Health and Science

The Best Overall Science and Health Site

2006-10-19T19:59:00.000-07:00

This is, hands down, the best science/health site I've ever seen, and I've been on the Internet since 1984, well before the web.

You can type almost anything into its 'Search' box and find articles on it.

Yes, I know the date is 2006; I did that to keep it at the top of this blog.

Independent Online Edition > Environment

2006-05-08T08:31:00.000-07:00

Independent Online Edition > Environment

BBC NEWS | Health | Drug for Restless Legs Syndrome

2006-05-05T06:13:00.000-07:00

BBC NEWS | Health | Drug for Restless Legs Syndrome

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | 'Major melt' for Alpine glaciers

2006-04-04T06:31:00.000-07:00

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | 'Major melt' for Alpine glaciers

Yep. No global warming here. Move along. Nothing to see.

Pacific turning acidic

2006-03-31T17:57:00.000-08:00

Just more for the anti-global warming crowd to try and rationalize away.

Osteoarthritis and Glucosamine

2006-02-24T05:40:00.000-08:00

Energy shortages? Already?

2006-02-19T20:52:00.000-08:00

I guess the UK hasn't heard BushCo's pronouncements on all the extra energy that there is, and about switchgrass!

Can you say, "Peak Oil"?

I knew you could!!

Arizona drought - and the 'perfect storm'

2006-02-10T20:22:00.000-08:00

Rats. I told a friend of mine in New Orleans, for years, about the coming flood.

I still haven't heard from him.

Now, I've been telling people in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and Utah about the coming drought (actually, a return to historically normal levels).

I hate when I'm right.

ScienceDaily: Vitamin D Inhibits Progression Of Some Prostate Cancers

2006-02-09T05:45:00.000-08:00

ScienceDaily: Vitamin D Inhibits Progression Of Some Prostate Cancers

Mars rock hold carbon!

2006-02-08T05:11:00.000-08:00

Wowza! A London museum let some scientists crack open a Mars meteorite; ie. a solid rock.

"I think it's too early to say how [the carbonaceous material] got there... the important thing is that people are always arguing with fallen meteorites that this is something that got in there after it fell to Earth.

"I think we can dismiss that. There's no way a solid piece of carbon got inside a meteorite."

Analysis of the interior revealed channels and pores filled with a complex mixture of carbon compounds. Some of this forms a dark, branching - or dendritic - material when seen under the microscope.

"It's really interesting material. We don't exactly know what it means yet, but it's all over the thin sections of the Nakhla material," said co-author Kathie Thomas Keprta, of Lockheed Martin Corporation in Houston, Texas.

Uh. yeah. Too early to say how carbon got inside a solid rock. Maybe when the rock was formed?

Wowza! I wonder what the born-agains will make of this. Carbon, as we know, only comes from the inside of rocks when carbon-based life dies - either inside the rock, or outside and then is swept up and the melted rock swirls around it or as crystals grow around the carbon. This was not a crystal, though.

Avian Flu looks a lot like 1981 Spanish Flu

2006-01-27T08:58:00.000-08:00

Well, if the Avian Flu looks like the 1918 flu (though the article doesn't say whether this is a recent evolutionary change for the H5N1 or whether it's had these features all along), then it brings to mind an old saying.

It's like the monkey said when he backed into the fan.

"It won't be long now!"

Here's the CDC chart on bird flu deaths, by year. You'll note that for most countries, the current month of January - if multiplied by 12, the number of cases is running well ahead of 2005.
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/country/cases_table_2006_01_25/en/index.html

The CDC has a new publication out "Assessing the Pandemic Threat". Interesting reading.
http://www.who.int/entity/csr/disease/influenza/H5N1-9reduit.pdf
CONTENTS:
1. The H5N1 outbreak in 2004: a pandmemic in waiting?
2. Lessons from past pandemics
3. Understanding the outbreaks in poultry
4. Action in the face of an uncertain threat

Tables and Boxes
- Influenza A viruses:sloppy, capricious, and promiscuous
- Investigations of human-to-human transmission
- Human cases, Viet Nam
- Human cases, Thailand
- The origin of pandemic viruses
- The WHO global influenza programme: a network of flu "detectives"
- Previous outbreaks of pathogenic avian influenza worldwide
- Documented human infections with avian influenza viruses
- Non-medical interventions at the national level
- Non-medical interventions at the international level

United States Ranks 28th on Environment, a New Study Says - New York Times

2006-01-23T09:27:00.000-08:00

Wow! You really have to give props to Malaysia and Chile; they came in ahead of us in environmental issues om a study by Yale and Columbia.

