Interesting and frightening news from the world of viruses and bacteria.
Straight out of Gattaca comes news that you can be tracked by the germs you leave behind on surfaces. More on this here.
In a more dangerous to your health than you privacy story, some information on MRSA that both cleared up some myths but also put a real sense of the dangers of the virus into my awareness.
It’s sad how lunatics just keep on inspiring others to do evil. To some, Timothy McVeigh is a hero. That’s really all you need to know about these people.
Sometimes a little maintenance and simple repairs are all it takes to get your gear back up and running.
Well kids, we’re coming full circle back to our parent’s time. Polio is back, at least in the poorest and most overcrowded of nations.
My father has a mark on his neck from where my grandfather gave him an emergency tracheotomy in the back seat of the family car using a pocket knife on their way to the hospital because my dad couldn’t breathe. And that’s what a mild-ish form of polio can do to you, cause you to suffocate. I don’t know if I’ve got it in me to cut into my child. I suppose I could if I have to but I really don’t want to find out.
No word from the Jenny McCarthyites on whether they look forward to polio outbreaks within our borders due to their stupidity.
Here is a prime example of what happens when corporations sink their venomous fangs into public news. If you only read the headline you would be correct in thinking “oh man, I didn’t know solar plants were so bad for us”.
Read the article, however, and you run into information like “According to the developer, the Amargosa (solar) plant would produce about 4.9 pounds of carbon monoxide per megawatt hour of electricity produced, compared with 822 pounds per megawatt hour for a natural gas plant.”
Wow, wait a minute. I thought you said the solar plants would WORSEN things? Worsen as in being more polluting than doing nothing? Sure. If I stopped breathing the Earth would have more oxygen. But I don’t plan on dying right now.
And sure, if plants here – where there is a lot of sun – replaces a more inefficient fossil fuel facility somewhere else, then yeah, the local environment may suffer a bit. Overall, however, we’re in better shape for it.
That said, measure the impact responsibly, and move forward if the plan looks to benefit more people than, say, plopping a few more oil derricks off the American coast. Yes, there is a cost to develop. But casting doubt on methods that are WAY more safe than those currently in use only earns you thirty pieces of silver and a reputation for being a corporate whore.
My other example of corporate propaganda comes from NPR, now apparently funded by Monsanto. In an article that should be touting the benefits of grass-fed beef – which should be obvious – the article snidely goes about trying to diminish what thinking people and our ancestors knew: animals each grass to survive when given a choice, not corn meal or the ground up bits of other animals.
Monsanto, and their paid NPR reporter, wants you to question what just seems right and obvious. Once again, why should I donate to put more of this filth on the air?
Now, I’m not a huge Sam Adams fan, but there’s no doubt that Jim Koch has changed the way beer is made in this country and for that I salute him.
For the rest of you idjuts sucking down lite beers, you don’t know what you’re missing.
We’re not out of the woods yet. According to Richard Clarke, we are woefully unprepared for the next phase in electronic warfare.
No doubt “electing” a Talibangelical Luddite didn’t help.
Here is Clarke on The Rachel Maddow Show going further into this:
Here ya go. Now you can eat AND drink instead of just surviving on beer alone.
While the State known as Arizona seethed and Latino parents fell on their knees with Rosaries in hand to pray for the future of their children Governor Jan Brewer went out for a tony dinner with gal pal and media made millionaire Sarah Palin.
All you need to know about the soulless Republicans ruining our nation can be addressed . After initiating second class citizenship for anyone brown-skinned in her state, the governor of Aryzona just had to run off to a ballgame with her race-baiting pal Sarah.
Watch this. And that may be the only SNL bit I show you in awhile.
“This week, Arizona signed the toughest illegal immigration law in the country which will allow police to demand identification papers from anyone they suspect is in the country illegally. I know there’s some people in Arizona worried that Obama is acting like Hitler, but could we all agree that there’s nothing more Nazi than saying “Show me your papers?” There’s never been a World War II movie that didn’t include the line “show me your papers.” It’s their catchphrase. Every time someone says “show me your papers,” Hitler’s family gets a residual check. So heads up, Arizona; that’s fascism. I know, I know, it’s a dry fascism, but it’s still fascism.”
– Seth Meyers