Archive for 2014

RICH LOWRY: The Stupid Hounding of Condi Rice. “If Condoleezza Rice were as self-pitying and politically crass as Attorney General Eric Holder, she would be wondering aloud what it is about her race and gender that accounts for the hostility of her enemies.”

POLITICAL VIOLENCE IN OUR TIME: Woman cited for accosting GOP office worker. “A 54-year-old Sheboygan woman has been cited for disorderly conduct after she entered the Republican Party headquarters at 1122 Indiana Ave. on Tuesday and harangued an office worker there, including spitting on him. The woman was upset about an article she had read over the Internet.”

WELL, NOW IT’S TRANSNATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. Tam: How National Geographic Has Changed. “Ah, National Geographic, you always were good at showing us looks into lost civilizations; who knew it’d be one so recent, though?”

FASTER, PLEASE: Nasal Spray Holds Hope in Fighting Flu Epidemic.

Scottish and American scientists have found a new way to prevent flu infections that could, in theory, be used to fight an epidemic long before a vaccine is ready.

The method, successfully tested only in mice thus far, is a nasal spray of engineered proteins that coat the receptors in the nose and throat to which flu viruses attach.

Mice that got the spray as long as a week before being given a lethal dose of viruses from the 2009 pandemic flu were fully protected, according to the team at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland that invented the proteins.

That sounds promising.

FASTER, PLEASE: New drug to protect unvaccinated people from measles. “Like the flu, measles spreads through the air by breathing, coughing or sneezing. There is typically a two-week window between becoming infected with the virus and the onset of symptoms like skin rash, runny nose and fever. The novel drug, termed ERDRP-0519, is specifically designed to work during this two-week window, when vaccination can no longer protect from disease.”

WELL, YES: Court Declares That, Yes, Bloggers Are Media. “While it seems crazy that this kind of issue is still being debated in 2014, it’s good to see a court make such a clear statement on the fact that blogs will often qualify as media properties.”