No Chiropractic School at FSU

The Daytona Beach News-Journal gives an enthusiastic thumbs up to the decision by Florida State University to turn down money that would have established the first chiropractic school at a public university in the US. Seems that the University thought it would be a bad precedent to start a school that specialized in a dubious area of medicine, an area that has almost no scientific evidence to support it; and furthermore, several professors threatened to resign if the University accepted the money and started the chiropractic school.

On a humorous note, we see that a FSU professor drew up a map of the new University of Pseudoscience, with the Chiropractic Institute just across the road from Crop Circle Simulation Laboratory, not far from the Yeti Foundation.

You Call This “Journalism”?

Yesterday, a local television station went to the local psychic fair, and asked a local psychic to predict the weather for the weekend. The psychic happily responded with:

“27 on Sunday and 30 on Saturday. No snow. Maybe Sunday night or Monday. I think it’s going to be a weekday before you see snow,” Georgina Power said.

What kind of moron asks a psychic to predict the weather two days in advance? In fact, what kind of moron asks a psychic a question for which the non-psychic answer is already available? How can you tell that the psychic is using psychic means to make this prediction, as opposed to the psychic watching the TV news to make the prediction? Did this reporter ever stop to think that the psychic had probably checked the weather for the weekend as many, many Americans do, and that the psychic knew the answer already? And what kind of ridiculous editor runs this as news?

Skeptic’s Circle

Saint Nate is promoting the first ever Skeptic’s Circle, a new blog round-up that emphasizes critical thinking, rather than criticizing thinkers. Some potential topics are: Urban Legends and Hoaxes; Pseudoscience; Pseudohistory; Hysteria; and Quackery. Submit your logically thought-out entires before February 3.

Freedom

Imad Khadduri tells us how Iraqi farmers can no longer save their seeds and plant them next year as they have done for centuries. They must now buy seeds from American corporations.

Riverbend (a girl in Iraq) tells us about her freedom. Two hours of electricity a day (maybe), no water for six days, telephones that don’t work, explosions, curfews, incredibly high prices for fuel, and oh yes, an election coming up in which they don’t know who the candidates are and where the voters will be subject to attack by insurgents.

The Speech Bush Should Have Given

Here, courtesy of Juan Cole, is the speech George Bush should have given when trying to convince the people that we should invade Iraq:

My fellow Americans:

I want us to go to war against Iraq. But I want us to have our eyes open and be completely realistic.

A war against Iraq will be expensive. It will cost you, the taxpayer, about $300 billion over five years. I know Wolfowitz is telling you Iraq’s oil revenues will pay for it all, but that’s ridiculous. Iraq only pumps about $10 billion a year worth of oil, and it’s going to need that just to run the new government we're putting in. No, we’re going to have to pay for it, ourselves. I’m going to ask you for $25 billion, then $80 billion, then another $80 billion. And so on…

So I’m going to put you, your children, and your grandchildren deeply in hock to fight this war. I’m going to make it so there won’t be a lot of new jobs created, and I’m going to use the excuse of the Federal red ink to cut way back on government services that you depend on. For the super-rich, or as I call them, “my base,” this Iraq war thing is truly inspired. We use it to put up the deficit to the point where the Democrats and the more bleeding heart Republicans in Congress can't dare create any new programs to help the middle classes…

Then, this Iraq War that I want you to authorize as part of the War on Terror is going to be costly in American lives. By the time of my second inaugural, over 1,300 brave women and men of the US armed forces will be dead as a result of this Iraq war, and 10,371 will have been maimed and wounded, many of them for life…

Private Investment Accounts Fail Miserably in Chile

The New York Times examines Chile’s private investment accounts:

Even many middle-class workers who contributed regularly are finding that their private accounts — burdened with hidden fees that may have soaked up as much as a third of their original investment — are failing to deliver as much in benefits as they would have received if they had stayed in the old system.

Dagoberto Sáez, for example, is a 66-year-old laboratory technician here who plans, because of a recent heart attack, to retire in March. He earns just under $950 a month; his pension fund has told him that his nearly 24 years of contributions will finance a 20-year annuity paying only $315 a month.

