Wisdom from Unlikely Places

I just finished reading "The Wisdom Of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels, and the Business of AIDS" by Elizabeth Pisani. It was well written and the narrative format gave a natural progression through her experiences from a somewhat hopeful to a battle-worn epidemiologist. The collective struggle with politicians, religious leaders, and the bureaucratic nightmare that are individual countries and global programmes is nothing short of heroic.

As an inspirational epidemiologist, she does not hide behind organizational red-tape/policies, but truly tells the science and the reasoning behind each prevention method. Use condoms... have needle exchange programs... find ways to protect the people. It doesn't matter who the people are or what they do. They are still people.

If I could nominate her for a Nobel prize, I would. But I have a feeling that there are many people doing the same type of work just like her. However, I do want to hear her on TED Talks. She is truly inspirational and her book is a must-read. You may not agree with the methods or policies and you may not like who the "people most at risk" are, but it is important to know for preventative measures. This IS something that can be fought with good prevention policies, and there are some innocent victims.

Friday TED Talks IX

So I apologise,
and yes, it will probably happen again (Soon, I think as my reg. classes start in 2 weeks!), but I took a little break while I was completing a summer course. Lets just say that cramming a 4 month class into 12 days is not fun.
Anyways, here is another installment of Friday Ted Talks. The video is a little old (gimme a break people!), but still and always relevant.

Micheal Pritchard invents a water filter...
(and he's got balls to drink it after too! Ewwwwww)

and a PRI podcast about science which also talks about water scarcity in parts of the world... Cambodia and the Middle East.

High Speed Rail Coming to a Station Near You? Only in the States

As an update to a previous post about high speed rail between cities, Scientific American has looked at this with their 60 second podcast found here; http://podcast.sciam.com/earth/sa_e_podcast_090625.mp3

To reread the previous post go here;
http://botanistnextdoor.blogspot.com/2009/05/alternative-transportation-all-aboard.html

Aparently the Obama Administration has dedicated money towards the development of high speed rail linking multiple cities around the United States. I think this is a good sign... now only if the Canadian Government would look at this too....

Autism is NOT caused by Vaccinations - A Review

A Broken Trust: Lessons from the Vaccine-Autism Wars
Author: Lisa Gross
Researcher: Sharon Kaufman (Professor of Medical Anthropology @ UofCalifornia)

A paper published in PLoS Biology in May reviews the actions and reactions regarding the anti-vaccination movement. More important, the author, Lisa Gross, has documented research that shows the consequences of propaganda and half-truths have upon the health of the population as a whole. And the surprising fact that it continues…

Now, more than ten years after unfounded doubts about vaccine safety first emerged, scientists and public health officials are still struggling to set the record straight. But as climate scientists know all too well, simply relating the facts of science isn't enough. No matter that the overwhelming weight of evidence shows that climate change is real, or that vaccines don't cause autism. When scientists find themselves just one more voice in a sea of “opinions” about a complex scientific issue, misinformation takes on a life of its own.
Despite overwhelming evidence that vaccines don't cause autism, one in four Americans still think they do [7]. Not surprisingly, the first half of 2008 saw the largest US outbreak of measles—one of the first infectious diseases to reappear after vaccination rates drop—since 2000, when the native disease was declared eliminated(see Figure 2). Mumps and whooping cough (pertussis) have also made a comeback. Last year in Minesota, five children contracted Hib, the most common cause of meningitis in young children before the vaccine was developed in 1993. Three of the children, including a 7-month-old who died, hadn't received Hib vaccines because their parents either refused or delayed vaccination.

