Misc Updates
Ok, I’ve been pretty busy lately taking care of my sick wife (influenza sucks, especially when you’re pregnant) and keeping up with the paperwork at the office, so here’s a quick list of interesting things to come across my RSS feed reader:
- Why we Immunize. No further comment required. (via Orac)
- From the US front, turns out some Democrats are pretty anti-science, too. Senator Tom Harkin was upset NCCAM (the publicly funded research centre tasked with investigating complementary and alternative therapies) has “fallen short” because it failed to “validate alternative approaches”. Maybe it’s because “alternative approaches” don’t work? Of course, bending the facts to fit your conclusions seems like good science to some… (via Orac, PZ, and a couple of articles on Science-Based Medicine)
- Science-Based Medicine blog has a great article regarding a new book about alternative medicine (Healing, Hype, or Harm?: A Critical Analysis of Complementary or Alternative Medicine), and one on a specific essay about healing vs curing.
Leslie B. Rose describes the elaborate stepwise process of testing new drugs, from animal studies to phase I through IV human trials to post-marketing surveillance, and defines CAM as “a treatment which has not gone through this process, and in which we can have very little confidence that it works and is safe.” Other essays cover placebo, vitalism, patient choice, legal issues, politics and regulation, health care funding, homeopathy, chiropractic, and more.
- Vitamins? Apparently pretty useless unless for a specific indication.
- Sita Sings the Blues is out! I think I ran across this on BoingBoing regarding a rights dispute for the music; I guess that got sorted out. Also available on MiniNova in 720p, 1080p downloads. (via PZ Myers)
- Interesting book “No Fear: Growing up in a Risk Averse Society” – available for free – about how we are way over-protective of our children. (via BoingBoing)
- Somewhat along the same lines, an article (summary: Internet not full of pedophiles) and a thesis (about teen sociality online) by danah boyd both highlight the fact about youths’ risky behaviour on the internet – the problem is not that ‘pedophiles’ and other adults online want to lead these kids astray – although they certainly exist – but that the kids themselves are often engaged in risky behaviours without any help/guidance. The media is looking at the wrong end of the equation. But is it any surprise that they treat young adults as being incapaple of responsibility? (via BoingBoing)
- And a step in that direction – Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know. (via Bruce Schneier) [Local cache: facebook-10-privacy-settings]
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