Friday Blog Roundup

Bloggers turn their attention to the floods in the Midwest:

• Tara C. Smith of Aetiology is in the thick of the Iowa City-Cedar Rapids floods. She reminds us that preparedness can pay off for floods as well as flu, and that residents need to consider several health issues as the flood waters recede. We wish Tara and her neighbors the best of luck in the weeks ahead.
• Shirley S. Wang at WSJ's Health Blog considers the challenges facing the Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids, which had to evacuate nearly 200 patients and now has an ambitious goal of getting cleanup up and fully operational in two weeks.
• Anne Jefferson at Highly Allochthonous explains how you can get "500 year floods" two years in a row.
• Tom Philpott at Gristmill looks at how fertilizer and hog waste from flooded agricultural areas will affect the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. (And for an even more distressing picture, check out his column on how the floods deepen the global food crisis.)

Elsewhere:

At Gristmill, Ben Block of Worldwatch Institute posts a three-part series commemorating the 20th anniversary of NASA scientist James Hansen's groundbreaking testimony on global climate change.

Revere at Effect Measure posts a three-part series explaining the science behind greenhouse gases.

Mike Hall at AFL-CIO NOW is skeptical that this week's Federal Aviation Administration symposium will really do anything to address air traffic controller fatigue. 

Maggie Mahar at Health Beat tackles the difficult subject of whether we need to ration end-of-life care, and Orac at Respectful Insolence tells a personal story about explaining end-of-life choices to a patient with little time left to live.

At RH Reality Check, Deepali Gaur Singh and Masimba Biriwasha examine community HIV prevention efforts in India and Vietnam.

PalMD at denialism blog explains the risks behind the kind of sudden cardiac death that killed Tim Russert.

Sarah Bates at Science Progress explores some of land-use-planning possibilities for Western states facing a shrinking water supply.