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The Nobel Laureates Meeting in Lindau - live on ScienceBlogs Germany

Annually focusing on a different discipline, the Nobel Laureates meet in Lindau (Southern Germany). This year's meeting is going to be about chemistry and we, the editors of ScienceBlogs.de will be covering all events along with seven blogging scientists. Although there will of course be lots of articles in German, we also launched an English section of the blog in which the most interesting articles will be translated - may the readers of this site forgive occasional bumpiness in our language skills. As mentioned earlier here, PZ Myers will also attend the conference. The main topic of this…

Better Mental Health through Biodiversity

Aaaah, wilderness. Fresh air, the smell of pines, the sounds of songbirds chirping...quelling the urge to throw an elbow in Central Park on a sunny Sunday morning. Intuition tells us that time spent outside is good for our mental health, and myriad studies affirm it. Schools that incorporate a nature-based curriculum have higher test scores and fewer discipline problems. Children with ADD are mellower and more focused after outside play. Seeing nature or being outside lowers stress levels, calms heart rates, and diminishes road rage. In the presence of natural light, workers are happier and…

In which I receive an invitation

I just got a nice letter from the Science Research Foundation of Turkey, an organization founded by Adnan Oktar and with a name so duplicitous that our American Republicans are writhing with envy. Here's their request and my answer. Dear Dr. Paul Zachary Myers, I am more or less aware of your writings and ideology. Anyhow I would like to suggest you an email debate with Mr. Adnan Oktar. If you are interested to participate in such a debate or just ask questions that you wish answers for, I might be able to arrange such a correspondence. We are full defenders of freedom of speech,…

President Obama to Host White House Science Fair

Today the White House will have their own Science Fair that will kick off the final week of the USA Science and Engineering Festival. Read about it here. Event Will Highlight Winners of National Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Competitions WASHINGTON, DC -- On Monday, October 18th, President Obama will host the White House Science Fair celebrating the winners of a broad range of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) competitions. The President will view exhibits of these students' work, ranging from breakthrough basic research to new inventions, followed by…

An Einstein Sighting at Brain Awareness Week!!

The USA Science and Engineering Festival pulls out the stops to get the word out about the festival! This time the Festival has recruited none other than...Albert Einstein to promote the festival at Brain Awareness Week at the National Museum of Health and Medicine. Einstein talked about exciting scientific principles and got students excited about the USA Science and Engineering Festival that is going to take place in Oct 2010. About 800 students attended Brain Awareness Week activities at the National Museum of Health and Medicine over the course of the five-day program. Students were…

Booze and Brain Damage

There are many factors that can drive an organism to drink. Some might have a genetic predisposition—others might want to poison a parasitic wasp before it consumes them from the inside out. On ERV, new research shows "the epigenetics of the cells in the brains of alcoholics is messed up;" specifically, alcoholic brains express transposable genetic elements (such as endogenous retroviruses) more frequently. Smith writes "the authors think that ERVs are not just a marker of the damage caused by alcoholism, but that the ERVs are actively contributing to the brain damage due to alcoholism." But…

A Class of 51

The Fordham Institute recently released their assessment of state science standards with a handy color-coded map—and California was the only state to receive a solid "A," along with the District of Columbia. On Pharyngula, PZ Myers wonders how his state will ever get into college with a lowly "C." He writes, "The Institute does a fairly thorough breakdown, so there are some bright spots: Minnesota is doing a good job in the life sciences, but where we got dinged hard was on the physical sciences, which are 'illogically organized' and contain factual errors." But at least Minnesota wasn't…

Cracking Microbial Code

On Tomorrow's Table, Pamela Ronald shares a breakthrough in the study of bacterial communication. Although bacteria have been known to use a limited chemical vocabulary, for the first time they have been observed to use a protein as a signalling mechanism. Ronald writes, "Ax21 is a small protein. It is made inside the bacterial cell, processed to generate a shorter signal and then secreted outside the bacterium." In the species studied, perception of Ax21 caused nearly 500 genes—ten percent of the bacterium's genome—to change expression. Thus galvanized, individual bacteria assemble into…

