The only moral man is one who backs Leslie | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog
Andrew Bolt is quite correct to point out Leslie Cannold's amusing assertion about men and abortion. I would add that her analogy (how would men feel if women argued against a right to vasectomy) is superficial at best. When she can point out to us the men's groups who actively campaign against women having tubal ligation, then she might have a point.
As I have noted here before, being a medical ethicist seems to involve making decisions on issues in your university years, and then never changing your mind for the rest of your life. Easy job really.
Friday, August 22, 2008
You can thank dogs for this
Technology Review: The Smell of Cancer
Fascinating story on developments in detecting cancer by smell. And you can thank dogs for the idea. (Your cat could probably smell it too, but probably just decided to let you die and have a nibble.)
Fascinating story on developments in detecting cancer by smell. And you can thank dogs for the idea. (Your cat could probably smell it too, but probably just decided to let you die and have a nibble.)
It's all very complicated...
Science News / Carbon Caveat:
But is it being an "alarmist" to say that, given the uncertainties, it is much safer to limit CO2 as a high priority so that we don't have to worry about the uncertainties? I think that position is just being a realist.
Adding carbon compounds to ocean water can sometimes affect microbe communities in ways that result in less stored carbon dioxide than has been assumed, a new study published online August 20 in Nature suggests. The oceans’ carbon storage is an important factor in predicting the severity of climate change.It's all to do with nutrients, and the difference between water borne bacteria and phytoplankton. Clearly, there is a quite a lot that is not well understood about the oceans and CO2 interaction. Warming skeptics take this as a good thing, as it might be that the uncertainties work in favour of humans. Warming worriers take it as a bad thing, because it may be that things will work out worse than first thought.
But is it being an "alarmist" to say that, given the uncertainties, it is much safer to limit CO2 as a high priority so that we don't have to worry about the uncertainties? I think that position is just being a realist.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Too much information, possibly...
As I sit here typing, Fleet (phospho-soda buffered saline mixture) is starting to work its, um, magic inside me, in preparation for a colonoscopy tomorrow.
I've been through this before, so no problems are expected. Well, not beyond maybe a rogue polyp or two being burnt off. It's fun watching the video afterwards, and seeing the little puff of smoke. I wonder if they still use tape, or if it is burnt onto DVD yet. Posting a video of it here would be impressive, but I'm not going to go to any trouble.
Anyhow, see you tomorrow. Fleet is starting to insist I move to a small room for the next hour or so.
UPDATE: all finished. No problems. Photo coming, unless someone pays me money to not show it.
UPDATE 2: I see no money's been paid yet. I'm warning you, it's $500 or you get my colon. In colour.
UPDATE 3: you have been saved by the unexpected difficulty of doing a screen grab from a paused DVD video. But I haven't quite given up yet.
I've been through this before, so no problems are expected. Well, not beyond maybe a rogue polyp or two being burnt off. It's fun watching the video afterwards, and seeing the little puff of smoke. I wonder if they still use tape, or if it is burnt onto DVD yet. Posting a video of it here would be impressive, but I'm not going to go to any trouble.
Anyhow, see you tomorrow. Fleet is starting to insist I move to a small room for the next hour or so.
UPDATE: all finished. No problems. Photo coming, unless someone pays me money to not show it.
UPDATE 2: I see no money's been paid yet. I'm warning you, it's $500 or you get my colon. In colour.
UPDATE 3: you have been saved by the unexpected difficulty of doing a screen grab from a paused DVD video. But I haven't quite given up yet.
Animal mourning
New Scientist : Do animals understand death? Do humans?
This post about how animals appear to react to death is a good read, with this link in particular worth following for some interesting anecdotes. (Oddly, magpies feature again. I'm starting to worry about how smart birds are.)
This post about how animals appear to react to death is a good read, with this link in particular worth following for some interesting anecdotes. (Oddly, magpies feature again. I'm starting to worry about how smart birds are.)
Contrary geologists, and Jennifer is melting
RealClimate has a post up about why it is that geologists seem to be over-represented in the ranks of climate change skeptics.
Of particular interest is the fact that Bob Carter, Australia's own geologist skeptic, and frequent guest at Jennifer Marohasy's blog, has made an appearance in comments and been challenged to explain his position. So far, there is no response, but it will be interesting to watch.
Incidentally, Jennifer Marohasy's blog meltdown is progressing nicely. Graeme Bird is abusing people all over the place, and complaining about receiving harassing calls at home. A couple of commenters have come out in support of the "HIV does not cause AIDS" theory. I guess that's what you get when you chant "correlation does not necessarily mean causation" too much.