“Colleagues and friends with the same pay grade who stayed in the old system, people who work right alongside me,” he said, “are retiring with pensions of almost $700 a month — good until they die. I have a salary that allows me to live with dignity, and all of a sudden I am going to be plunged into poverty, all because I made the mistake of believing the promises they made to us back in 1981.”

Update (1/27/05): Atrios says: “So, people who stayed in the government pension scheme are doing twice as well as people who went into the private scheme, largely because brokers are taking a third or so in fees.” But this misses the point — even if those fees are absent, then Mr. Sáez receives a pension of approximately $450 a month, still way short of what he needs and way short of what people in the government plan get. The problem is that the private plan did not provide as much financial security as the government plan.

A Tale Of Two Agendas

Steve Soto at The Left Coaster:

While Bill Frist introduced an agenda today that called for making Bush’s tax cuts permanent, the Democrats called for fiscal accountability.

While Bill Frist’s president asked for another $80 billion for Iraq, catching his own party by surprise, he and his administration say that Medicaid and Medicare will have to be cut because there isn’t enough money. Yet the Democrats called for improving the health care system for all today. Have the Republicans done anything in recent months to fix the problems created by the corporate welfare Medicare drug bill and the coverage gaps it foists upon seniors? No, but the Democrats called for fixing that today.

The only concern Republicans showed today for the plight of the uninsured was to seek to take away the rights of patients to sue in state courts, and to push once again for health savings accounts that do nothing for those at the bottom of the income scale. Meanwhile, Democrats called for extending coverage to more children, mothers, and mothers-to-be.
…
Did the Republicans make education a major priority today with any detailed plans? No, but they will push for a constitutional ban on gay marriage.

Click the link, there’s a lot more.

Annoying Quiznos Commercials

Have you seen the new commercials for Quiznos? They feature a baby, talking like a 40 year old lounge-lizard, hitting on the adult female in the commercial, with a raspy (and very un-baby-like) voice. Even the face annoys me, its an adult face morphed onto a baby. I wonder what target demographics they are shooting for with this ad. I doubt I’ll step into Quiznos for a long time.

Here’s The Democrat’s Plan

Read the highlights of these planned bills that the Democrats in the Senate are going to introduce. Summary courtesy of manyoso at Daily Kos. Which ones are you for or against?

Senate Bill 11: Standing With Our Troops.

• Increase our military end strength by up to 40,000 by 2007.
• Create a Guard and Reserve Bill of Rights.
• Fight for the families of soldiers by providing income security and affordable health care.

Senate Bill 12: Targeting the Terrorists More Effectively.

• Increase our Special Operations forces by 2,000.
• Target the institutions that spawn new terrorists.
• Expand the pace and scope of programs to eliminate and safeguard nuclear materials.

Senate Bill 13: Fulfilling Our Duty to America’s Veterans.

• Expand the availability and accessibility of mental health care.
• Ensure that no veteran is forced to choose between a retirement and disability check.
• Commitment to the soldiers of today a 21st Century GI Bill.

Senate Bill 14: Expanding Economic Opportunity.

• Restore overtime protection to 6 million workers.
• Increase the minimum wage for 7.4 million workers.
• Eliminate tax incentives for companies that take jobs overseas.
• Create new jobs through an expansion of infrastructure programs to repair America’s backbone.
• Pursue a trade policy that protects American workers.

Senate Bill 15: Quality Education for All.

• Increase support for pre-school education.
• Fully fund No Child Left Behind and improve its implementation.
• Create tuition incentives for college students to major in math, science and special education.
• Providing relief from skyrocketing college tuition.
• Increasing the size and access to Pell Grants.

Senate Bill 16: Making Health Care More Affordable.

• Make prescription drugs more affordable through the legalization of prescription drug reimportation.
• Ensure drugs are monitored after they are approved for use.
• Ensure that all children and pregnant women will have health care.
• Offer tax credits to small businesses.

Senate Bill 17: Democracy Begins at Home.