Does this reluctance to believe trained professionals indicate a widespread “conspiracy theory”, or is it a horrible meme that has taken on viral traits? The evidence overwhelmingly states that this information is dangerous to the well being of humans, but it still persists, not unlike a cold or the flu. Now when H1N1 Influenza is gaining notoriety for being a pandemic, and also of being a relatively mild flu; most parents (remember one in four in America) believe an idea that is hurting them. Should not the WHO confirm this meme as an epidemic? It is now in other parts of the world as well as Canada…

The same trends have played out in Britain, where one in four parents told pollsters in 2002 that they believed “the weight of scientific evidence supports a link between MMR and autism” [8].
Though state law in the US requires that children be vaccinated to enter school or daycare (although parents may cite philosophical and religious reasons to claim exemptions), vaccination is not compulsory in Britain, and vaccination rates for MMR there dropped from 92% in 1998 to 80% by 2003. Although rates climbed back to 85% in 2006, England and Wales last year saw 1,000 measles cases before winter, breaking a ten-year record [9]. (Immunization rates for other childhood vaccines in Britain were largely unaffected by the MMR scare.)

Not only does this misinformation hurt the parents’ own children, but risks the population as a whole as well.

Had the discovery about thimerosal come at a different time, it might have gone unnoticed, suggests Jeffrey Baker, a pediatrician and the director of the Program in the History of Medicine at Duke University. He argues that rising autism rates, an expanded vaccine schedule, and contemporary attitudes toward environmental risk combined to create what he terms “a perfect storm” [15]. ....
In January, Baker appeared on an Oregon radio call-in show that featured several parents who shunned vaccination. While over 95% of Oregon parents vaccinate their children, only 70% did so last year in Ashland, a small town known for its Shakespeare festival. Nearly 60% of Ashland residents polled told the CDC, in town to hear parents' concerns, they “would expect serious consequences” from vaccines. Such low vaccination rates worry public health officials because they could signal the next epicenter of an epidemic: when vaccination rates drop below a critical percentage, called the “herd immunity threshold,” infection can swiftly spread among unprotected individuals. This threshold varies depending on the vaccine and target disease; for example, the target for measles, one of the most contagious human diseases, is 90% [16].

Celebrities and other non-professional people including parents with unrelated (or nonexistent) education are giving information with an air of professionalism exhorting the public to believe them instead of trained doctors and researchers. (As if those scientists went to school for over 8 years just to get student loans and the letters behind their name….) Personally, I will not let a high-school graduate design or build a bridge that I would use just because “they know better than those engineers because it’s just a big conspiracy to get more money out of the public, and of course the design does not flow with the Chi so it causes cancer!!1!!11!”

Because this problem is widespread, and not just in the United States it cannot only be a symptom of the education system or government as some people have stated. We have popular TV shows dedicated to Mythbusting* common Urban Myths, and they often find them not true. Is the anti-vaccination movement the same as these urban myths, but only because it causes deaths and widespread illness does it garner so much public attention? I believe people need to start their own experiments, collect information and think logically about the information. We need to trust people to do what they are trained to do… however some skepticism is needed as the public has been mislead before (DDT, BisphenolA, etc). So the reasonable solution would take into account both benefits and drawbacks and see which is better and provide research results to the public at no cost.

*among my favorite!

Bill 44: Good Idea Gone Bad or Giving Parents the Power to Make Kids Stupid?

