One of the things you commonly hear from anti-vaccinators is that vaccines are not responsible for the reduction in disease, but that improved sanitation and general health is responsible. Of course, the truth is that both are important, but a news report from the BBC shows that mass vaccination campaigns do save lives:
Measles deaths in [...]
Here are two thoughtful posts on free speech in the light of the Oxford Union’s less than thoughtful attempt to demonstrate it: Chris Dillow and Peter Ryley.
Oliver Kamm makes a point about the nature of the protests.
The initial invitation was an absurd and unprincipled piece of theatre. Bigots have a right to free speech (and [...]
A recent conference in Prague, Rethinking Popper, has a list of contributed papers about Karl Popper. One paper listed is by Dirk Verhofstadt called The Liberal Testament of Karl Popper. Here he is talking about Popper’s view of closed societies, and pointing out that this did not mean Popper rejected strong government:
Popper rejected every political [...]
Those of you that have cats may have experienced hairballs.
Here’s a nice set of pictures of a 4.5kg hairball formed in a 18-year-old girl with a trichophagia habit.
Lots of interesting things happening. The withdrawal of lumiracoxib is covered at adr.org.uk, as are the serious skin reactions to strontium ranelate. The NPC cover recent changes to rosiglitazone’s licence brought in by the FDA, and the psychiatric effects of rimonabant.
The Guardian reports on general practitioner concerns about the new NHS spine and issues of confidentiality:
Nearly two-thirds of family doctors are poised to boycott the government’s scheme to put the medical records of 50 million NHS patients on a national electronic database, a Guardian poll reveals today.
With suspicion rife across the profession that sensitive personal [...]
What exactly has this man done wrong?
There have been some additions to the blogroll, mainly friends and comrades who for some obscure reason I have been too slack to put on before. Notably, General Theory of Rubbish, Fat Man on a Keyboard, Michael J Totten, Shuggy’s Blog, Chris Dillow’s Stumbling and Mumbling and Terry Glavin. On the political front I have [...]
Currently there are calls to obtain a head on a stick for the death of Jean Charles de Menezes at the hands of armed Police. One head of interest is that of Sir Ian Blair, who some wish to see resign – he does not wish to do so. Others, such as the de Menezes [...]