Past and Future Forecasts

Meteorology still depends on a bit of clairvoyance, but in the 19th century many sailors, fishermen, and farmers "had to rely on storm glass, an inexpensive and profoundly inaccurate divining tool." The mixture of "camphor crystals, potassium nitrate, ammonium chloride, water and alcohol" transitions from "solid to crystalline under circumstances that still aren't full understood." Frank Swain has details and pictures on SciencePunk, along with an account of the origin of forecasting in the British Isles. On Class M, James Hrynyshyn considers the complicated effects of clouds on world…

Eye-Catching Classes (and Carats)

On Starts With a Bang, Ethan Siegel explains that although we see the full range of spectral classes in the night sky—from cool red M stars to blazing blue O's—75% of nearby stars "are the reddest, coolest, M-class stars, including the closest star to us." Only 4.2 light-years away, Proxima Centauri "is invisible even with binoculars, and even with dark skies, a small, 3" telescope would unable to find it." Yet O and B class stars, despite being much rarer and much more distant, are so luminous that they can't be missed. Brightness can be deceiving—even when looking at entire galaxies and…

Using Less Electricity

On Casaubon's Book, Sharon Astyk sees a future filled with nuclear power, deepwater drilling, hydrofracking, and mountaintop removal. To hell with the consequences, just give us the juice! But when the oil, gas, and coal are gone, the landscape pulverized, and the depleted cores of uranium piling up in the background, we'll have to change our energy habits the hard way. Sharon says if we want to start stopping now, we must create a new narrative. She writes, "You can endure anything—as long as it is part of a story of heroism and transformation." On Confessions of a Science Librarian,…

Love: A Four-Letter Word

For the last few years, Claire L. Evans and friends have been producing a television show designed to teach computers about the human experience. On Valentine's Day, the term technophile got a new meaning on Universe. Claire explains, "we made some valentines for you and your computer to share. After all, you do spend all day staring at each other." On Pharyngula, PZ Myers looks at love throughout the animal kingdom, including among tortoises and penguins who look downright ecstatic in their couplings. Meanwhile, Mike the Mad Biologist encourages forethought before foreplay, showing us a…

What didn't happen in Springfield

I did not get shot at during my presentation. I was not heckled to the point of tears. Richard Carrier's talk did not bore me. Despite Springfield being the world capitol of the Assemblies of God Pentecostal church, Sarah Palin did not attend…but it is not the case that the event was poorly attended. I did not fall off the stage, nor were there any technical problems with the video equipment. There were no Catholic picketers. Jesus did not manifest in a chariot of fire to smite the two godless speakers. The audience at our talk did not shy away from asking difficult questions of Carrier and…

Pie Winners!

Whoever coined the phrase "easy as pie" probably never had to cut 100 tiny digits out of crust. But hard work has paid off for Claudette, whose 100-Digit-Pie is the winner of the 2nd Annual Pi Day Pie Bakeoff! Congratulations, Claudette, you just won $314.16! And although rounding to the nearest cent pains us, the Treasury has not responded to our request to print up some π-dollar bills. The winner. Honorable mentions go to Aimee Schiwal, Stephanie Paterson, Brownie, and Joan Cook, whose Area 51 Pie, Blueberry Cherry Pi Pie, Pie R-squared (Raspberry Rhubarb) and same named pi(e) (a)r(e)…

Mmm...Pi

Time to preheat your ovens...the second annual Pi Day Pie Bakeoff wants your best creations to celebrate March 14. This year food mecca Serious Eats is our co-sponsor, meaning the prizes have gotten bigger and badder. The Grand Prize winner will receive $314 in warm, flaky cash—irrational change not included. You can also win a Simple as 3.141592 t-shirt from magazine mental_floss. Not bad for a few cups of flour and a sack of apples! But if you really want to win, it's time to get creative. Last year's champion Spicy Brittle Bacon Chocolate Pie (or Spicy Pi Bacon Squared) made the…

The Bright Side of the Blues

On The Frontal Cortex, Jonah Lehrer explores the cognitive consequences of depression and happiness, explaining that the way we feel has a huge impact on the way we think. First, Jonah shares an article he wrote for the New York Times Magazine, in which he says the blues can be "a clarifying force, focusing the mind on its most essential problems." For the notoriously down-in-the-dumps Charles Darwin, depression "may actually have accelerated the pace of his research, allowing him to withdraw from the world and concentrate entirely on his work." Jonah answers critiques of his article,…

