Real medical professionals: Flu season is picking up

Posted on January 2, 2011 by Michael

So get vaccinated.

Flu season appears to be picking up.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says five states had widespread reports of flu last week, up from zero two weeks earlier.

A CDC report released Thursday says four of the states were in the South — Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Virginia. The other was New York.

The report also says that tests of about 120 virus samples show the circulating flu strains seem to be well-matched to this season’s flu vaccine.

Health officials say an estimated 23,600 flu-related deaths occur each year.

(Emphasis mine.)

I think we can add a few to that number thanks to the irresponsibility of the anti-vax crowd.

Filed under: News, Science | Tagged: , , , | 11 Comments »

Thought of the day

Posted on January 2, 2011 by Michael

Any news piece about a new scientific discovery which says some key aspect of evolution has been rewritten or radically changed is probably just a load of horseshit.

Filed under: Misc | Tagged: , | 7 Comments »

Religion continues to kill Nigerians

Posted on January 1, 2011 by Michael

I’ve long been following the crisis in Nigeria. People have been murdering each other for quite some time there, with part of the basis being fertile farm land, part of it being poverty, part of it being government corruption, but the biggest part being religion. The most recent attacks reflect that.

Nigerian authorities on Friday arrested 92 people allegedly affiliated with a militant Islamist group that the government says is responsible for a string of recent killings in the country’s northeast.

…

Three men were arrested with bombs in their possession in the vicinity of Jos on Christmas Day, authorities said

The Jos region lies on a faith-based fault line between Muslim-dominated northern Nigeria and the mainly Christian south.

At least four people were killed and another 13 wounded Friday in a bomb blast at an army barracks in Abuja [on New Year’s eve], the deputy police commissioner said.

I would prefer not to have the perfect example to illustrate the point that religion causes divide and fosters violence, but it is what it is. Without Christianity and without Islam dividing the city of Jos, Nigerians would either be able to more easily resolve issues over farm land or they wouldn’t have any violence in the first place. (These most recent attacks are driven by extremists, but it remains that many of the other attacks have been over non-religious issues which are heightened and worsened by the presence of religion.)

Filed under: News, Religions | Tagged: , , , , , , | 28 Comments »

Thought of the year

Posted on January 1, 2011 by Michael

There are no gods.

Filed under: Misc | Tagged: | 4 Comments »

A third of babies are fat

Posted on January 1, 2011 by Michael

And not just in that cute, chubby sort of way.

Almost one-third of 9-month-olds are obese or overweight, as are 34 percent of 2-year-olds, according to the research, which looked at a nationally representative sample of children born in 2001. The study is one of the first to measure weight in the same group of very young children over time, said lead researcher Brian Moss, a sociologist at Wayne State University in Detroit. The results showed that starting out heavy puts kids on a trajectory to stay that way.

“If you were overweight at nine months old, it really kind of sets the stage for you to remain overweight at two years,” Moss told LiveScience.

Michelle Obama’s child nutrition act looks better and better every single day. But maybe we should be listening to the conservatives, no? Perhaps for the WIC program, we could allow mother’s to buy their kids soda and candy. It’s all about liberty! after all, right?

Filed under: Politics and Social, Science | Tagged: , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

Thought of the day

Posted on January 1, 2011 by Michael

Watching the ball drop on New Year’s is never that exciting.

Filed under: Misc | Tagged: , | 3 Comments »

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