j7uy5 | July 9, 2007
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">We are most
accustomed to seeing power generation windmills on dry land, here in
the USA. In Europe, some are on land and some are offshore.
They generally are considered eyesores. Myself, I
think they are beautiful. I love to see them up on a ridge,
turning away, churning out megawatts for our energy-hungry populace.
Would I want one in my back yard? Sure. In fact,
there is a fair probability that I will put one there, if it won't
alienate my neighbors too much.
But there's the rub. Despite the fact that I think they are
aesthetically…
j7uy5 | July 9, 2007"It
won't be easy, but it is time to ask the American people to be
patriotic about something other than war."
--
title="From the ScienceBlogs Interview"
href="http://scienceblogs.com/clock/2007/07/exclusive_interview_with_senat.php">John
Edwards
j7uy5 | July 9, 2007
Insurance companies have discriminated against their mentally ill
customers for years. Sadly, they have done so with t he
comlicity of the Federal government.
There have been many attempts to change this, but the attempts
generally are made by constituents who have little power, and meet with little success.
Another attempt is underway.
href="http://snowe.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressRoom.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=87f720da-802a-23ad-4cb7-acdae2631a38&Region_id=&Issue_id=">Kerry
and Snowe have introduced a bill,
href="http://www.govtrack.us/…
j7uy5 | July 8, 2007...And
tell me what the poll means.
These are from a poll conducted on July 5, 2007, by the
href="http://www.americanresearchgroup.com/" rel="tag">American
Research Group (sorry, no permalink):
cellspacing="0" width="90%">
Question:
Do
you approve or disapprove of President George W. Bush commuting the
30-month prison sentence of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby while leaving
intact Mr. Libby's conviction for perjury and obstruction of justice in
the CIA leak case?
height="2">
7/5/07
Approve
Disapprove
Undecided
All Adults
31%
64%
5%
Voters
26%
69%
5%
height="2"…
j7uy5 | July 8, 2007On
June 21, 2007, the American Psychiatric Association issued a press
release on the subject of video game addiction. Apparently,
it had been rumored n the media that the APA was going to have a vote
on whether to classify excessive video gaming as an addiction.
That was never a possibility. Official changes in diagnostic
categories only occur when the
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diagnostic_and_Statistical_Manual_of_Mental_Disorders">diagnostic
manual is changed, and the next change is not due until 2012.
Furthermore, the current procedure for changing diagnostic methodology…
j7uy5 | July 7, 2007Speciation
is the formation of new species of organisms. Often, the term
is used to describe an event in the course of evolution in which one
species gets divided into two groups, after which the process of
genetic change occurs differently in each group. When the
differences are so great, that representatives from one group do not
interbreed successfully with members of the other, then a new species
has formed.
I know, when you get down to the details, it is tough to come up with a
universally acceptable way to define a species, but that is
href="http://www.philosophynow.org/issue50/…
j7uy5 | July 7, 2007The
term "entitlement" has garnered a strongly negative connotation in
recent years. Usually, the word entitlement is
used to refer to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, plus other
programs that provide direct assistance (Aid to Families with Dependent
Children, student aid, housing, food stamps and other nutrition
programs, and direct public assistance).
Of course, there is also a class of entitlements that do not go to
individuals; rather, they go to corporations in what is sometimes
called corporate
welfare. Admittedly, it can be
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…
j7uy5 | July 6, 2007It is
a cheap shot, indeed, but an exceptionally good one. And
given that Cheney is the only person in history to get an apology from
someone after shooting him in the face with a shotgun, it is strangely
appropriate...
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quality="high" bgcolor="#006699" name="comedy_player"
allowscriptaccess="always" allownetworking="external"
type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/…
j7uy5 | July 6, 2007The
news article does not state specifically why it is happening, but it is
a trend over the past two years:
href="http://www.thestar.com/Environment/article/232782">Great
Lakes fish getting worse: Study
Jul 05, 2007
11:36 AM
Catherine
Porter
Toronto Star
Environment
Reporter
Toxins
that once only surfaced in big fish are making
their way down the food chain, a sign that the Great Lakes are getting
even more polluted, a new report says.
In the past two years, smaller sizes of salmon, trout and carp have
been slapped with strict consumption warnings - and some with outright…
j7uy5 | July 5, 2007The
href="http://www.allerca.com/">Allerca
hypoallergenic cat...
href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/images/Alerca_kittens.jpg">
is a
hot commodity right now. The company claims a 15-month
waiting list for the $4,000 pets. They supposedly have many
virtues:
An
ALLERCA GD cat's personality is very sweet and
affectionate, thanks in part to our unique socialization program.
