I’m working offline on a post on trade deficits and debt, but that’s taking a while. So, in the meantime, here are some links so you don’t think I’ve dropped off the net.
Fun links:
18 Geekiest Cake Designs.
Emmy Award nominees this year. (Go, Andre Braugher! He’s been nominated for his role in Men of a Certain [...]
With Yar’Adua dead, and Goodluck Jonathan now President rather than just Acting President, Nigeria needs a new VP. And, after much speculation, we now have Jonathan’s choice: Governor Namadi Sambo of Kaduna State. The Daily Trust writes about the power balancing considerations that drove Jonathan’s choice.
According to the source, President Jonathan had earlier settled for [...]
I’m sure you’ve all heard by this point that the Senate health care reform bill passed its first cloture vote, paving the way to pass the actual bill by Christmas Eve. I’ll put the health care reform links last in this round up, because you’re probably already reading about health care reform on the front [...]
Yesterday was the kind of Southern California day for which this song was written:
You know, the kind of day in which you can’t gloat to all your East Coast family about the weather. A friend told us in the evening that the snow level was supposed to be down to 1500 feet, which is not [...]
Lots of activity today on Twitter on the #griots and #16Azar tag. The former was created at the time of last year’s Greek riots, and the latter is for 16 Azar on the Iranian calendar, Students Day. Both Greece and Iran are, for different reasons, rocked by protests today.
I don’t have a lot [...]
Want to get ahead? Sleep in. Late risers have more mental stamina and can outperform early birds, study finds.
Using magnetic resonance imaging, the pair conducted an experiment that measured alertness and ability to concentrate in 30 subjects who were naturally “extreme” early or late risers. The early risers got up between 5 a.m. and [...]
SCOTUSblog has been running a series on Sotomayor’s record: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. hilzoy, at Obsidian Wings, writes of the series
They are really worth reading, especially if you are not a lawyer, since they’ll give you a much richer sense of the kinds of decisions she has made than anything I’ve read so [...]
Here.
Autism Continued to Increase Subsequent to Thimerosal Removal from most childhood vaccines. (Also, a gene variant has been found that’s associated with autism.)
What Your Patients Are Reading: Vaccine Preservative Not Linked to Risk for Autism.
Also, the American Association of Pediatrics has issued an updated immunization schedule for children. You can find the new [...]
A Map of Slavery.
Vaccines, Mercury, and Autism: “Experts” Who Claim A Connection Found to Be Not Qualified.
Blogbharti rounds up some Indian and Pakistani blogger reactions to the Bhutto assassination. (And, in the unlikely event that anyone missed it, Pakistani elections have been delayed till Feb. 18.)
Easing The Pain.
Coercion v. Care.
A voice for rural women [...]
An Alzheimer’s Vaccine? Promising Results In Mice
It’s time for me to quit procrastinating and start actually writing that updated vaccination FAQ, and not just reading articles about vaccination. But, before I do that, I’m delaying just a little more, by organizing the zillions of links I’ve been saving during the last year, into categories by vaccine. Some of these [...]
It’s National Diabetes Awareness Month. Check out the National Diabetes Association for more information on diabetes prevention and management.
The NIH is setting up a web site with Spanish language diabetes information.
CDC links: Prevalence of Self-Reported Cardiovascular Disease Among Persons Aged ?35 Years with Diabetes — United States, 1997–2005 (unfortunately a really common combination – [...]
Promising Vaccine Against Deadly Staph Infections Blocks Communication System Of Bacteria.
The advantage of the new vaccine is that it would work not only on current bacterial resistant stains but also would not induce the potential for new bacterial resistance because, rather than killing bacterial cells, it blocks their communication system, preventing the shift from harmless [...]
One that I wish I could show Grandfather: Mubarak Abdullahi’s home-made helicopter takes Nigeria’s Kano Plains by storm.
Yahoo! News (among other sources) carries a story from October 21st about Mubarak Muhammad Abdullahi of the Kano Plains of Nigeria who has built a working helicopter over the last 8 months using scrap aluminum and parts from [...]
Promising Malaria Vaccine Is Found to Work in Babies (thanks to Joel for the link).
The world’s most promising malaria vaccine has been shown to work in infants less than a year old, the most vulnerable group, according to a study being published today.
The study, published in the Lancet, was small, involving only 214 babies in [...]
Laboratory Surveillance for Wild and Vaccine-Derived Polioviruses — Worldwide, January 2006–June 2007. We’re down to just four countries (down from seven in 2003) with indigenous polio, but have faced significant obstacles in the effort to eradicate polio in these remaining countries. This latest MMWR article reports:
During January 2006–June 2007, GPLN confirmed wild polioviruses [...]
First the bad news: Merck has halted testing on an HIV vaccine from Merck which had looked to be one of the most promising in development, after a monitoring board found it to be ineffective.
Now the good news: HPV Vaccine Provides Cross-Protection Against Other Strains.
An ongoing follow-up of a cohort of women studied showed the vaccine to be very effective against anogenital and vaginal lesions.
NEJM CORRESPONDENCE: Human Papillomavirus Vaccine.
Routine vaccination for smallpox was discontinued in 1972, after the disease was eradicated, but resumed in 2002 in response to the fear of biological warfare. Research was then done to [...]
Women’s Bioethics Blog on Requiring the Meningitis Vaccine for Students.
Possible Hepatitis C Vaccine.
Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infects up to 500,000 people in the UK alone, many of the infections going undiagnosed. It is the single biggest cause of people requiring a liver transplant in Britain. Now scientists have found monoclonal antibodies which may make a successful vaccine a reality.