Should that be “Xenu-phon”

Scientology Australia have probably just added a new SP to their dossiers after Nick Xenophon’s scathing attack on the organisation early this morning (or late last night) - check out a video report over here.

Senator Xenophon said their correspondence [fro former church memebers] implicated the organisation in a range of crimes, including forced imprisonment, coerced abortions, embezzlement of church funds, physical violence, intimidation and blackmail.

In an effort to charm every divorcee in the country, Scientology released a statement that comments from ex-members are as reliable as that of an ex-spouse about a former partner. You see they mean all the emotional abuse and denial of care with love obviously.

Another charming response on this effort was on Ten’s 7pm Project which brought in theologian Rev Dr David Milligan who was supposed to illuminate the issue, but basically said Scientology can’t be that bad because Christianity (his religion) believes in some crazy stuff you find in a book too.

So close, yet so far… video embedded below, but you’ll have to skip to about 8:35 to get to the Scientology segment (the first story about a guy who goes 600km off course after a wrong turn is a bit amusing though).

First swine flu death in Australia

My boss and some co-workers are flying to Melbourne on Monday to meet with clients. We were joking about how they should be extra careful while visiting the “swine flu capital of Australia“. Maybe she should put herself in a week-long quarantine when she gets back.

One of our Medical Writers pointed out how its all overblown. And I pointed out that no one had died in Australia yet.

Well, I guess I should stop opening my mouth to talk about swine flu from now on. A 26-year old Indignous man from central Australia died in Royal Adelaide Hospital ICU died from a number of complications, including pneumonia. He was infected with the Mexican Influenza A/H1N1 virus.

It is not known where or when the man contracted the virus, nor how much it may have contributed to his fate.

I’ve pointed elsewhere on the internets that WHO has expressed concern over the possibility that Indigenous Canadian groups may be more susceptible to the A/H1N1 virus. Let’s hope that situation is not true here (or there, even).

Do we take this as a sign to panic? That we aren’t doing enough? Or are the governmental precautions still too heavy handed? They won’t do anything to help, they did not help this man? Does this change anything? Is it just a continuation of SNAFU ‘flu?

Image Credit: ‘Chasing pig at Gatton College‘, Unknown circa 1940s – State Library of Queensland on flickr

The death of TV news

Politics and twitter are killing intelligent news on your TV. Perhaps I should add “comedy satire news programs” to that list as well.

more about "The death of TV news", posted with vodpod

Swine flu arrives in Australia

I think we are getting to the stage where it’s pretty hard to deny that the current A/H1N1 Mexican Flu is a pandemic strain of flu. This made a lot of what I was planning to blog a bit obsolete (that’s why you should blog direct).

This week in Australia confirmed cases have been pretty much doubling each day. When I was putting together my flu resources for blogging on Tuesday, it was in the 20s. On Wednesday it jumped to just over 50. Yesterday it was near 100. Ten Late News just told me it’s 209. Will it be 1000 by the end of the weekend, or maybe it’ll hit a peak by 500?

The good(?) thing about the current form of the virus is that while it appears highly infectious, it doesn’t seem particularly lethal or morbid. But it doesn’t change the fact that influenza is a potentially lethal disease – so the less people who get infected in the first place the better (that’s directed at you anti-vax wingnuts and idiots planning swine flu parties). It also isn’t reassuring that the Spanish Influenza pandemic in the early 20th century was initially mild(-ish) and became increasiningly virulent.

Some stories from the past week of pandemic emergence:

• Diagnosed Canberra man claims, “I’ve had worse paper cuts“
• Investigative reporter Sarah Collerton goes a bit far for her job. After her flatmate is diagnosed with H1N1, she is thrown into quarrantine with her other flatmates, at least she has a laptop and can still write stories. Raises the question of whether quarantining potentially flu-free individuals with potential flu-infected ones is an appropriate action.
• Club Wah politely points out that people whinging about the lack of information available about swine Mexican flu, should possibly try looking for it.
• On the other hand some are woried that Health Minister Roxon is mentioning the possibility of cancelling football matches. Nice to see Australia has priorities.
• First case in Tasmania was identified tonight.
• Seven clinics have been set up to deal with Mexican flu in Victoria – I’ve read about clinics opening in Gold Coast, Brisbane and Adelaide as well.

To follow the Australian governments official pandemic phase alert, visit here.

