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Galentine's Day Is A Thing But Valendude's Day Is Not - Why?

Galentine's Day Is A Thing But Valendude's Day Is Not - Why?

Feb 13 2020 | comment(s)

Today, women will celebrate Galentine’s Day, a holiday trumpeting the joys of female friendships.

The holiday can trace its origins to a 2010 episode of “Parks and Rec,” in which the main character, Leslie Knope, decides that the day before Valentine’s Day should be an opportunity to celebrate the platonic love among women, ideally with booze and breakfast food.

In the years since the episode aired, the fictional holiday has caught on in the real world.

The Republican Counterpart To The Democrats Green New Deal Won't Get Press But It May Be More Realistic

The Republican Counterpart To The Democrats Green New Deal Won't Get Press But It May Be More Realistic

Feb 12 2020 | comment(s)

When it comes to the political divide in America, the key difference in science is that academia has mostly Democrats while private sector scientists are mostly Republicans. There are big tents in a two-party system so a liberal New York cop will have nothing in common with a San Francisco progressive but they will both vote Democrat and this big tent philosophy covers science as well. Republicans are considered deniers of climate change and evolution while Democrats deny vaccines and agriculture, and the rest of the tent has to endure them.
EWG Claims Again That Food Is Unsafe - The Science And Health Community Disagrees

EWG Claims Again That Food Is Unsafe - The Science And Health Community Disagrees

Feb 12 2020 | comment(s)

Environmental Working Group, a litigation group devoted to food and chemical issues, is most famous for publishing its annual "Dirty Dozen" list to promote publicly available pesticide residues on food. While neglecting to mention that their organic industry clients are not tested separately.
Gay, Bisexual Men Get More Skin Cancer

Gay, Bisexual Men Get More Skin Cancer

Feb 12 2020 | comment(s)

Results from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), using data collected from annual questionnaires from 2014 to 2018, finds that rates of skin cancer were higher among gay and bisexual men compared to heterosexual men but lower among bisexual women than heterosexual women. 
Alvin Tollestrup, Father Of The Tevatron, Dies

Alvin Tollestrup, Father Of The Tevatron, Dies

Feb 12 2020 | comment(s)

The Tevatron collider, the giant marvel accelerator built at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in the eighties and operated there for over thirty years, until its demise in 2012, lost one of its fathers the other day, as Alvin Tollestrup passed away.

Tollestrup was maybe the key contributor to the project of putting together a 1-TeV particle accelerator, solving many issues for the construction of its superconducting magnets. But he also was for a long time the spokesperson of the CDF experiment, and the driving force behind the collective effort that led CDF to see a first evidence of the top quark in 1994, and then claim discovery for the long sought sixth quark in 1995.

Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis: 60-Million-Year-Old Tumor In A Dinosaur Tail

Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis: 60-Million-Year-Old Tumor In A Dinosaur Tail

Feb 11 2020 | comment(s)

Beliefs that tumors are caused by the modern world's food and chemicals have suffered a setback. A 60-million-year setback.

The fossilized tail of a young dinosaur from in southern Alberta, Canada had the benign tumor as part of the pathology of LCH (Langerhans cell histiocytosis), a rare and sometimes painful disease that still afflicts humans, particularly kids.
NRDC Gets NY Victory Over EPA On EPA Efforts To Limit Panel Bias

NRDC Gets NY Victory Over EPA On EPA Efforts To Limit Panel Bias

Feb 11 2020 | comment(s)

If EPA is conducting an approval review of a pesticide a company wants to market in the U.S., would EPA put scientists paid by the company behind it on the approval panel?

No, but EPA routinely had people who are receiving grants from EPA to conduct studies - including epidemiology claims - on panels that then recommend political action.  But then they stopped, which sent environmental groups who had exploited the system into a rage.
2020 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards Announced

2020 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards Announced

Feb 11 2020 | comment(s)

Since 1998, L’Oréal Foundation and UNESCO have held the For Women in Science Awards, which honor five exceptional female scientists from different regions of the world. Each of the five laureates will receive €100,000 at a Ceremony on 12th March 2020 at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.

This year, the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards recognize the achievement of women scientists in the field of life sciences: biotechnology, ecology, epigenetics, epidemiology and infectiology.



The 2020 For Women in Science laureates are:

Africa and the Arab States
For Valentine's Day, Generation Z Wants Casual Hookups

For Valentine's Day, Generation Z Wants Casual Hookups

Feb 11 2020 | comment(s)

As we lick our Valentine card envelopes and slip into something more comfortable, it’s a good time to ponder our sexual relationships.

Joe Mercola's Girlfriend Erin Elizabeth Finn Moves From Vaguely Libelous To Giving Away Tanning Beds

Joe Mercola's Girlfriend Erin Elizabeth Finn Moves From Vaguely Libelous To Giving Away Tanning Beds

Feb 11 2020 | comment(s)

Joe Mercola, D.O, calls himself Dr. but he is nothing of the kind. He is an osteopathy quack who generates $100 million a year fabricating nonsense ailments he can then claim to sell cures to stop. 

His girlfriend is more like a junkyard dog. When David Gorski, M.D., went after Mercola, as people who care about sane science outreach tend to do, Erin Elizabeth Finn started suggesting he might be a pedophile. That's how they operate. 
The Lack Of A Corporate Parent Will Doom Golden Rice, Say Critics

The Lack Of A Corporate Parent Will Doom Golden Rice, Say Critics

Feb 11 2020 | comment(s)

In the early days of the environmental war on agriculture, activists claimed they were not against the science itself, they were anti-corporate. They didn't want a company in charge of the food supply.

