and she said.. "how you interpret the dream is probably more important than the dream itself"

I mention this only because I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and therefore carefully testing some theories of mine: From WSJ (via Slashdot) Web hypochondriacs are calling up doctors with requests for prescriptions for all sorts of diseases, since they discovered some similar symptoms on the Web.

So they say that people are being overly hypocondriatic by using the WWW? Well no fucking kidding. I googled foamy urine to find out I probably am going to die of kidney failure. Last year I googled swollen testicle to find out I probably had a testicular torsion and, since I hadn't caught it in the first six hours, I was probably going to have to get an amputation.

Well, I still have both my boys downstairs and, knock on wood, my kidneys are doing fine.. But we'll see. I think this issue is more a case of too much (negative) information.

From the WSJ article, a doctor says: "It seems that traditional Western medicine based on scientific evidence is less and less trusted by the general public. Meanwhile, some dubious theory from the Internet will be swallowed hook, line and sinker nine times out of 10."

Yet, based on the fact that all of my personal WWW diagnosis have been done through WebMD, a site clearly based in the science of western medicine, I have to disagree with him a little bit.

Challenge of the week: Using WebMD, Find a symptom that is not associated with some horridly awful disease and/or possible death if not treated immediately. I dare you.

Good luck.