revere
Posts by this author
May 7, 2008
Vaccination against most childhood diseases is important for the overall health of the community. I've said that many times here and most recently, along with my Sciblings, bemoaned an increasing trend to refusing vaccination. The health related reasons for refusing to be vaccinated are largely…
May 6, 2008
The AP has a story that a task force composed of medical and other experts from academia, professional groups, the military and government executive branches and agencies like the Department of Homeland Security, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human…
May 5, 2008
Mrs. R. and I visited Australia a number of years back. She was the one attending a scientific congress while I was the accompanying spouse. Quite nice, really. I enjoyed not having to work on a foreign visit. And Australia was terrific. We loved it. I was surprised at how good the food was (a…
May 4, 2008
A democratic party superdelegate answers Senator Clinton's challenge to repudiate her vote phishing:
"Senator Clinton claimed yesterday that I either stand with her on this proposal or stand with the oil companies. To that I say: I stand with the families of Colorado, who aren't looking for bumper…
May 4, 2008
Let's stray from the Path of Wrighteousness and listen to some other spiritual leaders close to one of the Presidential Candidates. I don't know who Senator Clinton's God Guru is (I'm guessing that depends on what is most expedient at the moment; the Great God of Gas Tax Holidays seems favored as I…
May 3, 2008
In other parts of the world measles is a major killer of children and infants. In my own youth measles was a very troublesome childhood disease that was a major cause of morbidity in the US, with 3 to 4 million cases a year. One in 250 died, almost 50,000 a year were hospitalized and 1000 were left…
May 2, 2008
I'll admit I don't keep up with what's going on in the world of robotics, so I was pretty stunned a couple of months ago when a reader sent us this link to the promo for Boston Dynamics Big Dog robot. It's a longish clip, but this is a pretty amazing beast (I use the word deliberately). As long as…
May 1, 2008
Whenever the big dog over the back fence barks, our little dog goes racing to the back door, barking like crazy. Forget the fact that if the two dogs actually came muzzle to muzzle, the other dog would eat ours with one mouthful. On the other hand, when dogs bark on television, our dog either lifts…
April 30, 2008
Every day seems to bring a new story about the crap we are leaving strewn around our environment. Not just trash but chemical trash, the kind of stuff we eat, pop as pills or dispose of and which winds up as molecules in our air, water and food. You may think you know more than you want to about…
April 29, 2008
We've covered the FDA failure leading to their overlooking benzene in soda pretty often (at least if pretty often means here, here, here, here, here, here and here). It's like the guy who went to the doctor complaining of pain in his belly. "Ever have it before?" the doctor asked. "Yes, twice" the…
April 28, 2008
On a couple of occasions (here, here) we've taken note of the scientific controversy regarding the plasticizer, bisphenol-A (BPA). I shouldn't really put it this way, because as the leading BPA researcher, Fred vom Saal of the Univeristy of Missouri said in the Washington Post over the weekend,…
April 27, 2008
The Reveres caucused this weekend and finally decided that with summer coming on and the academic and flu seasons ending this would be a good time to lighten up on our twice a day posting. There may even be days with no posts at all.
In truth we have found the posting schedule wearing. This blog…
April 27, 2008
The more things change the more they get weirder. In my day, the only way you could be a Conscientious Objector was to claim that status on religious grounds. If you were an atheist, tough shit. Now if you are an atheist, they don't want you to fight. This is something for all you young folks to…
April 26, 2008
We frequently observe here that almost everything in public health, from the societal level to the molecular level, is a balancing act. With most benefits comes a risk and with many risks a benefit. Of course there is a problem when the benefits and risks accrue to different parties as when the…
April 25, 2008
When I read about this Japanese robot designed to clean urinals that was made to look like a stylized elephant I was reminded of a joke. First the robot, then the joke.
Here's a pic of the robot followed by a machine translation of the Japanese Press Release (courtesy 3Yen, hat tip Boingboing):…
April 25, 2008
For years we have been naming flu viruses in a particular way. Now Declan Butler has a news article in Nature observing that the system is being modified for bird flu to be more "politically correct." What is the system that's being modified (still in use for seasonal flu)?
It starts off with the…
April 24, 2008
The art professor is finally cleared but a distinguished biologist was still punished by a ridiculous, mindless, cruel and utterly reckless use of raw power by the Bush administration:
A federal judge dismissed criminal indictments on Monday against an art professor at the State University of New…
April 24, 2008
In the previous two posts (here and here) we laid out some new results that dissect what might be happening at the molecular level when a patient infected with SARS or bird flu descends into Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) from Acute Lung Injury (ALI) in a just published paper in the…
April 23, 2008
A viral infection with serious public health consequences occurred in Canada on January with little publicity:
Hundreds of computers at the Public Health Agency of Canada fell victim to a "worm," a bit of malicious software that nearly brought operations to a halt.
The trouble began Monday, Jan. 15…
April 23, 2008
In our previous post we set the stage for discussing the results of a significant new paper by Imai et al. and colleagues on the mechanism of lung damage from diverse pathogens, including SARS, bird flu H5N1, 1918 H1N1 flu, inhalational anthrax and Monkeypox. If this work is verified it is a major…
April 22, 2008
It's kind of strange when suddenly there are a lot of articles on growing meat in a vat (it's probably because there was a recent conference in Norway on the topic). Even we posted on it last week and today the New York Times tells us that PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals -…
April 22, 2008
The cells of your body don't just sit there, unmindful of what is going on around them. They have to respond to things, even cooperate with other cells to get things done for the common good. Humans do the same thing. We've developed a system of signaling to each other using an intricate vocal…
April 21, 2008
"Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive pollute." I know it doesn't rhyme. But the tangled web is real:
Songbirds feeding near the contaminated South River are showing high levels of mercury, even though they aren't eating food from the river itself, according to a paper…
April 21, 2008
There's an epidemic of a viral disease in Florida, although you wouldn't know it unless you were a vegetable or a farmer:
In recent years, the number of whitefly-transmitted viruses in cucurbit fields, home to crops like cucumbers, squashes, pumpkins, melons and watermelons, has increased to almost…
April 20, 2008
The National Post recently had an interesting article on "disease mongering," an article I largely agreed with. The major point was that fostering a fear of "germs," promoting the idea that following medical advice, especially advice involving "taking your pills," and the very definition of who is…
April 20, 2008
This being a public health blog and all, we thought an emphasis on prevention was appropriate. Here's how to practice damnation hygiene:
April 19, 2008
Every once in a while Scienceblogs (through its publisher, Seed Magazine) gets a question from a reader that is circulated to see if one or more of the bloggers wants to take a crack at answering it. Recently a 9 year old wanted to know what is in the air we breathe (chemically speaking). On its…
April 18, 2008
The occupational disease in slaughterhouse workers who extract pig brains using compressed air is growing in number. It is still small because this process seems to be uncommon. We first discussed it last December when there were 11 cases and its origin was uncertain. It didn't have an official…
April 18, 2008
If you want to know how far we've come since the early days of discussing community preparations for a possible influenza pandemic, take a look at a story at CIDRAP News about a new guidance document prepared by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) and its partners.…
April 17, 2008
In July 2005 when there was a terrorist bombing in the London subway system the FBI, using a perfectly valid and legal subpoena, asked for and obtained documents from North Carolina State University about a possible conspirator. That apparently wasn't good enough for the FBI. They wanted the agent…