• Reform the voting system in this country by creating Federal standards for our elections.
• Add verification, accountability and accuracy to the voting system.
• Increase access to the polls with Election Day registration, shorter lines and early voting.
• Modernize our election equipment while providing the resources to the states to implement the bill.

Senate Bill 18: Meeting Our Responsibility to Medicare Beneficiaries.

• Repeal the provision that prevents Medicare from negotiating better prices.
• Eliminate the slush fund for HMOs.
• Improve the prescription drug benefit by phasing out the current doughnut hole.
• Buy down the Part B premium so premium increases are not too steep.
• Ensure that no seniors are forced into HMOs.

Senate Bill 19: Fiscal Responsibility for a Sound Future.

• Restore the Senate pay-as-you-go rule.
• Reinstate sequestration to enforce pay-go and discretionary spending limits.
• Ensure that any legislation increasing deficits is subject to full scrutiny, debate, and consideration in the Senate.
• Prohibit the fast-tracking of Congressional budget resolutions that contain a reconciliation instruction that would worsen the deficit.

Senate Bill 20: Putting Prevention First.

• Increase access to family planning services.
• Improve contraceptive coverage by assuring equity in prescription drug insurance.
• Provide relief to Medicaid by decreasing the financial burden of pregnancy-related and newborn care.

Social Security for Dummies

Here is the explanation, in pictures anyone can understand. (Link via There Is No Crisis)


Update (1/24/05): You can also get a copy of Social Security for Dummies as a booklet, which you can print, fold and distribute.

Hilary Duff Visits Rochester

Apparently, I was not the only person who had a dilemma — venture out into the teeth of a major snowstorm to see the Hilary Duff concert, or stay home. I chose to stay home. Nevertheless to say, numerous parents with actual 10–13 year old female children, had this same dilemma, and I’m sure prompted by their young progeny, these parents did venture out into the snowstorm to the concert. Radio stations reported that many, many parents called them seeking to find out if the concert was cancelled.

One parent said of his children: “… I like seeing them excited. When they got up this morning, they were ready to go. I’m like, ‘Listen girls, you’ve still got eight hours to go.’” But the younger folks seemed to have an fun-filled, but expensive time:

“The girl can rock,” said 10-year-old Lexany Rivera of Rochester. She was with her pink-clad pals, the “almost sisters now” of Marisa Kruse and Rachael DeSantis, both 10 and from Webster, and sporting official $18 Duff T-shirts. Marisa also had a matching pink boa. Lexany didn’t have a Duff T-shirt. “I brought my Converses, though!” she said, pointing to her pink sneakers.

There was no word on Hilary’s performance or how big the crowd actually was, however the arena did sell out for the first time since last spring.

World’s First Dead Blogger

A new local blogger, from beyond the grave!

My name is Nathaniel Rochester and welcome to my blog, Toxic Rochester. As I write this, I’ve been dead for 173 years. As far as I know, I’m the world's first dead blogger. But my physical disposition aside, I’m feeling pretty good.

Being dead places some obvious limits on what I can do, so I’ve decided to take over the bodies of the living. I let my spirit float around the city and then I pick people (all volunteers of course) to take pictures and type for me. They then submit their pictures and text to nat@toxicrochester.com. From there, my staff of zombies then puts it online.

Mindless Fun

It’s Tammy, the Virtual Bartender, brought to you by Beer.com. Type a command and see what Tammy does. The command “pour beer” is the obvious one, but “pillow fight” works well, as does “airguitar” and “Coyote Ugly”. Figure out your own commands, or look up the complete list of commands for Tammy here.

Protect Social Security

Newsie8200 at Daily Kos has provided us with a concise list of what you can do about protecting Social Security, and the background, pertinent facts and links on this issue. Everything you ever wanted to know about this fake crisis, on one page!

A Mystery

APOD today talks about a mystery that has defied numerous attempts at finding a solution. It is the Voynich Manuscript, an ancient text that has no known title, no known author and is written in no known language. Modern historians and code-breakers have tried in vain to understand the text. An illustration from the book is shown below, which appears to be somewhat related to the sun. Read more here and here.

