- India reports completely drug-resistant TB – “…news has broken in India of the existence of at least 12 patients infected with tuberculosis that has become resistant to all the drugs used against the disease. Physicians in Mumbai are calling the strain TDR, for Totally Drug-Resistant. In other words, it is untreatable as far as they know.”
- An obsessive chat about “The Devil Inside” – A funny back-and-forth between two critics who attended the screening for this new exorcism movie. “Matt: But the actual act of exorcism itself is not very cinematic. It’s mostly a guy screaming and yelling at a woman while she writhes on a bed. Mike: Right. I would say it’s on the same level of watching someone get a prostate exam.”
- Vaccine Rejectionism Spectrum Disorder – VRSD is, “is an umbrella term applied to individuals who mislead others, through spoken and/or written communications, about the risk of vaccines and vaccination.”
- Marketers of acai products fined $1.5 million for false claims and unfair billing – From jes3ica.
I find myself becoming irrationally terrified of TB. Please no one try to convince me that the fear is rational.
I’m sorry, but this blog is dedicated to skeptical and rational discourse. I would encourage you to expand your list of microbially related fears by searching for “antibiotic resistance” “necrotizing soft tissue infection” “H1N5” and “Mycobacterium ulcerans”*, to name but a few, so that you can then treat your fears in a rational and substantive manner.
* – This one is especially relevant in that it’s like TB – a mycobacterium! It’s a personal favorite.
Yes, MRSA, VRSA, and all the other resistant bacteria are nasty as are quite a few viruses, retroviruses, and prions. Of all them, however, TB just seems to be bigger, nastier, and have a really bad attitude towards humans.
Not sure if it’s a good idea to attach the word “disorder” to anti-vaxxers since that actually means something clinically, and more importantly it gives them an excuse.
That post also made me realize that Guy Fawkes is this generation’s Che Guevara; an iconic face for people to latch onto without actually knowing what the original stood for.
I do believe it’s a Poe, mrmisconception. More information can be found on BlissfulBlightBooks.com.
/I feel so cheap.
You mayn be right.
Damn it! That is the second time this week that I missed the rather obvious signs of a writers true intent. I either need more sleep or more coffee. :(
Don’t worry, I know exactly where the Guy Fawkes iconography originated. It was the Gunpowder Treason Plot, a failed attempt by Catholics to assassinate King James the First. I realise also, however, that symbols throughout history can be given new meaning as easily as their original meaning is established, such as the Nazi swastika, which was around a long time before the Nazis “adopted” it. I’ve only just discovered this link to my blog. Yes, the piece linked here is indeed intended as satire. While I do, personally, question the sanity of many anti-vaccine activists, this post wasn’t intended as an actual diagnostic criteria for a real illness. Unless, of course, some scientific basis can be found for it. This was written in a moment when I was sick of being told that my autism was the result of a vaccine injury by people that had no qualifications to make such a diagnosis. This post was simply a rebuttal. :)
That acai bullshit needs to fuck off and die.
And when I went to see the last Matrix movie, a whole bunch of people booed that. So yeah.
Sigh. I just had a tiff in a friend’s Facebook over the posting of anti-vax propaganda (that word doesn’t look right no matter how I spell it today). Essentially this poem about how so and so was a wonderfully normal baby until the EVIL VACCINES DESTROYED HIS BRAIN!!!!
When I countered that I understood the comfort of a salve like “vaccines did this” as opposed, “We have no idea how this happens,” but that I’d rather that we pursue the truth rather than bask in a comforting lie, I was called mean and totally ignorant. I responded with a link to the CDC’s Adverse Effects page.
At this point I’m seriously rethinking my somewhat promiscuous Facebook friend-ing attitudes.
Personally pissed off about that exorcism movie. Real exorcism is also extremely dangerous–much more so than a real medical treatment. Children are killed in this world by exorcism–routinely smothered by charlatans. I can barely contain my contempt.