Search Content

Displaying results 78351 - 78400 of 87950

Bird flu test saves Australian horses

We have numerous examples of basic science that becomes unexpectedly useful and other examples of how veterinary science is useful to human health. Once you begin to understand how the world works it gives you tools that can be extended. The first stick used to knock a banana off a tree proved useful for lots of other things as well -- for example, whacking another monkey trying to poach on your personal banana patch (the Second Amendment of the Monkey Constitution gives all primates the Right to carry a club). So it's not such a big surprise that work on bird flu to save humans might have…

Why fever screening at airports is unlikely to work

In our earlier discussion of the science behind greenhouse gases we pointed out that all objects radiate electromagnetic radiation, doing so at a peak wavelength dependent upon their surface temperatures. That means two things. One is that things at the usual temperatures in our world are radiating EM radiation at wavelengths characteristic of the far infrared region. The other is that by measuring the intensity of infrared you can also measure the surface temperature of the body without touching it. Commercial devices are touted as highly accurate. Clinicians use them to measure body "core…

If George Tiller doesn't matter to you, does god?

A few years ago, the creationist organization Answers in Genesis launched an ill-conceived ad campaign that featured kids with guns; the message was "If God doesn't matter to him, do you?". They were trying to hop onto the fear bandwagon, so popular among conservatives now, of trying to convince people that you must support their aims, or some Other will kill you. That sign and the whole aborted ad campaign (it died away fairly quickly after AiG started it) has everything backwards. We start with the recognition of and respect for the right of every person to live, and then…it doesn't matter…

ScienceOnline2010 - introducing the participants

As you know you can see everyone who's registered for the conference, but I highlight 4-6 participants every day as this may be an easier way for you to digest the list. You can also look at the Program so see who is doing what. Arikia Millikan is the fomer scienceblogs.com Overlord, a very tech and Web savvy blogger, writter and twitterer (and again). She is currently on a super-secret mission that gets her traveling around the country interviewing some fascinating people. You should read her recent interview here. At the Conference, Arikia will co-moderate (with Nate Silver) the session "…

Sony BMG caught pirating software

Record and movie companies want to turn file sharing into a moral issue -- I think there are some moral issues here, although they fall on both sides -- but in reality everyone knows it's just about money and the fact that they have their hands on the levers of the legal system which they use for their benefit. It's not about justice. They recover money from teenies and grandmas and then don't redistribute it to the artists. In fact they have a long history of cheating artists. And now they have been caught again with their hands in the cookie jar. I found this on Slashdot but the original…

No bigger bird flu problem in China?

When WHO tells us that there is no bigger bird flu problem in China I guess it's all relative. Like the old joke where one old man asks the other how he feels, the answer is "compared to what"? The World Health Organization says that while there have already been three deaths from bird flu in China this year, there are no signs the deadly disease is becoming a bigger problem. In a statement Wednesday, the WHO's top representative in China, Hans Troedsson, says the three recent cases were not unexpected considering the winter season. (VOA News) Despite the occurrence of three deaths in China…

US readiness for a health emergency

CDC has just issued a report on the state of US readiness for a health crisis. Its assessment is upbeat: In the first report of its kind, US health officials said the nation's cities and states made a strong effort to prepare for a flu pandemic, bioterrorism, or other emergency health crises, but big challenges remain. "I think in terms of effort and progress, an 'A,' " Dr. Richard Besser of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said when asked to assign a letter grade. "In terms of amount of work to be done, I would say that's absolutely enormous." (AP) Let's see if we can interpret…

Bird flu: Bangladesh behaving badly

Bangladesh is a country with more than its share of woes. Now there is H5N1 galloping through its poultry. Bangladesh needs all the help it can get. Which also means it needs to help others, too. How can a resource poor country like Bangladesh help other nations? They can start by sharing the genetic sequences of the viruses isolated from their poultry: Bangladesh has refused to share the genetic details of its H5N1 bird flu virus with India. In a blow to India's efforts to find the origin of the highly pathogenic avian influenza strain that is presently wreaking havoc in West Bengal,…

Was bird flu better in 2007 versus 2006?

