White Coat to Riches???

Well Friday was the first day I wore a gown in a long time. Calm down with the conspiracy theories! It was my graduation! Yep, the big MD. Not a whole lot has changed in the three days since I've been a doctor. Well, I guess I have been asked my opinion about the reality of Gray's Anatomy a lot more. (It's only a tad bit more realistic that General Hospital)

And graduation sure came at a good time! Other than being a requirement so I could start internship, graduation made me a little money and a lot of Hallmark cards! How much money you ask? Well, I wouldn't have had enough money to pay my rent had it not been for some of my gifts which I quickly cashed on Friday! Plus, another little gift I received today helped me buy some toiletries and Diet Pepsi! Yes, you can tell that I am not only a doctor, but a rich one. Okay, half of that is not true.

I had more money when I was an undergraduate! People don't seem to understand that you don't get a Porsche and a paid AMEX card during medical school orientation. You sure as hell don't get them during medical school either. You don't even get them when you graduate. (rich daddy stories will be ignored for illustrative purposes) It's a long road to having some cash in your pocket.

For the primary care (family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics) specialties and their income equivalents the decision to go to medical school likely will never pay off financially. If you compared an average income for a person with a college degree compared to the Average Primary Care doctor (APC), you'd see that they never break even. Let's set the average college degree income at $40k, the length of medical school training plus residency (for primary care without further specialty training) at seven years, and the average indebtedness of United States Allopathic Medical School (MD) graduates at $125k.

Starting to see the picture? At the point the medical student graduates he's $265k behind his friend who jumped the academic ship after college ($40k X 4 = 160k; 160k + 125k). After three more years of residency, the APC doctor is still roughly the same amount behind because at the roughly $40k/year residents are compensated most cannot afford to start repaying their students loans.

Now you're probably thinking, "Wait! But the MD is going to make a lot of money and he/she will win in the end!." Well, er, maybe. The APC doctor makes around $140k/year. Their first years out of residency though they are likely to start around $80k. It appears to take 3-5 years for most doctors to A) grow their practices enough and/or B) reach partner in a group practice and/or C) learn how to actually make money as a doctor -- to reach this "average" level.

Even if we leave the average bachelor's degree at $40k/year he/she stays financially ahead until the doctor attains his average level of income when we finally see an apparent break even point. I said apparent because we forgot about the power of compounded interest! By the time the income balance appears to even out, the "lowly" college graduate has had the ability to contribute to a 401(k) or other savings vehicle for around 11 years! (We also assumed the physician repaid their student loans ASAP)

See illustration of this at:

http://www.fool.com/money/401k/401k01.htm

The APC doctor will have a chance to chase this investment by making the much larger contributions he/she will be able to make into savings, assuming they have the willpower! The expected lifestyle of a physician is much different than that of the typical average college graduate and making those larger savings contributions can hurt.

...oh well, I just wanted to illustrate, similar to the way it was explained to me, that medicine is not the way to get rich! I didn't go into medicine for the money and I'm not suggesting many of my colleagues did either. Yeah, we're going to have a nice lifestyle, but even at the epilogue of medical school training we're still a ways off!

(And if you're still perturbed by this idea remember that we assumed the average college graduate received no raises and also did not account for the greater number of hours worked by medical students and physicians to achieve the stated incomes. The average medical student works (at education related activities including studying) about 80hr/wk. The average resident works 80hr/wk. The APC works 50-60 hr/wk.)

What exactly is in your beer?

Fancy a refreshing pint of betaglucanase? Or maybe a thirst-quenching glass of propylene glycol alginate? These chemicals do not sound remotely appealing. But if you have ever had a pint of cheap lager or ale, it is likely that you have sampled both of them.

Each is an additive commonly used in the production of mass market beer: betaglucanase can be used to speed up the brewing process, while propylene glycol alginate can be added to help stabilise a beer's head of foam.

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Walk a Quarter-Mile or Die

If you can walk a quarter-mile, odds are you have at least six years of life left in you, scientists announced today. Speed is also positively correlated with length of remaining life. While walking is no guarantee of health or longevity, a new study found that the ability of elderly people to do the quarter-mile was an "important determinant" in whether they'd be alive six years later and how much illness and disability they would endure.

"The ability to complete this walk was a powerful predictor of health outcomes," said study leader Anne Newman of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "In fact, we found that the people who could not complete the walk were at an extremely high risk of later disability and death."

