Swine flu: vaccine ‘did not trigger potentially deadly neurological condition’ – Telegraph.co.uk

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Globe and Mail
Swine flu: vaccine 'did not trigger potentially deadly neurological condition'
Telegraph.co.uk
... seasonal flu strain and the safety record for these vaccines is excellent," said Dr Nizar Souayah, from New Jersey Medical School, who led the study. ...
Fears that H1N1 vaccination drive would be '76 swine flu all over again allayedThe Canadian Press
Guillain-Barre Syndrome Very Rare After H1N1 VaccineBusinessWeek
Guillain-Barre rate low post-H1N1 vaccineUPI.com
Globe and Mail -CBC.ca -CTV.ca
all 48 news articles »

Hubble is a cyclops | Cosmic Variance

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A few days ago the following headline on the New York Times website caught my eye: Seeing What the Hubble Sees, in Imax and 3-D. There are two reasons this headline is worthy of note. First, it is amazing that an IMAX movie about the Hubble Space Telescope exists at all, and is worth mentioning on the front (web)page of the NYT. NASA-Apollo8-Dec24-EarthriseHubble is a part of the popular imagination, and may be the object most closely tied with Science in the eyes of the general public (even more than the LHC). Furthermore, it is absolutely astounding that NASA launched hundreds of kilos of camera equipment and film into orbit, and spent valuable astronaut time (both on the ground and in space) to pull off the filming. I would claim one of the lasting legacies of the Apollo missions to the Moon are the photographs, and in particular Earthrise. That single photograph of our home as a small blue marble against the vastness of space put our planet into proper perspective for the very first time. NASA is well aware that part of its mission is to light up the public imagination, getting us to peer past our limited horizons, and out into the vast Universe beyond. This film is part of that tradition.

The second interesting aspect of the headline is that it’s nonsensical. Hubble has only one eye. It has one mirror. It can’t perceive depth, and therefore can’t see in 3-D. We see slightly different images in each of our eyes, and then a fairly impressive difference engine (called a “brain”) figures out the depth to everything we are looking at, and whether that rock is about to bonk us on the head and we need to duck NOW! 3D movies (such as Alice and Avatar) use circularly polarized light, and glasses with different filters in each lens, to produce the different images for each eye. (The light is circularly polarized so that, if you tilt your head, it all still works; the old linear polarization approach didn’t do this, and had a tendency to make one feel motion sick [at least, it did for me]).

In general astronomical sources are too far away for us to discern distance using parallax. That’s why the night sky looks “flat”, even though the planets and stars and galaxies are at a tremendous range of distances. If you wanted to be able to directly “see” the distance to the nearest star, in the same way that you ascertain the distance to an approaching lion, your eyes would need to be separated by roughly 10 billion km. (Eye separation = Distance*Angle. The human eye has an angular resolution of roughly 1 arcmin = 0.0003 radians, and the nearest star [Proxima Centauri] is 4 lightyears = 3.8e13 km.) The way we figure out distance in Hubble images is by using color information (and, in particular, the spectra) to discern recession velocity (redshift), and thereby distance (using Hubble’s law). This is not something we do with our eyes (although we do use color information to discern temperature; you’re unlikely to grab something that is so hot it’s glowing blue). Hubble sees a purely two-dimensional Universe. So “seeing what the Hubble sees …in 3-D” is a contradiction in terms. Was the headline carefully crafted to see if we were paying close attention?


Protests at SRLC – New Orleans: Anarchists rally for Socialist Health Care

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More Socialist Health Care: Less Freedom!

Hat tip Inside Louisiana News who shot this video. Interviews with young Anarchists outside the Southern Republican Leadership Conference held in New Orleans over the weekend.

Developing...

Reports of a young Republican couple, boyfriend and girlfriend, attacked in front of Brennan's Tavern near the French Quarter. Sources indicate the girlfriend, who is a top aide to Republican Governor Bobby Jindal has been seriously injured.