Jennifer herself seems to have decided that she can assert that no one has proved exactly how CO2 increases can really cause greenhouse warming at all, and invoked "Socratic Irony" as a motive behind some of her posts. This makes telling what she believes or doesn't believe a matter of complete mystery to the casual reader. But for that matter, Dr Steven Short (a geochemist) can be accused of the same gamesmanship, with wild swings in the tone of his posts over the last 6 months.
I have not, until recently, been a close follower of the blog, but it appears that in the space of a couple of weeks, it has lost any credibility that it once may have had.
Of particular interest is the fact that Bob Carter, Australia's own geologist skeptic, and frequent guest at Jennifer Marohasy's blog, has made an appearance in comments and been challenged to explain his position. So far, there is no response, but it will be interesting to watch.
Incidentally, Jennifer Marohasy's blog meltdown is progressing nicely. Graeme Bird is abusing people all over the place, and complaining about receiving harassing calls at home. A couple of commenters have come out in support of the "HIV does not cause AIDS" theory. I guess that's what you get when you chant "correlation does not necessarily mean causation" too much.
Jennifer herself seems to have decided that she can assert that no one has proved exactly how CO2 increases can really cause greenhouse warming at all, and invoked "Socratic Irony" as a motive behind some of her posts. This makes telling what she believes or doesn't believe a matter of complete mystery to the casual reader. But for that matter, Dr Steven Short (a geochemist) can be accused of the same gamesmanship, with wild swings in the tone of his posts over the last 6 months.
I have not, until recently, been a close follower of the blog, but it appears that in the space of a couple of weeks, it has lost any credibility that it once may have had.
Holy phallic peril!
Search Magazine - Praying for Ice
An "ice lingam" in Kashmir has not handled the hot summers well.
I see that the Wikipedia entry on lingams gives little emphasis on the usual Western interpretation that they represent Shiva's penis, but I don't know that it can really be denied that this was the origin of the symbol. It seems a little odd that (according to one authority cited in Wikipedia):
According to the Search magazine article, a lingam is "obviously" phallic, but has other meanings:
(Disclaimer: I suppose I could be accused of hypocrisy when I belong to a church that indeed has one aspect of its God with a specifically earthly form that includes a penis. Organ specific worship within the Catholic church has been pretty much limited to a heart, though, as far as I can recall.
Oh alright, maybe I am skirting over the Holy Prepuce here, but venerating what is believed to have actually been a part of your God is a little different from, say, worshipping donuts because they have the same shape as a detached foreskin.)
An "ice lingam" in Kashmir has not handled the hot summers well.
I see that the Wikipedia entry on lingams gives little emphasis on the usual Western interpretation that they represent Shiva's penis, but I don't know that it can really be denied that this was the origin of the symbol. It seems a little odd that (according to one authority cited in Wikipedia):
The lingam is the simplest and most ancient symbol of Shiva, especially of Parasiva, God beyond all forms and qualities.Well, if you're going to pick a symbol of "God beyond all forms", why pick one that looks like a penis? Things get even more mystical with this explanation:
It is a symbol which points to an inference. When you see a big flood in a river, you infer that there had been heavy rains the previous day. When you see smoke, you infer that there is fire. This vast world of countless forms is a Linga of the omnipotent Lord. The Shiva-Linga is a symbol of Lord Shiva. When you look at the Linga, your mind is at once elevated and you begin to think of the Lord.To be more precise, I start thinking of his penis. Maybe your average Hindu doesn't, but then again with temple decoration having large amounts of erotic content, I wouldn't be so sure.
According to the Search magazine article, a lingam is "obviously" phallic, but has other meanings:
Legend has it that the first lingam was formed one day when the goddess Parvati, former consort of Shiva, so missed her lover that she fell to her knees and clawed the ground with her hands. She cried until she had no more tears, and then came up with a handful of earth shaped by her closed palm. Her tears had turned the soil to clay and, when she placed the clump of dirt before her, she saw that she had made a figure three times as tall as it was wide, rounded by the curve of her thumb. It was only dirt, she realized, but it was also a symbol of all she wanted in life. It was a perfect depiction of her absent lover—never present but always on her mind—because it meant everything and nothing at once.Geez, they sure know how to read a lot of meaning into a penis shape, these Hindus.
(Disclaimer: I suppose I could be accused of hypocrisy when I belong to a church that indeed has one aspect of its God with a specifically earthly form that includes a penis. Organ specific worship within the Catholic church has been pretty much limited to a heart, though, as far as I can recall.