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Young Men Also Experience Sexual Dysfunction

Middle-aged and older men are the focus of most research on erectile dysfunction. A researcher wondered if ED could be an issue for the young men she encounters in her practice. The results surprised her! 13% reported having ED, while 25 percent said they lost an erection using a condom, another 6 percent said they had used drugs to help out.

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IRS Claims Symantec Owes $900 Million In Back Taxes

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is asking Symantec to pay $900 million in back taxes from last year's $10.25 billion acquisition of storage software vendor Veritas, the Cupertino, Calif.-based vendor revealed today. Symantec's shares lost nearly a third of their value since the Veritas acquisition, and the company recently announced the departure of three senior executives. Uh oh, and you thought you had tax problems!

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You Tube burning through cash while entertaining millions

YouTube has recently raised $11 million dollars in venture capital money. Which is good news for the company that is going through $1 million a month in bandwidth costs! All to show girlfight videos, asian karoke and stolen content. It's a winner! So what do people want to see? A home-made video of two boys lip-synching along to the Pokémon television theme song. (not exactly America's Top Next Model) YouTube has streamed this video more than 9.5 million times in the last four months, making it the site's most-watched movie.

The site's bandwidth costs increase every time a visitor clicks on a video and are estimated to be approaching $1 million a month, much of which goes to provider Limelight Networks.

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Top 5 Creative Uses for Your iPod

Did you know you can play Doom on your iPod? You can also load it with unusual stuff like Wikipedia and subway maps -- even dating videos! Here's a good rundown of some unconventional ways to use your iPod that go way beyond just listening to music.

1) Subway Maps - http://www.ipodsubwaymaps.com/

2) Dictionary - http://www.ipreppress.com/Pages/Reference/MWPocket.htm

3) Find Dates - http://www.poddater.com/

4) Personal Trainer - http://homepage.mac.com/berbie/TrailRunner/english.html

5) Play Doom - http://ipodlinux.org/Main_Page

Linux on your iPod also allows you to install things like:

Wikipedia - http://encyclopodia.sourceforge.net/en/index.html

Periodic Table - http://ipodlinux.org/Special:Module/periodic

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Why Do 'American Idol' Voters Have A Southern Bias?

American Idol

For five years, the most popular talent contest on American television has been dominated by kids from Southern Hicksville, USA. Seven of the eight top-two finishers in the first four years were from states that once formed the Confederacy, and five of the seven remaining finalists this season are, too. Is it the Gospel music? Check out the article link below.

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Amateur Hacks Into US Military Computers Looking for UFO and Aliens Truth

An amateur exposed security flaws in US governmental computers to unlock the truth about UFO's and aliens. He has also revealed evidence that makes it sound like they exist. He's likely going to jail or worse. He's being charged with crimes that will likely cause him to be extradited to the US for trial. The punishment could be at much at 70 years in jail (possibly Guantanimo Bay) and over a $1,000,000 in fines.

Okay, this is seriously scary. Despite this guy sounding like the friendly-hacker-next-door, I think he did something completely irresponsible. What exactly is his sympathy plea based on? "Yes, my hand was in the cookie jar, but I was only looking for knowledge." Puhhlease. Could someone please keep people out of our government secrets and computers that aren't supposed to be there?

Maybe this is supposed to be the intellectual property equivalent of Robin Hood: stealing information from the secret-rich and giving it to the geeks who want to know. Okay, I would like to know about the aliens. That being said, I'm still having a problem understanding the sympathy angle for this hacker.

I also propose that this guy has been alone with his dial-up modem and computer for far too long. He's said to be an out of work computer programmer who: 1) doesn't understand why it's wrong to break into government computers; 2) is dumb enough to joke about revealing the secrets. Don't we have government agencies that make people disappear for stuff like this? Maybe this action of actually trying the guy for the crimes is a sign that they're more worried about making an example of him than they are about what he's found out. If he had dangerous government secrets, I doubt he's be giving interviews.

Check out the story!

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PSM "reveals" PS3 release date, price

The folks at Team Xbox have picked up the latest issue of PSM, also known as the Unofficial PlayStation Magazine, and let us know that the magazine is claiming to have the official launch date and price of Sony's latest game console. $399 with a November buy date sounds pretty good to me. However, if this turns out to be accurate, I wonder if they'll actually be available to Joe Schmoe this year. Is this going to be another 360 rerun where the regular man can't get ahold of one until six months later? I'll keep my fingers crossed. I can't wait much longer for the next-gen gaming system. I might have to give Microsoft my money!

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