my favorite teams in a number of sports. But at the top of my list has always been college basketball. My dad was a star forward playing both junior college and AAU basketball. I had the honor of being Coach Dean Smith’s first recruit at the University of North Carolina back in 1968. I was a spectator in the Louisiana Superdome when the Tar Heels won two national championships. If you come to my office I’ll show you a ball sent to me by Coach Smith autographed by the entire 1982 championship team including Michael Jordan. I’ve been a front row LSU basketball season ticket holder since the 1970s, and regularly talk basketball trash with legendary former Coach Dale Brown. All in all, I have bled for the college game. But I have a confession to make. The thrill is gone. These past few weeks, I didn’t become enthralled with March Madness. It was more like March Sadness. Liza Minnelli said it best in the hit movie and Broadway show Cabaret.“Money makes the world go round.” We have tolerated for years the extravagant salaries paid to college football coaches. At LSU, for example, six of the seven highest paid employees in the entire university are in the athletic department, which Governor John Bel Edwards labels as “obscene.” LSU will pay three former football coaches more than…

The EpiPen® auto-injector contains epinephrine, used during an emergency to treat severe allergic reactions, or anaphylaxis. If one is allergic to an insect or food, a severe allergic reaction may ensue upon exposure, in which the immune system releases a flood of chemicals that can cause throat tightness, hives, lip and facial swelling, difficulty breathing, nausea, vomiting, low blood pressure, rapid heart rate, cardiac arrest and possibly death. Epinephrine stimulates the heart to increase cardiac muscle contractility, cardiac output, subsequently raising the blood pressure. Additionally it relaxes the muscles surrounding the airways, allowing one to breathe easier and take in more oxygen. Moreover it helps to stop the release of additional immune chemicals. The EpiPen® is manufactured by Mylan. Its cost made headlines when the EpiPen two-pack recently stickered for close to $600. Now generic forms are available costing anywhere from $109-$300 for a dual pack. The disposable auto-injector, for an adult, delivers 0.3 mg of epinephrine, while the EpiPen Jr., used in pediatric populations, delivers 0.15mg of the medication. It can be self-administered, through clothing if necessary, into the thigh muscle in one smooth movement once the safety release is removed. After 0.3 ml is administered during the single adult dose, the EpiPen® unit is discarded. However many are not aware that 1.7 ml of solution remains within the cartridge. This could, in theory, be used for an additional 5 doses if in a remote, “wilderness” setting. Dr. Arthur (Tony) Islas, Fellow of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine, and…

I recently scored a Fitbit Alta for $40 and have been making the transition from using the MyPlate app by Livestrong to using the Fitbit app. I mostly purchased a Fitbit because I suspected I was underestimating my daily caloric exertion in the MyPlate app. What made me suspect that? Well, I set a MyPlate goal of losing a half pound per week and shed six pounds in three weeks. It only took one day for my Fitbit to prove my hypothesis true. I had been underestimating my caloric exertion by a lot because I don’t carry my phone with me everywhere I go. I was shocked by how many steps the Fitbit monitored and was immediately pleased with my purchase. But over the next few days, I discovered things I miss about the MyPlate app and things I like about the Fitbit app. What I Miss About the MyPlate App The Workouts I really like the burn I got from the 10-minute abs workout and seven-minute cardio sculpting workout. I can still do the workouts, but logging the calories burned isn’t as easy as wearing my Fitbit while I exercise. I noticed after completing my abs workout that my Fitbit didn’t come close to logging the 74 calories burned the MyPlate abs workout says it burns. That’s probably because most abs exercises involve very few steps, and the Fitbit Alta doesn’t monitor heart rate. I ended up adding my calories burned manually, using “Calisthenics” as my exercise in the…

**SPOILER FREE** Spielberg's new film, Ready Player One, is based on the once loved, now often ridiculed or outright disliked novel of the same name written by Ernest Cline. The novel is unread by me but I understand the premise. And I’ve seen the movie now which probably means all the good parts of the book have been spoiled for me. The novel, from what I understand, is a nostalgic, geek lore Easter egg hunt oft criticized for being fun but not exactly a writing masterpiece, but whatever. The reader was bombarded with nostalgic, nerdy, geek references from the 80’s. And that nostalgic weight carried RPO on to the NYT best seller list for a long time. And now Steven Spielberg, the man directly responsible for much of our actual 80’s pop culture and nostalgic geeky moments has his new movie! So what is it about? From rottentomatos.com: “In the year 2045, people can escape their harsh reality in the OASIS, an immersive virtual world where you can go anywhere, do anything, be anyone-the only limits are your own imagination. OASIS creator James Halliday left his immense fortune and control of the Oasis to the winner of a contest designed to find a worthy heir. When unlikely hero Wade Watts conquers the first challenge of the reality-bending treasure hunt, he and his friends-known as the High Five-are hurled into a fantastical universe of discovery and danger to save the OASIS and their world.” Okay. Fair enough. Dystopian world - bad.…