Obviously, the study is biased against the U.S. because it uses those thingies... what are they?? Oh, yeah. Facts.

Spinning Black Hole Leaves Dent In Space-time

2006-01-13T08:56:00.000-08:00

Spinning Black Hole Leaves Dent In Space-time

The enormous US dam problem no one is talking about - Yahoo! News

2006-01-03T20:22:00.000-08:00

The enormous US dam problem no one is talking about - Yahoo! News

Penn Study Reveals Prevalence Of Night Eating Syndrome Among People With Psychiatric Conditions

2006-01-02T17:59:00.000-08:00

Penn Study Reveals Prevalence Of Night Eating Syndrome Among People With Psychiatric Conditions

Poisonings From a Popular Pain Reliever Are on the Rise

2005-11-28T18:48:00.000-08:00

Poisonings From a Popular Pain Reliever Are on the Rise - New York Times

Major Study Links Chronic Noise Exposure To Risk Of Heart Attacks

2005-11-24T11:30:00.000-08:00

Major Study Links Chronic Noise Exposure To Risk Of Heart Attacks

New looks at the types, and effects, of meditation

2005-11-23T20:20:00.000-08:00

New looks at the types, and effects, of meditation - Print Version - International Herald Tribune

This Is Your Brain Under Hypnosis - New York Times

2005-11-23T08:29:00.000-08:00

This Is Your Brain Under Hypnosis - New York Times

Columbia Study Suggests Benefits Of Herbal Extract In Early Treatment Of Prostate Cancer

2005-11-14T09:22:00.000-08:00

Columbia Study Suggests Benefits Of Herbal Extract In Early Treatment Of Prostate Cancer

UCLA Scientists Use Statins To Overcome Learning Disabilities In Mice

2005-11-11T18:40:00.000-08:00

UCLA Scientists Use Statins To Overcome Learning Disabilities In Mice

Global killers: Pandemics through history

2005-11-08T07:05:00.000-08:00

BBC NEWS | Health | Global killers: Pandemics through history

Hazard in Hunt for New Flu: Looking for Bugs in All the Wrong Places - New York Times

2005-11-08T06:20:00.000-08:00

Hazard in Hunt for New Flu: Looking for Bugs in All the Wrong Places - New York Times

Broccoli Sprouts, Cabbage, Ginkgo Biloba And Garlic: A Grocery List For Cancer Prevention

2005-10-31T13:22:00.000-08:00

Broccoli Sprouts, Cabbage, Ginkgo Biloba And Garlic: A Grocery List For Cancer Prevention

MSNBC - A Costly Disease

2005-10-27T21:26:00.000-07:00

MSNBC - A Costly Disease

Testosterone Therapy Improves Sexual Function In Post-menopausal Women

2005-10-25T09:45:00.000-07:00

Testosterone Therapy Improves Sexual Function In Post-menopausal Women

Bird Flu Going to East Africa, United Nations Officials Fear - Perfect Mixing Ground

2005-10-20T07:38:00.000-07:00

Africa is the perfect place for H5N1 to acquire human-to-human capabililty.

Africa will also be one of the places the disease hits the worst, wherever it starts.
Bird Flu Going to East Africa, United Nations Officials Fear - New York Times

Air in the West going South

2005-10-18T08:13:00.000-07:00

Maybe GWB should tell these people that global warming is an illusion - like evolution - and they shouldn't be wasting their time studying something that isn't real.

'Expert' Witness Sees Evidence in Nature for Intelligent Design

2005-10-18T05:41:00.000-07:00

This is rich. A 'scientist' says that there must be 'intelligent design' behind nature because it's just too complex to have derived on its own.

Um... yeah.

So, since he can't understand rocket engines, either, it must be that God designed them, also.

I'm not sure how he explains, to use a current example, drug resistance in the H5N1 flu virus. Why, a virus couldn't just 'acquire' a gene from another virus - that's way too complex, and how would a virus know that it's supposed to acquire that gene? Viruses swap genes with other viruses (and they don't even have to be H5 viruses) to acquire different traits, like how to disguise themselves so as not to be attacked by the immune system. You know - some people might call that 'evolution', but we all know that nothing evolves.