All About Antibodies

ERV familiarizes us with the different "layers" of the immune system, including intrinsic, innate, and adaptive immunity. The last layer makes specific antibodies to recognize pathogens, but in the case of HIV, capable antibodies aren't enough to stave off the progression of disease. ERV writes, "HIV-1 evolves to escape these antibodies...and your body can't catch up." The high mutability of HIV-1 makes for a very plastic envelope, meaning the virus continually shifts shape and evades the watchful eye of the immune system. In another post, ERV explains that antibodies make diseases like…

African and Human Diversity

On Not Exactly Rocket Science, Ed Yong reports that two new human genomes have been sequenced: that of South African leader Desmond Tutu, and that of !Gubi, a tribal hunter-gatherer. Along with !Gubi, researchers examined the genes of three other Bushmen, and the diversity they observed was "astounding." Ed writes that there is more genetic variation between any two of these individuals than there is between "a European and an Asian," and trying "to understand human genetics without understanding Africa is like trying to learn a language by only looking at words starting with z." On Gene…

Disaster in Haiti

A 7.0 magnitude earthquake rocked Haiti yesterday, and while the devastation is readily apparent, the human toll is not yet known. Chris Rowan details the tectonics on the event on Highly Allochtonous, explaining that the epicenter's proximity to Port-au-Prince means the capital "endured the maximum possible shaking intensity from an earthquake of this size." Rowan goes on to conclude the diminutive Caribbean plate experienced a strike-slip fault along its northern edge with the much larger North American plate, a rupture which was not "particularly unusual" in the "tectonic context," but…

Science Laureate

"A Poet Laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government and often expected to compose poems for state occasions and other government events." What would be the scientific equivalent, a Science Laureate? A scientist officially appointed by a government and often expected to perform experiments (Mentos and DietCoke?) for state occasions and other government events? If so, Bill Nye should get the title. But, seriously. In the USA, the poet laureate title is supposedly given only for the quality of the poetry irrespective of the poet's public persona, social activism, political…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Cougar Predation Key To Ecosystem Health: The general disappearance of cougars from a portion of Zion National Park in the past 70 years has allowed deer populations to dramatically increase, leading to severe ecological damage, loss of cottonwood trees, eroding streambanks and declining biodiversity. Researchers are calling it a "trophic cascade" of environmental degradation. Professor Analyzes Nuclear Receptors In Bee Genome: Susan Fahrbach, a Wake Forest University biologist, is among the more than 170 researchers who helped decode the honey bee genome. She contributed to the article on…

It's still a DNA puzzle, but this is the answer

Although, I didn't believe it when I first saw it. With all the years that I've heard (or taught) that all DNA is antiparallel, it was hard to believe my eyes. Yet here is parallel DNA, with both strands oriented in the same direction, right here on your monitor. And the commenters were correct. tags: DNA structure, DNA , molecular structure, biochemistry The image that I posted a couple of days ago was made from part of this same structure. In that image, I hid the rest of the bases to make it easier to see why this structure is so strange. Here are two images that show the landmarks a…

To bioinformatics students everywhere: advice from the pros

Know your biology! I get asked often about the type of bioinformatics training that students should get and whether it should be a special course or not. And I answer that I think teaching bioinformatics in the absence of biology is like teaching Microsoft Word in the absence of writing. There isn't much point. tags: bioinformatics, education So I was happy, to discover from BioInform, that I'm not the only one who thinks this way. To quote Lincoln Stein: I hope to see bioinformatics becoming a tool like molecular biology that everybody uses, and that the software we're developing now…

Vaccine dreams

I wasn't going to post on the announcement yesterday by the US FDA that it had approved the Sanofi Pasteur H5N1 vaccine. We've discussed it before. It was pretty much a failure, requiring too much viral antigen, two doses, and resulting in putative protection of less than half of those who receive it. There is a stockpile (or will be) of about 3 million doses in the national stockpile, only enough for a tiny fraction of those who would need it, with doubtful value for many of them. It was approved because, like the crooked gambling wheel, it's the only game in town. Who would get it isn't…

Theater of the Absurd at the airport

As a frequent traveler I am all for measures to keep me safe. Someday maybe I'll see some at the airport. While I dutifully stand in line with the other sheep, taking off my shoes, emptying my pockets, taking my laptop out of my briefcase and putting it in a separate tray (why?), taking my jacket off, etc., etc., anybody with half a brain and the intention to do it can sneak on a plane. How do I know? Consider this career criminal who wanted to get from Washington state to Dallas, Texas. He stole a car and led police on a wild ride at speeds of over 90 miles an hour, finally blowing the…