Paige’s “Hilary Duff Dilemma”

There’s a Hilary Duff concert right here in town tonight. What should I do tonight? What should I do?

Oh, I know the easy answer is to turn off the football game and go downtown, buy a ticket, and watch Hilary in person. It’s only $39.50 for the good seats or $29.50 for the nosebleed seats. And I should be a good Samaritan and round up all the 10–13 year old girls in the neighborhood and bring them along as well!

But then I think of what else I could be doing that costs a whole lot less:

• Line dancing at The Roost!
• Stay at home, read a good book, because the weather forecast is 6° (Fahrenheit, for all you non-USA readers) and 6–18 inches of snow.

You can see my dilemma. If ever there was time when I would like to be in three places at once, this is it. Your advice is welcomed.

Nikki, Psychic to the Stars

Over at J-Walk, we find a list of predictions for 2005 by Nikki, Psychic to the Stars. I hope your name is not on the list of 39 stars who will die in 2005!

But then J-Walk notes that Nikki’s 2003 and 2004 predictions seem to have about a 2% accuracy rate. Nice to see someone else is checking!

There Is No Crisis

We welcome a new blog to the blogroll, entitled There Is No Crisis (see their logo in the sidebar). They will cover the issue of Social Security, and point out the incorrect statements of those who try to convince people that Social Security is in crisis.

They link to a number of other analysts, including:

• Time Magazine says the “crisis is just not true”.
• The New York Times, which says Social Security is “not in crisis”.
• Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, writes that there is no crisis.
• Laura D’Andrea Tyson (Dean of London Business School) writes in Business Week to defuse the crisis rhetoric with facts.
• Eric Bates writes in Rolling Stone under the headline “The Fake Crisis”.

Allez Cuisine!

The highly anticipated debut of Iron Chef America last night certainly lived up to its billing. Iron Chef Bobby Flay (right) faced challenger Rick Bayless (left). This matchup pitted an expert in Southwestern cuisine (Flay), against Bayless, an expert in Mexican cuisine. The theme ingredient: buffalo meat. And the two chefs produced some eye-catching dishes. I wanted to try each one! But alas, I could not. The verdict was very close — one point separated the winner from the loser. I won’t tell you who won in case you want to watch the rerun Wednesday (1/19/05) at 11pm ET/PT on Food Network and Saturday (1/22/05) at 7pm ET/PT.

Bush vs. Young Americans

The Boston Globe points out that the Bush administration has adopted many policies that work against the welfare of young Americans.

But, in fact, this administration’s record reflects a deep disregard for the interests of young Americans.

Recently, new federal rules eliminated Pell Grants for nearly 90,000 students nationwide and cut financial aid for an additional 1.2 million students. This even as family incomes keep falling and school tuitions keep rising.

As for creating strong ties between generations, this administration has harnessed every American under the age of 30 to an enormous national debt — much of it accumulated in order to give tax breaks to the ultra-rich. And remember, young people are one of the largest and fastest-growing groups without health insurance. They will breathe dirtier air, inherit degraded public lands and national parks, and bear the burdens of our continued dependence on foreign oil — all thanks to policies advanced by this administration. And don’t forget the Iraq war, where thousands of young people are fighting and dying far from their families.

The Globe goes on to point out that all Americans will receive higher Social Security benefits if we do nothing to fix it than if we adopt private investment accounts.

Fox’s Sky Cam Gets In The Way

I recently complained about how useless the new Fox camera angles were. Yesterday, in the New York Jets–Pittsburgh Steelers playoff game, the Fox camera, suspended from wires so it can maneuver above the field, wound up getting in the way of actual playing action on three different plays. Since it provides no useful camera angles, and gets in the way, I have to say: Get rid of the stupid thing!

Liar on Social Security

The Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune calls President Bush a liar regarding social security.

Social security unfair to blacks? Liar!
Social security system in a crisis? Liar!
Social security going bankrupt? Liar!

Iron Chef America

The first battle of Iron Chef America airs tonight. I am anticipating it will be more exciting than the highly hyped New England Patriots vs. Indianapolis Colts game earlier today. In one of the commercials, Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto says he is going to make "Trout Flavored Ice Cream with Eyeball"? I can’t wait to see that.