For example, this 'scientist' says that the flagellum on bacteria that drives it is like an 'outboard motor', and he sees a 'rotary motor' attached to a 'drive shaft that pushes a propeller', and that is, to him, 'a purposeful arrangement of parts'.

Well, a virus acquiring a gene to protect it from Tamiflu, when that virus has never been in the presence of Tamiflu, is 'purposeful', is it not?

Some people also believe we never reached the moon.

Early Study Shows Spice Stunts Breast Cancer Spread To Lungs

2005-10-16T20:43:00.000-07:00

Early Study Shows Spice Stunts Deadly Spread To Lungs

BBC NEWS | Health | Pillows can harbour harmful fungi

2005-10-15T10:59:00.000-07:00

BBC NEWS | Health | Pillows can harbour harmful fungi - asthma suffers please read.

What We Cannot Do Ourselves, We Cannot Understand In Others

2005-10-06T14:50:00.000-07:00

This is why Republicans can't understand people who have empathy for others.What We Cannot Do Ourselves, We Cannot Understand In Others

Cervical cancer vaccine is 100% effective

2005-10-06T06:25:00.000-07:00

My Way News

Seeing Creation and Evolution in Grand Canyon - New York Times

2005-10-06T06:15:00.000-07:00

Here's a great example of the evolution/creation debate.

A geologist, who studies rocks, looks at the Grand Canyon and see congruity between what he's learned and what he's seeing.

A creationist, who knows nothing about geology, says that the rocks look the way they do because God created them that way.

It's a good thing that oil exploration geologists aren't creationists, or they wouldn't know where to look for oil unless they thought God just happened to place oil in the same kind of structures - again and again - just for fun.

Geology can explain how the rocks in the canyon folded (heat and pressure over time), and the metamorphosis of the rocks backs up that explanation.

Creationists, I guess, think that God created the rocks all folded up and then morphed them just to have a bit of a go at us; how many people could he sucker into believing that gradual processes did the folding and changing?

God - he's one great kidder!

BBC NEWS | Health | 1918 killer flu 'came from birds'

2005-10-05T12:29:00.000-07:00

BBC NEWS | Health | 1918 killer flu 'came from birds'

Mystery virus

2005-10-04T15:32:00.000-07:00

My Way News

D.C. Red-Light Cameras Fail to Reduce Accidents

2005-10-04T09:37:00.000-07:00

D.C. Red-Light Cameras Fail to Reduce Accidents

Daily Kos: Pandemic flu: will the U.S. be ready?

2005-10-03T14:59:00.000-07:00

Daily Kos: Pandemic flu: will the U.S. be ready?

Spider 'is 20 million years old'

2005-09-30T13:40:00.000-07:00

BBC NEWS | England | Manchester | Spider 'is 20 million years old'

In a Melting Trend, Less Arctic Ice to Go Around - New York Times

2005-09-30T11:12:00.001-07:00

In a Melting Trend, Less Arctic Ice to Go Around - New York Times

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Wild gorillas seen to use tools

2005-09-30T11:12:00.000-07:00

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Wild gorillas seen to use tools

Daily Kos: Reid Weighs In On Pandemic Flu

2005-09-30T06:07:00.000-07:00

Daily Kos: Reid Weighs In On Pandemic Flu

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Bird flu 'could kill 150m people'

2005-09-30T06:03:00.000-07:00

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Bird flu 'could kill 150m people'

Smoking Seems To Increase Brain Damage In Alcoholics

2005-09-29T10:00:00.000-07:00

They have to be brain-damaged to be alcoholics in the first place, IMHO.

Avian flu, bioterror and Washington - Editorials/Op-Ed - The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

2005-09-29T09:21:00.000-07:00

Avian flu, bioterror and Washington - Editorials/Op-Ed - The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

ABC News: U.S. Insists on Keeping Control of Web

2005-09-29T06:20:00.000-07:00

No! What a surprise!