In 2006 there were 115 confirmed cases (WHO case count) of H5N1 in humans with 79 deaths. In 2007 the figures are 86 cases and 59 deaths. Some have taken this as evidence H5N1 is less of a problem (latest data here). That's not how I read it, however. Seasonal flu numbers bounce around from year to year, too, and if this year is better than last year it isn't because flu is disappearing. Still, let's take a look at the numbers a little more closely and see where the differences are. Here's the WHO Table: 21 January 2008 Country   2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Total cases deaths…

Freethinker Sunday Sermonette: no homefield advantage

The number of Americans who never go to a church, synogogue or mosque is at a record level -- 22%, according to a survey done for the Southern Baptist Convention. The attitude toward religion also isn't very friendly among these so-called "unchurched": 72% say the church is "full of hypocrites" and 44% agree with the statement, "Christians get on my nerves." The survey was done last spring and summer. I doubt it looks much better (for the Baptist Convention, that is), today. 22% would be a much higher number for non-believers than any other survey and indeed, these aren't all non-believers.…

Useless advice for public health officials

The Toronto Sun has another one of the "such and such a city/state/country isn't prepared for a pandemic" stories. The judgment comes from the 2007 Auditor General of Ontario's annual report. Yawn. Like it's so easy to know what to do, right? Maybe not. So the Report has some recommendations: The report says the ministry "does not have assurance that all members of the health system knew what to do in planning for and during a pandemic." As a result, the report lists recommendations that would serve to help prepare Ontario for such a catastrophic flu bug. The recommendations include, among…

WHO's new spin on human to human bird flu transmission

WHO [World Health Organization] is now saying that human to human (H2H) transmission has not been ruled out in China or Pakistan: China: The World Health Organization said Friday it was impossible to say whether a case of bird flu in China involving a 52- year-old man was due to human-to-human transmission - but, even if it was, it was down to very close contact between the victims. The Assistant Director-General for Health Security at WHO, Dr David Heymann, said the only proven transmission of this nature so far, in Indonesia and Thailand, had been as a result of very 'close contact' in a '…

Ebola in Uganda

There's a growing Ebola outbreak in Uganda. We've been watching it and I've gotten an email or two wondering why we weren't posting on it. There are a lot of nasty disease outbreaks in the world and we don't cover most of them. Ebola gets news because it is a hideous disease with high fright value but it isn't alone in that department. Ebola also isn't very contagious and like SARS, is mainly so in the later stages of the disease so less likely to spread worldwide. We discuss bird flu here because it is a way for us to talk about public health more generally. But we do talk about other…

Small concerns about nanotechnology

If you are like most people you probably aren't alarmed about the dangers of nanotechnology. In fact if you are like most people you probably don't even know what nanotechnology is. I'll resist the temptation to say general knowledge of the emerging technology of the very small is even smaller. Despite the fact most of us have no clue, there is a surprising amount of nano products already in the marketplace, incorporated in products from food containers to golf clubs. But there remain doubts about safety. Nanoparticles are so small they don't act in ways we understand, either physically or…

National health system in Australia: heading for a fall?

Australia has a National Health System and, according to some of its doctors, it is crumbling. Aha, say the foes of American Universal Health Care, "I told you so." And I'll have to admit, they did. Fair is fair. So where is Australia's health system heading? Australia's public health system is crumbling, leading the country toward a US-style privatised health model, doctors say. Doctors Reform Society national president Con Costa wants federal Health Minister Tony Abbott to say whether he believes it is better to privatise the health system. (Sydney Morning Herald) John Howard, the George…

Bush doctrine: no child travels ahead

The good news in 1995 was that American students performed better than Austrian students in advanced mathematics among students finishing highschool. The bad news was that Austria as the only on eof 16 countries American students finished ahead of, and in physics they didn't even do that. They were dead last. A couple of weeks ago Science magazine reported that the Bush administration wasn't going to let that happen again: The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), part of the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES), says it is bowing out of 2008 TIMSSA…

The gift of cholera

The US invasion of Iraq has not managed to spread Democracy in the region but it is successfully spreading Cholera: The number of cholera cases in Iran is on the rise after the outbreak of an epidemic in neighbouring Iraq, an Iranian health official was quoted as saying on Saturday. "The last count shows 43 people have contracted cholera in Kordestan province," Mohsen Zahrai, who is in charge of water and food-borne diseases, told ISNA news agency. He said those affected had been commuting across the border with Iraq and warned Iranian citizens to postpone pilgrimages to Iraq until the…

Do whales sleep?

