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Corpus Callosum is written by a psychiatrist at a small community hospital somewhere in midwestern USA. Email to cc.scienceblogger at gmail dot com.
June 29, 2008
Category: Photos of Interest
This is a photo of two White Storks, Ciconia ciconia, nesting atop a primary school chimney near the south coast of Portugal. The photo is by Valter Jacinto, and has a Creative Commons license. Link. The White Stork is...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 12:02 PM • 2 Comments •
Category: Politics
On 6 June 2008, the Federal Register in the USA contained a notice, that the Department of Homeland Security is conducting a review. They are reviewing the National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP). The Federation of American Scientists points out that...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 8:23 AM • 4 Comments •
June 28, 2008
Category: Environment
Meteorology is outside of my usual topics for posting, but this particular news item seems to have received little attention elsewhere: there is evidence that the jet streams are moving, systematically, toward the poles. The jet streams are high-altitude...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 8:40 AM • 2 Comments •
June 25, 2008
Category: Medicine
Radio Frequency IDentification tags (RFIDs) are little devices that communicate with other devices, sending an identification signal. You've probably seen them on various items purched in stores. They commonly are used for inventory control and theft prevention. They are increasingly...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 7:29 AM • 2 Comments •
June 23, 2008
Category: Psychiatry
Sometimes I see news about upcoming drugs, and hope that it works out. Sometimes, I don't see the point. Rarely, I actively hope that it does not work out. Staccato® alprazolam is one that I hope does not work out....
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 7:20 AM • 5 Comments •
June 20, 2008
Category: Energy
The old riddle goes: you were granted three wishes, and you have one wish left. What do you wish for? Everyone over the age of 6 knows: more wishes. When we figured out that there was oil under the ground,...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 7:47 AM • 5 Comments •
June 18, 2008
Category: Humor
This article in the Onion was supposed to be a satire of the 2001 Bush inaugural speech. It was not satire. It was prophetic: Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over' January 17, 2001 |...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 12:11 PM • 4 Comments •
Category: Bioethics
Gardasil is the vaccine from Merck that greatly lowers the risk of infection from some human papilloma virus (HPV) infections. The first big controversy had to do with the practice of giving the vaccine to young girls. To be most...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 7:29 AM • 5 Comments •
June 17, 2008
Category: Computing
I scarcely need to mention it, but today is the big day: Firefox 3 is out, so be sure to download it. The Mozilla folks are shooting for a world record for the most downloads in a single day....
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 1:29 AM • 6 Comments •
June 15, 2008
Category: Social Commentary
Ohio has just approved certain smart cars for use on roadways. This may strengthen our country by reducing use of fossil fuels. In other news, Blackwater USA is trying to get its Grizzly APC licensed for use on America's...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 1:38 PM • 8 Comments •
June 14, 2008
Category: Uncategorizable
The Wiki Bible Project is a Wikipedia-like project from Wikisource, that aims "to create an original, open content translation of the source text of the Bible that will be in the Public Domain." But some see problems. According to...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 9:07 PM • 2 Comments •
Category: Politics
Girl survives lightning strike, then wins $20 Jun 13, 8:47 PM EDT BLANCHARD, Mich. (AP) -- No one quite understands the term "striking it lucky" better than 16-year-old BreAnna Helsel. The Michigan teen survived being struck by lightning and went...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 2:51 PM • 0 Comments •
June 12, 2008
Category: Neuroscience
A study published in JAMA indicates that treatment with bright light alone (1,000 lux), or bright light combined with melatonin, can improve symptoms in patients with dementia. Melatonin alone appeared to have a slight adverse effect. This already has been...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 7:31 AM • 6 Comments •
June 10, 2008
Category: Politics
That graphic is only a teaser, it is only peripherally related to theis post, and is not scientifically valid. Still, it is nice to see. It is from an article on msnbc.com, Spying, the Constitution -- and the 'I-word'....
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 9:12 PM • 0 Comments •
June 9, 2008
Category: Politics
This won't make much sense unless you watched at least part of the Bill Moyers video of his speech at the National Conference for Media Reform. (I posted the video on 7 June 2008.) In this follow-up video, Moyers is...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 9:36 AM • 5 Comments •
Category: Environment
In 1996, the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 ("Freedom to Farm Act") called for elimination of government stockpiles of grain. I'm sure someone thought it made sense, at the time. Now, the United States government has...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 7:37 AM • 2 Comments •
June 8, 2008
Category: Science in the Media
Welcome to the Lake Wobegon Scientific Society Journal, where all research studies are "authoritative", all scientists "experts", all findings "breakthroughs". Not to mention "above average". That happens to be almost a direct quote from a recent article in the the...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 8:41 PM • 1 Comments •
June 7, 2008
Category: Politics
Consolidation of media is but one step in the consolidation of power, another brick in the wall. It is a grave threat. Watch Bill Moyers, speaking at the National Conference for Media Reform, give an impassioned speech about this topic....
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 6:46 PM • 4 Comments •
June 6, 2008
Category: Medicine
Roy, writing at Shrink Rap, has a post about the prospect of online access to prescription records in the State of California. The attorney general is proposing a database of all prescription records, that could be accessed by doctors and...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 7:12 AM • 7 Comments •
June 5, 2008
Category: Propaganda
After the release of Scotty McClellan's book, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception, there was a big media/blogosphere splash about the supposed failure of the media to examine critically the Administration's case for the...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 11:28 PM • 2 Comments •
Category: Energy
The Internet was abuzz for a bit today, when Engaget reported that a lithium-ion battery was in development, that could store 20 times as much energy as existing batteries, with lower cost. But then it was clarified that battereis...
Posted by Joseph j7uy5 at 12:16 AM • 6 Comments •
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