Friday Rants: Swine Flu Again

There seems to be more talk about swine flu and H1N1 vaccine in the news that anyone can digest. Unfortunately, a big chunk of all this "chatter" is misinformation, spread by usual sources: TV shows (Oprah), web sites (Natural News), and just simple, unconnected, unrelated anegdotes (remember, anegtotal evidence is NOT data).

A lot of the misinformation comes from a simple fact that most of the people just simply do not understand how viruses, our immune system, and vaccines work. There is a lot of great sources out there, one of them here: How do vaccines work?

As always, Science-Based Medicine Blog comes to the rescue with very relevant and timely information:

Some of our more astute readers may have noticed that we are paying influenza slightly more attention than other topics of late. That’s because this situation is new, rapidly changing, and covers more areas of science and medicine than one can easily count. It’s also a subject about which the general public and media are keenly interested. This is an outstanding learning and teaching opportunity for us as a professional community. Unfortunately, it is also fertile ground for confusion, fear, and misinformation, and a playground for those who would exploit such things.

9 Reasons to Completely Ignore Joseph Mercola and Natural News
More Nonsense from Dr. Jay Gordon
Flu Vaccine Efficacy

All the above are excellent reads, with multitude of great information.

Cyber Security - Get to Your Bank Safely

Washington Post's Security Fix blog has a very interesting post today, with an excellent idea for better and more secure access to your on-line bank accounts:

The simplest, most cost-effective answer I know of? Don't use Microsoft Windows when accessing your bank account online.

Follow the recommendations!!! I would say, Live CD is the best choice, since there is almost no way to write anything to the local hard drives. It would have to be a very sophisticated virus/malware application to infect live Linux distro on the fly, and go low-level hardware access to write data to some other partition. The most usable solution is probably a memory stick with a hardware "read-only" switch. This way, it can go on your keychain, and be ready for a clean reboot at any time.

Flu Vaccine Facts

If you fear this year's flu season, get some facts on the new H1N1 vaccine from a very good source:

PUBLIC health officials are now battling not only a fast-spreading influenza virus but also unfounded fears about the vaccine that can prevent it.

This short, but well written article from:

Paul A. Offit, the chief of the infectious diseases division of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, is the author of “Autism’s False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine and the Search for a Cure.”

should be a great introduction for all those, who get medical advice from talk shows and other "credible" media sources.

Return of the Blog Post

After writing my previous post, I also posted a story A Battle is Brewing in Pasco County, on the St. Petersburg Times portal It's Your Times. It generated a nice buzz, and I hope it'll bring this issue to light, so the voters can make the right and informed decission.

Ahh... Politics in the South?

We seem to have an interesting share of candidates for various offices in the Tampa Bay area. First, there is St. Petersburg mayoral candidate Bill Foster, who believes we once walked the Earth with dinosaurs:

He said he believes dinosaurs and humans lived at the same time, though most scientists say there is a gap of at least 60 million years between dinosaurs and mankind.

Then, there is John Tracy, president of the Faith and Family Values Republican Club of Pasco County, who wants to run for Pasco County School board, with views like that:

He supports offering alternatives to teaching evolution in science, for instance, and he contends that the role of religion in U.S. history must be presented accurately.

We need to monitor them closely, and hope they don't go too far.

Wisconsin Parents Face 25 Years in Prison When They're Sentenced in Daughter's Prayer Death

This case in Wisconsin is going to generate a lot of buzz, as it crosses the line between family and state control of our kids. Normally, I would be on the parents' side, however, seeing something so horrific and just plainly irresponsible, I can't stop myself from saying: this is what you get when your religion dominates your life to the extreme. We like to point out extremism abroad, especially in "other" religions, thinking we know it all, but we fail to see the same issues right in our own backyard.
Usually, I do not like religion bashing, and I do think that as long as you keep it to yourself, it should be your own decission, but cases like this one make me think twice.
I hope we don't see any more of them.

A Battle is Brewing in Pasco County

Florida Citizens for Science blog is reporting that a soon-to-be-vacant seat on our local Pasco county school board might be artacting some "undesired" individuals:

Pasco school board candidate wants alternatives
The same news came via the St. Petersburg Times web portal: Republican Club president and pastor posts desire for Pasco school board seat in 2012

We need to start looking at this soon, to make sure we keep our educational standards as high as we can. Do we really need someone who says:

"I'm definitely not interested in a theocracy," Tracy said. "But I do think religion — particularly Judeo-Christian beliefs — is a huge part of what we are today. I think it's wrong for us to sweep that under the rug."

Ouch... in addition to that:

He supports offering alternatives to teaching evolution in science, for instance, and he contends that the role of religion in U.S. history must be presented accurately.

Nice. So, let's sweep rational thinking and science under the rug and be done with it.
I know too many children in our public schools (not to mention my son going there soon), not to care. I really have nothing against any religion, but let's keep it away from school, especially science classes.
I am sure, there is more to come on this topic.

October - National Cyber Security Awareness Month

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month.

In today's world, where we tend to expose most of our lives on the Internet, it is vital to be aware of the dangers and challenges we face in the cyberworld.

There are some really good resources on the site above, to make sure all of us (especially our kids) are safe on line, and our identities are not compromised.

Here Comes Ardi

CNN is reporting on an incredible find: Ardi, a common ancestor to humans and chimpanzees.

More to come on this tomorrow, in Science: Ardipithecus ramidus.

Looks like it'll be a big deal, that will shed some additional details on our ancestry.

Science for our Children

The indispensable Bad Astronomy blog, points to this great site:

Science: [ So What? So everything ]

This site, run by the British government, is a great way to promote science. I wish our government, here in the U.S. took similar approach, and started promoting real science, instead of woo and nonsense, like the NCCAM, for example.

The site has a great section for parents, with ideas on how to answer some of your children's questions and how to communicate science to them effectively.

As I am on the topic of educating children, another great site has a multitude of resources for parents, who want to expose their kids to some quality science education:

100 Tools to Make Your Kids Math and Science Stars

It's good to start early (not too early... let them have their childhood!!!), and keep pushing science and reason in their lives, since most of the public schools in the U.S., society in general, and peer pressure, look down on scientific education.