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Joshua Rosenau spends his days defending the teaching of evolution at the National Center for Science Education. He is also a graduate student at the University of Kansas, completing a doctorate in the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. When not modeling species distributions or battling creationists, he writes about developments in progressive politics and the sciences.
The opinions expressed here are his own, do not reflect the official position of the NCSE. Indeed, older posts may no longer reflect his own official position.
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Medicine:
Category: Policy and Politics
Via ObWi, we learn that the Pope took time out of his busy schedule to extend the AIDS crisis in Africa: While medical workers advocate the use of condoms to help prevent the spread of AIDS, the Church insists on fidelity within heterosexual marriage, chastity and abstinence. "The problem cannot be overcome by distributing condoms. It only increases the problem," the pontiff told reporters on board the plane headed for Africa. While in Cameroon, he will visit charities, meet Muslim leaders and attend a gathering of bishops trying to chart the Church's role in bettering Africans' lives.If Mr. Ratzinger really...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 3:51 PM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Policy and Politics
The Washington Post reports that the Red Cross has fallen on hard times: The American Red Cross said yesterday that it has depleted its national disaster relief fund and is taking out loans to pay for shelters, food and other relief services across seven Midwestern states battered by floods.The Bush economy and high gas prices have led people to reduce their donations as floods and tornados have swept across the nation. As a result "The disaster relief fund today is completely depleted. The balance is zero," according to Jeffrey Towers, chief development officer for the American Red Cross. The solution...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 3:01 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Medicine
An LA Times report on a study of the HPV vaccine summarizes it by saying "Overall, the new results indicate that the vaccine is not living up to its initial prospects." But is that true? Here's what the reporter said mere paragraphs earlier about the findings: Among women who had not previously been exposed to types 16 and 18, the vaccine reduced the risk of precancerous lesions caused by those two strains by 98%. "The overall message, in my mind, is that among susceptible young women, the vaccine was highly effective in preventing HPV-16 or -18 precancerous cervical lesions," [study...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 1:37 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Medicine
The Senate is considering a bill that would have allowed the reimportation of drugs from Canada. This is a measure that overwhelming majorities support, and that many people have already supported with their wallets. Some states have even explored reimporting drugs. Of course, a popular idea that could ease the suffering and financial hardship of sick people couldn't be allowed to stand, and an amendment by Mississippi's Senator Cochran was passed requiring the administration to specifically approve that one provision. Senator Pat Roberts, apparently not concerned about the cost of his memory pills, voted to gut the drug reimportation provisions....
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 10:05 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Medicine
Nail gun injuries on the rise with growth of DIY trend: Doctors in the nation’s emergency rooms are used to seeing so-called bagel cuts — the injury that results from slicing a finger or palm instead of a bagel and is most common on weekends. Now North Carolina researchers report that ER physicians are increasingly treating another kind of painful household injury: wounds inflicted by pneumatic nail guns wielded by weekend carpenters who bought the machines at home improvement stores. Such accidents more than tripled between 1991 and 2005, the researchers found, and 96 percent of victims were [guess what?...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 4:43 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Medicine
I forgot to advertise the campus blood drive that just ended, and I apologize for that. Your blood really can save lives and blood drives make it that much easier to do the right thing. They had plasmapheresis machines set up, which meant I got to give two units of cells rather than my usual one unit of whole blood. What I love about giving blood is that it's a way for me to do something good at no real cost to myself. I feel better afterward, and I know I've helped one person, possibly several people. Crooked Timber's Harry...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 5:25 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Medicine
The stories about conditions at Walter Reed hospital are appalling, as are stories about problems at VA hospitals and other care for veterans and returning soldiers. It is unacceptable that anyone at all should suffer so greatly under such horrific conditions. And I do mean anyone. I imagine a survey of urban hospitals would show that those which remain open in low-income neighborhoods probably have some of the same hygiene problems described at Walter Reed. And many communities in urban areas and in rural America have hospitals without modern equipment, and without doctors trained in the latest techniques, or with...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 12:31 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Medicine
The bill's sponsor was philosophical: “So that's not going to happen this year, it looks like. I think as far as legislation goes, no, as far as education and activity, yes. I mean if anything that's the bottom line that has been. We're very proud of the inroads we've made in educating some of my colleagues and the public on this and we will be continuing to do so,” Garcia explained.HPV causes cancer and genital warts. A childhood vaccine could save lives, and making it mandatory is the best way to eliminate the virus and ultimately the diseases it causes....
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 10:24 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Medicine
A bill was filed in the House to mandate HPV vaccinations for all sixth grade girls. The bipartisan group of Kansas House members who sponsored the bill have added Kansas to a list of states — including Virginia, New Jersey, California, Georgia, Texas, Kentucky and Michigan — where legislators are considering similar measures. Rep. Delia Garcia, D-Wichita, is the lead sponsor of the bill that would add the vaccine for the human papillomavirus, known as HPV, to the list of inoculations required for sixth-grade girls attending Kansas public schools.The predictable opponents have emerged: "What they are proposing is vaccinating a...
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 3:58 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Brain and Behavior
Yes, I'm stealing Yakov Smirnoff jokes, but it's true. According to Improbable Research, Russian scientists have tested a theory: If a depressed individual receives a physical punishment, whipping that is, it will stir up endorphin receptors, activate the ‘production of happiness’ and eventually remove depressive feelings. Russian scientists recommend the following course of the whipping therapy: 30 sessions of 60 whips on the buttocks in every procedure. A group of drug addicts volunteered to test the new method of treatment: the results can be described as good and excellent.I wouldn't recommend trying this at home....
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Posted by Josh Rosenau at 10:39 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
