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STOP THE WHOOPING COUGH EPIDEMIC WITH FREE VACCINES DURING DRAGON*CON! -- Boosters for adults are especially important as we start facing a disturbing increase in whooping cough/pertussis.
Also, I've found a new blog that I'm loving -- Skepchick. Right now they're covering a lot about the pertussis epidemic, and how anti-vax attitudes are endangering lives, especially of infants too young to be vaccinated themselves.
However, this is not the solution: Ask Surly Amy: Homeopathic Vaccines (although this homeopathic webcomic did make me giggle, which I really needed by that point)
Also related: Covering Vaccines
Science, policy and politics in the minefield -- on being sued for libel by the anti-vaxxers.
Drug task force reaps benefits for communities after successful busts -- *rage* Seizure laws are bullshit. Blatantly unconstitutional bullshit that gives our law enforcement motivation and reward for abuse.
Residents Who Live Near Public Transportation Live Healthier, Longer Lives, Study Finds -- Yeah, really not shocking. As RTA has had to make cut after cut, I've stopped using it as much, and I feel the difference in my overall exercise level. Cutbacks in public transit and libraries during recessions are huge *headdesk* moments for me -- there's no time we need them more!
Hey, question for fellow fat activists -- has anyone seen anything written yet about how The Big C is handling Gabourey Sidibe's weight? It's really bothering me a good deal (as is a lot about the show, despite adoring all the actors involved) (also, lots more fat activism stuff below the cut today)
Research at CWRU's new structural laboratory could aid Lake Erie wind farm effort
Obama to mark official end of U.S. combat in Iraq tonight with speech from White House -- Half-hearted "yay". How much longer will we have troops there for "non-combat" purposes? How long has it been in Germany and South Korea?
New Gmail filters tell users which messages matter -- On a practical level, I'm interested to see how this works. Because I handle almost everything in life via email (including all livejournal notifications, etc), and therefore get several hundred emails a day, this could be handy for me.
Working with Jailed Pregnant Women Changes a Physician's Career
4 Israelis shot dead by terrorists in West Bank
5 Mind Blowing Ways Your Memory Plays Tricks On You
Income Inequality: the Real Cause of Poor Health
The Hijacking of the Almighty
Poll Shows 10 Point GOP Lead — But Is It Accurate?
The Mother of All Grizzlies
Ruth Bader Ginsburg shows how feminism is done. Again.
GOP's Hatch backs N.Y. mosque -- We're living in bizarro-world when Hatch and I agree on anything. Wow!
The secret history of psychedelic psychiatry
They’re real, and they’re spectacular: A review of the film A Matter of Size (about four fat Israelis who set out to become sumo wrestlers)
Surprise, I don't hate you! -- this is something I've been meaning to write more about, actually. It's really important to me to keep my focus on large-scale societal pressures and misinformation, and trying to improve what I think is damaging about them, and to stay a good ways away from presuming I know enough about any individual's experience/needs/issues to be able to tell them, specifically, what to do with their own life and body or how to balance risks and benefits in their own lives. The latter is antithetical to everything I believe.
Having said that, I will say that I believe that Dieting and WLS (Weight-Loss Surgery) are obscenely overprescribed in this country, for reasons that have a lot more to do with fatphobia than health, and that the very real and serious risks are often minimized, while fat patients often have to knuckle under just to get their other issues treated with any seriousness by their doctors. And I have serious issues with that. There's a world of difference between making an unpressured decision about personal risks and benefits, and being blackmailed into a "treatment" in order to pacify your care providers or your workplace (my boss doesn't want to have to hire fat people, remember? And now I get to pay more for health insurance, too!), etc.
Related: http://kateharding.net/2007/10/27/guest-blogger-vesta44-wlsdieting-and-fat-acceptance
Two Links: Fat & Disability Discrimination US/AU
Focus on the Family attacks anti-bullying efforts as part of the “gay agenda”
In fact, the second most common form of bullying in the U.S. are actual or perceived sexual orientation and non-conforming gender expressions (the first is physical appearance such as body size or disability).
Historical cell phone location data is a privacy intrusion, rules NY judge
Tremors: The Thunder from Down Under -- Kevin Bacon is back for the next installment of the epic Tremors movies.
Washington’s Whitewashed Social Security Review
Man charged in racially-charged attack of turban-wearing man.