Oh alright, maybe I am skirting over the Holy Prepuce here, but venerating what is believed to have actually been a part of your God is a little different from, say, worshipping donuts because they have the same shape as a detached foreskin.)
Some rat information
Science Show - 16August2008 - Black rats - brilliant adaptors
Interesting interview on last week's science show about rats. The expert, Ken Alpin, quite admires them, especially barbequed with a nice Vietnamese beer:
Interesting interview on last week's science show about rats. The expert, Ken Alpin, quite admires them, especially barbequed with a nice Vietnamese beer:
In the southern part of Vietnam there's a rat meat industry where rats are harvested out of rice fields on a huge scale; 10,000 tonnes a year of rat meat is collected, taken through to the big cities where it's processed in various ways and then sold in various products, some of which tourists are probably familiar with...I shouldn't be saying this, should I, I'll probably end up...Robyn Williams: What do you mean? Street food that I might pick up somewhere could contain Rattus rattus?
Ken Aplin: There is one well known street in Ho Chi Minh City that specialises in rats on their menu, so you can go there and buy things that are clearly labelled as rat products. I've eaten rats in many different places. I prefer rat meat to most other meats. It's a fine meat, and they're very clean animals, despite their reputation for being filthy. Having now observed them much more closely than I could ever do before, I appreciate how hygienic and clean they actually are.
Gardasil and marketing
Cervical cancer vaccine is popular, but fails to cure doubts - International Herald Tribune
Some experts are rather cynical about the way Gardasil became the "must have" vaccine overnight. More a triumph of marketing than obvious good sense, they suggest.
Interesting read.
Some experts are rather cynical about the way Gardasil became the "must have" vaccine overnight. More a triumph of marketing than obvious good sense, they suggest.
Interesting read.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Modern pot
Back to the stoned age - Features, Health & Wellbeing - The Independent
So, a 38 year old who had quite a lot of cannabis in his youth tries it again and now finds it causes paranoia. His explanation:
So, a 38 year old who had quite a lot of cannabis in his youth tries it again and now finds it causes paranoia. His explanation:
....cannabis itself has evolved into something unrecognisable – skunk, which is now the market leader, accounting for 81 per cent of the marijuana sold on British streets, compared with just 20 per cent in 2002. It's around three times stronger than normal cannabis thanks to higher levels of the compound THC, which causes the psychotic symptoms, and lower levels of another compound called cannabidiol, which experts think protects users from the effects of THC.This will annoy the drug de-criminalisation crowd.The cannabis that fuelled the hippie generation's quest for world peace has been contorted by market forces and cross-pollination into a nervous, twitching grotesque. The latest government stance on marijuana is to suggest that it be reclassified from a class C drug to a class B drug, based largely on the fact that skunk is now so prevalent.
Bizarrely, given my past, I am now inclined to agree with them. What I took bore no similarity to the dope I used to enjoy
Smart bird
Magpies are no bird-brains, mirror test shows | Science | Reuters
It seems that magpies understand mirrors:
It seems that magpies understand mirrors:
Magpies can recognize themselves in a mirror, highlighting the mental skills of some birds and confounding the notion that self-awareness is the exclusive preserve of humans and a few higher mammals.Not smart enough to leave harmless humans walking under their nest alone, though.It had been thought only chimpanzees, dolphins and elephants shared the human ability to recognize their own bodies in a mirror.
But German scientists reported on Tuesday that magpies -- a species with a brain structure very different from mammals -- could also identify themselves.
Come back next month
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | China 'yet to approve protests'
What a farce.China has received a total of 77 applications to stage protests during the Olympic Games period - but none has been approved.
Beijing's public security bureau said 74 applications were "withdrawn", two were "suspended" and one was "vetoed".
France's dirty secret
Supersize ... moi? How the French learnt to love McDonald's - Times Online
According to the article:
The Australian menu has recently become rather too chicken-heavy, if you ask me, and if I want a piece of deep fried chicken in a burger or a roll, KFC does it better.
The deli choice menu also has lost the "roast beef" item, which I quite liked.
But, I can still be convinced by some of their special burgers.
According to the article:
In 2007, as you may have read on our business pages, the chain's French revenues increased by 11 per cent to €3 billion (£2.3 billion). That's more than it generates in Britain. In terms of profit, France is second only to the US itself - and this in the land that first realised that food wasn't just about eating.Apparently, it is due to some successful style makeover in the stores, which sound much the same as the process that has been undertaken in Australia in the last few years.
