Sarah Palin’s goodbye poetry
Goodbye, Sarah. Good riddance to the politician Sarah Palin, I hope. Palin has been busy tweeting, though, and William Shatner gave an interpretive reading on Conan O'Brien's show:
Huffington quackery
Over at Salon.com, Rahul K. Parikh, M.D. makes a strong case that the Huffington Post is not strong on vetting their health and wellness contributors:
But when it comes to health and wellness, that diverse forum [Huffpo] seems defined mostly by bloggers who are friends of Huffington or those who mirror her own advocacy of alternative medicine, described in her books and in many magazine profiles of her. Among others, the site has given a forum to Oprah Winfrey's women's health guru, Christiane Northrup, who believes women develop thyroid disease due to an inability to assert themselves; Deepak Chopra, who mashes up medicine and religion into self-help books and PBS infomercials; and countless others pitching cures that range from herbs to blood electrification to ozonated water to energy scans.
Fly
This is another in the series of "backyard bug" photographs several of us are publishing from time to time at DI. I use a consumer grade cameras (Canon's SD1100SI), and I simply try to have fun finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. This fly photo turned out especially nicely (I think it enjoyed the attention), thanks to a perfectly diffuse batch of sun pouring through a modest layer of clouds outdoors. For this shot, the lens was about 1 inch from the fly.
Here's two more thoughts. This little animal is on the same phylogenetic tree as human animals. This fly is my cousin. Hello, cousin! It puts this fly in such a different light to remember that. Second, how in the hell can a fly fly? I'm reminded of the conclusion reached in 1934 by French entomologist August Magnan, who calculated [albeit thinking of bees] that their flight was aerodynamically impossible. But they somehow can fly (and eat, poop, compete for mates and--oh my--mate). Utterly fantastic. OK, this is an aside: scientists have found that fruit flies compete by "displacement and incapacitation of a previous male’s sperm." Highly sophisticated stuff.
Swedish doctors: circumcision is “assault”
Like most American men my age, I was circumcised while I was an infant. At Reddit.com I happened upon an article on circumcision, and I noticed that the controversy is still alive and well. According to UPI, most Swedish doctors strongly disapprove of male circumcision: Two out of three doctors surveyed in Sweden said they refuse to circumcise boys because they consider it assault without the child's consent, sources said. Most American boys still receive non-therapeutic circumcisions (not performed for ritualistic or religious purposes). Of physicians performing circumcision, 45% use anesthesia. What is the view of the American Medical Association? The AMA supports the general principles of the 1999 Circumcision Policy Statement of the American Academy of Pediatrics, which reads as follows: Existing scientific evidence demonstrates potential medical benefits of newborn male circumcision; however, these data are not sufficient to recommend routine neonatal circumcision. In circumstances in which there are potential benefits and risks, yet the procedure is not essential to the child's current well-being, parents should determine what is in the best interest of the child. To make an informed choice, parents of all male infants should be given accurate and unbiased information and be provided the opportunity to discuss this decision. If a decision for circumcision is made, procedural analgesia should be provided.
Bill O’Reilly’s math
This 22 second statement has got to be seen to be believed. Anyone this math-challenged shouldn't be discussing the Canadian health care system and shouldn't be on the air at all. Via Media Matters. Interesting statistic that the average Canadian lives almost 2 years longer than the average American. BTW, did you know that O'Reilly's average viewer is 71 years old? Who is he going to replace those viewers with in coming years?