terrasig
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April 9, 2009
A recent business sojourn to Key West, FL, gave your intrepid blogger (who still has yet to set up his own CafePress swag shop) an opportunity to revisit a story we first discussed in February of an acupuncturist being arrested on three felony charges for obtaining controlled substances by forgery…
April 9, 2009
My deepest gratitude goes out this morning to Bora Zivkovic, Mrs. Coturnix, and family for hosting what was for my daughter and I our first Seder supper. The evening was made even more special with Sheril Kirshenbaum, her BF and his labmate, Lisa (I'm sorry I don't know your full name but I do…
April 7, 2009
Great timelapse video of the crowd converging on Franklin St at Columbia just below the Top of the Hill Restaurant and Brewery and the evolution of the bonfires that I still just do not understand.
But the best part of yesterday's game for me was reading Ed Brayton's recollections of his…
April 6, 2009
I was very late to the game on a DrugMonkey post last week examining the demographics of Early Career Award winners from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Drug noted that only 9 of the 50 awardees are women:
So who got lucky? See the slideshow here.
huh. anything strike you? no? lemme…
April 5, 2009
As of late, I've not been particularly good at responding to those of you who've been so nice to comment on the blog. So, I spent a little bit of this morning going through your comments and looking at your blogs and websites, especially those of you with whom I was not previously familiar.
Among…
April 3, 2009
Arikia Millikan, then-Intern at ScienceBlogs.com (now gainfully employed Ex-Intern), demonstrates her facility in liveblogging the comparison between two pinot noirs.
So why has it taken me exactly 11 weeks to write this post? I think it's because once we post it, I have to let go of how awesome…
March 31, 2009
A little over a week ago, we posted on the very sad story of the accidental death of a University of Colorado sophomore from ingesting poppy seed tea. The poppy, Papaver somniferum, is the commercial source for prescription narcotic painkillers such as morphine and codeine. The seeds can be had…
March 28, 2009
Dr John Hope Franklin was a 1935 A.B. graduate of Fisk University in Nashville, TN, then earned his M.A. (1936) and Ph.D. (1939) from Harvard University. [For reference, W.E.B. DuBois also graduated from Fisk (1888) and was the first Black to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard (1895).] Franklin's…
March 27, 2009
Just a quick note of congratulations to friends of Terra Sig (FOTS, if you will) on earning 2008 Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism from the Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ).
Online
FIRST: M.B. Pell, Jim Morris and Jillian Olsen, Center for Public Integrity, "Perils of the…
March 26, 2009
Dr Geraldine P Woods (1921-1999) was inarguably the most influential scientist in establishing and promoting NIH's programs in research and research training for underrepresented groups. Therefore, I have chosen her story for my entry to this month's Diversity in Science blog carnival recognizing…
March 25, 2009
My colleague, DrugMonkey, recently wrote an absolutely fantastic post on bigotry in sports and the pioneers other than Jackie Robinson in breaking the so-called color barrier. I had actually forgotten that in the 1970s, Warren Moon spent much of his career in the Canadian Football League because…
March 23, 2009
As I have stated many times before, this blog has brought me some personal experiences and friendships I would have never had in my life as "just" a lab scientist and pharmacology professor.
Among the most cordial relationships I have had online with a professional journalist has been with Scott…
March 22, 2009
I had the happy pleasure of visiting on Friday with Sheril Kirshenbaum and Bora Zivkovic for a panel discussion in a course at Duke University's Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy.
Directed by Dr Misha Angrist, PubPol 196S "Science in the Media" is described in the course catalog as…
March 21, 2009
Kudos to The Washington Post for publishing an op-ed by author, journalist, blogger, Chris Mooney, on the George Will WaPo global warming fiasco. Author of "The Republican War on Science," "Storm World," and co-author with Sheril Kirshenbaum of the forthcoming "Unscientific America: How Scientific…
March 21, 2009
After writing this post, I came across Alex's obituary and guestbook on Legacy.com. By all accounts, Alex was a great kid - loved and admired by many - an accomplished hockey player and musician with a love for the mountains. This could have been you or I, or worse, one of our own children.…
March 20, 2009
...it must be Spring in the Northern Hemisphere (7:44 am EDT)
March 18, 2009
I just had a chance to check in on a triad of posts by Prof Janet Stemwedel at Adventures in Ethics and Science (1, 2, 3) on the ethical issues of the conduct of studies, particularly clinical trials, supported by the US NIH's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM).