It is Marine Megavertebrate Week right now, so why not take a look at one of the most Mega of the Megaverts - the grey whale (Eschrichtius robustus): Do whales sleep? You may have heard that dolphins do - one hemisphere at the time, while swimming, and not for very long periods at a time. A combined Russian/US team of researchers published a study in 2000 - to my knowledge the best to date - on sleep-wake and activity patterns of the grey whale: Rest and activity states in a gray whale (pdf) by Lyamin, Manger, Mukhametov, Siegel and Shpak. The whale in the experiment rested in two…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Save The Whales? Sure, But How Many?: How many wildebeest should live in the Serengeti" How many grizzly bears should call Yellowstone home" Are there too few tigers in the world" Conservationist biologists grapple with the task of setting population targets for the species they are trying to protect -- a decision steeped in politics, emotion, and sometimes, science. Two Rapidly Evolving Genes Offer Geneticists Clues To Why Hybrids Are Sterile Or Do Not Survive: While hybrids -- the result of the mating of two different species -- may offer interesting and beneficial traits, they are usually…

Upcoming Carnivals

In chronological order so you know how much time you have to write and submit your posts: Next Philosophy Carnival (philosophy) will be on June 12, 2006 on Kenny Pearce. Next Grand Rounds (medicine) will be on June 13th on Haversian Canal. Next Carnival of Education (teaching, education policy) will be on June 14th, 2006 on What It's Like on the Inside. Next Animalcules (microorganisms) will be on June 15th, 2006 on Knowledge as Salvation. First Mendel's Garden (genetics) will be on June 15th, 2006 on The force that through.... Next Teaching Carnival (higher ed) will be on or shortly after…

Confusion between H1N1 and swine flu

We're writing this at an altitude of 20,000 feet, being on the road again and except for a few minutes here or there, without access to the internet most of the day. This means a lot of comments will probably go unanswered, so we'll say what we usually do in circumstances like this: talk amongst yourselves. Lots of smart people read this blog. Help each other. A quick look at today's flu news tells me that CDC has updated its estimates, using the methodology we discussed in a previous post. And a survey at Arizona State University (ASU) released Monday shows the expected: that opting to…

Not an "accident": Stanley Thomas Wright, 47, suffers work-related asphyxiation at railyard in North Las Vegas

[Update below] Stanley Thomas Wright, 47, was asphyxiated on Saturday, August 2, while working inside a tank car at a railyard in North Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports the local fire department was called to the scene at about 1:00 am Wright’s co-workers said he lost consciousness while inside the railcar tanker Fox5 reports the railcar contained ethanol vapors and Wright was overcome by the gas it took fire and rescue crews until mid-day Saturday to make the scene safe This incident brings to mind Ingrid Lobet's reporting from May in the Houston Chronicle: "Largely…

Not an "accident": Chandler Warren suffers fatal work-related injury at FedEx Hub, Memphis, TN 

[Update below] Chandler Warren, 19, suffered fatal traumatic injuries on Wednesday, July 2, 2014 while working at FedEx’s World Hub in Memphis, Tennessee. WAFF reports that the Memphis Fire Department received a call at about 2:53 a.m. about the incident. WREG reports “a loader that lifts containers onto aircraft came crashing down.” FOX13 reports Warren was new on the job and was working as a material handler at the facility.  He underwent emergency surgery for injuries that his father said were "worse than he could have ever imagined."  The 19 year old survived the surgery, but succumbed…

"He gave us the truth of what happened to our loved ones"

Getting to the truth about the 2010 Upper Big Branch disaster (UBB) is what they wanted. The families of the 29 coal miners who were killed in the Massey Energy coal mine in Raleigh County, WV looked to the investigators for the answers. Jim Beck was instrumental in providing them those answers. Beck was part of the six-person Governor’s Independent Investigation Panel, and he was a key player in finding out the truth. Jim Beck died last week at age 61 from metastatic stomach cancer. “Jim and his team gave me and the other 28 families of UBB the truth of what happened to our loved ones,”…

Is Software to Blame, Again?

by Anthony Robbins, MD, MPA President Obama's health reform has been derailed in a collision with health insurance software, but this is hardly a unique experience. In 1995, I was invited to Prague to try to help the Czech Republic reconcile two co-existing public health practice cultures–the hygiene police of the Soviet era and the German tradition of social medicine. Our delegation found another crisis in the works, around the creation of private health insurance that had started in 1990. Payroll deductions bought private health insurance that covered basic physician and hospital service.…

It is What You Know for Sure that Just Ain't So....

