florida
terrasig | June 5, 2008This just in from David B. Brushwood, RPh, JD, Professor of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy. David said, "we could use your help promoting the programs to anyone you know who might be interested."
So, I know you and since you read this blog, you might be interested (see here for more information on these programs and others already ongoing):
We have really worked hard to develop three new online, part-time programs that will interest you. These are in addition to the programs that are up and running. The new programs start this fall.…
terrasig | March 1, 2008DrugMonkey just had an interesting post about the potential influence of cocaine use trends following the 1986 death of Maryland college basketball player, Len Bias, just days after his being selected in the NBA draft by the Boston Celtics. DM's post and the ensuing discussion got me thinking tonight about a variety of issues in substance abuse, realistic assessment of risk and, ultimately, parenting.
In the comments, I mentioned that Heath Ledger's recent death might be a trigger for pop culture to pay more attention to the risks of recreational use of prescription and over-the-counter…
terrasig | February 9, 2008Nineteen years ago, University of Florida junior, Tiffany Sessions, disappeared from her townhouse complex in Gainesville, Florida. What happened to her remains a mystery today.
While a graduate student, a certain pharmacology blogger lived for two years in the same complex as Miss Tiffany up until five weeks before she disappeared. Along with a few dozen other UF students, they shared the same running route that bordered the pasture of the university's agricultural institute. Some thought that she was abducted somewhere along her run but others say she was last seen talking with someone in…
terrasig | December 23, 2007Well, what I mean is that I am back from my hiatus in me ol' stompin' grounds and now have a reliable internet connection.
I'm not one for posting pictures on the blog, especially when they have nothing to do with pharmacology. However, these should at least be of interest to fellow bloggers, Shelley and GrrlScientist. Plus, these are at least related to biology and science: I'm excited to note that during my travels, I came upon a nest of a southern bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus leucocephalus) family. The photos don't do it justice but this was the closest I could get without…
terrasig | December 9, 2007PZ Myers also noted this story that came via Brandon Haught of Florida Citizens for Science: a Florida Department of Education official used her professional affiliations (albeit via a personal e-mail account) to lobby against evolution being taught as the state updates its science educational standards:
My name is Charlie Carraway and I'm a member of Sopchoppy Southern Baptist Church, Sopchoppy , Florida , but I also work for the Florida Department of Education as the Director of the Office of Instructional Materials. That means I oversee the adoption process in the state, and I work in…
terrasig | November 28, 2007This question, posed in 1965 by a Gator football coach to University of Florida renal physiologist J. Robert Cade, MD, PhD, led to the development of Gatorade and the tremendously successful sports drink industry.
Yesterday, the revered Dr Cade went to that Gatorade cooler in the sky, at age 80.
What a remarkable renal physiology study back in the 1960s: Cade recognized that football players in "The Swamp," Florida's Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, were so dehydrated that they could not make urine.
But he and his colleagues took this one step further.
They collected sweat from football players to…
terrasig | November 21, 2007I was looking through more links tonight after posting earlier on the Polk County school board's intention to introduce intelligent design into the science curriculum.
I saw this post, An Open Letter to the Polk County, Florida School Board from The Austringer, Dr Wesley Elsberry. Turns out that Elsberry is a product of [a] public schools [and two parochial schools] in Lakeland, the largest city in Polk Country.
From his compelling open letter:
I was born in Lakeland, Florida, and lived for eighteen years there. My parents still live there. I still care about what happens in my home town.
To…
terrasig | November 21, 2007 All the kool kids are keeping their eyes on the Polk County, Florida, school board and their contention that 'intelligent design' should be taught alongside evolution in their public schools.
Fortunately, several states have groups of concerned citizens who contend that actual science should be taught in schools, lest we continue to suffer as a society from the erosion of critical thinking skills.
Florida Citizens for Science (FCS, or FlCfS) is one of those valuable groups. Brandon Haught has been doing a terrific job keeping us apprised of local developments via the Florida Citizens for…
terrasig | October 5, 2007Folks are probably wrapping it up in St. Augustine at this hour, but I just wanted to send out happy 91st birthday wishes to the Old Lion, Stetson Kennedy.
Anastasia Books invites the community to a birthday celebration for Stetson Kennedy during the First Friday Art Walk.
Kennedy, the 91-year-old civil rights activist, folklorist and environmentalist, authored four books on civil rights and the Florida classic "Palmetto Country," a social history of Florida's ethnic cultures and folklore in the 1930s.
(More at his MySpace site with "Stetson Kennedy" by Florida folk music patriarch, Frank…
zooillogix | May 8, 2007Hope was reportedly on his way to Zihuatanejo, Mexico to meet his old prison buddy, Red, when he was captured
A 350-lb bearded seal--named "Hope" by his cheese-ball human rescuers--has been taken into captivity off the coast of Florida, near Ft. Lauderdale. After eluding his rescuers for two days, Hope finally succumbed to their efforts, and now is in critical condition at Sea World. A staff veterinarian described Hope as "thin and dehydrated but...responsive and resting quietly" according to KVOA.com. Hope's caretakers hope to rehabilitate him and release him back into the North Pole from…
terrasig | April 11, 2007
As alerted by other ScienceBloggers, I have recently learned that the US Fish & Wildlife Service is proposing to the White House that Florida's manatee be removed from the "endangered" list, downgrading the marine mammal to merely "threatened." The result would be a relaxation of boating speed and access rules that have allowed the manatee population to recover over the last 15 years.