Sleep in American Social Life

Found on the Talk About Sleep forums: We here at Talk About Sleep have recently learned of a very interesting study of sleep and sleep disorders being conducted by a Ph.D. student at the University of Minnesota. Matthew Wolf-Meyer is a medical anthropologist and is interested in hearing about your personal experiences as a sleep disorder sufferer, as well as the experiences of your family members. -------snip------------ From what we understand, this is the first social study of sleep disorders and their impacts on the lives of patients and their families. This study could have positive…

Corrupt Senator condemns corrupt doctors

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is the ranking Republican on health insurance reform and has also been a dogged critic of conflicts of interest in academic medicine. We've commented before that Grassley is a gold plated hypocrite because he himself reads ghostwritten talking points from the insurance industry, makes false and fraudulent claims on their behalf while trying to influence legislation and himself takes millions in health industry money without publicly acknowledging it. He has become typical of the corrupt phonies he self-righteously complains about. Grassley's own corrupt behavior…

Swine flu: we're all in this together

This has been a supremely frustrating day for me since I am traveling and must attend to professional business having nothing to do with the current outbreak. I is incredibly maddening to be away from fast moving events. I'll return home Friday night. In the meantime I will do what I can late in the day and early in the morning, and if I can't sleep, in the middle of the night. Since there are plenty of other places paying attention you'll still be getting the latest news and I am hoping the enforced distancing may allow me to give a more detached view. That aside, I have a favor to ask of…

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. Kirsten Sanford, better known as 'Dr.Kiki', is a neuroscientist, a journalist, a blogger and a twitterer. She hosts The Weekly Science Talk Radio Program and Dr. Kiki's Science Hour on TWiT.tv. At the conference, she will co-moderate two sessions: on Podcasting in science and Science on Radio, TV and video. John Timmer is the Science Editor of Nobel Intent at Ars…

Tweetlinks, 10-07-09

Follow me on Twitter to get these, and more, in something closer to Real Time: Buying a Coke in Africa: are there lessons for malaria? The Paleo Paper Challenge in the Blogosphere (see also) RT @anthonymobile: The Open Laboratory 2008 anthology of science blogs is one of the most fun things i've read in ages Uses and Abuses of Nobel Causes "One day it's bound to happen. The same person will get an igNobel one day and then a Nobel the following week. For the same research." Review of "Creation" by science educator James Williams 2009 #Nobel09 Prize in Chemistry: *really* a chemistry prize…

Science Cafe Raleigh: Biomedical Technology in Sports

Crossing the Line? Biomedical Technology in Sports Tuesday, October 20, 2009 6:30-8:30 pm with discussion beginning at 7:00 followed by Q&A Location: Tir Na Nog 218 South Blount Street, Raleigh, 833-7795 In the end, it was a split second rather than an International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) ruling that kept double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius from competing in the Beijing Summer Olympics. He didn't hit the 400-meter qualifying time of 45.55 seconds, despite running a personal best 46.25 on his carbon-fiber prosthetic legs at a track meet in Lucerne, Switzerland. In…

Books Around The Clock

Continuing with the five-day plan method of blogging, leaving the All Clocks All the Time behind us, we are starting the third week with a theme - Books Around The Clock. Over the next five days, you will see both reposts (mostly in AM) and new posts (mostly in PM) about books. There will be straightforward book reviews. There will be NYRB-style reviews in which the book is just an excuse for me to go off on a rant. There will be Book Memes. There will be lists of books on various topics I recommend. And anything else you may recommend in comments or by e-mail. Before we start, you may…

Query: popular physics books?

