j7uy5 | February 4, 2007Part five comes at the start of the second quarter. I am eating
burritos made with soy, phytoestrogens be damned. Half the beer
is gone. Started the game with 0.66 liters. Now down to
about 330ml. Goes well with the capsaicin.
Finally seeing a decent bit of football. Bears' defense is really
the only part of the game that is going well.
Egad, did I ever tell y'all how much I hate commercials. Before
the game, I was watching Howard Zinn on Book TV. That was much
more interesting, and there were no commercials. He was talking
about the dearth of civil disobedience and the ill…
j7uy5 | February 4, 2007Author realizes he overwrote pt 2 with pt 3. Part 2 is lost
forever. Wow. That is more interesting than the game has
been so far. I've eaten all the guacamole. There was too
much garlic in it.
Oh, the game. Another fumble. That makes what, three
fumbles and one interception, and the first quarter is not even over
yet. After the fumble, Colts try a pass and it is almost
intercepted.
j7uy5 | February 4, 2007Author getting bored. Turn attention to menu. Eating fresh
guacamole from Arbor Farms, drinking Pilner Urquell, from Plzen
Czech. Some people claim that it is the original pilsner, and
that it is the best beer in the world. Could be.
Oh, the score is 7 to 6, and the Colts just recovered a fumble, then a
moment later, Urlacher of the Bears recovers another fumble. I
was hoping to see some good football, but so far it is a Cirque des
Erreurs .
j7uy5 | February 4, 2007I almost never watch football. But this year it is being
broadcast in High Definition TV. Looks great on my 36cm
screen. Pregame show was colorful and totally uninspired.
The coin flip: the Bears win. That's the tenth coin flip in a row
won by the NFC team. Commentator notes that the odds of that are
1 in a thousand. Actually, it is two to the tenth power, which is
1024.
j7uy5 | February 4, 2007Yesterday, both
href="http://scienceblogs.com/terrasig/2007/02/lavender_and_tea_tree_oils_may.php">Abel
and I posted about the unexpected effects of lavender and tea-tree
oils: they've been implicated as causing gynecomastia in boys.
href="http://www.blogpulse.com/search?query=gynecomastia&image22.x=20&image22.y=18">Blogpulse
indicates that the Blogosphere has reacted quite a bit to this: the
blog at
href="http://blog.wired.com/biotech/2007/02/lavender_oils_f.html">Wired
News picked it up, as did
href="http://skepchick.org/blog/?p=377">Skepchick,
href="http://…
j7uy5 | February 3, 2007Regular readers know I am not globally opposed to the use of various
natural products. Even so, I do, from time to time, point out why
we need to be cautious about some herbal or alternative medicine
products. A good case in point was reported recently, pertaining
to breast enlargement in young boys.
(Not Self-Portrait)
href="http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/356/5/479">Prepubertal
Gynecomastia Linked to Lavender and Tea Tree Oils
Derek V. Henley, Ph.D., Natasha Lipson, M.D., Kenneth S.
Korach, Ph.D., and Clifford A. Bloch, M.D.
NEJM 356:479-485
February 1, 2007
SUMMARY…
j7uy5 | February 3, 2007It recognition of the lifetime achievements of
href="http://majikthise.typepad.com/majikthise_/2007/02/molly_ivins_edu.html">Molly
Ivins, I propose that the term "
href="http://www.slate.com/id/76886/">Bushism" be replaced with
"Shrubism." But I'm not the decider when it comes to the
popularity of colloquialisms.
That aside, Shrubisms rarely make me laugh any more, because they are
so commonplace. But
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/01/AR2007020101800.html?referrer=blog">this
one gave me a chuckle:
Bush, making the media rounds in a State of…
j7uy5 | February 2, 2007This morning, or noon, or whatever, I read Jonah's post at The
Frontal Cortex,
href="http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2007/02/the_nfl_and_mental_illness.php">The
NFL and Mental Illness. It is a tragic story, but there is
one thing about it that I want to comment upon, regarding the reported
Adderall prescription.
But first, a digression. Reporters are expected to do at least a
little fact-checking. But in addition to checking facts,
sometimes it is appropriate to check for consistency.
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/sports/football/02concussions.html?ei=5090&en=…
j7uy5 | February 2, 2007This is just strange. Not profound, just strange. The same
newspaper on the same day carries two headlines on the same subject:
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/business/02cnd-jobs.html?ex=1328072400&en=c3b7312ad38409ce&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss">
Jobs Growth Slows but Remains Strong
href="http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Wall-Street.html?ex=1256184000&en=f75f0bb8b4799a79&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland">Stocks
End Mixed on Lackluster Jobs Data
Jobs Growth Slows but Remains Strong
By JEREMY W. PETERS
Published: February 2, 2007…
j7uy5 | February 2, 2007I almost wrote about this yesterday: a pair of articles indicating that
the FDA is getting more serious about protecting people:
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/30/AR2007013001496.html">FDA
Revamps Process for Safety of Drugs After Approval
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/30/AR2007013001388.html">FDA
to Monitor Post-Market Drug Safety
The need to bolster post-marketing surveillance has long been a sore
spot with FDA-watchers. It seemed that improvements were on the
way. Plus, it appeared to be the case, that…
j7uy5 | February 1, 2007It's not
really funny, but...
class="ccIcn ccIcnSmall">
href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">
src="http://www.flickr.com/images/cc_icon_attribution_small.gif"
alt="Attribution" title="Attribution">
src="http://www.flickr.com/images/cc_icon_noncomm_small.gif"
alt="Noncommercial" title="Noncommercial">
src="http://www.flickr.com/images/cc_icon_sharealike_small.gif"
alt="Share Alike" title="Share Alike">
href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/"
class="Plain">Some rights reserved.