For global information – I recommend the Google-Rhiza Labs interactive map project by Dr Niman.

Pandemic panic epidemic

I have a few posts lined up about swine flu. With Australian cases of A/H1N1 Mexican influenza have been steadily creeping up, I should try and get them out before we all die or something.

But i’ll take my chances and post them tomorrow, it’s getting quite late.

However I just loved that one of my friends back home pasted this on facebook. The local paper is panicking that some cruise ship that dropped of some infected passengers in Sydney (more about them later) has detoured so that instead of being distantly offshore of the Queensland coast in the Great Barrier Reef, it is now slightly less distantly offshore of the Queensland coast in the Great Barrier Reef. [Insert dramatic tone].

I’m struggling to work out how exactly it could travel along the east side of Australia without at some point being “off the coast of Rockhampton” (I’m going to just ignore the Bully momentarily forgetting that Rockhampton is not on the coast).

A whale is a terrible thing to waste

Oh I so want to move back to Brisbane.

The Queensland Museum has gotten first dibs on the body of a juvenile Blue Whale that died after beaching itself near Townsville.

They plan to cut away its soft tissue (a mammoth task that will take 2 days) and then display the skeleton. It would be the first complete skeleton of a blue whale in a museum anywhere in the world.

The soft tissue and other samples won’t go to waste either (I hope). They will be used in further research, first on the agenda, identifying the subspecies of this specimen.

Sydney Harbour’s Heavy Metal Weeds

via ScienceDaily

I live in North Sydney, just up the hill from Luna Park and the iconic Harbour Bridge.

It’s good to learn that the horror stories about the quality of Sydney Harbour’s water are actually true.

The waters of the harbour are actually teeming with life of all kinds. But rising levels of heavy metals in the ecosystem is threatening its stability. Copper, lead and zinc find their way into the waterways from stormwater runoff, industrial waters and motorised watercraft. These heavy metals are being found in large quantities in seaweed at a number of locations on the harbour, even higher than notoriously contaminated around the Hong Kong Islands and Brazil’s Sepetiba Bay.

This won’t necessarily kill the seaweed. But its worse for the whole ecosystem. The UNSW studies show that areas with heavily contaminated weeds are devoid of grazing amphipods. This could be considered good news for the weed (and possibly accumulation could be selected for), but less grazing amphipods means less food to support higher predators, like fish. The ecosystem collapses from top to bottom. Not good.

Study: Stabbing ≈ relief?

I really want more information before I make judgement on this news release:

“Acupuncture beats drug to hot flashes: study“

But I already have a few flags.

The best outline of the study was at the hospital’s own press release (I could find no peer reviewed published data*, anyone care to point to it).

“Seventy of the 140 patients enrolled in the two-year study will be randomly assigned to receive acupuncture for 12 weeks. The other half will receive Effexor over the same time period. Data will be collected at quarterly intervals in the first year. Researchers will test the effectiveness of acupuncture for reducing hot flashes and if it has fewer side effects than Effexor.” – Henry Ford Health n.d

ZZ: Please note Reuters places the final included patients figure at 47 patients, but still has them split 50:50. Lots of drop outs and exclusions*, or did they just shortfall their expected enrolment.

Now the design almost seems well and good. Patients were selected for meeting criteria, such as having 14 or more flashes per day etc. But while patients are being randomly assigned, it’s not exactly blind* is it? You can’t really hide who your giving medicine too and who you are jabbing acupuncture needles into.

Additionally, where are the controls? There is no placebo* on either treatment. A good study would at least have a third group receiving a placebo version of Effexor. An excellent study would also use placebo acupuncture or at least a placebo CAM (complimentary or alternitive medicine – or “woo”). A mindblowingly overfunded mega-study would have groups receiving both treatments, and combinations of conventional and CAM treatments and conventional and CAM placebos.

Were the patients denied any other treatments while on this study? or after the treatment period, (acupuncture was given 12 weeks out of the 104)? Sometimes clinical studies comparing a new drug’s efficacy allow standard drugs to be used as well. Otherwise you are denying a patient ethical treatment. Sometimes that “standard drugs” used in addition to the treatments on trial may even be the drugs you drawing comparisons with. Perhaps the acupuncture group was taking Effexor or other drugs*. And perhaps in lower doses, explaining their lower levels of side-effects.

