Monday, April 23, 2012

Headlines below the fold (plus rants)

LATimes complains a law making "confidentiality agreement" will stop docs from getting information about their patients exposure to fracking related chemicals.

what is missing in the story: If you run into a new medical problem, you don't personally do urine tests, you report it to the CDC who does a scientific investigation.  It might be due to contact dermatitis, heavy metals, tick borne germs, or the chemicals used in upstream meth labs...Plastic surgeons don't have the expertise to do this type of investigation, but apparently they have the expertise to go to a bigshot reporter with their claims...

On the other hand, when we had three cases of severe hepatitis in three patients all of whom had been at the same festival 6 weeks earlier, I couldn't get the Minnesota health department interested because they were Indians (implying it was due to illicit drugs or alcohol). Yes, but one case was a child...

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Dave Barry gives you reason number 5280 on why you should drink beer:

U.S. Waters Polluted by 10 Million Tons of Dog Poop

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Read more here: http://blogs.herald.com/dave_barrys_blog/2012/04/which-is-exactly-why-were-having-beer.html#storylink=cpy

I can't decide if this screed is bad theology or bad science. Both probably.

Mother Gaia is killing you for the sin of  not picking up your dog poop polluting the environment?

Where is Christopher Hitchens when we need him?

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Aspirin as a lifersaver.

Yes, unless it gives you ulcers: Lolo has had two GI bleeds from aspirin (which he took to prevent another stroke). So be cautious.

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This is from the UKMail, so take it with a grain of salt, but if it's true, it suggests that all those rumors tweeting about a Chinese government scandal might be true.

Say what you want about politicians who kill their rivals here in the Philippines, at least we don't destroy planes killing over a hundred innocent people: usually they send guys on motorbikes to do the job to limit collateral damage... (even Maguindanao massacre "only" killed 58 innocent people...) (yes, our nephew was killed as a bystander in a political hit job in our town, but that's because they hired killers who learned to kill in the NPA, instead of hiring professionals to do the job).

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China's cyberwar: strategypage has a report.

And the Pinoys hack them back, in retaliation for their aggression against an area near Luzon that has been part of the Philippines since at least 1734...

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I've run into this claim in some of the lectures about the evolution of man: Eating meat helped the brain to grow and people reproduce more successfully.

But they missed the real point: chimps eat meat, but it takes forever to chew. It was the introduction of fire, that made meat and grain easier to chew and digest, that was the real breakthrough.

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a report on how the cellphone is changing Africa.
yeah. Even Sister Euphrasia has one now.
And one of these days I'll figure out how to use my cellphone...
(headsup Instapundit)
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the quote of the day comes from Instapundit:
THEY NEVER REALLY WENT AWAY: Walter Russell Mead: Are Death Panels Making A Comeback?
Don’t worry, we’ll ease you down life’s off-ramp with medical psilocybin.


the WRMead article points out one of the real reasons for unnecessary testing: Defensive medicine. But of course, since the lawyers are big funders of Obama's reelection campaign, we won't hear a lot about that problem...

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Choose your poison article also from the UKMail:  Pollution from traffic, planes and power stations 'killing 13,000 Britons a year'

compare and contrast: The Great Smog of 1952 may have killed 12000...in London alone.

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Factoid of the day: the polygamist in Romney's family tree was his great grandfather, which puts it pretty far back there.

On the other hand, President Obama's father was a polygamist and an alcoholic, President Kennedy's father was a serial adulterer, booze runner, and pro Nazi, his grandfather ran a saloon, and his other grandfather was a crooked politician. Then there are the Bush family skeletons in the closet...

The anti LDS hatred and ignorance reminds me of the anti CATHOLIC ignorance and bigotry we saw in 1960...

To quote James Carville: IT'S THE ECONOMY STUPID.

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Heh. Sounds like they are taking lessons from Gloria...or maybe Gloria took lessons from them....

so if you don't like the trend toward insisting on voter registration, don't blame "republican hysteria", blame wikileaks...

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NSA has all your emails.

Hope they like all those subversive jokes
You know a joke or video  has gone viral when you get the same joke from friends in both the US and Iran...and now that Sister Euphrasia in rural Zimbabwe has internet access, I'm waiting for her to send me emails with photos of cute kittens too...

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How geeks having fun:

MIT students play Tetris:



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