Customer who now own GD cats report that they make great
family pets and are wonderful with children.
"GD"
stands for "genetic divergence," in case
you were wondering.
Their breeding program…
j7uy5 | July 4, 2007Recently, a friend asked my opinion on an article that
appeared in Life Extension magazine: How
Congress Is Being Misled to Think That DHEA Is an “Anabolic
Steroid”.
title="Dehydroepiandrosterone">DHEA has been
a topic here before; I wrote about it (
href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/2006/10/tepid_water_thrown_on_a_hot_pr.php">Tepid
Water Thrown on a Hot Product: DHEA); Tara wrote about it (
href="http://scienceblogs.com/aetiology/2006/10/failure_of_alternative_med.php">The
failure of alternative medicine); and Orac wrote about it (
href="http://scienceblogs.com/…
j7uy5 | July 3, 2007T
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">his
is another post in a series detailing the selection of antidepressant
medication. Use the "Antidepressants" link in the
"Categories"
part of the sidebar to find the other posts in the series.
In this post, I am sort of assuming that the reader has read the
previous posts, or has an adequate fund of general knowledge on the
subject.
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bupropion" rel="tag">Bupropion
is not a member of a family. Most antidepressants can be
placed
in a family of drugs that share similar properties, but there is no
other drug…
j7uy5 | June 30, 2007The
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Panda">Red
Panda has a Latin name that suggests it is a cat.
It is not, being more closely related to bears and raccoons.
They are similar to the more famous Giant Pandas, but
sufficiently distinct so as to have their own family name, Ailuridae.
This
photo was the Wikipedia picture of the day for November 1, 2005.
It was taken by Bernard Landgraf at the Munich Zoo.
j7uy5 | June 30, 2007There
is a refreshingly whimsical article, on a very serious subject, in this
month's edition of Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain.
rev="review"
href="http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1526-4610.2007.00665.x">Harry
Potter and the Curse of Headache
Fred Sheftell MD, Timothy J Steiner MB, PhD, Hallie Thomas
Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain 47 (6), 911–916.
doi:10.1111/j.1526-4610.2007.00665.x
Headache disorders are common in children and adolescents. Even young
male Wizards are disabled by them. In this article we review Harry
Potter's headaches…
j7uy5 | June 29, 2007A
recent study in the Archives of Internal Medicine caught my attention,
because it has significant implications for stress management by
physicians. The study also generated a bit of
attention in the popular media. For example, this article in
NYT:
title="NYT permanent link via RSS"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/26/health/26doctors.html?ex=1340510400&en=f56fa2071d6a6fa7&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss">Study
Says Chatty Doctors Forget Patients
By GINA KOLATA
Published: June 26, 2007
...To their surprise, the researchers discovered that doctors talked…
j7uy5 | June 28, 2007I
really like the idea behind the Farmer's Diner. This guy,
Tod Murphy, started a restaurant that only servers food that was grown
or produced within seventy miles.
There's
an interview with him in
href="http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/272/"
rel="tag">Orion Magazine. The idea is
simple. Reduce the dependence on fossil fuel by getting all
products locally.
The ramifications are interesting.
It helps support local farming businesses, which then are able to
compete with
rel="tag">factory farming operations.
...The
Farmers Diner has also spun…
j7uy5 | June 20, 2007Why are people, all over the country, all of a sudden, searching for "Asian flying carp video?"
j7uy5 | June 20, 2007Not
posting much this week. I'll be taking down my computers for a few
days, making it difficult to post at all.
Maybe I will finally find out where all those little wires behind my
computers go. If I can get them all plugged in to the right
spots again, regular posting will resume next week.
j7uy5 | June 18, 2007
href="http://www.latimes.com/la-bamboobikes-pg,0,860767.photogallery?coll=la-default-underdog">
The
href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bamboo18jun18,0,7672267.story?coll=la-home-center">inventor
hopes to see them become commonplace in the third world.
Strange, because the frame alone costs $2,700 in the USA.
However, the frames can be made with no power tools. The
material is cheaper than dirt. (Pound for pound, compared to
potting soil.) Get a few folks who have time on their hands
and a bit of skill, and they could start a business.
Presumably they would be a…