Pomegranates 'slow tumour growth'

2005-09-29T06:04:00.000-07:00

New Research Suggests Heart Bypass Surgery Increases Risk Of Alzheimer's Disease

2005-08-25T21:11:00.000-07:00

New Research Suggests Heart Bypass Surgery Increases Risk Of Alzheimer's Disease

BBC NEWS | Health | TB poses major threat to millions

2005-08-25T21:00:00.001-07:00

BBC NEWS | Health | TB poses major threat to millions

BBC NEWS | Africa | TB emergency declared in Africa

2005-08-25T21:00:00.000-07:00

BBC NEWS | Africa | TB emergency declared in Africa

Spread of bird flu virus is a 'national emergency' - World - Times Online

2005-08-25T20:58:00.000-07:00

Spread of bird flu virus is a 'national emergency' - World - Times Online

The Onion | Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory

2005-08-22T20:18:00.000-07:00

The Onion | Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory

New Invasive Parasite Raises Concern For West Coast Estuaries

2005-08-22T20:08:00.000-07:00

New Invasive Parasite Raises Concern For West Coast Estuaries

Survey Confirms Sea Squirts in Maine - Yahoo! News

2005-08-22T20:07:00.000-07:00

Survey Confirms Sea Squirts in Maine - Yahoo! News

BBC NEWS | Business | African fish industry 'in crisis'

2005-08-22T20:06:00.000-07:00

Oh, no! I'm melting!

2005-08-11T08:51:00.000-07:00

Ok, it's not really me that's melting; it's Siberia.

Still...

One Hit Of Crystal Meth Causes Birth Defects, Affects Fetuses At All Stages Of Development

2005-07-27T18:20:00.000-07:00

One Hit Of Crystal Meth Causes Birth Defects, Affects Fetuses At All Stages Of Development

Home Automation - Yahoo! News

2005-07-27T05:07:00.000-07:00

Home Automation - Yahoo! News

Flu Pandemic - urgent warning

2005-07-22T11:05:00.000-07:00

New signs point to pandemic on the way!

More on the coming pandemic

2005-07-04T13:23:00.000-07:00

I've been harping on this for quite a while.

If you think that a major pandemic isn't coming, you're fooling yourself. Pandemics usually show up about every 20 years; we're overdue. The difference is that H5N1 is much more lethal than any other pandemic in recorded history, although just how lethal it will be when it acquires the ability to pass *easily* from human to human remains a mystery, and will remain so until the pandemic hits. There have been cases of human to human, but they have always been 'close contact' cases.

However, a new report out says that, in Vietnam, they've seen evidence that human to human transmission is becoming easier. Scientists have also seen H5N1 is pigs, and pigs are the best mixing media for H5H1 to acquire a human gene to enable quick, airborne, human to human transmissibility.

Please, get your flu shot when they become available. Even a flu shot not targeted at the H5N1 will help - a little; maybe just enough to keep you alive.

PS. If you're sick (with any cold/flu/etc) and you know it and you come around me, you should really bring some pretty big people to protect you, because I am NOT going to be a happy camper. However, my attitude about that has been in place since the late 70's, when I was running a large company and would fire anyone who came to work sick. And yes, I gave them extra paid days off, on the company's tab, to ensure that they didn't come in. In the end, the company saved a LOT of money and saved a lot of production time that would have been lost. McGraw-Hill took some convincing, but - at least in my plant of 250 people - they listened.

I'm betting good money that they don't have that policy in place anymore.

The Claim: Never Swim After Eating - New York Times

2005-07-04T13:08:00.000-07:00

Well, it turns out that it is only about 99% hooey, although it's hard to say how much of that 1% is related to eating before swimming.

Report Says Space Program Is Lacking Money and Focus

2005-06-24T16:08:00.000-07:00

I really should devote an entire new blog just to projects that Bush mandates and then fails to fund.

His 'trip to Mars' BS is just another in a long, long, long list of things he puts before the people so that he sounds all presidential, but then he - I guess - forgets to fund, or adequately fund, them.

It's just the same ole, same ole.

Trust for America's Health Fantasy Report

2005-06-24T10:21:00.000-07:00

This is going in my politcal and health blogs because it has both political and health ramifications.

The report says that in the coming pandemic, we can expect about 500,000 fatalities. Wow! Really! That many?

Oh, wait, though! In 1918, 645,000 died in the U.S. from the Spanish Flu. The Spanish Flu had an overall death rate of .5% of the population, with would mean, if it struck now, that 1.5 million Americans could be expected to die. Hm... something's off here.

Given that the H5N1 flu has a MUCH higher fatality rate, it would not be unexpected that 1 or 2% of the population die, which would be 3 to 6 million, though I think it would be a lot higher. Also, given that investigators recently found that the TamiFlu vaccine was useless because Chinese farmers had been using a version for a couple of years, this letting the virus 'evolve' (for those believers in Creationism, just ignore the 'evolve' remark; God MADE the virus more resistant so as to hurt us.), we are virtually without protection.