Megan Quinn Bachman has a fabulous piece on the problem of net energy ignorance. Megan followed a group of ASPO attendees who visited congressional offices to talk about peak oil, and found pretty much what you'd expect - but what you'd expect has serious consequences: During our congressional briefings, it felt like we were the ones slamming our heads against the wall. We were told that: -Ethanol could free America from its dependence upon foreign oil (while at the conference chemical engineer and energy analyst Robert Rapier noted that turning all arable land in the world into biofuels…

Come to My Place...Oh, and Prelude Too!

Hi Folks - Happy New Year, everyone! Just a few admin things. First, I still have several spaces in my January apprentice weekend, coming up MLK weekend. This is an adults-only weekend in which we'll talk about everything, practice the winter skill set - late season preserving, goat care and milking, winter livestock care, cheesemaking and dairying, herbs, garden planning and seed starting, or whatever the group wants to learn! In addition, we'll have a mini-adapting in place class as well. The event is at my house, by donation (whatever you consider fair for the experience), and I also…

Which One is the Onion Headline Again?

I admit, maybe because of that intellectual slowdown that the cold weather and dark days call, but I'm confused about which one of these is the real Onion Headline - that thing about the Brookings Institute guy or a BBC headline that reads "World Bank Leads Economic Push on Nature Protection." Really? Seriously? The World Bank? Are we sure this isn't April Fools, not Halloween? But no, it is serious. Or at least trying to be: The World Bank has launched a global partnership aimed at helping countries include the costs of destroying nature into their national accounts. Ten nations will…

Wheat Stem Rust in the Economist

Longtime readers of ye olde blogge will remember that we talked a lot about wheat stem rust and other wheat diseases in the last few years, since Ug99 began to devastate Kenyan wheat production, and then again as it appeared in Yemen and Iran, but I don't think I've posted anything about the track of wheat stem rust since I moved over to Science Blogs. But the Economist has a good introductory article on the issue this month that is worth reading for those of you who haven't been following this. The new variant is called Ug99: Ug for its country of origin; 99 for the year it was confirmed.…

Wouldn't You Choose the Most Toxic, Least Effective Dispersant?

Thanks to fellow science blogger Ed Brayton for the link to this New York Times article, which suggests that because of ties to the company, BP chose to flood the Gulf with a dispersant that is both more toxic than many of the other options and also less effective. So far, BP has told federal agencies that it has applied more than 400,000 gallons of a dispersant sold under the trade name Corexit and manufactured by Nalco Co., whose current leadership includes executives from BP and Exxon. And another 805,000 gallons of Corexit are on order, the company said, with the possibility that…

Finding Love

Nearly all the single readers I've met have told me how hard it is to find someone who starts with the same basic mindset that they do. They talk about going on dates and trying to figure out when to ask someone "so, do you believe that industrial society has a future?" Or "what do you think the odds are that a resource depleted society can continue economic growth and what would you suggest we do about that?" It is a tough row to hoe. For those who are part of minority cultures, the struggle is even greater - finding that hot hispanic woman or Jewish guy with the dream of living offgrid…

"Cohabiting black holes in M22"

“If... then my old theory is completely toast,” says astrophysicist Steinn Sigurdsson of Pennsylvania State University. “This is a really nice piece of work.” Nice Nature paper coming out tomorrow by Jay Strader et al on a pair of flat spectrum ultra-faint radio sources in the core of M22. The sources are consistent with being ~ 20 solar mass black holes, accreting at a low rate from, well, something. Maybe... Best candidates yet in the Milky Way globulars. M22 has a somewhat unusual structure (massive fluffy core) in a way that several authors have suggested might be a signature of black…

The Hubble Treasure Hunt

Many of the Hubble Space Telescope images have never been looked at. You can now browse the archives and win valuable prizes for finding cool new pics. This is a cool, fun thing, and it is easy enough for a theorist to do. Hubble Hidden Treasures - How To With an iThing and the Dynamic Kids, we had pulled up several dozen sets of images of selected patches of the sky and browsed them, and found seriously cool pics within about 20 minutes. Cut out of Pal 1 - unprocessed 2 colour - found from random browse and made in about 20 mins So here is the deal: the Hubble Space Telescope has taken a…