So, what exactly is Effexor?  Well it’s the proprietery name for venlafaxine (Wyeth must be so happy about this free press). It’s an antidepressant, not an anti-hot flash medication. Now, while not its intended use, there is evidence that low doses of venlafaxine and other antidepressentscan effect relief during hot flashes , but it is not the standard treatment as the news reports are suggesting*. Mayoclinic’s page on hot flashes explains that hormones (oestrogen, progesterone) are what is recommended.

Don’t miss the flip-flop after the break.

Inaugural “Warren” at home edition: The Disney irl horror movie

apologies to GNW*

Rules of “WARREN”^:
A recent news headline item has been mysteriously replaced with the word “Warren” can you guess what it is. Worth 10 points or something, I don’t really care…

Your headlines should you choose to accept them:

• Warren IS A Woman
• Warren: a ‘really bad Disney movie’
• The difference between Warren and Muslim fundamentalists? Lipstick

Click more for the answer

Killer cornflakes, nothing to laugh at

via small dead animals

Sometimes it’s unclear where the media-hype and the real dangers collide.

Serious dangers are emerging for Australia (and other parts of the world) that are well beyond what people would expect. No one was certainly planning on the Murray-Darling drying up (well no one who had any actual power to do anything about it).

A news report from earlier this year warned that arid conditions could trigger fungal outbreaks amongst food products that could lead to serious food poisoning hazards. CQU actually made the news by warning of “mass hallucinations, manic depression, gangrene, abortions, reduced fertility and painful, convulsive death”.

You might think that standard food safety standards should mandate alerts if any food source gets contaminated, right? However, these symptons aren’t caused by a single heavy dose of mycotoxin, but several small doses over an extended time period. It all adds up if you consider the amount of foodstuff you eat on a regular basis made from cereal crops (unless you’re allergic to gluten or something).

Small dead animals appears to be a right-wing climate change skeptic, and the comments certainly are full of grand ridicule of environmental health as a profession and the idea of killer cornflakes.

However I can’t help but consider the recent food poison scares emerging from China (melamine in milk) and Japan (pesticides and mycotoxins in rice/sake). Not necessarily directly caused by global warming – but definitely shows that food poisoning is a serious risk. And also consider, more fungal outbreaks will mean more reliance on (over)using chemical fungicides on crops.

Labor “Party” Taken Too Literally

C’mon Labor, you should be promoting Matt Brown for his stellar performance combining lewd drunkeness and chauvinism in the one go. Isn’t that what the unions and working class blokes all over Australia stand for.

The entire drive down to Sydney I was greeted with this lovely gem in my Triple J news bulletin every hour on the hour.

NSW Police Minister Matt Brown resigned (read: was made to resign) for drunken disorderly behaviour unbefitting a minister (read: stripped down to his underwear and allegedly simulating sex act on female colleague*). Read all about it at the Sydney Morning Herald.

Mr Brown was sacked for lying to [NSW Premier] Mr Rees about dancing in his underpants in his office, where he was alleged to have straddled Ms Hay’s chest and called out to her adult daughter: “Look at this, I’m tittie-f*ing your mother!”. – Daily Telegraph is a little more juicy

My, my, what an impression the city is making on a small little country boy like me.

Noreen Hay, the alleged victim – both her, Matt and the daughter deny any chest straddling occured – has also been fired as detailed by the Telegraph. With little explanation as to the reason. Is this blaming the victim? Just trying to sweep it all away?

I hardly think this is likely to be forgotten in a hurry.

Possibly this can be a good reminder that at any work function, clothing is always mandatory.

*read: alleged to have mounted a 46 year old MP’s chest area, gyrated a lot and then yelled at said minister’s daughter “Wooo, I’m titty-fucking your mother”… but who really wants to spread these silly rumours any further.

Exposing secret men’s business

Indigenous Australian rights has been very high profile in Australia recently. Most will be aware of the Federal Parliament’s official apology earlier this year, some may not be quite so familiar with a further apology made by male Indigenous Australians a few months ago.

Most of the focus was on cultural male violence – including sexual and physical abuse against women and children – that affects some Indigenous communities. But perhaps there is more to it than that…

Josh reports the news of uproar amongst community Aboriginal education bodies against a book that encourages girls to use didgeridoos (AFP).

Apparently using a didgeridoo can cause infertility, the means may be unspecified, but apparently it’s a fact.