Like Shelley of Retrospectacle and Kevin Beck of Dr. Joan Bushwell's Chimpanzee Refuge, I spent a few years of my prime years in Florida (evidence of my support of manatee preservation above). I continue…
terrasig | February 17, 2007If I live to 93 and someone holds a mirror up to my life, I wonder how proud or embarrassed I would be.
In my weekend reading, I realized that I never commented on the passing last month of former Florida Democratic Senator, George A. Smathers. He was 93 and left this world largely revered by today's Floridians.
I bring up Smathers because of my educational links to the State of Florida, my previous writing on Florida civil rights leader Stetson Kennedy, and the melding of Smathers and Kennedy by Woody Guthrie in a song written to drum up votes during Kennedy's unsuccessful write-in campaign…
terrasig | January 9, 2007The BCS Championship Bowl in Glendale, Arizona - the Tostitos Bowl....lovely.
Anyway, I have to admit the the opening kickoff return for a TD by Ohio State had me thinking the same as all the critics: the Gators can never win the big game.
Well, I was wrong...in a big way.
Gainesville, Florida, is now home to the men's collegiate champions in both basketball and football.
Ahhh, to have been slurping oysters and tossing back a few brews last night at the Purple Porpoise....
Congratulations, gentlemen.
And for another take on collegiate athletics, see yesterday's excellent essay by Matt Nisbet…
terrasig | October 8, 2006Okay, the last bit about Billy Bragg, Woody Guthrie, and Stetson Kennedy before getting back to natural product medicines....
So, the folk musician in me had prepared for Stetson Kennedy at his 90th birthday celebration this weekend a new verse to the Woody Guthrie lyrics set to music by Billy Bragg.
As a US Airways snafu kept me for singing these verses this weekend in Beluthathatchee/Fruit Cove, Florida, I wanted to leave these for posterity until I record them under my musical persona.
These may not mean anything to most readers, but recall that Guthrie's Stetson Kennedy lyrics…
terrasig | October 7, 2006I'm sitting here, miserably pissed off, because a US Airways snafu has kept me from attending the 90th birthday party of Stetson Kennedy, legendary Southern author, rebel, and soldier for human rights and social justice, in Fruit Cove, Florida.
For readers who may recall my admiration of Mr. Kennedy and visit with him earlier this year, Stetson Kennedy was also a good friend and host of Woody Guthrie during the late 1940s and 1950s, during which time Guthrie wrote a lyric sheet called 'Talking Stetson Kennedy', about Stet's 1950 write-in campaign for US Senate between Claude Pepper and George…
terrasig | September 9, 2006Another reason I reposted yesterday on my Stetson Kennedy visit in January was to also note some bad news that came my way this week. Steve Blackwell, Florida folk guitarist and magnificent songwriter, lost his battle with malignant melanoma last Sunday. He was only 58. His memorial service will be this afternoon in Punta Gorda, Florida.
As I wrote in May of the first time I heard Mr Blackwell at the Stetson Kennedy Foundation inaugural event:
My admiration for Arlo Guthrie notwithstanding, the musical highlight of the night was the Steve Blackwell/Dan Leach duet of "Beluthahatchee on my…
terrasig | September 8, 2006Next month, the family Pharmboy is headed down to Beluthahatchee, Florida, to help celebrate the 90th birthday of famed human rights legend, Stetson Kennedy, the subject of some Woody Guthrie lyrics put to music by Billy Bragg and Wilco. Among ScienceBloggers, I've learned that Janet and Steinn are big Billy Bragg fans and Josh is a big Woody Guthrie fan, so it seems apropos to celebrate Mr Kennedy here. This is one post I've been meaning to move over here from the old blog, where it first appeared on 15 May 2006.
[I'm currently on the road and I've somehow screwed up the code for…
terrasig | September 6, 2006My ScienceBlogs.com colleague, Alex Palazzo at The Daily Transcript, has just posted on the announcement of a 3rd major San Diego/La Jolla research institute with plans to establish a presence in Florida.
Current issues of Roman numeral mixups notwithstanding, Florida has been very quietly rising on the national biomedical research scene, especially in the years since your humble Pharmboy stomped terra in Hogtown.
I discussed this issue about two weeks ago here at Terra Sigillata.
Therein, you'll find lots of good links to Florida research universities big and small and some editorial…
terrasig | August 25, 2006The Burnham Institute chooses Orlando.
First, some big health systems like Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic established satellite hospitals and clinics across north and south Florida.
Now we learn that one of the top non-profit research institutes in the US is setting up shop in Orlando.
The article brought to my attention that this is not the first of such moves by the San Diego/La Jolla contigent: The Scripps Institute recently announced plans to set up a research institute in Jupiter, FL.
I have always been deeply impressed with the quality of research and training at Florida universities…