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Feb. 3rd, 2008
Patriots still Rule!
Feb. 3rd, 2008 09:44 pm Sez an old Massachusetts native.
PATS! PATS! PATS!
PATS! PATS! PATS!
PATS! PATS! PATS!
PATS! PATS! PATS!
Here's an article about the upsurgence of oral cancer among males, due to more oral sex than smoking. The article runs like this:
The HPV virus now causes as many cancers of the upper throat as tobacco and alcohol, probably due both to an increase in oral sex and the decline in smoking, researchers say.
The only available vaccine against HPV, made by Merck & Co. Inc., is currently given only to girls and young women. But Merck plans this year to ask government permission to offer the shot to boys.
(snippage) "We need to start having a discussion about those cancers other than cervical cancer that may be affected in a positive way by the vaccine," said study co-author Dr. Maura Gillison of Johns Hopkins University.
Now, I'm wondering where the researchers from John Hopkins got their funding, what types of earlier studies they accounted for, and how many samplings were involved in their reconnaisance of these studies. I think it's great that they're thinking of the men, and I think it's laudable to develop a vaccine for a virus that causes some cancers...but I admit that I'm always suspicious of a pharmeceutical company's motives in developing medicines and vaccines. There's nothing outwardly wrong in wanting to make a profit in preventing cancer...but then again, when it's a monstrous profit that develops only when you apply your female vaccine to males, too. Hey, gives me pause. I wonder about the actual statistics. Is this oral cancer as pervasive as other types of cancer? Does it matter since hey, it's cancer?
This vaccine has gotten some flack from women, and it's one of the most advertised medines I've seen in magazines aimed at mothers with young children (I wonder when the state is going to start requiring babies be vaccinated against HPV in order to go to school).
Anyhow, here's this article for your preusal. Your opinion?
The HPV virus now causes as many cancers of the upper throat as tobacco and alcohol, probably due both to an increase in oral sex and the decline in smoking, researchers say.
The only available vaccine against HPV, made by Merck & Co. Inc., is currently given only to girls and young women. But Merck plans this year to ask government permission to offer the shot to boys.
(snippage) "We need to start having a discussion about those cancers other than cervical cancer that may be affected in a positive way by the vaccine," said study co-author Dr. Maura Gillison of Johns Hopkins University.
Now, I'm wondering where the researchers from John Hopkins got their funding, what types of earlier studies they accounted for, and how many samplings were involved in their reconnaisance of these studies. I think it's great that they're thinking of the men, and I think it's laudable to develop a vaccine for a virus that causes some cancers...but I admit that I'm always suspicious of a pharmeceutical company's motives in developing medicines and vaccines. There's nothing outwardly wrong in wanting to make a profit in preventing cancer...but then again, when it's a monstrous profit that develops only when you apply your female vaccine to males, too. Hey, gives me pause. I wonder about the actual statistics. Is this oral cancer as pervasive as other types of cancer? Does it matter since hey, it's cancer?
This vaccine has gotten some flack from women, and it's one of the most advertised medines I've seen in magazines aimed at mothers with young children (I wonder when the state is going to start requiring babies be vaccinated against HPV in order to go to school).
Anyhow, here's this article for your preusal. Your opinion?
Cooks Don't Cry No More
Feb. 3rd, 2008 11:19 pmOnions make you cry when you cook? Here are some researchers and genetic docs figuring out how to eliminate that from your favorite veggie. I know *I* don't enjoy the acidity of onions when I chop the suckers up for my soups or crock pot. And even worse, forgetting you have the onion juice on your fingers when you wipe your weeping eyes. Ouch!
All I know is, everytime people start screwing around majorly with a defining characteristic of a vegetable or fruit, what usually results (when it isn't bred out the usual way) is bland, tasteless, or simply not what it was. (well, duh)
All I know is, everytime people start screwing around majorly with a defining characteristic of a vegetable or fruit, what usually results (when it isn't bred out the usual way) is bland, tasteless, or simply not what it was. (well, duh)
Yo, blue-eyed people, you're all related!
Feb. 3rd, 2008 11:32 pmSo sez the genetist in this article, who's been tracking this mitochondrial marker (that's the DNA that everyone inherits through their mother) all over the world. Blue eyed folks can trace their ancestry back to one person, according to this doctor.