So, how does this Trust for America's Health come up with the 1/2 million number? Apparently, Tarot card reading or tea leaves or some such nonsense, because they're obviously not using real facts.

In the next day or so, I'm going to research their board and staff members and find out just how closely they're tied to the Bush anti-science people; my guess is closer than a Bush is tied to his mommy. (ok, maybe not THAT closely, but close nonetheless.)

Please check back.

'Plastic Oil' Could Improve Fuel Economy In Cars, Chemists Say

2005-06-14T11:17:00.000-07:00

Just one more thing that Bush is not doing to help save the planet.

Is there ANYTHING he WILL do? For instance, he could support biodiesel fuel. The IRS has finally gotten around to giving tax credits for a bit of the cycle of biodiesel, but if you read the IRS requirements from the biodiesel.org website, you will find them to be lengthy, complicated, onerous and seemingly designed to discourage biodiesel manufacture and use.

If you want to read what could be done with biodiesel - not to mention the new 'plastic oil', look at the health effects of biodiesel and look at the number of gallons per year being used. The fact of the matter is that almost all of the biodiesel available is due to one man, though that has changed with Willie Nelson jumping in on the act.

Since biodiesel is made from vegetable oil and plastic oil is made from recycled plastic, they would drive down the price of oil, so you can understand why Bush would not want to see that.

On my political blog, for instance, you find that ExxonMobile had a LOT to do with Bush rejecting Kyoto. Bush is a frigging idiot, so he needs industry flacks to draw things out in crayon, with nice pictures, to help him understand why global warming needs - still - more study. Check my political blog, soon, for a list of Bush's statements about how he's SO frigging committed to the environment, but things still need more study. 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005. Apparently, there are more studies yet to be done. The pictures of shrinking glaciers, the number and strength of hurricanes, the sea salinity changes, the ocean conveyor shutting down, the droughts here and abroad - none of those seem to indicate to this dunce that there is a PROBLEM!

I'm just glad I had no biological children, though I raised - for a time - stepchildren that I wouldn't have missed for the world. However, it's sad to see what world we're leaving them.

Bush's editor of climate reports resigns: why?

2005-06-10T23:06:00.000-07:00

Bush's non-science science editor has resigned. I'm shocked! Why, it was just yesterday that the President's apologist (Scott) said that review of such reports was 'standard'. If what Philip Cooney did was 'standard', then why - in the world - would he resign?

It couldn't be that Bush was bullshitting us, but the facts caught up with him, could it?

Nah!

Bush sits like a chicken in his roost while bird flu stalks the world

2005-06-10T23:00:00.000-07:00

You have to understand that if the Chinese are alarmed, then we should be hitting the ole panic button. When SARS came along, they treated it like just another cold. This time, they are worried, and they are doing something about it.

Meanwhile - er.. this is a hard question to ask, but someone has to do it... is Bush on vacation? Cause if he is, then history would tend to say that we're about to get nailed.

More Mad Cow

2005-06-10T20:28:00.000-07:00

I've been saying that the government is not doing a good job protecting us from prion diseases; mad cow is just one of the diseases that they are not protecting us from. So, here comes another Mad Cow case, but since the government PROHIBITS ranchers from testing all of their cattle (it's actually against the law), we don't really know how many there are. The whole thing about CWD (chronic wasting disease) among deer and elk is another issue that we're not being told the truth on, but I'll save that for a later date.

Who needs science? Not U.S.

2005-06-08T12:03:00.000-07:00

It's hard to take science seriously when you believe that the earth is only 6,000 years old and that evolution is only a 'theory' (sort of like The Pythagorean Theorem is only a 'theory').

Statistics show that students are, less and less, taking up science as a career; in the South, that's in large part because they are shamed by their peers for being blasphemous because - you know - science leads to thinking evolution might be real, and because studying things like the stars is pointless because, as the Bible say, during the Tribulation, the stars will fall from the sky. Since these same people believe that the Tribulation is due 'real soon now', mostly thanks to lots of ministries 'proving' the signs are coming together, why study stars that are all going to be down here on Earth soon, anyway?

There's also the point about studying stars is pointless because science assumes that they are older than 6,000 years. There is obviously a big disconnect between the stars being 6,000 years old and studying any science that says that they are billions of years old. It's just hearesy.