More Images From Titan

From the European Space Agency:

A boundary between high, lighter-coloured terrain and and darker lowland area on Titan.

First Images From Titan

The first images from the Saturnian moon Titan, taken by the spacecraft Huygens, arrived at Earth earlier today. Huygens landed safely on Titan earlier today, marking the first moon in the solar system, other than Earth’s moon, to be explored by a space craft. The first images appear to be channels cut by a liquid — like river and streambeds running through hilly terrain.

Scientists burst into tears upon learning of the successful landing, and were at a loss for words. “I'm shocked. It’s remarkable,” said Carolyn Porco, of the Cassini Imaging Center. “There are river channels. There are channels cut by something … a fluid of some sort is my best guess.”

Some Interesting Links

From the always interesting Presurfer:

• The Official Guide to Rodent Farts — don’t click on the link! You have been warned!
• The Most Beautiful Periodic Table — definitely worth a look
• The Generator Blog — “It’s about software that creates software. Software to play around and have fun with. Things like ‘What’s Your Japanese Name Generator,’ or the ‘Dear Santa Letter Generator.’ … Stuff like that.”
• The Trainspotting Simulator — An online game!

Live-blogging the Space Probe Huygens

Darksyd is live-blogging the descent of the space probe Huygens into the atmosphere of the Saturnian moon Titan. As of 8:30am EST today, it would appear that Huygens is still transmitting data from the surface of Titan. In other words, it did not burn up in the atmosphere or crash and burn. Congratulations to NASA and the European Space Agency!

Psychic Da Juana’s Predictions for 2004 — A Review

Professional psychic Da Juana Byrd made many predictions for 2004. Here we reprint many of them, with some comments, although you should really go to the link and read the entire bunch for yourself. I was unable to find more than one that was correct. Was there a tsunami prediction? No, of course not!

• Terrorism will touch our land again. A fright before the end of April or May will make us wonder if we were hit again. Didn’t happen
  
• The Philadelphia Liberty Bell will be in the news this year. Didn’t happen
• Bees or products from bees will be talked about as an aid for an old disease. Didn’t happen
• Denver is the center of attention in the first five months. I must have missed that
• An invention will put Canada more on the map than they are now. Didn’t happen
• On the southeast side of Australia, fires or water will make citizens worry. This did happen, as it does almost every year
• Chili will be in the news this year. People there will make a difference and they certainly know how to pick up the pieces and start over again. Smoke and sludge will cause problems. Do you mean the town of Chili, NY, or the country of Chile, Da Juana? But either way, this didn’t happen
• A new killer much like the son-of-Sam or something about the original will be back in the news. Didn’t happen (side note: would some kind English teacher teach Da Juana how to write a coherent sentence?)
• Antarctica — A new cure will be initiated here. Didn’t happen
• Hockey looks to a white and possibly a green team vying for the Stanley Cup. What? No NHL lockout prediction? While every team wears white jerseys for home games, none consider white to be a team color. For the record, the 2004 Stanley Cup was played between Tampa Bay (jersey color: blueish gray) and Calgary (jersey color: red)

Well done, Da Juana!

Paige’s Psychic Predictions for 2004 — A Review

Here at Paige’s Page, we jumped into the fray and on January 2, 2004, we issued our psychic predictions for the year. A year later, we come back and examine how well we did. Here they are, with comments:

1. Hanuka will again be celebrated before Christmas Correct!
2. Space aliens will not land in either Buckingham Palace, nor at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City Correct!
3. A highly respected football coach will have a poor seaon, losing more than half of his games Can you say Bill Parcells?
4. Microsoft will be sued at least sixteen times!
5. The presidential election of 2004 will not have to be decided by a Supreme Court ruling Correct!
6. Hilary Duff’s popularity increases This is what dreams are made of!
7. Eastman Kodak continues to see declines in film sales due to digital photography Correct!
8. More low-carb diet books get published Pass the bacon!
9. Blogging continues to gain popularity Correct!
10. The Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan makes an important speech at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA I’m still researching this one

It would appear that I have gotten 9 out of 10 correct, with the 10th up in the air. Now I’m sure some of you skeptics will point out that I did not predict the recent tsunami in Asia. And the only thing I can say in reply is: show me one psychic who did predict this, please. After all, it is a well known fact that the larger an event is the harder it is for us psychics to predict it. This after all is simply Paige’s Rule of Psychic Predictions 1.8a: a psychic’s ability to predict an event is inversely proportional to the number of people affected by the event.