Bill 44 is an amendment to the Human Rights, Citizenship and Multiculturalism Act in Alberta (which if passed will be renamed the Alberta Human Rights Act) which is aimed to include sexual orientation as a fundamental human right along with race, religious belief, colour, gender, physical disability, mental disability, age, ancestry, place of origin, maritial status, source of income or family status.
This has been a long time coming……
However, I am suspicious of a part of the wording in Section 11.1 which is the Notice to parent or guardian. I am assuming (big assumption though) that the intentions are good. However, by denying all children basic information about sexual health, sexuality, sexual orientation or religion we are ill-equipping them to deal with subject matter that will become more important as they get older, and information to deal with decisions in a logical and mature manner.
There is no such thing as too much information. Instead of picking and choosing what information we give children, cannot we teach them our values and morals while disseminating the information with them so that they are not afraid of information? If we refuse to teach children about other lifestyles, cultures, and practices they will be afraid of them and therefore discrimination will happen more frequently. (I’m trying not to use cliché’s here, but “Knowledge is Power” and “Your only afraid of what you don’t know” come to mind and are very appropriate I’m thinking)
I am an atheist. However, I want my seedling to learn about all of the other religions out there so that when she hears about them, she will be prepared with her decision & it will not be tricked out of her with half-truths and omissions.
I am heterosexual. However, I want her to learn about homosexual and bisexual people, and the fact that they are the same as heterosexual people. (There is no “gay lifestyle” per se as they lead normal lives just like everyone else) I want her to learn about what monogamy, polygamy, bigamy, and abstinence is. What is sexual intercourse and does fellatio count as sex? I want her to know about birth control for both men and women, abortion, sexually transmitted infections (diseases), child birth and child care.
Mostly, I want her to know that there are choices, so many choices and that no one has a right to chose for her (not even me). I want to instill my values and ethics in her, but the individual responses are up to her. And I do this because I TRUST HER! I trust her to make the right choices for her. I trust her to learn from mistakes that she makes. And most of all, I trust her to let her children choose as well. The only way that she can make choices for herself is if she learns about all of this.
There is another problem with this bill. With religion comes the controversy about evolution. Many fundamental religious people believe that Bill 44 is a way to deny their children learning about evolution. However, what they do not realize is that evolution is a cornerstone of all science. In an effort to refuse their children something that they are scared of, they will deny their children any hopes of being successful in science. But then again, maybe I’m thinking this is a good opportunity for the kids that do learn about evolution (survival of the fittest). Ironic.

Earth Day!

OK, I'll make this quick, as in a couple of hours I have my last Final of this Semester. Woo hoo! *Insert Happy Dance Here*

I found a great meme for Earth Day.... Small Bigger Better
Found it at The Questionable Authority
(I know... studying)

Mine are:
Small: Rinsing out & recycling individual yoghurt cups instead of throwing them away (I know, but its hard to do when your at school)
Bigger: Walking or biking to work/school at least 2 times a week
Better: Grow more veggies in my garden and finding ways to a) keep them longer through winter and b) tasty recipies that I can cook & then freeze ahead.

Also, for the cynical I found this at Ed Braytons site. A company that is about to see the **** hit the fan.


Enjoy & Happy Earth Day!

Alberta - Rape and Pillage

On a road trip this last weekend, to one of the most beautiful places in the World (not just Canada, eh?), I saw the most disgusting view. Alberta sure knows how to welcome guests as we show how to rape and pillage the land that we are only borrowing from our future.
If I was smart enough, I would have gotten the camera out and taken pictures of these horrible sites, but I will next time to show what is truly there.

h.t. to http://www.geocities.com/alta_sailing/wab_destinations/wab_destinations.htm

I've got to admit, the picture is not exactly what I saw, as we were travelling on the other side (on the road, not water, ha ha). Also, this picture looks better than what I saw, as Saturday morning there was smoke spewing out of the stacks. Before the actual plant came into site, I thought there was a brush fire as there was smoke everywhere.

So, now your thinking, oh what a whiny tree-hugger. Can't stand a little smoke, etc. But we also saw strip mining. It wasn't on the scale of Ft. McMurray's tar sands, and I have no clue what they were mining. But there was no other reason for these marks a large quantity of land. We also saw grasshoppers, and "urban" sprawl (if you can call Hinton or Edson urban...). Garbage found in the trees, on the snow, and on the road.

These would not bother me if these were anomolies, but they are symptomatic of the larger problem of massive extraction from the land and pollution of the air. Once in Jasper there were many animals seen as well as beautiful vistas. (I will post nicer pics tomorrow)
But you would think that the Albertan Government would want visitors to our Province to see pristine views and beautiful landscapes from Edmonton to Jasper instead of grasshoppers every 20 meters. Every time someone (National Geographic to name one) writes an article, tells an international panel about Alberta, the politician argue that it isn't true and we are taking it out of context (ie. it's only in Athabasca). However, it is time to understand that we cannot continue taking for granted what we have.