So, while the 'reality-based' community (Bush's spokeswoman's term) laments what the article calls 'decimating science', most people don't care. Frankly, NASA should try to understand what Eve threw away when she bit into the fruit; what was the world like in the Garden of Eden? What fruit, exactly, is the 'fruit of knowledge'? Can you make use a juicer and make a tasty drink with that fruit?

The Better Educated A Woman Is, The Better She Sleeps At Night

2005-06-02T07:33:00.000-07:00

While a study comes to the conclusion noted above, another study notes that better educated men have MORE trouble sleeping.

You may wonder what this is doing in the Politics section; good question.

Here's my quandry: the people I know are generally more educated and, as a rule, are much more likely to be:
1) troubled by what BushCo and the Religious Right are doing to this country
2) more likely to have suffered unemployment - or be worried about that prospect, due to off-shoring (aided by the tax credits that Bush has given companies that off-shore)

So, I can understand men having more trouble sleeping, but I'm at a lost as to why women have less trouble sleeping. I don't think that the women are any less knowledgeable than the men, nor are they less involved in what's going on (in fact, in most cases, they are more involved), nor do they have less of a conscience about what's going on (again, generally, they are more concerned).

I chalk it up to women being more advanced than men, and they are able to just say, at bedtime, "Well, I can't do anything about the world situation before morning, so I'm just going to get some sleep." Whereas, perhaps, men keep fretting about things they can't change while they are asleep. It just goes to point out, I think, the innate wisdom of women.

Pesky, unneeded regulators - it's enough to give you a heart attack

2005-06-02T07:05:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I guess this just proves the Republican mantra that regulation stifles industry.

Just think how many more defib units that Guidant could have sold if not for the pesky regulators? Their stockholders will now suffer because of - you know - the regulators. The company did what companies should do - keep selling. Those whiners that cried about their loved ones dying just need to get over it; the loved ones were old and defective and it was time for them to go. Deal with it.

You may contact Guidant here: http://guidant.com/contact/

I did, and I left them this encouraging message:

It's a shame that those pesky regulators brought all of this stuff up about your defib units. Now the stockholders will pay the price for the interference of the government.

Frankly, the more units you sold did the economy good 2 ways: more money in circulation and it got rid of people that consume an inordinate amount of this country's medical resources.

Frankly, after someone buys a defib unit, the chances of them buying another are slim, so - as Gov. Dick Lamm said so long ago, they 'have a duty to die'; you were just helping them along.

Is that such a bad thing?

Tell their families to quit whining and enjoy the dividends on your stock - should they own any. Liberals and do-gooders always step in to ruin a good thing.

Vaccine Curbs Shingles Cases and Severity

2005-06-02T06:44:00.000-07:00

Vaccine Curbs Shingles Cases and Severity - New York Times

New HPV treatment: a single shot into the wart can remove other warts, as well

2005-05-31T07:26:00.000-07:00

More junk 'greenhouse' science - according to the Right

2005-05-30T16:06:00.000-07:00

The Right has a 'scientist' on Fox that puts out a column called 'Junk Science', and I will detail this person in a future article, though for now, it's enough to know that he was a 'scientist' that helped to tobacco industry 'prove' that cigarettes didn't harm people, but I'm sure he would call this article 'junk science'.

In this article, from that bastion of fake science, the University of Oregon, comes a study that says that the contrast between the rainy and dry seasons will become even more pronounced than it is now.

The mistake that environmentalists make is that they keep talking about the greenhouse effect as if it is 'coming', and not here now.

What this article points out is that the greeenhouse effect has been here for a while, but it will become much worse, specifically in the difference between wet and dry seasons.

The article doesn't go into a lot of detail; face it, people nowadays are mostly like Bush; don't know, don't care, so going into detail just wastes time and newspaper space that could be better spent on cartoons and fashion news.

However, you can pay for the full article here: http://www.gsajournals.org/gsaonline/?request=get-document&doi=10.1130%2FG21263.1

The bottom line: get out your umbrella.

Plastic emasculates male babies

2005-05-30T06:55:00.000-07:00

Oh, sure; now they tell us - like they never suspected a thing.

However, it does help explain Republicans and why they are so insecure about their masculinity. (sorry, just HAD to get that in! )

Thermohaline shutting down

2005-05-22T12:06:00.000-07:00

My friends have said - for a long time - that I have the Chicken Little syndrome: The sky is falling! The sky is falling! However, though most people ignored it, the Pentagon came out with a well-researched report that said that the scenario already underway is a dire one, and they were so concerned that they actually produced a report on it (PDF file link).