My son (13) is in his physics phase. As a biologist, I don't know much about physics beyond college classes, but our home library is huge, so he managed to dig out a bunch of physics-related books. Some he read, others he skimmed, and now he wants more. He is interested in everything - gravity, cosmology, etc. He is not afraid of simple math so a book with some easy formulas are fine. Help me pick a couple of good choices to get him later this week. What he checked/read so far is a smorgasbord of books of different ages, qualities, levels and topics: Atom by Isaac Asimov Mr.Tompkins…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Migratory Birds: Innocent Scapegoats For The Dispersal Of The H5N1 Virus: A review to be published shortly in the British Ornithologists' Union's journal, Ibis, critically examines the arguments concerning the role of migratory birds in the global dispersal of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1. Ecologists of the Station Biologique de la Tour du Valat and of the GEMI-CNRS in the Camargue (France), Michel Gauthier-Clerc, Camille Lebarbenchon and Frédéric Thomas conclude that human commercial activities, particularly those associated with poultry, are the major factors that have…

I am an Asportual male, too

Perhaps not as bad as Zeno, but close. At least I used to watch, when I was a kid, whenever Yugoslav national teams in various sports played at big international competitions like Olympics, World Championships and European Championships. I watched Red Star soccer team demolish all of its European and World competition back in 1990. I watched Jausovec, Zivojinovic, Seles and Ivanisevic at Wimbledon and French Open. Perhaps there is a difference between inter-club competition and international competition and in the USA nobody cares about international competition. Since I never watched…

Freethinker Sunday Sermonette: Dawkins on evolution and religion

Whether religion is related to survival or not is obviously highly context dependent. It's negatively correlated with survival for minorities in intolerant societies. So why do religious identities persist? I would claim there is evidence they aren't persisting, but the basic question is not something of much interest to me. However it seems to be a preoccupation of many people, because atheists are frequently confronted with the alleged universality of religion, as if that were some argument for its worth or truth. Richard Dawkins seems to agree to the claim that religion is a cultural…

Conservative confederate killer

People keep writing to me about this wretched scumbag who shot up a Unitarian church in Tennessee, killing two people there to watch a children's play. I don't know what happened, but despite it happening in a church, I don't get the impression that it's a consequence of a conflict between Christians and an atheist. It was a Unitarian church, full of secular humanists and deists and non-specific theists, not exactly a prime target for a psychotic atheist. More likely issues are that the place had a sign out front saying "Gays welcome", that he was a Confederate South sympathizer, that he was…

Back and Thanks!

First and foremost, thank you so much to John Bell, Molly Davis and Niepoliski for their aid and comfort while I was head down in the conference. I admit, I had no idea that I would be going every single second of each day, and running on quite so little sleep. I think realistically, being on the board and being able to blog the conference are fundamentally incompatible, and next year, I probably won't try it. But thanks to my friends and allies, you at least got the beginnings of a picture of what was happening. There's so much information being shared there - someone called it "like…

No More Shopping Days Until Earth Day, but You Could Still Make Arbor Day!

Perhaps my two previous screeds about Earth Day were unfair. After all, this could be the next major shopping holiday, with a lead in that rivals Christmas. Check out the New York Times for a sense of the range of products available So strong was the antibusiness sentiment for the first Earth Day in 1970 that organizers took no money from corporations and held teach-ins "to challenge corporate and government leaders." Forty years later, the day has turned into a premier marketing platform for selling a variety of goods and services, like office products, Greek yogurt and eco-dentistry.…

If Something Can't Go On, Sooner Or Later, It Probably Won't

The New Economic Foundation's Report on the infeasibility of continued economic growth is yet another bit of analysis that points out the obvious - we have radically overdrawn our resources and that has consequences. One of them is that we can't draw down natural resources infinitely. The other is that infinite economic growth is (duh) not possible. It also observes that continued economic growth isn't actually benefitting most of the people we ostensibly care about benefitting: ...Why growth isn't working Between 1990 and 2001, for every $100 worth of growth in the world's income per…

More Cyclists, Fewer Deaths

This week is Bike to Work Week, and tomorrow is Bike to Work Day (the League of American Bicyclists lists events here). I wouldn't have realized this if it weren't for this Washington Post article; cyclists are common enough here in DC that I'm not sure I'd notice a small uptick in their numbers. What I have noticed, though, is that the overall number of cyclists seems to have increased, probably due in part to the city's efforts to install more bike lanes and bike racks. The Post article is accompanied by a database of 2008 bicycle fatality statistics. Only one cyclist was killed in DC that…

I don't think Tom Willis likes us very much

Gosh. I sure hope the creationist extremists never get any substantial political power, because guess what some of them would like to do: they want to violently expel use crazy evolutionists. Ask Tom Willis, an utterly insane creationist (who is also, scarily, active in Kansas politics): The arrogance displayed by the evolutionist class is totally unwarrented. The facts warrent the violent expulsion of all evolutionists from civilized society. I am quite serious that their danger to society is so great that, in a sane society, they would be, at a minimum, denied a vote in the administration…

Where Do Your Congressional Candidates Stand on Science?

