Medical and Science Stories below the fold

You know about Yellowstone, but do you know about Baekdu Mountain? It's another "border area" where China is trying to take over, but is is also a supervolcano similar to Yellowstone.

And this book review includes this factoid:

Around 7700 years ago, an eruption twice the size did strike the conterminous USA (in Oregon). Remarkably, the memory of the eruption, which formed the magnificent landform known as Crater Lake, lingers in the oral traditions of the Klamath Native American tribe.

----------------------------
Americans Find Doing Their Own Taxes Simpler Than Improving Diet and Health

76 percent agree that ever-changing nutritional guidance makes it hard to know what to believe. And when it comes to making decisions about food, consumers today rely most often on their own research rather than third-party experts. Six out of 10 Americans have given a lot of thought to the foods and beverages they consume (58 percent) and the amount of physical activity they get (61 percent). Yet, only 20 percent say their diet is very healthful and 23 percent describe their diet as extremely or very unhealthful; less than 20 percent meet the national Physical Activity Guidelines.

Actually, I don't believe this survey mirrors what people do, and suspect they are merely giving the answers they think they should give.

We are told to think about our health, so we agree we think a lot about our health and what we should eat. But the dirty little secret is that most folks have a life, so eat the best we can. And because the press is constantly telling us that we eat a lousy diet, this is the answer we give to the pollsters.

-----------------------------------------------------------

What if they sued and  no one in the MSM noticed? The Anchoress asks. 

Like the kid who hides under the blanket figuring the boogeyman won’t see him, the mainstream media has decided that if they just ignore the 12 lawsuits launched against the Obama administration by 43 Catholic entities, the reality of them will go away; they simply won’t exist, and the Supreme Court won’t see them, either!

------------------------------------

It's not just the Philippines who was told (via a "mistake" by a government news anchor) that they were part of China: Now Australia has been put on notice.

AUSTRALIA cannot juggle its relationships with the United States and China indefinitely and must choose a ''godfather'' to protect it, according to a prominent Chinese defence strategist.
The warning by Song Xiaojun, a former senior officer of the People's Liberation Army, comes after Foreign Minister Bob Carr was told by his Chinese counterpart that Australia's close military alliance with the US was a throwback to the Cold War era.

Of course, the dirty little secret is that the only one in the area that might try to take over Australia is China....
--------------------

Wired article on when whales walked in Egypt has some neat photos....

-----------------------------------
An "expert" taskforce advises against that PSA test.

The problem: A lot of the positives would never spread and kill people, and some of the positive tests would result in death no matter if you treated it for not. And a lot of cancers are in the extreme elderly who die of heart disease etc. before the cancer would kill them.
And the treatment is long, expensive, and can cause impotence.

The problem? There is no good way to tell which is which.

The Aussies disagree with the US panel:

According to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia around two-thirds of Australian men aged 40 to 74 have been given the Medicare-covered PSA test. He says testing will prevent 600 of the 3300 prostate cancer deaths expected this year.

But this study suggests it is cost effective:

a European trial found 1000 men aged between 55 and 69 would need to be screened in order to prevent one death. 

compare and contrast: you would need 1500 mammograms to save one life.

Can you say "death panels" children?

Each PSA costs from between $70 to $400. And then there is the cost of screening for borderline tests (including a biopsy).

I am always reminded of one of Michener's stories, The Milk Run, where the Navy spent 2 million dollars for air cover to rescue a downed pilot, who at the end of the story says "but it was worth it if you were the pilot".  And maybe it was worth it if you were LT(JG0 George Bush whose life was saved in a similar type incident.

so what do docs do?
The joke is if their PSA was only slightly high, they'd accidentally throw away the lab slip.
If it was very high, they'd get treatment...


-----------------------------