The argument resonated with a lot of people, including university scholars, so when the opportunity to solve the vitamin A deficiency issue in the developing world became available with genetic engineering, it was an independent group of scholars that developed a GMO rice with higher levels of beta-carotene. They made this Golden Rice available for free.
Propane Flame Throwers, Conventional Chicken Manure, And More Things Labeled Organic

Propane Flame Throwers, Conventional Chicken Manure, And More Things Labeled Organic

Feb 10 2020 | comment(s)

If you don't want to use a synthetic weedkiller to keep pests from sucking up all the nutrients around your food, and you are out of the organic certified yet inorganic compound CuSO4,, you can use a propane flamethrower to kill the weeds.
A Reason For More Farmed Salmon: 48 Million Wild Fish Per Year Just In Two Alaska Areas

A Reason For More Farmed Salmon: 48 Million Wild Fish Per Year Just In Two Alaska Areas

Feb 10 2020 | comment(s)

A new analysis used Alaska Department of Fish and Game data and fish estimates from 2007 to 2016 to quantify the number and value of Pacific salmon harvested from streams, rivers, and lakes in Alaska. They estimate that it's 48,000,000 fish per year, and that is without  the recreational fishing catch and local communities where it's a food staple. The value is $88,000,000 per year.

While $88 million is a fine industry it speaks poorly about those who protest farming and hunting while claiming to care about nature. Good luck going to a fancy restaurant without having a server note that the salmon you might order was wild.
Organic Vegetables, Bread, And Pasta Are About To Get Banned in France

Organic Vegetables, Bread, And Pasta Are About To Get Banned in France

Feb 07 2020 | comment(s)

 In France, the Council of State judges have decreed that mutagenesis is subject to the same regulations applied to genetically modified organisms (GMOs). In the past they were allowed to exclude all organisms obtained by mutagenesis from GMO regulations by rationalizing that GMOs insert a gene from another species into the genome of an organism while mutagenesis causes internal mutations. 
DIY Cosmetics: A Menstrual Blood Face Mask

DIY Cosmetics: A Menstrual Blood Face Mask

Feb 07 2020 | comment(s)

Except for medicine, there is no greater target market for alternative hucksters than cosmetics. A dozen non-profits have appeared claiming that chemicals are harming women, without disclosing that the levels of chemicals that can be considered harmful are in defiance of what Paracelsus noted about the dose making a chemical a poison versus a benefit. They are at trace levels, you have to believe in homeopathy, or its 1990s re-brand as endocrine disruption, to believe it is magically bio-accumulating you and harming you while cancer rates continue to go down.
Why Social Media Is A Gold Mine For Food Fads

Why Social Media Is A Gold Mine For Food Fads

Feb 07 2020 | comment(s)

Do you listen to experts when it comes to food? If so, you are in the rarity. Most mimic what their friends do, according to recent survey results.

Study participants ate an extra fifth of a portion of fruit and vegetables for every portion they thought their social media peers ate - and they consumed an extra portion of snack foods and sugary drinks for every three portions they believed their online social circles did.

So our friends determine our eating behavior? Or do we tend to be friends with people who have our lifestyles? And what might that mean for government panels that want to nudge the behavior of the public? Will we see targeted ad campaigns at key social media users?
As Smoking Plummeted Elsewhere, Juul Marketed To Native Americans To Boost Its Vaping Device, But Was That Wrong?

As Smoking Plummeted Elsewhere, Juul Marketed To Native Americans To Boost Its Vaping Device, But Was That Wrong?

Feb 06 2020 | comment(s)

Congressional documents show Juul Labs met with eight Native American tribes about its vaping device. Native Americans still have the highest smoking levels in America, 22 percent versus 14 percent overall, so if this was 2015 I'd argue 'of course they should talk to tribes, everyone who smokes should be approached with smoking cessation and harm reduction tools' but the evidence is clear that Juul was not just appealing to smokers, they were creating new markets. And people who see racial profiling, legitimately or as an overarching conspiracy, will say they targeted vulnerable communities.
RIP Li Wenliang, Coronavirus Hero

RIP Li Wenliang, Coronavirus Hero

Feb 06 2020 | comment(s)

One medical professional who sounded the alarm about China's coronavirus epidemic was not an academic or an immunologist, Li Wenliang was an ophthalmologist.

In December, he worried in a medical chat group that people with a SARS-like illness were being quarantined in his hospital in Wuhan and the communist dictatorship arrested him for "rumor-mongering." 

“We solemnly warn you: If you keep being stubborn, with such impertinence, and continue this illegal activity, you will be brought to justice—is that understood?”
Want To Hang Out With Your Anti-Vax Friends And Spread Measles In L.A.? Here Are the Hot Spots

Want To Hang Out With Your Anti-Vax Friends And Spread Measles In L.A.? Here Are the Hot Spots

Feb 06 2020 | comment(s)

Measles has broken out on the California coast again, as it has done ever since discredited former doctor Andrew Wakefield tried to sell a new vaccine by claiming the existing ones causes autism.

When Science 2.0 was in its early days, anti-vaccine sentiment was a tiny fringe of religious people in one group and then a whole swath of people on the west coast in another. If you wanted to find a hotbed of anti-science sentiment, including beliefs about vaccines and organic food, you could take a compass and draw a circle around a Whole Foods.
Why Does Anyone Still Read Michael Pollan?

Why Does Anyone Still Read Michael Pollan?

Feb 06 2020 | comment(s)

Michael Pollan, the darling of the anti-science community, believes his walled Berkeley garden is a model for those dumb farmers who do it for a living and that Medicine Is A Vast Corporate Conspiracy.

He's like Paul Krugman when it comes to economics. Basically, he's like a Kardashian or anyone else famous for being famous, with no one really able to figure out why.