Food Stamps: Challenging

The American News Project â a new nonprofit project producing âonline journalism that mattersâ and offering their content for free â turns its cameras to the problem of hunger in the U.S. Garland McLaurin reports that 28 million people will use food stamps in 2009, but the low benefit amounts mean that many of these recipients still must turn to food banks or other sources to meet their food needs. Many of those struggling to feed themselves are elderly, and the seven-minute film features comments from two seniors; one compares herself to a hamster running on a wheel, while the other…

Friday Blog Roundup

Senator Edward Kennedyâs diagnosis of a malignant brain tumor is terrible news on multiple levels. While our thoughts go out to the Senator and his family, itâs also difficult to imagine Congress tackling the many important health-related issues before it without Senator Kennedy. Ezra Klein calls Kennedy âone of the few Senators who is genuinely irreplaceable, whose absence would degrade the nation's social policy, and thus the life chances and economic security of millions of its disadvantaged residents.â Mike Lux at Open Left reminds us of the many accomplishments in which Kennedy has been…

Occupational Health News Roundup

Past roundups have emphasized the many things wrong with veteransâ health and safety, so this week seems like a good time to highlight some of the efforts that the military and the Veterans Administration are making to address the problems. The WSJâs Theo Francis reports that the Defense Department is giving the Brain Trauma Foundation $4.6 million to develop a device that can assess traumatic brain injuries in seconds on the battlefield. For the Associated Press, Pauline Jelinek and Lolita Baldor describe a new Pentagon campaign that aims to get troops with mental health problems into…

Occupational Health News Roundup

McDonaldâs is the largest purchaser of potatoes in this country, so anything it does to reduce the use of pesticides on these crops will have a big impact on potato workers (as well as the environment). Thanks to pressure from shareholder advocates, McDonaldâs has now committed to: (1) survey its current U.S. potato suppliers; (2) compile a list of best practices in pesticide reduction that will be recommended to the companyâs global suppliers (through the companyâs Global Potato Board); and (3) communicate findings related to best practices to shareholders, and in the companyâs annual…

Obama Frees Agencies from White House Interference

It doesnât seem to have made the news yet, but President Obama has just taken a very important step for the health of our water, air, and workplaces. An executive order published in todayâs Federal Register revokes EO 13422, by which President Bush gave the White House the power to interfere with regulatory agenciesâ activities. Bushâs order created new requirements for the agencies and allowed the White House to exert control over a wide range of activities, including issuing guidance documents. Public health advocates warned that it would institutionalize an anti-regulatory approach and…

Secrecy prevails on DOL's risk assessment rule

Labor Secretary Chao issued her semi-annual regulatory today, listing allegedly the Department's "regulations that have been selected for review or development during the coming year."  It all might seem kind of pointless (given that she won't have a say after Jan 20) but the document is in fact enlightening for what it doesn't mention.  There's no peep about Asst. Secretary Leon Sequeira's pet project to change the way the MSHA and OSHA assess workers' risk to health hazards, YET on RegInfo.gov, Secretary Chao indicates that the risk assessment rule will be completed by 11/00/08---…

The local angle here in Seattle

One of the fun things about traveling to strange places like Seattle is getting to meet new and interesting people — or, at least, people who are made of meat rather than the more familiar bit patterns of the net. I've had a few occasions now to talk to Alan Boyle, who has just summarized my NWSA talk…and done a pretty good job of it, too. One thing I want to expand on a little bit is something I brought up for the Seattle audience: I think the Discovery Institute is toast, and are going to be increasingly irrelevant. The Wedge document is dead and gone; their strategy of pretending to have a…

Sarah Palin's Supreme Discomfort

By now, you've probably heard that VP nominee Sarah Palin has been tripped up a few times by tough questions from CBS New's Katie Couric.  Real brain twisters like:  "what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this to stay informed and to understand the world?â "[Besides Roe v. Wade] what other Supreme Court decisions do you disagree with?" Just in case the Supreme Court question is resurrected at tonight's televised VP Debate, I've got a few recommendations for Ms. Palin to consider: District of Columbia v. Heller (2008): in a 5-4 decision the …

Former Solicitor Opposes DOL Risk Assessment Rule

J. Davitt McAteer, who served as acting Solicitor of Labor for nearly two years,* submitted formal objections today on DOL's proposed risk assessment rule, and indicated that if the Administration "refuses to withdraw the proposal," he asks for public hearings [plural] and an extension of the comment period.  McAteer, who also served as the MSHA chief from 1994-2000, lays out a number of fallacies in DOL's legal justification for the proposed rule.  In response to DOL's assertation that they have the general authority to mandate specific risk assessment practices on MSHA and OSHA,…

