Stuff below the fold

LATimes has a good article about the increase in the diagnosis of Autism and argues that it is from more diagnoses, not a higher rate of disease.

This is my observation too: Lots of the people in our ICF/MR who we sent to group homes would have been called autistic nowadays, and the few times I filled in as a doc in rich clinics, I was bemused at parents insisting their profoundly retarded child was really intelligent, and merely "autistic"...whereas in the poor clinics we knew our FAS kids were not autistic...

Since the movie "Rainman", it is socially acceptable to have an autistic child, but it is not PC to say the child is mentally disabled...
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Mixed marriages and mixed blood children in Asia?

Most countries were colonized and open, so here in the Philippines most of the elites have either Chinese or Spanish blood, but closed societies such as Japan and Korea frowned on these children (who alas were often born of US GI's and their temporary live in partner).

But now we see intermarriage increasing. ATimes Article on Korean men marrying other Asian women because they can't find wives to live in rural areas.

But- this film being made discusses how half Japanese children are coping, using those of mixed marriages from various parts of the world.


headsup TokyoMango who writes:

According to the filmmakers -- one of whom went to my my middle school -- one in 30 Japanese today are born to one non-Japanese parent.

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The world's smallest steam engine.

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Back to the future: Using a tourniquet in the Iraq war, using clotting bandages and fewer IV"s.

Apart from tourniquets, medics now carry gauze impregnated with clotting agents, big needles and catheters used to release air from chest wounds, and special tubes to create emergency airways through the throat or nose. US medics also undergo much more extensive training compared to previous eras, with 16 weeks of instruction.

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Norovirus vaccine in the works?

In the US, people don't realize how diarrhea disease is a major killer in much of the world, not just an inconvenience.

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MJ reports on Durban.

I'm ambivalent: The dirty little secret is that the idea to reimburse poor countries means enriching their politicians, not helping the poor...

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Univision interview with a Mexican student who infiltrated Iran's plan to destablize the western hemisphere.

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