Author: MarkH
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More Kirby nonsense
Just a quick note—check out Ames’s live blogging of David Kirby’s appearance in New York. The talk contains some of the usual gems, and also a few surprises, such as (if reported correctly) that homosexuals are sick but can’t admit it.
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Canada rocks!
I’ve just returned from one of the world’s great treasures, Algonquin Provincial Park, in Ontario, Canada. I have very little skepticism to offer—sure, I could talk about Park management, the Master Plan, logging, First Nations, etc. but then I’d lose an opportunity to share some of the natural beauty and some of the medical highlights.…
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What good is scienceblogging?
What Chad said. Fastest post ever.
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The Supreme Court Overturns the Handgun Ban
I must admit I’m a bit surprised to see the Supreme Court overturning the handgun ban (full ruling – PDF). I thought the court would have to take the position that gun ownership may be a right but one in which the state had enough of a compelling interest to regulate that bans like DC’s…
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A pregnancy boom at a Massachusetts high school
Surprisingly, it’s not due to the horribly misguided abstinence education nonsense. In fact, I can’t even begin to wrap my mind around this one. As summer vacation begins, 17 girls at Gloucester High School are expecting babies–more than four times the number of pregnancies the 1,200-student school had last year. Some adults dismissed the statistic…
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I’m going to hide in Canada…
…but I’m pretty sure Jimmy knows his way around there. HT Archeaoporn, Cectic
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Too disgusting to ignore
Reading Ed Brayton’s discussion of the contrasting behaviors of our two presidential candidates with regards to law and Supreme Court decisions, I couldn’t resist comment. One of the few advantages of medschool is that it keeps me from reading the news while I’m studying for exams, most recently my internal medicine shelf exam yesterday. Thus…
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Watch as Pfizer desperately clings to a patent…
…instead of focusing on innovation. I’ve written about Pfizer and Lipitor a few times in the last year. Now, Pfizer has found a way to extend its patent on Lipitor, a very profitable drug used in the management of heart disease and high cholesterol. Lipitor’s a great drug. It treats high cholesterol very effectively, and…
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Skeptics’ Circle #89 is up
This time from Africa! (Which doesn’t help explain the blog’s name at all, but it’s good.)
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The Taiping Rebellion—mass murder in the name of Jesus’s crazy little brother
A number of years ago, I saw an older physician reading a book with an intriguing title—God’s Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan, by Jonathan Spence. Like most Americans, I know very little about Chinese history. I certainly had no idea that there was a massive civil war in 19th century China…