I will be releasing my predictions for 2005 shortly.

May We Have More Science, Please?

The latest Tangled Bank has been published, with links to 30 new blog posts dealing with scientific subjects.

Do I Feel Safer Now?

From No More Mister Nice Blog, we learn that despite three confirmed cases of Mad Cow Disease in Canadian cows, the US Department of Agriculture has re-opened the importation of Canadian cows. Steve M complains: “Note that infected Canadian cows have actually been found. Note that unsafe drugs imported from Canada haven’t been found. Gee, which category of imports is being banned?”

How Safe Are Herbal Supplements?

From ABC News:

In many cases, (Dr. Tod) Cooperman’s group has found that some name-brand supplements contain only a fraction of the ingredient on their labels — if any at all.

“Some have none, some have 80 percent, some have 20 percent,” Cooperman said.

Another problem with supplements involves contamination. In two separate cases last month, pesticide residue was found in a batch of ginseng at a distributor in New Jersey, and toxic heavy metals like mercury, lead and arsenic were discovered in herbal supplements on sale in stores in the Boston area.

And how about this:

The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, signed into law in 1994, determined that supplements should be regulated not like drugs, but like foods. By making this determination, according to today’s IOM report, supplement manufacturers were exempt under DSHEA from conducting any safety or efficacy testing.

To many industry critics, the net effect of DSHEA has been to limit the FDA’s role to a reactive, post-market role. Only after the FDA determines that a substance, when used as recommended, presents a risk to consumers can the agency remove it from the market.

And because manufacturers are not required to report adverse effects from a substance, the burden for proving that a substance is harmful falls to the FDA.

Or this:

“As I see it, the main effect of the DSHEA has been to allow supplement companies to run rampant and make claims that are not substantiated,” said Dr. Kevin Scott Ferentz, residency director in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore.

“They sell products that do not contain what they are supposed to. They do not have efficacy data, safety data, quality control data, or anything that any pharmaceutical product in American must have,” he said. “There are few, if any, supplements that have a data base that is sufficient to recommend their use.”
...
And Ferentz notes that no dietary supplement should be considered a panacea. “People want to think there is a magic pill out there for everything,” he said. “They assume that because something is a ‘natural supplement’ that it has to be safe and effective. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

We Don’t Need No Homeland Security

It’s bad enough that President Bush’s inauguration will cost the taxpayers an estimated $44 million dollars. Certainly that money could be used for better purposes, such as law enforcement, education, or even homeland security. Mind you, I have no problem with President Bush, or any other president, having a set of lavish inauguration parties, as long as the taxpayers don’t get stuck with the bill. Have those rich Republican party supporters pay for it.

But now, we find out (via Steve Soto at The Left Coaster) that the cost of security at the inauguration parties will be paid for by the District of Columbia. And since the security costs amount to $17.3 million, and the District has $5.4 million available for security, that leaves $11.9 million unaccounted for. Where will that extra $11.9 million come from? It comes from money that the District had allocated to Homeland Security projects.

According to The Washington Post:

D.C. officials said yesterday that the Bush administration is refusing to reimburse the District for most of the costs associated with next week’s inauguration, breaking with precedent and forcing the city to divert $11.9 million from homeland security projects.

Federal officials have told the District that it should cover the expenses by using some of the $240 million in federal homeland security grants it has received in the past three years — money awarded to the city because it is among the places at highest risk of a terrorist attack.

Those homeland security funds would have been used for increasing hospital capacity, equipping firefighters with protective gear and building transit system command centers, all useful security improvements for a city that is among the places at highest risk of a terrorist attack. I guess the Bush Administration really doesn’t think we need those security improvements — having a lavish inauguration is more important.

