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November 6, 2008
Three years ago we discussed (we were still on blogspot then) a spreading outbreak of a mysterious disease in Sichuan (Szechuan), China. Any mysterious disease outbreak in China always raises warning flags since southern China is the incubator for influenza. The Chinese discounted the possibility…
November 5, 2008
The US election is over. Now comes the battle over what it means. The right wing of the Democratic Party aside, it seems pretty clear this was one of the periodic "realignment" elections that are of historic significance. Obama's base, overwhelmingly the progressive heart of the Democratic Party,…
November 5, 2008
Some good news out of the West African country of Gambia: a stunning reduction in malaria in the last five years as a result of some fairly simple techniques: Incidence of malaria in Gambia has plunged thanks to an array of low-cost strategies, offering the tempting vision of eliminating this…
November 4, 2008
Mrs. R. and I are getting ready for a "game day" dinner (Sloppy Joes and a white bean dip, beer/wine, left over Halloween candy) in front of the TV to watch returns. We'll probably flip around but mainly stay at MSNBC to hear Rachel Maddow's take. As much as I detest Chris Matthews's uninformed…
November 4, 2008
Election Day, November, 1884 by Walt Whitman (1819-1892) If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and show, 'Twould not be you, Niagara--nor you, ye limitless prairies--nor your huge rifts of canyons, Colorado, Nor you, Yosemite--nor Yellowstone, with all its spasmic geyser…
November 4, 2008
The tort system is the favorite whipping boy of the anti-regulation crowd. That's because once you remove regulation, something the Bush administration has championed and done effectively, the only recourse someone injured by the fraud or negligence of a product or drug manufacturer is through a…
November 3, 2008
Proposition 8, a ballot initiative in California, would make marriage an institution confined to one man and one woman (as opposed to what? many men and one woman or one man and many women? Someone should tell the Mormon Church, the chief bankrollers of this vile initiative, about that!). It is…
November 3, 2008
There are only 77 days left in the Bush administration. Hallelujah. Finally an end to the carnage, right? Not so fast! Unless you think it's not doing any damage to: remove animals from the endangered species list without adequate public participation, putting power plants near national parks,…
November 2, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, marks the end of a long Presidential election season in the United States. I will be voting for Barack Obama. I will also be voting against John McCain. There are many reasons, but Josh Marshall pinpoints one of the main ones: McCainism For my own part, obviously, I hope Barack…
November 2, 2008
The headline over at The Raw Story (a liberal news site) is: "GOP senator lobs false atheism smears in desperate attempt to hold seat." So Liddy Dole, the absentee Senator from North Carolina, thinks that the way to save her seat is to "smear" her opponent as "godless." Her opponent, Kay Hagan,…
November 1, 2008
No one who knows me would ever consider me a domestic terrorist. I am, in fact, a pacifist. You may think that's naive, but it would be a real stretch to consider my pacifism to be the same as terrorism, even if you think it helps terrorism (in which case I strenuously disagree). I'm a doctor and…
November 1, 2008
Blogging can vary in spontaneity. Some bloggers spend a lot of effort honing individual posts, while some do a lot of "one offs" in response to rapidly changing events. A limiting form of the latter is "live blogging," essentially reporting in real time during a meeting, demonstration or particular…
October 31, 2008
While Barack Obama continues to draw huge crowds (tens of thousands, sometimes over 100,000), John McCain's are more modest. Yesterday he had an estimated 6000 in Ohio. Never mind that 4,000 were bused in from local school districts, including the aptly named 2500 Defiance School District. I'm sure…
October 31, 2008
The last time we looked at the high containment laboratory in Galveston, Texas, it was directly in the path of Hurricane Ike. Flooding from Ike devastated Galveston but it was a comparatively weak storm, Category 2 on the Sumner Simpson scale. Katrina was a Cat 4. The worst storms are the huge…
October 30, 2008
As I write this the Obama-Biden ticket has been endorsed by 231 newspapers across the country, the McCain-Palin ticket by only 102 (see here for latest tally). The final Kerry-Bush score was 213 - 205. Most of us don't really care that much about the newspaper endorsement bragging rights and I…
