Non-Science Fridays

Don't go to the ER. So yesterday I was excersizing relatively strenously and after about 40 minutes I started to have some chest pain on the left side along with tightness in my neck and shoulder. Hmmm...good time to stop. It wasn't really severe so I took a shower but the tightness and some pain remained but decided to head home as it was likely just some pectoral strain. Then I realized that if I heard about me, I'd call me stupid so I thought I should go to the hospital just in case. Well, that was the dumb idea. I was directed to an urgent care: "You'll get seen right away, but in ER,…

Give us our Daylight! I was discussing with some friends last night what I think is the most important item on Obama's adgena. Getting working on the Daylight bailout. We were saving daylight hours all summer long. I presume all those hours went into some daylight bank. But now, we find ourselves in a daylight credit crisis; the winter solstice being very stingy with it's daylight. However, it seems that all the hours we saved are nowhere to be found - likely a daylight bank failure. I propose that the government bail us dark-dwelling denizens out and then make sure it never happens again by…

And our divided country will produce the worst of both worlds. The LA city council has passed a resolution that bans fast food restaurants in poor neighborhoods (via Slate - worth moseying over for). This is so paternalistic it's disgusting. Do poor people make bad food choices? Yes. Should we thus deprive them of choosing all food we consider bad? Don't make me answer that. If you want more health choices, put incentives in for a decent grocery to move in or a farmers market (although you are still left with the issue that healthy foods are more expensive). Beyond that, you can eat…

How to lose respect and relevance in three easy (dance) steps Can this really be happening? Congress in public group therapy with Richard 'cartoon of myself' Simmons? Crawl back into your protective bubble and weep my friends, becasue it really happened. Do they know they have 14% approval rating? Obesity is a problem, and Congress' approach to this is to hold a hearing with Mr "Yankee Doodle DAAAAN-DEEEEE" and talked about their traumatic childhoods and self-esteem issues with statements like: I'm still waiting to get picked for the congressional basketball team Next week, they'll be looking…

So, I haven't posted in a while. I could explain to you why, but that's just boring. I'll be posting more starting next week. And you'll like it! The FDA gave out bigger bonuses this year than last reports the WP, largely to the upper level management, despite criticism over a lot of public problems over imports and food (sometimes together). There are a couple of aspects to this that I'd like to point out: 1) the public looks at public servants as stuck in their jobs not as part of a larger national workforce that has options. Orgs and the media are always harping on the revolving door with…

Warning: Rambling screed approaching. More mean? Maybe, but only if you can empower and inspire people to make a change. Let me give you a three good examples: 1) Breastfeeding is best. By miles. Still, not everyone really knows about the benefits. So there are intense campaigns around to pressure mothers to breast feed. The consequence is that more mothers breast feed, which is great, but also that mothers who can't for one reason or another (sometimes medical but usually logistical, a problem disproportionally besetting the poor) feel like they are bad mothers; that they aren't taking care…

Okay so it's a sort of sciency Friday. I had a bit of fun reading the Washington Post this morning. EPA or EWTIFUBARTFSA? First up, this article on the largest mining fine in EPA history: 20 million dollars! Now, $20 million isn't all that much for a huge company like Massey but forget that, let's look at what they did: Massey Energy contmainated streams in 4,500 instances for 7 years. That's only $634/instance/year. But don't be fooled, this is great work says EPA lead attorney Richard Klepp: This is a signal that, you know, EPA is on the job. Yes Americans, if some company near you…

There are so many things I could write about today but this is just sitting in my head this morning: There are alot of crazies out there. By that I mean not people who are mentally ill, which deserve compassion, but those who are sane and act in crazy ways. This was spurred by this post over at Enviroblog on a question they got regarding whether you should eat salt with iodine (i.e. is iodine a problem). This seemed like a bit of an obvious answer and while trying to be helpful I think they were using it as an vehicle to talk about the importance of getting enough iodine in light of the…

Three things I thought you might find interesting today, starting with the shortest: Don't pass the gas. When you get crude oil, there is usually a natural gas pocket that goes along with it. Most drillers just burn it off. According to the World Bank, the gas burned off last year was enough to supply 27% of the US need for natural gas (~$40 billion dollars). Geez, if you you're gonna burn it, you might as well burn it in a usefull way. I should add that producers wouldn't get $40B, it costs money to collect it. (Via C&EN) (Thanks for indulging my juvenile title :) Oh, and my juvenile…

I read a couple of critiques of Going Tribal (Or Tribe depending on whether you watch via the BBC or the Discovery Channel) lately that piqued my interest. The first was by The Times and the other was from Short Sharp Science(S^3). For the uninitiated, the Times gives a pretty good, if rather snarky, synopsis of a show: Parry lands in remote spot, meets suspicious tribal elders, gets injected with jumba-wamba juice, trips out, vomits and defecates wildly, is accepted into the tribe and finally goes home refreshed and confident in the knowledge that the world's indigenous peoples are, like,…

Meathead of the Week: Sen Criag. He grabbed instant meathead status when he tried to use the excuse that he's got a "wide stance". Hehehe; it's the new "the dog ate my homework". Where is South Carolina? We need more maps! Why didn't we think of this before? Oh it's just too good, such as. Now, Miss America is a bit of a joke so why don't they just skip the pretense, stop asking questions, get the women out there in hot pants. Because, as this clip shows, it's clearly not about being well-rounded. (hat tip to reader TimG) The best response I've seen to this Maps For Us. My favorite is…

Meathead of the Week: Bonds. Destroyed his moment in the sun years ago when he started doping. Enough said. Bonus Meatheads: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke who have been assuring everyone that the subprime mess has been contained. Oh, except for like our banks, and, like, the banks of Europe, um and like every entity that relies on the availability of credit to function. Whoops! Now this is Customer Service. I know this is going to sound familiar to you. I think we've all been there. This is a online chat transcript from Verizon customer service (…

Meatheads of the Week (or so) Michael Vick, Tim Donaghy, Michael Rasmussen, and Barry Bonds for good measure. For Dogs, Gambling, Lying, and Doping. The Wonderful World of Sports! Genius of the Week Kyle Smith. For his brilliant review of The Simpsons movie as a Simpsons script. You must go read it. Fat people are very politically correct. (Shouldn't we start calling it socially correct since politicians routinely say the worst things?) Anyways as I'm sure you're all aware, there was a study in NEJM that showed that you were more likely to be fat if your friends were fat. It's findings lead…

For the un-initiated, I believe Fridays are good for coffee (I only drink caffeine once a week), doughnuts, and random stuff, not science (does this get me kicked off Science Blogs?). Meathead of the Week: Ken Ziman, partner at Simpson Thatcher. A piece in the NYTimes talks about how law firms are giving summer associates the 'chance' to have their summer lunch with a principle at a $15 or less place and the firm will give the rest of the food allowance ($45) to charity. The firms want to look socially responsible. First, this is just stupid, if they wanted to look responsible they would act…

Meathead of the Week: The Bush Adminstration Official who blocked the Surgeon General from going to the Special Olympics because it's supported by the Kennedys. "Why would you want to help those people?". New low for the Bush admin. What are they, 3rd graders? Forget that, even most third graders wouldn't use disabled people in a twisted vendetta. I had a whole mess of things to talk about today but I'm so darn excited about this that everything else would just cheapen the post... Do you feel it? It's the Chi machine! It's got 6, count 'em 6, major benefits! Let's start at the top... 1.…