j7uy5 | January 20, 2007Under-the-Radar Politics
I sure hope this doesn't sound too alarmist, gevalt,
over-the-top, whatever, but I noticed a post on Integrity of
Science that woke me up a little bit - before my coffee was
finished brewing.
(The coffee, by the way, is Trader Joe's Tarrazu; it's made in
a co-op in Costa Rica. It's worth a try, if you can find it.)
The post is this one:
New
Oversight Policy Bad for Science-based DecisionmakingPosted
on: January 19, 2007 2:44 PM, by Ian HartPresident Bush
signed a whole heap of bad yesterday. Amendments to a Clinton-era
executive order will substantially increase…
j7uy5 | January 17, 2007The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists site is back to normal, only now they have a new, secondary theme.
They are considering both climate change AND the risk of nuclear catastrophe. Based upon their deliberations, they have moved the clock two minutes closer to midnight. The announcement was made at a conference at the Royal Society in London. Stephen Hawking spoke, as noted by The Independent:
"As we stand at the brink of a second nuclear age and a period of unprecedented climate change, scientists have a special responsibility, once again, to inform the public and to advise leaders about…
j7uy5 | January 17, 2007"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is one of those trite sayings
that we've all heard "a million times." Certainly, is is
commonplace for persons to have differing opinions on matters such as
the attractiveness of others. Sometimes, though, I've noted a
tendency for peer groups to work toward a consensus about what
constitutes attractiveness.
It turns out that there is a complex psychology behind this, and it has
to do with social context.
href="http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2007-01-17T005428Z_01_L16822716_RTRUKOC_0_US-SCIENCE-ATTRACTION…
j7uy5 | January 17, 2007The January 12, 2007 issue of MMWR reports on cases of infant deaths due to (presumably) unintentional overdoses on cough and cold preparations. With this being the season that such products are most likely to be used, I thought I'd call attention to this. Many people do not realize that there are very few different active ingredients in over-the-counter (OTC) cough/cold products. Basically, you have antihistamines, decongestants, analgesics, cough suppressants, expectorants, and junk (such as alcohol). Yet if you look down the aisle at a drugstore, you see a bewildering array of products.…
j7uy5 | January 16, 2007This thing has fascinated me since I was a teenager, when my father had
a subscription to the
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_of_the_Atomic_Scientists"
rel="tag">Bulletin of the Atomic
Scientists. I read it every
time. They are the ones who keep the famous
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_Clock">Doomsday
Clock.
Now, we hear that
href="http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles/_a/scientists-to-move-doomsday-clock/20070114093009990001">the
Clock is being changed:
Also the website
for the Bulletin is being changed.
Right
now, this is the only thing…
j7uy5 | January 15, 2007
Everyone knows that HIV is American prisons is a huge problem, but we don't hear much about it. There are several reasons for that. For one, prisons are unpleasant places, and for the most part, we don't want to think about what goes on there. For another, many people figure that whatever happens to prisoners is their problem; some even assume that whatever happens to inmates is part of their well-deserved punishment. Perhaps homophobia is a factor, too. For some, it may be unpleasant for them to think about one of the modes of transmission of HIV/AIDS. Not that any mode is particularly nice…
j7uy5 | January 11, 2007This was one of Reuters top photos for the day, yesterday. It shows a
href="http://news.yahoo.com/photo/070110/ids_photos_wl/r2471213610.jpg">baby
albino alligator. Not only is it an unusual
subject, but
it is a pretty good picture.
A baby albino alligator swims at Sao Paulo's Aquarium
January 10, 2007.
Sao Paulo's Aquarium, South America's biggest thematic aquarium, holds
two rare albino alligators, both measuring about 44-centimetres.
j7uy5 | January 10, 2007Notice the prominent use of the word "potential." That is
potential as in may or may not ever come to anything. As word
of these potential treatments gets out, we can expect that unscrupulous
persons will try to market things that sound like the potential
treatments I am about to discuss, but which are completely bogus.
So, I hope that people keep this kind of thing in mind, and
to the extent possible, learn to distinguish fact from fiction when it
comes to health products.
rel="tag">Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is one of those
things that seems to attract a lot of attention from certain…
j7uy5 | January 9, 2007From Reuters:
Horse thinks he's a hound
Jan 8 - A foal who was raised with dogs has become so attached he thinks his mother and father are labradors.
Rather than cantering about meadows with the other horses, Shetland pony foal Rory now spends most of his time chasing sticks and licking bones.
Andrew Potter reports.
The (rather amusing) video can be seen here.
j7uy5 | January 8, 2007You might think that developing a system for EMR would be fairly
straightforward. After all, some of the things that computers
are
really good for, are the storing, retrieval, and display of
information. But somehow, developing a system that actually
works AND
is easy to use in a hospital environment, has proven to be rather
challenging.