I have been going on and on about the thermohaline circulation (the ocean conveyor - picture) that brings warm water into the North Atlantic and keeps Europe warm. Should this conveyor shut down (the concept behind "The Day After Tomorrow" movie), Europe would plunge into an ice age, since it's on the same latitude as Nova Scotia. We are already seeing some of the effects (link).

I have been saying, for months, that the NOAA watch on the current has been remarking that it has been 'strikingly weak' (link). Additionally, if the Northern Atlantic has more fresh water, and the equator gets saltier, that would also work to stop the thermohaline circulation, and both of those things have happened (link). There are two main events that have taken place in the North Atlantic that contributed to this; one was Lake Ellsmere breaking out and releasing billions of gallons of fresh water into the North Atlantic (link), and the other is the ongoing flood of water coming from rivers in Russia that are draining off the increasing melt.

WHO to warn on changing avian flu

2005-05-18T12:33:00.000-07:00

"Something Wicked This Way Comes"

No, it's not the circus act in the movie, nor is it Jason Robards warning us; in some ways, it's worse.

I really fail to understand why governments are not hitting - well, not the panic button, but the "we've really, really, really got to pay attention to this NOW! button.

Maybe Georgie has had word from God that the flu, like his vision on AIDS, will only strike those who should die anyway.

For the rest of us, I would encourage everyone, who is able, to get a flu shot. While it may not prevent this particular variety of flu, it may be able to lessen the effects. For example, last year the flu shot turned out not to cover the specific flu that was going around, but the flu shot still prompted the body to produce antibodies that were able to moderate the effects of the flu.

Good luck to us all.

One note, though: if you're a Republican that hates the UN and world bodies 'interfering' in our lives, please pay no attention to this, and please do NOT take any flu vaccine that comes through UN/WHO auspices - that would just be encouraging those busy-bodies, don't cha know? (link to definition for the benefit of Republicans)

Breast Cancer - Low fat diets

2005-05-17T16:19:00.000-07:00

Interesting article on how a low fat diet can benefit breast cancer remission.

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Now Offers Microwave Thermotherapy For Treatment Of Prostate Disease

2005-05-08T20:00:00.000-07:00

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Now Offers Microwave Thermotherapy For Treatment Of Prostate Disease

ABC News: Dozens Contract Illness From Small Pets

2005-05-06T05:04:00.000-07:00

ABC News: Dozens Contract Illness From Small Pets

Bee parasite

2005-05-02T19:55:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to tell people about this looming problem for several years, but since it wasn't an emergency, no one cared. Well, it's about to hit the 'emergency' stage.

While most people think that something that wipes out 50% of bees is no big deal - so we have a little less honey? - they don't understand that bees are required to pollinate $15 billion dollars worth of agricultural products a year, like most fruit and nuts. The last time I looked, fruits and nuts should form a goodly portion of your daily diet; think scurvy, for one.

What can you do? Write your lawmakers - at all levels - and demand accelerated government programs to find solutions to the mite problem.

The Odds of Dying

2005-04-25T23:19:00.000-07:00

Just some interesting figures.The Odds of Dying

Vitamin D aids lung cancer operations

2005-04-23T07:16:00.000-07:00

Taking vitamin D prior to surgery can increase your survival rate.

Prisoners 'aware' in executions; they suffer excruciating pain.

2005-04-14T18:36:00.000-07:00

While right-wing-nuts will probably think this is a 'good' thing, the fact is that what civil libertarians have been saying for a long time is true: a lot of prisoners who are killed by lethal injection suffer tremendous pain before dying. What's not talked about is that the prisons and federal and state officials have known this, and they enjoy it. Why else would they not monitor executions to make sure that concentrations of the anesthetic are sufficient to render the prisoner unconscious? Because they then give the prisoner a paralyzing drug, when the last drug is given - the one that tortures them literally to death - they cannot move, blink, moan - nothing. And the everyone involved just loves the fact that they get to torture these people to death.

Chemical Present In Clear Plastics Can Impair Learning And Cause Disease

2005-04-14T06:56:00.000-07:00

Another example of how our government is doing the job on us that we feared the Russians would want to do: hurt us at a very basic level. And you probably thought that all of those cancer cases that the US is paying people for (finally) that were caused by nuke testing outside of Las Vegas and by labs like Hanford were all that our government had done to try and kill us off. Silly you.