Study Shows Some Anti-Seizure Meds Raise Suicide Risk – BusinessWeek

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The Money Times
Study Shows Some Anti-Seizure Meds Raise Suicide Risk
BusinessWeek
... to remain aware of," said study author Dr. Elisabetta Patorno, a research fellow at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. ...
Popular anticonvulsant drugs raise suicide risksReuters
Anticonvulsant drugs increase suicide risk--studyThe Money Times
Drugs that treat epilepsy, depression linked to suicideCNN
Daily News & Analysis
all 41 news articles »

Using and Adding Your Content to Google Ocean by Charlotte Vick, Google Content Manager of Mission Blue

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Date: 
Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Using and Adding Your Content to Google Ocean by Charlotte Vick, Google Content Manager of Mission Blue (April 27, 2-3:30 pm US EDT/11 am-12:30 pm PDT).  The webinar will provide a non-technical general overview of the ocean layer of Google Earth 5.0 “Google Ocean” and its current content and will also provide information on how to add your own content (text, images, video, etc.) to the site. We would like this webinar to get attendees using Google Ocean as much as possible, so we strongly encourage all participants to have Google Earth 5.0 downloaded and running on their computer prior to the webinar and to register as early as possible.  Once you have registered for the webinar, you will be registered for access to The Deepness.org website (a portal for uploading content to Google Ocean).  If you are interested in adding content to the site, please try to log in to The Deepness site before the webinar.  Learn more about Google Ocean at http://earth.google.com/ocean.  Register for this webinar at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/914642472.  Please note, this webinar will be 1.5 hrs in length to allow ample time for questions from participants.

Virginia Company Develops Automated TB Detection System

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The power of computer algorithms to help assist or automate traditional laboratory methods is one of the major value propositions for digital pathology.  Microscopic techniques for the diagnosis of TB are often tedious and made more tedious by the fact that such cases are often "rare" events, meaning not only is the incidence low (depending on the community and hospital population) but the actual number of organisms that may be present is often very low.  For the average community hospital in the US, microscopic diagnosis for TB in body fluids or tissues involves special stains that must be reviewed at high power while "looking for a needle in a haystack". 

While some are concerned that computer algorithms may replace traditional diagnostic skills performed by pathologists, these I think are just the types of technologies that will help perform some very time consuming, tedious, poorly reimbursed laboratory tests in a manner that is cost-effective, faster and more accurate.  Who can argue with that?

It should be noted that some molecular techniques have shortened the time to diagnose and classify mycobacterial infections but may not be available beyond more conventional slide-based techniques from tissue or body fluids.

If the results from the below press release (see link) hold up, I think this is an important milestone for pathology and laboratory medicine in the digital era.

Donald G. McNeil, Jr. writes in the New York Times (4/13, D6) Global Update column, "One of the difficulties of diagnosing tuberculosis is that there is no simple blood or urine test. Instead, a laboratory technician must take a sample of sputum coughed up from the lungs, stain it and inspect it under a microscope for the telltale bacteria, which resemble long-grain rice." This "takes expertise that is often rare in poor countries." That is why "Guardian Technologies, a Virginia company that was started to help airport X-ray scanners distinguish explosives in luggage from innocuous plastics and liquids, has developed a system that automatically scans microscope slides for the bacillus." Notably, the "company's software algorithms can spot distinctive shapes, colors and densities that untrained eyes may miss."

Guardian's Signature Mapping

Another Muslim Man in US caught lying about his Birth Certificate; his US College admission fully-funded by the American taxpayer

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From Eric Dondero:

A growing number of Muslim students are attending colleges in the US. Many of them are receiving government scholarships, taxpayer subsidized loans and even direct student aid paid for by American taxpayers.

Are some of these funds helping to fund Islamic Terrorism?

As Fox finds in an investigative report, noted Terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki was taxpayer subsidized.

Fox News reports that suspected Muslim Terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki lied to university officials in Colorado to gain a taxpayer-funded scholarship.