Reading a post on the blog,
href="http://infoisfree.blogspot.com/2006/12/it-in-hospital-main-hospital-i-work-at.html">Information
is Free (so help yourself.) I was reminded of a few thoughts
I've been meaning to disseminate. This is on the topic of…
j7uy5 | January 7, 2007Perhaps it is a mere coincidence, but I could not help but notice
this. As soon as Democrats take control of the House and Senate, we
see these headlines:
Return
trip for electric vehicles: automakers unveil plans for electric
cars; no need to put pressure on the auto industry!
Medicare
Drug Program Costing Less Than Estimates, U.S. Says: no need to
pressure the pharmaceutical industry!
Employers
increase hiring, wages in Dec.: no need to worry about jobs and
wages, or to put pressure on big business!
Falling
crude oil prices should translate soon to lower prices at the pump:
leave the oil…
j7uy5 | January 6, 2007(This is a public health announcement for women and men.)
News agencies are, appropriately, reporting on the finding that the
average levels of folate in American women are falling. (e.g.
href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-01-04-folates_x.htm?csp=34">Folate
levels in young American women fall, could lead to rise in birth defects)
The media are doing a pretty good job of putting this in context.
I am happy to see that the subject is getting as much
attention as it is. But it is so important,
that I want to add some additional background information, in order to
reinforce…
j7uy5 | January 6, 2007The big Pharma news of the day is that Pzifer is marketing
(Slentrol®),
a drug to help obese dogs lose weight.
href="http://www.pfizerah.com/slentrol/sl_pi.pdf">
Dirlotapide, also known as N-{(1S)-2-[benzyl(methyl)amino]-
2-oxo-1-phenylethyl}-1-methyl-5-[4'-(trifluoromethyl)biphenyl-
2-carboxamido]-1H-indol-2-carboxamide, is definitely not recommended
for humans:
href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/DietNutrition/msnbc/4811">Slentrol
(dirlotapide) Goes to the Dogs
By Peggy Peck, Managing Editor, MedPage Today
January 05, 2007
ROCKVILLE, Md., Jan. 5 -- The FDA…
j7uy5 | January 6, 2007The Richat Structure is not a structure in the usual sense.
It is a natural feature located in the Sahara Desert of
Mauritania. It is unusual because it is nearly circular.
It was
href="http://www.eorc.nasda.go.jp/en/imgdata/topics/2003/tp031015.html">first
observed from space, in 1965, by the astronauts James A.
McDivitt and Edward H. White. (Irrelevant comment: both
McDivitt and White attended the University of Michigan, and there is a
href="http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=mcdivitt&w=27345247%40N00">plaza,
near the diag, named for them.)
At first,
href="http://www.…
j7uy5 | January 5, 2007(I know Shelly has
href="http://scienceblogs.com/retrospectacle/2007/01/post.php">already
posted about this on Retrospectacle.
Hopefully, you'll see there is a different slant to this.)
Significant controversy arose over the idea of using pharmaceutical and
surgical methods to permanently stunt the growth of children with
severe disabilities. The controversy arose with the
publication of stories in the media about "Ashley X."
The medical profession refers to this as
"growth attenuation treatment." In order to understand the
controversy, it first is necessary to understand what was…
j7uy5 | January 4, 2007...from a psychological standpoint, that is. This is the
topic of an article in the current edition of
style="font-style: italic;">Foreign Policy.
In it, the authors examine the effect of common systematic
cognitive errors, or biases, on the process of evaluating the prospects
for war. They argue that when a country's leaders are
contemplating war, the hawks invariably have an advantage in the debate:
style="font-weight: bold;"
href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3660">Why
Hawks Win
By Daniel Kahneman, Jonathan Renshon
January/February 2007
...In fact,…
j7uy5 | January 3, 2007From National Geographic "Top Ten Photos of 2006"
style="font-weight: bold;">Photo in the News: Cat Chases
Bear Up Tree
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 461px; height: 615px;"
src="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/06/images/060613-cat-bear_big.jpg"
alt="Cat chases bear up a tree (photo)">
I thought it was staged, but apparently not. Story
href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/06/060613-cat-bear.html">here.
j7uy5 | January 3, 2007According to the CDC, there is a risk of pet hamsters harboring some
darn serious pathogens.
class="inset"
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 460px; height: 345px;"
alt="CC license: share alike, attribution"
title="by Yukari*, some rights reserved."
src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/47/121153744_1a08613c1e_o.jpg">
photo credit:
href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/yukariryu/121153744/">Yukari.
Hamsters, technically Class: Mammalia; Order: Rodentia; Suborder:
Myomorpha; Superfamily: Muroidea; Family: Cricetidae; Subfamily:
Cricetinae, are cute little pets that people…
j7uy5 | January 2, 2007There have been stories and novels about the end of privacy.
1984, by George Orwell, comes to mind. I also
remember reading a science fiction short story once, about how
technology had made privacy so difficult to maintain, and so accepted
by society, that it was considered rude to want privacy. I
can't remember who wrote that one.
This post was inspired by an article in the Wall Street Journal, that
points out how little privacy there is when it comes to medical
records. More below the fold...
Time Magazine just published 25 "top-10" lists for 2006. One
of the lists is for
href="…