At Long Last Its Purpose Is Known

Finally, at long last, we know the answer to one of life's greatest mysteries. Yes, they finally figured out the purpose of the appendix. That superfluous little intestinal cul-de-sac was not there to help us digest rancid meat, as I was told years ago. It's sort of a bacterial backup system. When infection or disease would wipe out the good bacteria in our intestines, the appendix would remain a safe bacterial haven ready to repopulate the intestines when necessary. When the human population was much smaller and spread out, it could take too long to get your bacteria back up to speed without the appendix. Now that people are everywhere, so are the needed bacteria, making the appendix unnecessary. Wild. Maybe they'll figure out the tonsils next.

The Kindness of Sesame Street

Regardless of my opinion regarding the war in Iraq, I can't help but be awed by the kindness and class of the Sesame Workshop (the nonprofit organization that produces Sesame Street). In a follow up of a DVD last year aimed at helping military families discuss the strain of deployments, they are creating a DVD covering the issues that face families of injured soldiers returning from the war in gentle terms kids can understand. In one instance an injured puppet in a wheelchair tells his puppet daughter that even though his body has changed, his love for her has not. The DVD aims to give these families the tools and vocabulary that can help them get through the tough times without giving the kids too many details too scare them. In a world that seems at time totally mad it's reassuring to know there are people governed by what is kind and right.

Hate Mail For The Blind

Why would the National Federation of the Blind be getting hate mail from environmentalists? One of them even said they hoped the blind would be the first to drown after the seas rise from global warming. You have to be a special brand of mean spirited to send hate mail to the blind. This seems nutty but it's true. The blind have a beef with hybrid cars. They're down with the whole green movement; they would just like to be able to hear a car coming at them. It turns out that at lower speeds even the super sensitive hearing of the blind can't hear them drive by. For people used to relying on their sense of hearing to protect them, the prospect of silent multi-ton vehicles gliding down the road would be pretty freaky. I wonder if this problem could be solved by attaching deer whistlers to the front of hybrids.

Evil Blackwater

At what point will Blackwater just admit to being evil? Last month's bloodbath and other civilian killings aside, last Christmas Eve one of Blackwater's employees got drunk and shot to death a body guard who was protecting the Iraqi Vice President. Blackwater removed the shooter from Iraq within 36 hours with the approval of the State Department. Other than being fired, no other action was taken against the inebriated killer. To keep things quiet and out of the press, the State Department recommended Blackwater pay the victim's family $250,000 but Blackwater felt that sum was "too large" so they offered to pay $15,000. The State Department agreed. The age of the mercenary has returned.

McCain Loses His Spine

Well, I used to like McCain. But, alas, it turns out that instead of the outspoken politician not afraid to speak his mind that he used to be, has turned into the mouth piece of religious right. He stated today that our Constitution makes us a Christian nation. The only part of the Constitution that mentions religion is to exclude it from the government. McCain knows that, but because a poll indicated that a slim majority of Americans feel this is a Christian nation, he folded. Gone is the brave politician who stood for what he believed in. What's left is an empty mouth piece.

Gingrich Isn't Running...Can't Say I'm Shocked

Gingrich announced today that he isn't running for president. Did this surprise anyone? He could probably beat Carl Rove in a popularity test, but it would be close. For all of his claims about being a new kind of Republican, on a whole he still creeps most Americans out a little.

Brain-Eating Bacteria Loves Global Warming

As if there weren't enough things to worry about that could happen with climate change. It turns out that a rare brain-eating amoeba called naegleria thrives in warm fresh water. The amoeba enters through the nose and basically eats your brain. Death comes creeping in about two weeks later. The most common symptom is a persistence headache. Once infected, there is little chance of survival. Although extremely rare, there was a spike this year and six people lost their lives in the US this summer. The CDC warns that there could be an upswing in cases in the coming decades. Warmer temperatures equal more brain-eating amoebas. Ah global warning, is there nothing too terrifyingly weird it can't do?

Coach Greg Ryan Sucks

This morning I watched Brazil steamroll the US Women's team 4-0 making a 3rd place standing our best possible outcome in this World Cup. There seemed be quite a few stupid choices made. I was livid watching the game and was left with a few scorching questions. Like, why? Why did Ryan start Scurry instead of Solo? Scurry is a great athlete and has had an impressive career, but Solo had played goal in all the World Cup matches this time around. She had performed magnificently. Things were going great. We were in the semifinals. Solo had earned her place out on that field. So why switch it up? Why try to fix what isn't broken? And then the weird substitutions that were heavy on defense while taking all power out of offense. The Brazilians had already scored; a heavier defense was not going to make those goals disappear. An offense is needed to score. Coach Ryan seemed to do everything he could to guarantee defeat.

FDA Drops The Ball For Forty Years

Something I read today was difficult to believe. When a new drug is submitted to the FDA they assign it a 10-digit number to keep track of it as it goes through the testing process. For reasons only know to the FDA, they do not assign the drugs a different type of designation if/when the drug is approved. This means that as soon as a drug company submits a new drug, they have the code that will be used by pharmacies to order the drug. Whether the FDA had conducted a single test on the drug, pharmacies can order it. To the pharmacy and the physician, nothing out of the ordinary seems to occur, unapproved drugs have the same coding as unapproved drugs. Apparently this has been a know loophole for the last four decades. To draw attention to healthcare providers, all the FDA had to do was change their coding system. Maybe that would be a pain in the ass, but they had quite some time to sort it out. Now the FDA refuses to make public the list of unapproved drugs that have received a number, so we as regular individuals don't have a way to check if the drugs we are prescribed have actually been tested. It's estimated that 2% of prescriptions written are for unapproved drugs. That means that one out of every fifty is unapproved and untested. A recent arrestee who had marketed unapproved drugs was shocked by his arrest stating that the FDA had turned a blind eye to the loophole for so long, it was pretty much SOP. I already have lots of reasons to mistrust the FDA, I suppose I'll have to add wild incompetence to the list.

Ahmadinejad the Homophobe

Although I thoroughly enjoyed the verbal bitch slap Columbia University president, Lee Bollinger, delivered to Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today in lieu of an introduction, I was pretty creeped out by Ahmadinejad's speech and his responses to the questions afterwards. His speech and responses were very clearly planned, for every attack of his past behavior and statements he had ready spin. Instead of admitting to being a Holocaust denier, he claimed to be a scholar who just wanted to review the facts a little more. When asked about the ill treatment of women in his country, he claimed they were treasured. He professed a love of democracy and free speech. He danced around most of the questions and wouldn't provide straight answers. To the uninformed, he did not seem like a psychopath. I was starting to get worried he wouldn't make an obvious ass of himself. But then, oh joy, although he had to be asked twice, he finally responded to a question about his execution of homosexuals. It seemed to be one question he wasn't prepared for. He seemed a little set back and stated that homosexuality wasn't a phenomenon that occurred in Iran. He laughed a little uncomfortably and asked, "Who told you it did?" The audience erupted into laughter. In one fail swoop he went from the president of a country to something as common and pathetic as a homophobe. Tee Hee.