One of the strangest things I've ever seen.  The photographer's identification is tentative:  Vespula pensylvanica.  Personally, I'd never try to identify an unfamiliar insect.   One summer, I took classes at the UM Biological Station near Pellston, MI.  My cabinmate was an entomologist.  Watching him it the field, I got the impression that the identification of these little creatures is a black art.  Anyway, here's the photo: alt="Vespula pensylvanica?" title="Vespula pensylvanica?" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3333/3487769182_05b7e78c4d.jpg?v=0" border="0" height="500" width="…
Just to let everyone know, if they don't already: freebooks4doctors has a downloadable text, Influenza Report 2006. It is a 225-page, 2.7 MB PDF. Being from 2006, it does not specifically cover the current situation. Rather, it focuses a bit on avian influenza. Still, it is a reasonably good source of information. If you want, you can buy a hard copy for 25 Euros, but anyone can download the free copy. Influenza Report ISBN 3-924774-51-X Influenza Report is a medical textbook that provides a comprehensive overview of epidemic and pandemic influenza. Influenza Report has also been…
Well, maybe not Malthus, but Garrett Hardin and Paul Ehrlich -- the 1960's-era neomalthusian academicians -- have been right on the money.  There are hard limits to growth, and those limits are upon us.  This is the contention of Charles A. S. Hall and John W. Day, Jr., two systems ecologists who have published a paper in American Scientist. The paper is still behind a pay wall at the publication site, but a PDF copy can be obtained href="http://www.esf.edu/efb/hall/2009-05Hall0327.pdf">from Professor Hall's web site. (HT: href="http://www.theoildrum.com/node/5330#more">EROI Guy…
Just a few quick interesting links: href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=106484775090296685271.0004681a37b713f6b5950&ll=47.100045,9.316406&spn=34.792294,79.101563&t=h&z=4"> Google Map of H1N1 Swine Flu Cases (HT: href="http://casesblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/map-of-h1n1-swine-flu-of-2009.html">Clinical Cases and Images - Blog)Google Flu Trends We've found that certain search terms are good indicators of flu activity. Google Flu Trends uses aggregated Google search data to estimate flu activity in your state up to two weeks faster than…
I had to look this up, so to save others the trouble of finding it, here is the WHO href="http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/phase/en/index.html">explanation of pandemic alert levels: In nature, influenza viruses circulate continuously among animals, especially birds. Even though such viruses might theoretically develop into pandemic viruses, in Phase 1 no viruses circulating among animals have been reported to cause infections in humans. In Phase 2 an animal influenza virus circulating among domesticated or wild animals is known to have caused infection in humans, and is…
The NASA Earth Observatory site is holding a photo contest to celebrate and popularize their 10th anniversary.  It is a contest in which users vote for their favorite images-of-the-day.  Here's my favorite: style="display: inline;"> This is an image from the href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html">Cassini mission; it's a view of the earth, with the rings of Saturn in the foreground.  This beautiful image of Saturn and its rings looks more like an artist's creation than a real image, but in fact, the image is a composite (layered image) made from 165 images…
style="display: inline;">Amy Goodman, the lead journalist for Democracy Now!, has been traveling around the country, giving talks, and promoting her book href="http://www.democracynow.org/store/product/5/BKSUTMHC">Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times. This (standing up to the madness) is inherently difficult.   The photo shows her discussing a video of href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/2008/09/protests_in_minneapolis.php">her arrest in St. Paul, while covering the Republican convention in 2008. Ms. Goodman happens to be one of our more…
Michelle Obama's White House garden has href="http://www.lavidalocavore.org/diary/1309/">attracted some attention, as noted on La Vida Locavore: Did you hear the news?  The White House is planning to have an "organic" garden on the grounds to provide fresh fruits and vegetables for the Obama's and their guests.  While a garden is a great idea, the thought of it being organic made Janet Braun, CropLife Ambassador Coordinator and I shudder.  As a result, we sent a letter encouraging them to consider using crop protection products and to recognize the importance of agriculture to the entire…
his is a photo of a mask from an ancient Peruvian tomb.  The mask is about 1,500 years of., made of copper and seashells, among other items. style="display: inline;"> href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/04/photogalleries/king-bling-moche-tomb-pictures/index.html"> It is one of the front-page (web page, that is) photos at National Geographic.  The caption follows: April 10, 2009--Found in a treasure-filled tomb of the Moche culture in Peru, this 1,500-year-old gilded-copper-and-seashell funerary mask was one of two that shielded the face of the so-called Lord of Ucupe.…
This obviously is the second part of the part I put up a couple of days ago: href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/2009/04/reset_button_for_dsm_diagnosis.php">Reset Button for DSM Diagnosis? (Part 1).  It may not make much sense unless you read the first part. In order to understand the idea behind the use of the FFM, instead of the current diagnostic criteria, it helps to look at an illustration.  Although the original journal article is viewable by registration only, it appears that the pop-up illustration can be viewed by anyone who has the URL.  I think href="http://ajp.…