Dept of Education: Work Harder Not Smarter

I'm sure many feel this way about the school system in Canada or the US. Both systems are based on the same practices with few alterations. Core subjects (Math, Science, Language Arts, Social) with a few sprinklings of fun subjects thrown in to keep kids entertained. The problem I am seeing with this strategy is that children are taught to do what the teacher does and do it over & over & over, ad infinitum.
When that child who can recite or redo what the teacher has "taught" (because very few children actually understand the mechanics/reasons behind the theory), they graduate High School and go to university. This university now expects for the reasoning behind methods to be understood without reteaching the subjects.
A few of the children probably have twigged to the understanding of concepts that were not explicitly explained. But the majority of those children (and I have to admit that I am one when it comes to mathematics) recite and give back the teacher what they want, but if asked the same question in another way cannot work their way through and come up with an answer because they lack the underlying principles and/or theory that was implicit in the work but not stated.
And now that university expects them to know this stuff...

Luckily I have the ability to self-teach (or probably more likely avoid classes where there is material I do not understand), and this has not been a problem in acquiring my education so far. But I have seen it come up in a number of places. I have a nasty habit of forgetting most things taught in one semester by the next (unless pummelled into my head over & over & over), even if I DO understand the concepts. I usually pick up quicker the next time it is explained and have that "Oh yeah!" moment.
But how do you teach the underlying principles & to retain material that is absolutely critical in the future? And more importantly, teach this to a wide range of ages & learning abilities...

DST Part Deux - Update

Aha! I have found other opinions and background on Daylight Savings Time to reflect upon...

Built on Facts: Savings Time?

Government of Canada: Time Zones & Daylight Savings Time

Consumer Energy Report: Does Daylight Savings Time Really Conserve Energy?

Me? I thought I handled Sunday with remarkable aplomb. My seedling had a hockey practice at 7:45am. She woke me up at 5:45am telling me it was time to go (I had forgotten to change my alarm clock so we would've been late had it not been for her!). I grumpily got out of bed, dressed/brushed teeth/hair, etc in 5 minutes & still had time for a Tim Hortons Roll Up To Win Coffee.
We just made it.

So anyways, I think the best idea out of the posts is that we should have permanent earlier hours. From now on (and no changes twice a year), have the clocks roll back a couple hours so that most of us take advantage of the early daylight. FOREVER. I think its the changes that bug me (and to quote a commenter on Built on Facts; it feels like jet lag twice a year.... without going anywhere).

Starting a petition to remove Daylight Savings Time

Alright, I know it seems futile, but I am going on a strike. Until I get spring around these parts, I, I..., I.... well, I don't know what I'll do. I'm done with the endless months of winter. Combine that with a bad haircut (no I won't post pics), my cranky seedling, and midterms that just won't end, I'm not real happy right now.
I figure that should be enough to at least petition all governments to remove Daylight Savings Time. It begins this Sunday early in the morning. So we lose an hour that I won't reclaim until the fall. And unfortunately, it is an hour of sleep.
Daylight savings time began in the early 20th century. Wikipedia has a very thorough background on the history and effects of this phenomenon.

Current Daylight Savings Time In World

Blue = Daylight Savings In Effect
Red = No Daylight Savings Ever
Orange = Had Daylight Savings but got smart and Removed it

There have been many reasons why this is a good idea. But to me, I'd rather drive to school/work in the sunshine instead of not seeing it until I leave at night. And look, it doesn't even have to be a whole province! The upper right corner of BC apparently has kicked this bad habit and no longer observes daylight savings time! I don't understand why it has to be so early in the year. Why not the end of April? That way, you only have to drive into the sun's glare in the morning only once a year. (Trust me, nothing like not being able to see where you are going). I dunno, I think I am being very reasonable. Either daylight savings goes, or spring comes early...