Best place to shop, best place to work

Wegmans ranks number 1 on FORTUNE Magazine's List of 100 Best Companies to Work For, making the eighth straight year on the list. As astonishing as that may be, Wegmans also is considered one of the best supermarkets in the country for customers. Here in the Rochester, NY area, they have trounced competition, and I rarely shop elsewhere. When Wegmans opened their first store in the Washington, DC area, pandemonium ensued!

Congratulations, Wegmans!

Call in sick — please

Presenteeism, the opposite of absenteeism, has been a common occurence in the workforce for many years. A sick worker is so devoted to his/her job, that he/she comes in to work, running the risk of infecting others, and causing even worse workforce problems.

While presenteeism has been the norm for many years, this year employers are thinking twice about it, particularly with a workforce that has not been vaccinated against flu shots. According to this article in The Los Angeles Times, “… when sick workers come to work, it’s no bargain for employers. Presenteeism (the opposite of absenteeism) costs companies as much as $150 billion in lost productivity, higher healthcare expenses and cascading absences due to contagion, according to a recent report in the Harvard Business Review.”

Now if only my company would realize that. The Times article captures my company’s policy exactly: “… 91% of large employers surveyed recently said they sought to control absenteeism by penalizing workers who overuse their sick days — either by docking their pay or by entering a negative report in their personnel files.”

100 Year Old Male Tortoise “Adopts” 1 Year Old Hippo

Here is a tsunami story that leaves you feeling happy.

A baby hippo at the Mombasa (Kenya) Zoo lost his mother in the tsunami. The young hippo was swept away by the water and then left on a beach before being rescued by wildlife rangers. However, the baby then “bonded” with his new surrogate mother, a male tortoise believed to be 100 years old.

“It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a ‘mother’,” ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park.

“After it was swept and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatised. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother. Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond. They swim, eat and sleep together,” the ecologist added.

“The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it follows its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother,” Kahumbu added.

Wasted Camera Angles

In the World Series, we were treated to a ridiculous camera angle from in the dirt in front of home plate — wonderful, if you really wanted to view the batter’s nostrils, but useless if you wanted to enjoy and understand the baseball game — things like whether or not the pitch was high or low, or inside or outside were obscured from this angle, but the batter’s nostrils were plainly visible.

In football, we are now treated to the “behind-the-quarterback” shots, another useless camera angle that does nothing to help the viewer appreciate the game. I have seen, from this useless camera angle, a quarterback drop back and throw a long pass, caught for a touchdown, by a player who was one-eighth of an inch tall going away from the camera. Did I appreciate the play more from this camera angle? No, of course not, because the ability of the receiver to keep his feet inbounds as he made the catch was lost in this camera angle. You could barely see the receiver, much less where his feet were.

Viewing a play from “behind the quarterback” also prevents the viewer from accurately gauging the number of yards gained. You no longer can see the runner passing yard markers, you can only see the number on his back getting slightly smaller. Yet the number of yards gained is the most crucial piece of information football fans want to know on each play. All else is secondary. But we now have a camera angle that emphasizes the secondary information, while ignoring the primary information.

Today, we are treated to a glowing article from The New York Times, extolling the technological virtues of such a system. Sadly, there is not a dissenting word in the article, only meaningless compliments from someone who obviously doesn’t understand that the tried-and-true camera angles are best because they have been proven, over the decades, to be the best camera angles. "What you see visually in sports coverage is a constant attempt to get more intimate, to bring the viewer closer to the action," said Ed Goren, president and executive producer of Fox Sports. You know, Ed, I don’t want intimacy when I watch football, I want to have the best possible view of what is happening, and those tried-and-true sideline angle shots usually bring that to me. I don’t care if it is technologically advanced, give me information instead of glitz.

Evolution Update

Teachers in Dover, PA, have refused to read an anti-evolution/pro-Intelligent Design statement mandated by the school board. The teachers’ letter says, in part (caps in original):

INTELLIGENT DESIGN IS NOT SCIENCE. INTELLIGENT DESIGN IS NOT BIOLOGY. INTELLIGENT DESIGN IS NOT AN ACCEPTED SCIENTIFIC THEORY.