Congress Passes Mine Safety Bill

The U.S. House of Representatives debated today the Supplemental Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act (S-MINER, H.R. 2768) which would require, among other things, closer review of retreat mining plans, allow independent investigations (outside of MSHA) for multiple fatalities, and update permissible exposure limits.  The White House issued a veto threat, saying the bill would "place in jeopardy meaningful achievements and efforts currently underway"..."weaken several existing regulations" and "impose burdensome and unrealistic time requirements." Likewise, the National Mining…

Journal Scan: Does Radiation Exposure Make Boys Disappear?

A quick look at âChernobyl: Relationship between Number of Missing Newborn Boys and the Level of Radiation in the Czech Regionsâ by Miroslav Peterka, Renata Peterková, and ZbyneËk Likovsky´ in Environmental Health Perspectives. As a rule, more boys than girls are born. But in November 1986 in the eastern regions of the Czech Republic, the reverse was true â more girls than boys. It appears that radiation exposure released by the Chernobyl nuclear accident in April 1986, brought to earth by rain over the area, increased radiation exposure. Fetuses that were approximately three months old at…

The Web of Web Lobbying

The Wall Street Journal reported on a battle developing between privacy advocates and internet companies concerning AB 1291, a transparency measure that is in part based upon some of my privacy research: The industry backlash is against the "Right to Know Act," a bill introduced in February by Bonnie Lowenthal, a Democratic assemblywoman from Long Beach. It would make Internet companies, upon request, share with Californians personal information they have collected—including buying habits, physical location and sexual orientation—and what they have passed on to third parties such as marketing…

There is no There There -- Ron Paul's Loud, Thin Base

Writing in today's Times, Richard A. Oppel asks, "Whatever happened to Ron Paul?" Ron Paul has fans, in the traditional sense of the word--fanatics. They foam over this small and strange man, whose career in Congress has largely been ineffectual. Thousands go to his rallies, but as Oppel observes, "A Feb. 27 event at Michigan State University drew 4,000 people. But at polling places the next day, Mr. Paul finished third -- with 3,128 votes -- in Ingham County, where the campus is. Mr. Romney got more than three times as many votes." Paul's supporters attribute this to a failure in…

The Right Wing Appeal of Duesberg's HIV/AIDS denialism

Via Ed If you ever wondered what motivated this particular HIV/AIDS denialist this video makes it obvious. Duesberg comes out and blames homosexual promiscuity for AIDS rather than a virus. I think examples like this make it clearer that the ideology responsible for this denialism is plain just plain homophobia after all. This is, of course, appealing to right wing ideologues so where does Duesberg end up? On right wing radio with the American Family Association's Brian Fischer proposing the absurd "AIDS was invented for gays to steal grant-money" conspiracy theory. I think the…

Americans on Tailored Advertising: DO NOT WANT

I'm delighted to announce the results of our first national telephonic survey of US internet-using adults on consumer privacy! The Times has coverage and the full report (Americans Reject Tailored Advertising and Three Activities that Enable It is available here. Here's a summary: This nationally representative telephone (wireline and cell phone) survey explores Americans' opinions about behavioral targeting by marketers, a controversial issue currently before government policymakers. Behavioral targeting involves two types of activities: following users' actions and then tailoring…

The Global Warming Cranks - George Will officially in their ranks

One would think given recent findings that antarctic warming is robust for instance, that the canard of antarctic cooling would go away. Or, that based on the round dismissal of the myth of 1970s global cooling warnings we'd stop hearing about that in the media too. But instead I'm watching TV last night and there's all these unbelievable crank ads sponsored by the anti-regulation ideologues the Americans for Prosperity featuring fake expert John Coleman. His senseless rant against the stimulus and the evils of regulation is accompanied by text on the bottom of the screen declaring "global…

A very confused pharmacist

I've written often about the ethics of doctors and pharmacists imposing their own morals on their patients and customers. Our Sb pharmacologist has as well. And even though all of our legitimate professional organizations recognize this line, Bush's Department of Health and Human Services has jumped into the ring to join a fight that should never have started. And just to demonstrate how single-mindedly idiotic an evangelical (small "e") mindset can be when applied to medicine, PZ Myers, uber-atheist, received an interesting solicitation (please, don't quote-mine that). To remind you of…