October 30, 2008
We've been keeping an eye out for the FDA's expert task force review of their own draft report on bisphenol-A (BPA; for more posts see here, here, here, here, here for other BPA posts). We previously reported to you the concern that the (outside) chair of that expert panel had a risk assessment…
October 29, 2008
There is a lot of misery in this world, too much of it the result of what we humans do to each other. And it's getting worse. A typical example, is a country where 28% of the children are malnourished, up from 19% five years ago; where in 2006 11% of the newborns were underweight, up from 4% three…
October 29, 2008
The Obama campaign has made much of the McCain campaign's "erratic" performance but there are some things he has been steady and consistent about. Like reproductive rights. He's against them. Steadily. Consistently. You surely know McCain wants to make abortion illegal again in the US. But he's not…
October 28, 2008
Governor Palin's "fruitfly moment" was a display of her utter contempt and disregard for modern science, perhaps even more emblematic than her belief that dinosaurs and humans coexisted. But John McCain has his own moments where we can see his true self: "It has to be safe, environment, blah,…
October 28, 2008
Most people know that a good place to pick up an antibiotic resistant infection is in a hospital. Lots of pathogenic bugs there living (often) happily in a sea of antimicrobial agents. Better to stay away from hospitals, somewhere nice. But apparently, not at the beach: A drug-resistant germ linked…
October 27, 2008
A number of people, including here at Science Blogs, have noted, with the contempt it deserves, Governor Palin's comments about fruit flies the other day. In case you haven't seen it (where have you been?), here it is again: I'll make this a lot shorter just by incorporating by reference and…
October 27, 2008
Earaches, respiratory infections and diarrhea are the bane of existence for young parents. All are potentially the result of contagious agents. The most common agent for diarrhea in infants and children is rotavirus, a double-stranded DNA virus, that CDC estimates causes 400,000 doctor visits, 200,…
October 26, 2008
Superbowl commercials are a thing unto themselves. Some people watch just for the commercials. The famous Apple "1984" ad only ran once, during the 1984 Superbowl, although it has been seen online hundreds of thousands of times since. Another famous ad was the 1999 Budweiser "Whassup" ad. If you've…
October 26, 2008
The world has had its fill of religion-inspired terrorists. But exactly who is a "terrorist"? In my book, a terrorist is someone who knowingly kills, maims or creates terror in innocent people for a political purpose. The political purpose might be to change a government (from secular to theocratic…
October 25, 2008
John McCain chose Governor Palin as a nod to the Republican base and they love her. But it's not just the base. Her neighbors also love her:
October 25, 2008
A study just published in the British Medical Journal (full disclosure: I haven't read it, only seen wire service reports of it, but I have absolute confidence it is true -- or, more accurately, I'd say it accords 100% with my prior beliefs so I'd have no reason to question it), says that US…
October 24, 2008
OK, so Governor Palin spent $150,000 in two months on clothes and accessories. Big deal. It wasn't illegal. And it wasn't taxpayer money. It was campaign money. Money donated to the Republican Party by people who trusted Republican officials to be good stewards of their (possibly) honestly earned…
October 24, 2008
Everyone knows newspapers are struggling, which means cutting back on everything, including investigative reporting. So it is nice to acknowledge that there is still some wonderful reporting going on. A particular standout has been Susanne Rust, Meg Kissinger and their colleagues at the Milwaukee…
October 23, 2008
If an al-Qaeda website had endorsed Barack Obama I think we know what the McCain campaign would do with it. It would be absolutely ridiculous, but we know they'd be trumpeting it from small town to small town in "the real America." Now that the shoe is on the other foot, with an al-Qaeda website…
October 23, 2008
With the advent of flu season the perennial question of the "next pandemic" is again making an appearance, although I think it is more of a cameo appearance than a substantive one. WHO, CDC and numerous state health departments are warning citizens about seasonal flu, still a major public health…