Anthrax jab side-effects withheld. The Australian government says it did not tell Iraq-bound troops about the side-effects of anthrax jabs because it did not want to worry them. [BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition]

It may be comfrting to some that ours is not the only government that makes idiotic decisions.  comment []1:26:22 PM    

British Paper Says Bin Laden Cornered. A British paper, the Sunday Express, is reporting that Bin Laden is surrounded and trapped like a rat, waiting only... [TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime]

Remember this when his capture happens just in tme to boost the rankings. This group knows all about October Surprises.  comment []1:19:58 PM    

Scientists Challenge U.S. on Scientific Distortions: "The Union of Concerned Scientists, an independent organization which includes 20 Nobel laureates, issued a statement accusing the Bush administration of distorting scientific fact and supressing findings to fit administration policy decisions on the environment, health, biomedical research and nuclear weaponry. They also issued a 37-page report detailing the accusations." [Universal Rule]

The outcry may finally be casuing the Adminstration to make some changes. We shall see how wideranging they are.  comment []1:19:06 PM    

Research in Italy Turns Up a New Form of Mad Cow Disease. A new form of mad cow disease has been found in Italy, and scientists believe that it may be the cause of some cases of human brain-wasting disease. By Donald G. Mcneil Jr.. [New York Times: Health]

What ticked me off when reading this is that EVERY cow in Italy (1.6 million last year) is checked using a very sensitive assay that gives the answer in hours. We are going to only test 40,000 with a much less sensitive assay that takes days. Why in the world is the industry continuing to put its head in the gorund on something that could destroy it? Why can Italy examine 40 times the number of cattle we can? Why are we not using the most up to date assay possible? The only answer is that the cattle industry knows that the results WOULD destroy the industry, that there would be so many positives that it would be the end. We just had all this for ONE cow. Italy found 103. There are about 94 million head of cattle in the US right now. A similar ratio as Italy would result in about 6000 cattle being positive. Is the beef industry engaged in the same sort of denial seen in the tobacco industry? Are they setting themselves up for a big fall? The chances of getting vCJD is still very slight but perception is everything.  comment []11:44:38 AM    

Specter of Cloning May Prove a Mirage. Is a normal human blastocyst, a microscopic bubble of proto-life that forms about five days after sperm meets egg, the same as a cloned blastocyst? By Stephen S. Hall. [New York Times: Health]

A really nice article discussing the hard fact that cloning in a repordcutive sense will not happen anytime soon. It is still tremendously difficult just to get the embryo to the blastocyst stage reported just a few weeks ago. Other investigations using other mammals indicate that getting part this stage is even more difficult, with many genetic problems creeping up. In some researhcers minds, none of the cloned animals now being created are normal and virtually all succumb to some sort of health problem. With that background, only the most unscrupulous and immoral researcher would actually try to carry a blastocyst to term. Not that they do not exist but the money or resources to accomplish it would be hard to hide.  comment []11:28:21 AM    

The Price of Success. THE PRICE OF SUCCESS....In retrospect, it turns out that the State Department's intelligence operation made a pretty good threat assessment of Iraq's prewar capability. They were more accurate than the CIA, more accurate than the DIA, and way more accurate... [Calpundit]

What a wonderful government we have. Make the most accurate assessments and you get cut out from any future role. Make bad assessments and you get all the governmental juice. We passed through the Looking Glass some time ago. Up is down and right is wrong.  comment []11:20:49 AM    

Climate Change, Baby, Climate Change. CLIMATE CHANGE, BABY, CLIMATE CHANGE....I genuinely don't know what to think of this. The headline in the Observer screams "Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us," and it's followed by this story:A secret report, suppressed by US... [Calpundit]

Aren't the British papers fun? Much more enoyable than our humdrum media. Where do our papers have headlines saying 'Pentagon says we are doomed'? I guess it sells papers.  comment []11:18:57 AM    

Back From NYC

comment []11:12:55 AM