The Australian menu has recently become rather too chicken-heavy, if you ask me, and if I want a piece of deep fried chicken in a burger or a roll, KFC does it better.
The deli choice menu also has lost the "roast beef" item, which I quite liked.
But, I can still be convinced by some of their special burgers.
The Appleyard endorsed diet
The diet that really works - Times Online
It's all about low carbs, but not as much fat as Atkins. Maybe it's close to that CSIRO diet book that was a recent hit?
Not sure how I would feel eating a lot more protein, especially at breakfast. But who knows...
It's all about low carbs, but not as much fat as Atkins. Maybe it's close to that CSIRO diet book that was a recent hit?
Not sure how I would feel eating a lot more protein, especially at breakfast. But who knows...
Monday, August 18, 2008
Lunchtime education
SpecialtyFood.com
I had been wondering why "washed rind" cheeses have an orange rind. (There are a couple of brands commonly sold in Australian supermarkets now, and they are well worth trying if you like "stinkier" cheese. I like the King Island Dairy one; its flavour reminds me of the sea, for some reason.)
The answer is in the link above:
I had been wondering why "washed rind" cheeses have an orange rind. (There are a couple of brands commonly sold in Australian supermarkets now, and they are well worth trying if you like "stinkier" cheese. I like the King Island Dairy one; its flavour reminds me of the sea, for some reason.)
The answer is in the link above:
What distinguishes them from other types is that the cheesemaker actively encourages the surface growth of B. linens (Brevibacterium linens). This aggressive bacterium produces a thin, golden-orange rind—think Pont L’Evêque—and most of the beefy, garlicky, frankly “stinky” aromas that washed-rind cheese enthusiasts love.I just finished eating a piece that was a couple of weeks past the "best by" date. I trust that B. linens cannot overpower my immune system and make me bright orange and dead.
Coming soon to SBS
The Weekend's TV: The Perfect Vagina, Sun, Channel - The Independent
Here's a review of a documentary about the increasingly common interest of women in having their genitalia surgically altered. It would seem some (most?) do it for the worst possible reasons:
Here's a review of a documentary about the increasingly common interest of women in having their genitalia surgically altered. It would seem some (most?) do it for the worst possible reasons:
A pretty 21-year-old called Rosie wanted to have some of her labia removed after being teased by her sister, who regularly makes derogatory comments about her vagina to Rosie's boyfriends. Rogers seemed to be having the same thoughts as any sane person: it's a new sister Rosie needs, not a new vagina. But Rosie was determined, so we watched in graphic close-up as a cosmetic surgeon performed the grisly operation, with the poor girl, under local anaesthetic, crying on the gurney. Rosie is by no means the youngest patient to have undergone such a procedure. One doctor that Rogers spoke to regularly operates on 16-year-old girls.I have suggested before that a significant proportion of cosmetic surgeons need to be rounded up and sent to some modern form of Gulag until they promise to use their medical training for something useful. The idea still has appeal.
Seriously poor judgment
The life of John Edwards flame Rielle Hunter | Salon News
In case you hadn't heard, John Edwards' ex-lover Rielle Hunter is an extreme oddball with a very chequered past. If he actually had an affair with someone half sensible, maybe his political career could recover. But especially by getting involved with this woman, he's well and truly done for. Heading back to the law practice might be a good idea.
In case you hadn't heard, John Edwards' ex-lover Rielle Hunter is an extreme oddball with a very chequered past. If he actually had an affair with someone half sensible, maybe his political career could recover. But especially by getting involved with this woman, he's well and truly done for. Heading back to the law practice might be a good idea.
Odd medical news of the day
Red Bull drink lifts stroke risk: Australian study | Health | Reuters
Just one can of the popular stimulant energy drink Red Bull can increase the risk of heart attack or stroke, even in young people, Australian medical researchers said on Friday.I wonder whose idea it was to undertake this study? Red Bull has responded by saying:The caffeine-loaded beverage, popular with university students and adrenaline sport fans to give them "wings", caused the blood to become sticky, a pre-cursor to cardiovascular problems such as stroke.
"One hour after they drank Red Bull, (their blood systems) were no longer normal. They were abnormal like we would expect in a patient with cardiovascular disease," Scott Willoughby, lead researcher from the Cardiovascular Research Centre at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, told the Australian newspaper.
"The study does not show effects which would go beyond that of drinking a cup of coffee. Therefore, the reported results were to be expected and lie within the normal physiological range," Rychter told Reuters.Further information needed, I think.
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