Inside a toxic hellhole, Iron Mountain Mine
Stopping here so I can test some things out with the new LJ/FB feature, about which I'm somewhat skeptical/concerned. I'll be posted a locked post here and seeing what I can and can't share from it in a minute, and may post some test comments to see how they come over (as part of the original, or as separate posts)
Also, I've found a new blog that I'm loving -- Skepchick. Right now they're covering a lot about the pertussis epidemic, and how anti-vax attitudes are endangering lives, especially of infants too young to be vaccinated themselves.
However, this is not the solution: Ask Surly Amy: Homeopathic Vaccines (although this homeopathic webcomic did make me giggle, which I really needed by that point)
Also related: Covering Vaccines
Science, policy and politics in the minefield -- on being sued for libel by the anti-vaxxers.
Drug task force reaps benefits for communities after successful busts -- *rage* Seizure laws are bullshit. Blatantly unconstitutional bullshit that gives our law enforcement motivation and reward for abuse.
Residents Who Live Near Public Transportation Live Healthier, Longer Lives, Study Finds -- Yeah, really not shocking. As RTA has had to make cut after cut, I've stopped using it as much, and I feel the difference in my overall exercise level. Cutbacks in public transit and libraries during recessions are huge *headdesk* moments for me -- there's no time we need them more!
Hey, question for fellow fat activists -- has anyone seen anything written yet about how The Big C is handling Gabourey Sidibe's weight? It's really bothering me a good deal (as is a lot about the show, despite adoring all the actors involved) (also, lots more fat activism stuff below the cut today)
Research at CWRU's new structural laboratory could aid Lake Erie wind farm effort
Obama to mark official end of U.S. combat in Iraq tonight with speech from White House -- Half-hearted "yay". How much longer will we have troops there for "non-combat" purposes? How long has it been in Germany and South Korea?
New Gmail filters tell users which messages matter -- On a practical level, I'm interested to see how this works. Because I handle almost everything in life via email (including all livejournal notifications, etc), and therefore get several hundred emails a day, this could be handy for me.
Working with Jailed Pregnant Women Changes a Physician's Career
4 Israelis shot dead by terrorists in West Bank
5 Mind Blowing Ways Your Memory Plays Tricks On You
Income Inequality: the Real Cause of Poor Health
The Hijacking of the Almighty
Poll Shows 10 Point GOP Lead — But Is It Accurate?
The Mother of All Grizzlies
Ruth Bader Ginsburg shows how feminism is done. Again.
GOP's Hatch backs N.Y. mosque -- We're living in bizarro-world when Hatch and I agree on anything. Wow!
The secret history of psychedelic psychiatry
They’re real, and they’re spectacular: A review of the film A Matter of Size (about four fat Israelis who set out to become sumo wrestlers)
Surprise, I don't hate you! -- this is something I've been meaning to write more about, actually. It's really important to me to keep my focus on large-scale societal pressures and misinformation, and trying to improve what I think is damaging about them, and to stay a good ways away from presuming I know enough about any individual's experience/needs/issues to be able to tell them, specifically, what to do with their own life and body or how to balance risks and benefits in their own lives. The latter is antithetical to everything I believe.
Having said that, I will say that I believe that Dieting and WLS (Weight-Loss Surgery) are obscenely overprescribed in this country, for reasons that have a lot more to do with fatphobia than health, and that the very real and serious risks are often minimized, while fat patients often have to knuckle under just to get their other issues treated with any seriousness by their doctors. And I have serious issues with that. There's a world of difference between making an unpressured decision about personal risks and benefits, and being blackmailed into a "treatment" in order to pacify your care providers or your workplace (my boss doesn't want to have to hire fat people, remember? And now I get to pay more for health insurance, too!), etc.
Related: http://kateharding.net/2007/10/27/guest-blogger-vesta44-wlsdieting-and-fat-acceptance
Two Links: Fat & Disability Discrimination US/AU
Focus on the Family attacks anti-bullying efforts as part of the “gay agenda”
In fact, the second most common form of bullying in the U.S. are actual or perceived sexual orientation and non-conforming gender expressions (the first is physical appearance such as body size or disability).
Historical cell phone location data is a privacy intrusion, rules NY judge
Tremors: The Thunder from Down Under -- Kevin Bacon is back for the next installment of the epic Tremors movies.
Washington’s Whitewashed Social Security Review
Man charged in racially-charged attack of turban-wearing man.
Inside a toxic hellhole, Iron Mountain Mine
Stopping here so I can test some things out with the new LJ/FB feature, about which I'm somewhat skeptical/concerned. I'll be posted a locked post here and seeing what I can and can't share from it in a minute, and may post some test comments to see how they come over (as part of the original, or as separate posts)