Weâve written before about how important it is for the presidential candidates to let the public know where they stand on science issues. Now, the Scientists and Engineers for America Action Fund, in partnership with 15 prominent scientific and engineering societies, is asking Congressional candidates where they stand on science-related issues, including climate change, water, and research funding. SEA and its partners developed a seven-item questionnaire and are sending it out to the candidates in districts where primaries have been held. Theyâre posting responses as they come in, along with…

Cancer Causation Controversy

Devra Davisâs book The Secret History of the War on Cancer (which we covered favorably here and here) advocates shifting our emphasis from treating cancer to preventing it â and, in particular, focusing on environmental factors implicated in the explosion of certain types of cancer. The book has raised some controversy, and a recent exchange in the New York Review of Books exemplifies one of the points of contention. Gayle Green writes in a letter responding to Richard Hortonâs review: Horton has granted that Davis has a point, that the inexplicably high incidences of cancer in some parts of…

Friday Blog Roundup

Bloggers help us stay up to date on the stimulus packageâs latest permutation: Kate Sheppard at Gristmill gives us the rundown on funding for green priorities Scientists & Engineers for America Action Fund compiles the numbers on science funding Jake Young at Pure Pedantry warns of pitfalls when science funding takes this form Keith Johnson at Environmental Capital isnât impressed with the money the Senate allocated to high-speed rail (UPDATE: The Transport Politic - via How the World Works - reports that HSR got more money in the final bill) Ezra Klein argues that cuts in health-project…

2 of Hearts in the WSJ: Bad Apples are Spoiling the Otherwise Pristine Barrell of For Profit Education

As an educator, I realize that much of education is...well...a scam. And some scams are much bigger than others. We've all read about the graduates with six-figure debt loads from obscure colleges. But the for-profit college world operates on another level. Gawker has had excellent commentary on the issue, and has pointed out that the only way the people at the Washington Post make money anymore is through Kaplan "education." But in a setback for justice in this arena, a judge recently invalidated some regulations of the for-profit field. This gave the Association of Private Sector Colleges…

New Years Resolutions

As you can see, mine included blogging again. Fortunately, I'm in a brief research hiatus from surgical residency, so for the next year or so, I actually have some free time. Today I was inspired to start by the Huffington Post of all things, and with good news! I realized that one of the biggest obstacles to blogging while being a resident was how difficult it is to read outside of work when you're being overworked. After a 14 or 16 hour day, or 30 hour call, the last thing I wanted to do was do more analysis of information, make more decisions, or think at all. I read a lot of Terry…

Skymall Catalog: Innovative Health Bracelet from Vitalzon

Regular readers of Denialism Blog are familiar with my love for the skymall catalog. I just love all the pictures of the kittens and the babes in their homes with gadgets that make their lives better. And the quality of marketing, wow! You'd think that the makers of the SkyRest® Travel Pillow could hire a real model and do a professional shoot to advertise their highly efficacious and most excellent product! This picture looks like it was shot in-flight and they didn't even have time to find a model without a mustache! Today I write to share with you the Innovative Health Bracelet.…

My feet hurt

Eight hours standing in a single spot, how do surgeons do it? I'm hoping my endurance will build, especially knowing that some of the procedures I'm going to see in the next few weeks such as the "Whipple" or pancreaticoduodenectomy may take twice as long. The good news is that I have lucked into working with great people - the misbehavior of surgeons is greatly exaggerated - and have learned lots of interesting things. The coolest yet was running the camera on a laparoscopic or "keyhole" surgery - it looked something like this. Although what we did was more complicated (and harder to…

HIV/AIDS crankery from a Catholic Archbishop

This is seriously disturbing. Archbishop Francisco Chimoio, who is head of the Catholic Church in Mozambique, is telling people that condoms are laced with HIV and HAART therapy is designed to finish you off. This is in a country with double-digit HIV infection rates. Archbishop Chimoio told our reporter that abstention, not condoms, was the best way to fight HIV/Aids. "Condoms are not sure because I know that there are two countries in Europe, they are making condoms with the virus on purpose," he alleged, refusing to name the countries. "They want to finish with the African people. This…