Someone reached my site by searching for "callosal boobs."  He probably was disappointed.  The Corpus Callosum does not have boobs.  style="display: inline;"> However, nearby, there is a pair of structures known as the href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammillary_bodies">mammillary bodies.  Maybe that will bring some joy. (image credit: href="http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/jun1/harper/harper3.html">The Medical Journal of Australia; HT: Mike's High Yield Blog)
The American Psychiatric Association is considering whether to href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/magazine/05wwln-safire-t.html">reboot their diagnosis machine.  In 1952, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) was published.  In 1980, the third edition was published.  The third edition was important, because for the first time, it required the use of specific criteria for establishing a diagnosis.  (See href="http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/01/03/050103fa_fact">this New Yorker article for a description of the history of DSM and the development of the descriptive…
From time to time, we hear of faux psychotherapy interventions that are intended to convert persons from homosexuality to heterosexuality.  Mostly, the publicity has centered on pseudomoralistic interventions that clearly have a religious agenda as opposed to a health-enhancing agenda.  As such these interventions cannot be classified as therapy. However, a recent survey has shown that there still is a small minority of therapists who will, in some circumstances, attempt to have their clients convert from homosexuality to heterosexuality.  The results were published in the open-access journal…
The New England Journal of Medicine has four open-access articles of the topic of electronic medical records (EMR).  One article reports on a survey of the characteristics of EMR in use, and the extent to which they have been adopted within US hospitals.  The second discussed the barriers to the more widespread adoption of EMR.  The third compares and contrasts the two models of EMR: stand-alone personal systems, and integrated systems.  The fourth addresses the question of how to make the best use of the money devoted, in Obama's economic stimulus plan, to the promotion of EMR. Use of…
I saw this article in a couple of places before it dawned on me what the implication is: href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/21/health/research/21alcohol.html">Drinkers' Red Face May Signal Cancer Risk By NICHOLAS BAKALAR Published: March 20, 2009 People whose faces turn red when they drink alcohol may be facing more than embarrassment. The href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/symptoms/skin-blushingflushing/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="In-depth reference and news articles about Skin blushing/flushing.">flushing may indicate an increased risk for a deadly href…
The New York Times has an editorial written by Evo Morales Ayma, the President of Bolivia.  It has nothing to do with globalization, or the ravages of capitalism, or the environmental destruction wrought by multinational corporations, which is what one might expect.  Rather, it is about coca leaves.  He makes an excellent point. href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/14/opinion/14morales.html?ref=opinion">Let Me Chew My Coca Leaves By EVO MORALES AYMA Published: March 13, 2009 THIS week in Vienna, a meeting of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs took place that will help shape…
When I was at work today, I saw a headline that irritated me.  I decided I would blog about it when I got home.  But now the headline has been changed.  I will still blog about it, though. The original headline was: Report: Alternative energy quest endangering birds.  Now, it is worded differently: href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/ENERGY_BIRDS?SITE=TXWIC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT">Report: Birds endangered by energy development By DINA CAPPIELLO - 4 hours ago WASHINGTON (AP) -- As the Obama administration pursues more homegrown energy sources, a new government…
Today's edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association contains a study that employed PET scans to determine the effect of modafinil upon dopamine concentration and reuptake in the human central nervous system.  They conclude with a caution that clinicians should be mindful of the potential for abuse and dependence in persons taking modafinil. The problem with the study is that it adds very little, if anything, to clinical practice. href="http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/301/11/1148">Effects of Modafinil on Dopamine and Dopamine Transporters in the Male Human…
Dr. Richard Friedman, professor of psychiatry at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, has an article in the New York Times.  In it, he claims that reforms in medical residency training may be leaving young doctors "a little more hesitant and uncertain than you might like."  At first I was hesitant to write about it, because I was uncertain as to what point he is trying to make.  But then I decided to go ahead. href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/health/17mind.html?pagewanted=print">Accepting the Risks in Creating Confident Doctors By RICHARD A. FRIEDMAN, M.D. Published: March…
An opinion article ( href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123689292159011723.html">There's No Pill for This Kind of Depression) in the Wall Street Journal contained the following unsupported claim: The sale of antidepressants and antianxiety drugs is widespread. In New York their use became common after 9/11. It continued through and, I hypothesize, may have contributed to, the high-flying, wildly imprudent Wall Street of the '00s. We look for reasons for the crash and there are many, but I wonder if Xanax, Zoloft and Klonopin, when taken by investment bankers, lessened what might have…