Mayan calendar

Somewhere I heard that the Mayan calendar ends in 2012, although another explanation is that it just starts over. Anyway, I wonder if the media is going to start putting that out there, kind of like the Y2K thing, and whether people will get hyped up about it. Any speculations out there?

Racehorse pharmacology

A professor in my small clinical medicine group told us a personal experience about accumulating water. He had had some swelling in his feet and legs, and had gained weight. He was prescribed a powerful, common diuretic drug called furosemide (lasix). This fluid accumulation was rapidly reversed - he lost 15 pounds of water in one day! I was looking up some general information about the drug on Wikipedia, and happened to notice that it is used frequently in racehorses to increase their endurance and make them lighter (by shedding water weight). It dawned on me that this is probably why an irresistible need to use the restroom is often compared to that of a racehorse. It makes perfect sense.