MSNBC - Want better sex? Head to the grocery store

2005-03-23T23:45:00.000-08:00

MSNBC - Want better sex? Head to the grocery store

Water Crisis - China this time

2005-03-23T19:34:00.000-08:00

Besides the oil crisis, water is the other major crisis - that people are aware of (more on that in other posts - search on keyword 'crisis')

This is really only the beginning. Search back through this blog for the water crisis currently affecting the US, and other water problems around the world. If you think the past in an indication of the future, you're in for a rude awakening. Also take a look at the fish problems in the ocean. (keywords 'fish, ocean')

Countries are already having wars over water, and Israel is more likely to attack Syria over water than over weapons.

This is - unfortunately - the best of times.Original Link

BBC NEWS | Health | Laser treatment 'zaps bad breath'

2005-03-21T05:05:00.001-08:00

BBC NEWS | Health | Laser treatment 'zaps bad breath'

BBC NEWS | Health | Natural yoghurt beats bad breath

2005-03-21T05:05:00.000-08:00

BBC NEWS | Health | Natural yoghurt beats bad breath

Many who pledge abstinence at risk for STDs

2005-03-18T17:09:00.000-08:00

What a surprise! Yet ANOTHER study that says that abstinence-only sex education does more harm that good. What a shocker!

However, one thing is certain; you can use facts to convince faith-based people. They know what they believe, and facts just confuse things.

New Treatment Offers Hope for Depression

2005-03-18T08:26:00.000-08:00

No Stopping Global Warming, Studies Predict

2005-03-18T08:16:00.000-08:00

And who is doing ANYTHING about planning for the near-term future? Global warming isn't coming; it's here, and it's just going to get worse.

Gene study of mutant AIDS virus shows drug-resistant, vicious foe

2005-03-17T21:32:00.000-08:00

First, they found a man who had an apparently new strain of HIV that killed him off dramatically quicker than the old HIV (link), but then they sort of pooh-poohed it (link).

Now, they are no longer pooh-poohing it (click the link in the title). Nature is pissed.

Nanobacteria - you ain't seen nothing yet.

2005-03-14T16:00:00.000-08:00

Nanobacteria are implicated in kidney stones and heart disease and who knows what else. They are recently discovered 'things' that replicate. And we're going to bring back samples from outer space that could contain nanobacteria that are completely foreign to human organisms? Now THAT'S stupid.Nanobacteria -- The New Thing In Heart Disease

Think the bird flu is dangerous? They don't even know what to make of this.

2005-03-14T10:54:00.000-08:00

A man-made flu, based on the 1918 pandemic flu, may have escaped from the lab and ended up in Korean pigs (think: North Korea biowar experiments). If this has happened, the medical community doesn't have a clue has to how bad this might be, but they know it is VERY bad news.Wired News: Pigs Hold Clues to Man-Made Flu

A Billion Bird Flu Human Fatalities?

2005-03-14T10:33:00.000-08:00

Look at the author's credentials under 'PATENTS'. This isn't some weirdo website.

Bird flu cluster may signal the change we've been waiting for.

2005-03-14T10:23:00.000-08:00

I've been saying, though I was far from the first, and certainly not basing it on any medical expertise on my part, but just on reading the news, that the bird flu is coming - and sooner than most people think; you know, people like Bush.

Experts weigh super-volcano risks

2005-03-09T09:17:00.000-08:00

I've been telling people about this for years; perhaps this will get their attention. Yellowstone has a history of an eruption about every 600,000 years; it's been 640,000 years since the last one. The article doesn't mention the uplift of Yellowstone that's currently going on, nor about the 1,000 foot tall 'bulge' in the bottom of Yellowstone lake, both very worrisome signs.

As the article says, it's not a matter of 'if', just 'when'.

Sports drinks 'dissolving teeth'

2005-03-08T09:32:00.000-08:00

Police puzzled, others see mysterious Bali temple signs as divine warning by Sebastien Blanc: another form of crop circles??

2005-03-05T20:12:00.000-08:00

If you read this carefully, you will find that there was a power cut to the affected villages, and the dogs all started howling, the night that the signs appeared. You will also note that hundreds of temples are affected, and yet no one has ever been seen leaving the signs.

I'm going to do some research on this, looking for similar markings around the world, combined with similar power/dog events.

Think we're ready for a bio-disaster? Think we'd help each other out? Think again.

2005-03-05T09:04:00.000-08:00