HT: Mitten
j7uy5 | January 31, 2007We've lost one of the great journalists of our time: Molly Ivins.
She died after her third round of treatment for breast cancer.
The photo above is from The Nation, one of our premier
progressive publications.
href="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070219/molly_ivins">I
Remember Molly
John Nichols pays tribute to the warmest-hearted populist ever to pick
up a pen: Molly Ivins, who died Wednesday at the age of sixty-two. If
anyone picked a fight with the powerful, she was there, writing with
passion, humor and unbridled joy...
The photo above is from the Houston Chronicle…
j7uy5 | January 30, 2007And what an unflattering light it is.
It occurs to me that often, when I write about the pharmaceutical
industry, I have something negative to say. Really, my thoughts
are not all negative. It's just that it is easier to come up with
criticisms when responding to news items.
Anyway, this one (from Washington Post) deserves comment:
href="http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thecheckout/2007/01/drug_ads_taking_medicine_never.html">Drug
Ads: Taking Medicine Never Looked So Good
Remember all those tricks drugmakers used to get you to take medicine
as a kid? They made cough syrup sweet…
j7uy5 | January 27, 2007...the
USA has not gotten all of its highly-enriched uranium back.
As reported in a special report in the Chicago Tribune, the
USA had a program in the '50's and 60's called "Atoms
for Peace." Initially, we supplied low-grade uranium fuel to
countries that pledged to not develop nuclear weapons. But at
some point, the policy shifted, and we began shipping the high-grade
stuff. The idea was that we would get it back when it was no
longer useful as fuel.
href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-061209atoms-day1-story,1,7163234.htmlstory">
href="http://www.…
j7uy5 | January 26, 2007In response to a question, where can I sign up for a clinical trial
on...?
The answer is: go to www.clinicaltrials.gov,
to find out. For example, if you search on "Transcranial
Direct Current Stimulation", you get
href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct/search?term=Transcranial+Direct+Current+Stimulation&submit=Search">16
results. However, no current trial involves
treatment for pain. There is one for treatment of depression,
but it is at the University
of New South Wales. UNSW is a fine institution, but
it's a bit far to travel, for those of us in North America.
If you're…
j7uy5 | January 26, 2007I tend to be skeptical of causes or organizations that include the word
"truth," as in
href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Swift_Boat_Veterans_for_Truth">Swiftboat
Veterans for Truth.
But I suppose that if one side does it, the
href="http://scienceblogs.com/worldsfair/2007/01/this_is_all_about_the_truth_a.php">other
can, too; so, here goes: "Truth".
j7uy5 | January 26, 2007Fibromyalgia
is a disorder of chronic generalized muscle pain and joint stiffness
with the presence on physical exam of at least 11/18 designated tender
points. (The formal definition is a bit more involved.)
Interestingly, the term was not accepted by the AMA until
1987; the formal definition was not developed until 1990(1).
Prior to that, it was widely assumed to have a psychological
basis.
In fact, there still is a tendency in some medical circles, and in some
persons in the general population, to attribute fibromyalgia
Despite a substantial research effort (see
href="http://fm-…
j7uy5 | January 25, 2007Remember
rel="tag">geothermal energy? It was a
popular topic back in the 1960's, particularly among those who were
stridently opposed to the massive investments in nuclear power.
Somehow, though, it was never pursued very aggressively.
Now, there is a massive report published by
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology"
rel="tag">MIT, at the behest of the US Dept. of
Energy. It is a big report, a 14MB PDF download:
href="http://geothermal.inel.gov/publications/future_of_geothermal_energy.pdf">The
Future of Geothermal Energy. It is mentioned…
j7uy5 | January 24, 2007Two different news organizations chose two different photos to
illustrate the same event:
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_carter" rel="tag">Jimmy
Carter speaking at
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandeis_University"
rel="tag">Brandeis University, in response to
criticism of his boook:
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine_Peace_Not_Apartheid"
rel="tag">Palestine Peace Not Apartheid.
The top photo is from the New York Times,
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/24/us/24carter.html">At
Brandeis, Carter Responds to Critics. The bottom is
from Fox…
j7uy5 | January 23, 2007Great idea: create a "volunteer civilian corps" that would give
Americans the opportunity to contribute their valuable skills, to take
the stress off the regular military.
Translation: let's hire mercenaries, who'll think they're getting a
good deal, making $100,000 a year, while getting shot at; even though
their corporate bosses make millions, sitting in their executive
leather chairs. Great idea: increase the profit incentive for
starting a war. Move the Clock another minute closer to
midnight.
That is my strongest impression of the State of the Union Address.
Which, by the way, had…