“We know very clearly that there’s a range of consequences for a female touching a didgeridoo — infertility would be the start of it, ranging to other consequences. I won’t even let my daughter touch one.” -Victorian Aboriginal Education Association, GM Mark Rose.

I’d like to repeat Josh: “Was there a double-blinded controlled study?”

“Secret Men’s Business” is Indigenous Australia’s way of excusing culturally ingrained bigotry. This commentary piece by Sam Watson exposes part of the denial problem.

“We do not have any power anymore, no role or place or rights to be men. Our men are attacked and condemned in every newspaper and two bob media commentator in the land. Our men are fair game for every talk back – shock jock on the commercial networks. And we are even ripped apart by those self-appointed, ‘Jacky ­ Jacky’ leaders who are acting as attack dogs for their white masters.”

There is no modern role for “men” as a role in society, this is not an indigenous-specific issue. It is very much at the root of the modern male-depression epidemic. All communities, including indigenous ones, must adjust to the equal rights movement. Men no longer have a right to be head of a household, anymore than whites have rights to segregate themselves from blacks.

In order to be afforded the rights expected in a modern society, some of your previous “rights” must be relinquished. Part of this will be some traditional roles and activities that are not acceptable by modern standards, and it certainly goes beyond domestic violence issues.

Watson also uses the No-True-Scotsman fallacy which I think appears to pervade many activists attempting to address this issue. A we-are-not-the-problem attitude will not be successful in dealing with this issue.

Megan Clark set to make CSIRO rock

The CSIRO has appointed geologist Megan Clark as new CEO.

The Australian, ABCnews, The Age.

Clark has an impressive CV that involves more than just looking at rocks. Currently she is VP of mineral resource giant BHP Billiton, so certainly has management skills in tow.

Her predecessor also had a reputation as a innovative go-getter. However, Geoff Garret was heavily criticised by scientists and science media for focusing too much on marketing and branding. Sacrificing “blue sky” (open ended, discovery-based) research for investing only in profit-generating ideas, such as patents and marketable diets.

The CSIRO is a government funded science flagship, not a biotech start-up trying to impress shareholders. Voices are hopeful that Clark is going to work with the new government to pump out more science and less spin – but already, even the age article I can see the spin wheels turning. She is denying existence of low morale amongst staff, and somehow making it appear that the government is improving its R&D investments in the organisation.

In actuality the government cut $60 million over 4 years from CSIRO’s budget in May this year (ABCnews, AustLifeScientist +2). This caused job losses and office closures in regional centres. Staff at the my local lab in Rockhampton first heard about their branches closure when the read it in the paper. This sort of business behaviour does not tend to cultivate strong morale.

Maybe it’s just same shit different cow.

One Horned Jesus

The overlord of the godless interwebs has returned from his pilgrimage to the isle of beasts…

It’s definitely nice to have Pharyngula back on tap. Some of the intermission posts by PZ’s students have been interested. I would definitely like to see Danio writing things (possibly on his own site) on a more regular basis.

The break from PZ did allow me to appreciate some of scienceblogs other writers though – which was definitely a good thing.

For those of you under a rock PZ is the heavyweight of science blogging, capable of crashing polls and servers like no other man. Capable of stirring up controversies that can shake wikipedia and bring the Catholic League to its knees.

Today we have him to thank for this simply wonderful story:

An art gallery in the UK is causing outrage amongst local Christians. The current display includes a plaster figure of Jesus – with a stiffy (pics thx to the sun)

Other culture icons like Mickey Mouse are included in the display. I think this is probably a little more distressing for kiddies than old JC. I mean JC was a thirty year old guy, presumeably he at least suffered from the occasional morning glory. Mickey is purely a children’s entertainment icon, like Ken, he isn’t even meant to have junk down there, let alone working plumbing.

Fate of the two-headed baby

Kiron, the Bangladeshi two-headed baby, died from a fever after being taken home from hospital. His parents could not afford to keep him in hospital.

This happened in the time it took for me to drive home from work…

The baby had two heads, but one stomach, one set of genitals, and a single complete set of limbs (two arms and four legs) – click the link  above for a photo.

This is a case incomplete twinning (developmental issues, not a bizarre mutation) – but would Kiron count as two babies or one? If you had to chop off one head, how would you choose?

The baby was apparently rather healthy (probably a victim of impovershed conditions, more than anything developmental) – could he have grown up normally? Would the heads have individual egos? How much control would they have over limbs?