Over 200 Wisconsin pastors have written a letter opposing the teaching of creationism/Intelligent Design in Grantsburg, Wisconsin.

After Albuquerque, NM television station KNME cancelled the airing of a pro-Intelligent Design video, howls of censorship arose from certain quarters. But next, KNME offered to air a television show in which pro-evolution and pro-Intelligent Design parties would discuss the issue. Guess which side refused to participate? The Intelligent Designers refused. Seems they only want their side of the story presented (as in the video that KNME refused to show), they don’t really want both sides of the issue presented, despite their often-heard battle cry “teach the controversy”.

Ad Space on Kournikova’s Bikini Worth More Than Super Bowl Spot

There’s always a premium on well placed, well viewed media and, today, Anna Kournikova’s bikini is no exception. What will they think of next?

Chiropractic? Show Me The Evidence!

Radagast has a detailed discussion of chiropractic and why there are no public Universities in the United States that have schools of chiropractic. (Link via Pharyngula)

Just like the absence of data to support the efficacy of commercial diet programs that we reported on a few days ago, there seems to be no data that proves Chiropractic is as effective as conventional medical treatments. And furthermore, there is some evidence, but not scientifically collected evidence, that chiropractic is actually dangerous, leaving some patients worse off than before their chiropractic treatment.

Commercial diet plans? Chiropractic? Show me the evidence that it works!

Do Commercial Diets Work?

According to this article in The New York Times, there is no evidence that commercial diets actually result in a loss of weight. “Almost no rigorous studies of the programs have been carried out, the researchers report. And federal officials say that companies are often unwilling to conduct such studies, arguing that they are in the business of treatment, not research.” Some scientists tried to persuade the diet industry to perform controlled studies that showed the effectiveness of their diet, but the industry refused. “I don’t understand how you can have a product you never evaluate for effectiveness,” said Lynn McAfee, the director of medical advocacy for the Council on Size and Weight Discrimination. “It was a slap in the face to all people of size.”

Mega-Tsunami

A scientist claims that if Cumbre Vieja volcano in the Canary Islands erupts, it could trigger a mega-tsunami that would devastate the east coast of the United States as well as the west coast of Europe and Africa. Such an explosion would cause a rock twice the size of the Isle of Wight to crash into the Atlantic Ocean and the wall of water crashing against the east coast of the United States would be 55 yards high. (Side note to the writer: next time, could you use a measure that we can comprehend, such as “a rock 4 miles wide” or whatever, instead of a measure that we don’t have a clue about “twice the size of the Isle of Wight”? Thanks!)

But, here’s the good news! Other scientists dispute this! One scientist says that an eruption at Cumbre Vieja would cause a one meter tsunami wave, which would cause almost no damage.

Compassion Deficit

Digby at Hullabaloo:

This is very telling. Throughout the last week, everybody from schoolkids to major newspapers have been collecting money for the victims of the tsunami or at least publicizing where people should send it.

Except for one group. The Christian Right. This article by Bill Berkowitz from December 30th showed that none of the major Christian Right groups such as Focus on the Family or the Christian Coalition had mentioned anything on their web sites. I just checked all the links and as of January 3rd, 8:25 PST there is still nothing.

Americablog has more.

Hangover Update

I survived the latest post-New Year’s Eve hangover. In fact, it was a relatively mild hangover, so I guess I wasn’t partying enough. I was out dancing past 1 am, and I think I had three gin-and-tonics plus two shooters.

But the most interesting part of the evening for me was that I saw a girl named Beth, whom I hadn’t seen in months. Beth had just gotten married and her and her new husband had saved their Christmas bonus just so they could go out and party on New Year’s eve. They couldn’t afford it otherwise. Two working adults, and one child, and they were so poor that they were barely scraping by. I felt terribly sad for them, and I worry about their future.

Beth also wound up given me unexpected compliments (in front of her new husband and her parents), that she loved dancing with me and that she missed seeing me because she hardly ever went out any more. I guess you never realize when you make a good impression.