Thought Provoking

I usually visit this blog when I'm on Scienceblogs (a great multi-science blog that is not ALL about science, but usually the people behind "science" as well). I have stumbled upon this post that is thought provoking and really quite lovely (in a its-about-time-that-horrible-disgusting-prez-Bush-is-on-his-way-out kind of way). It's from Greg Laden's blog, so read it here.

Critically Thinking

I recently read these two new papers in PLOS Biology here and here on migrations, and how the phenomenon of migrations can place species more at risk from anthropogenic forces. The species that migrate are more at risk for decreasing numbers and endangerment. They outline how people’s settlements and activities (forestry, mining, highways, etc) affect these populations, and underline how important it is that scientists open communication channels with communities and the governments in order to protect the animals.

However, to make informed decisions about these species’ populations, the people involved do not necessarily have the background in science needed to understand the subtleties. Which is OK, nobody can understand everything about everything, and this is why it is important to know WHO to trust, or at least know their real agenda’s. I do the same when it comes to investing my money, politics (to a certain degree), and world events.

So I have often wondered, can we inform future citizens while they are in school? Start in elementary; teach them how to make informed choices, what sources to trust, which to ignore, and ultimately how to think critically.

A not-so-recent example is the vaccination hoopla. Anti-vaccinationists have sexy campaigns that target the general population with limited knowledge of what vaccinations are and how they work. However, how many of these anti-vaccinationists are actual reliable scientists* that have studied vaccines? Do not just look at what they actually say, but understand their motivations. Are they looking for someone to blame? Are they looking for a conspiracy? Do they want your money? Do they want their 15 minutes of fame? Also realize that some information is correct, but taken out of context. Such as the claim that vaccinations don’t work all the time anyways, so why get them? Well, some vaccinations do not 100% for everyone, but this is not a problem usually because of herd immunity, which is kind of a communal vaccination. The more people that do not have the vaccinations, the more susceptible those individuals are.

So this post is not about vaccines or species in trouble, but being aware of where you get your information and becoming informed to make better decisions. The internet is wonderful, but only if you know what information to trust. And sometimes, it can come from a completely reputable place, but the science itself is sometimes wrong. And this is good. If it were never wrong, then scientists are not doing their job. So also look critically at scientific papers, at scientists, at EVERYTHING you read & hear! People that are reputable and trustworthy will help you understand, not just keep repeating the same things over and over. Use your own common sense.

So let’s start teaching our children how to learn and what to trust. Lets start teaching adults, politicians, anyone who will listen how to do the same. And next time someone says that they would rather you drive your huge SUV all over instead of walking/biking/busing, think of all the scientists that are warning you of global climate change instead of the politicians warning you of the economy. Economies can always rebound, but can the Earth? Do you want to find out? And think … would you rather get your financial information from a trained analyst or from an 8 year old on a playground?

End of Rant


* Reliable Scientists are those that actually study the subject; so NO I don’t mean those other CAM people (Complementary and Alternative Medicine Practitioners) that mostly are people trying to suck as much money out of you as they can.

Language Laws??

For a while now, Alberta has had one official language. Now with this traffic ticket fiasco, will this open up these laws for amendment or change? Yes, I know, I know... the Alberta Government is now appealing the court ruling, so where will this leave Albertans?

First of all, I'm Albertan, was born Albertan ... and I happen to be a very liberal Albertan (didn't think that was possible didya?!) I also believe everyone in the country of Canada should be able to fluently speak BOTH french and english. Not because of our history, but because it improves our ability to travel & identify with other cultures, opens our opportunities, and provides all Canadians a basis of unity.

However, this guy failed to make a safe left turn, and if the ticket was in portugese, swahili, or russian it should still be upheld! I'm all for the language laws to be reformed, but this guy actually committed a traffic infraction & should be punished accordingly. Let's not lose sight of what this is actually about.