In the last ten years I learned, reading somewhere, that American doctors die young. They die an average of ten years before the rest of the American population. This bothers me for three reasons. One, I am a doctor. Two, my grandfather the psychiatrist died ten years before any of my other grandparents and 21 years before his wife. Three, why? What is it about doctoring that kills doctors younger?

It's not

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Ever since the invention of the grenade way back when, users of said grenades (typically soldiers) have wanted to be able to project said grenades farther. Initially, this was mostly to ensure their own safety from the dangerously unpredictable things; later, as fuzing mechanisms began to become safer and more reliable, the distance was desirable in order to be able to use them while as far from the enemy as possible.

The first standardized (i.e. not one-off hand-built) mechanisms for…

This is more popularly known as beef carbonade, carbonade of beef, or carbonade à la Flamande. It is less popularly known as Vlaamse stoverij, which is probably its more accurate name given that it is Flemish beef stew, and that's well, Flemish. Or Dutch, if you want to be technical; Dutch and Flemish are practically the same language. In fact, the more that I think it about it, the more bizarre it is that people call it beef carbonade. Carbonade comes from the Italian carbonata, which…

Key parts of an argument paper

If you are writing an academic paper to present or develop an argument, it must have certain key elements:

A debatable thesis

This is a single, clear statement, usually expressed in a single sentence and placed at the end of your first, introductory paragraph, which answers the question presented or implied by the assignment task and presents your position on the topic. For instance if the essay title

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