A former diplomatic security agent who was tasked with investigating Awlaki immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks told Fox News that the Yemeni-American national apparently lied on his visa application to attend Colorado State University, where he studied engineering. Rather than tell U.S. immigration officials that he was born in Las Cruces, N.M., in 1971, Awlaki stated that the was foreign born, the security agent, Ray Fournier, said.

Awlaki received $20,000 in scholarship money from a U.S. government program for his schooling in Fort Collins, Colo. When asked if Awlaki was eligible, Fournier said, “No, he is absolutely forbidden to have it.”

"That's the taxpayers' money," Fournier added, saying Awlaki knew that lying about his birthplace would help him get the scholarship money.

Al-Awlaki is connected to at least two recent terrorist acts in the US "the Fort Hood attack and the attempted Christmas Day jet bombing" (Nadal Malik Hasan and Abdulmutallab).

Robbie Cooper of the acclaimed Urban Grounds blog out of Austin, opines:

There are lot (too many to list or name) of American citizens who need and deserve to be shot dead. On the spot, where they stand, immediately.

Radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki is just one of them...

After watching Obama limp-wrist another opening day pitch, I was beginning to wonder if this guy had a y-chromosome at all, much less a valid birth certificate or college transcripts [to get this job done].

Editor's Note - I had the pleasure of meeting Robbie Cooper at the Rick Perry-sponsored Right Bloggers event in Austin back in January.

Tea Party Express to announce Targets for Defeat

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Here it comes...

The Tea Party Express (website: http://www.TeaPartyExpress.org) will conduct a news conference with accredited members of the press corps on Thursday, April 15, 2010 - 9:00 AM at the National Press Club.

At Thursday's news conference the Tea Party Express will unveil our 2010 Election Targets for House & Senate races across the country - announcing candidates we are endorsing and those we will be opposing.

The Tea Party Express has led all other tea party organizations in fundraising and expenditure of funds both supporting and opposing candidates.

Boortz: Voting Libertarian Party in local elections makes sense, for Congress, Nope!

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From Eric Dondero:

There's been a growing controversy this past week over Libertarian radio talk show host Neal Boortz and his longtime relationship with the Libertarian Party. Boortz was a keynote speaker for an LP National Convention in the late 1990s. He often boasts of a longtime membership and friendship with the Georgia LP. But a Texas Libertarian sent out a press release the other day, saying that he had been "booted" from the upcomming LP National Convention for St. Louis in May. It was titled "Libertarian Party Boots Boortz."

Boortz strongly disputes this claim on his website, "Not that I care..."

From Boortz:

Sorry Mr. Butler, but you have this a bit wrong. Last week I instructed Belinda (photo) to inform the Libertarian Party that I would be unable to keep this speaking engagement for personal reasons." According to Butler The Libertarian Party "removed me" from the schedule because of comments I made regarding voting for a 3rd party this November.

Whatever, Mr. Butler. If you want to say that I was "booted" from the schedule, have at it. It's your credibility that suffers, not mine.

He then goes on to explain his view in detail, that local LPers running is just fine. But he's concerned about upper level races such as Congress.

Continuing from NealsNuze:

By the way .... I have an email from a top-ranking official in the Libertarian Party who, after listening to my comments regarding voting for a 3rd party in November, is going to resign his position. Why? Because he felt that what I said made sense. We cannot afford a 3rd party effort this year if it is going to leave one single Democrat in office who otherwise might have been removed. I still plan to vote Libertarian in local elections .. but I simply cannot afford the luxury when it comes to the Congress.

Editor's Comment - I disagree slightly with Neal on this. There are tons of Libertarian Party members who wouldn't come out to the polls otherwise. They'd simply choose to stay home. Having a Libertarian Party candidate on the ballot motivates them to vote. And given Libertarian's general tendency to vote Republican as a second choice, this could help GOP candidates in races where no Libertarian is listed.