For…
Fullsteam Brewery founder and local-ag guru, Sean Wilson, to appear on WUNC-FM's The State of Things
March 18, 2009
The local food movement is not local here in the sprawling US. Hence why am posting this note here.
North Carolina beer saint and local-ag brewer, Sean Lily Wilson, will be on the radio in about an hour. We featured Sean back in January when the state's flagship newspaper named him Tar Heel of…
March 15, 2009
I am truly humbled by reader response to my Thursday post on the 12th anniversary of my father's death. What began as a simple journaling exercise interspersed with some great photos provided by my sister has become one of my most highly-read and most-commented posts.
I don't want to comment too…
March 14, 2009
Blogfather, editor, and science journalist extraordinaire, Anton Zuiker, is selling his house.
Tomorrow, they are hosting an open house:
Help me sell my house - invite your NC friends to stop by our open house Sun, 3/15 at 2pm. http://bit.ly/Q8UoZ
Although nestled in tall pines, the home is…
March 14, 2009
Well, the living nightmare that is my home office refuses to clean itself completely. So , I am left with all the best intentions but no pie to contribute to the Pi Day competition.
I had intended to bake PharmGirl's great-grandmother's old Southern traditional coconut pie. Alas, it was not to be…
March 14, 2009
Even though it's Saturday morning, drinking coffee while getting ready to take the PharmKid to ballet class, I'm not usually one to throw up YouTube videos as blog posts without any context.
However, my dear friend, frequent commenter, and devoted traffic-driver, anjou, passed this along to me.
I…
March 12, 2009
Today marks 12 years since you died.
Well, it might have been today, possibly yesterday, I hope not too many days ago.
You see, you died alone in your apartment you rented from your sister downstairs. Yet no one checked on you as your mail accumulated Monday and Tuesday. One of your drinking…
March 12, 2009
Wayne Sutton is to social media what Bora Zivkovic is to science blogging.
So, I got this tweet today from Wayne from Blackhippychick's Blog on 100 Black Twitterers of note:
Are you curious to know what the African American Community is twittering about then check out these 100 Black Twitters. The…
March 11, 2009
Back in February 2007, we had a lively discussion on a post about pharmacist objection to filling prescriptions for drugs they felt went again their personal moral stance: from morning-after pills to garden-variety oral contraceptives. I held that since pharmacists are licensed by the state to…
March 9, 2009
I'm very proud today to see one of my formative professors, Dr Fulton Crews, quoted extensively in a USAToday article on a new, web-based alcohol awareness initiative, "Rethinking Drinking," from NIH's National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) Division of Treatment and Recovery…
March 8, 2009
I used to keep a separate blog for items of local interest but I can't even keep up with one. So, you'll occasionally have to bear with me posting about issues of import from the area in and around Terra Sigillata World Headquarters.
But here's a local bit of info for our NC Triangle readers that…
March 6, 2009
We're really fortunate here at Terra Sigillata World Headquarters to have a strong, dedicated readership. But I'm always tickled when we attract new readers and attention to the views we express here.
Late yesterday I received a very nice e-mail from Andrew Plemmons Pratt, Managing Editor of…
March 5, 2009
Chris Mooney just asked the question as to why sci/med bloggers are up in arms about Sen Tom Harkin's recent complaints about the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), the arm of NIH charged with funding studies to investigate the mechanisms and efficacy of modalities…
March 4, 2009
I just wanted to send out congratulations to my friends and colleagues in Charleston at the Medical College of South Carolina (MUSC) on the 2 March announcement of their receipt of NCI Cancer Center designation:
The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Hollings Cancer Center has attained…