Tropical Disease Reaches Italy

Story here.

Aided by global warming and globalization, Castiglione di Cervia has the dubious distinction of playing host to the first outbreak in modern Europe of a disease that had previously been seen only in the tropics. . . .

And if chikungunya can spread to Castiglione — “a place not special in any way,” Dr. Angelini said — there is no reason why it cannot go to other Italian villages. There is no reason why dengue, an even more debilitating tropical disease, cannot as well.

“This is the first case of an epidemic of a tropical disease in a developed, European country,” said Dr. Roberto Bertollini, director of the World Health Organization’s Health and Environment program. “Climate change creates conditions that make it easier for this mosquito to survive and it opens the door to diseases that didn’t exist here previously. This is a real issue. Now, today. It is not something a crazy environmentalist is warning about.” . . .

Closet Queen Planned Mass Jailing

Story here.

A newly declassified document shows that J. Edgar Hoover, the longtime director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had a plan to suspend habeas corpus and imprison some 12,000 Americans he suspected of disloyalty.

Hoover sent his plan to the White House on July 7, 1950, 12 days after the Korean War began. It envisioned putting suspect Americans in military prisons. . . .

Hoover’s plan called for “the permanent detention” of the roughly 12,000 suspects at military bases as well as in federal prisons. The F.B.I., he said, had found that the arrests it proposed in New York and California would cause the prisons there to overflow. . . .

Frank Rich Bashes Hillary

Frank Rich was one of the original Gore bashers, and now look at what has happened to our country during the Bush administration. From The Daily Howler:

It was astounding to see how hard Rich worked to denigrate Gore, even after the debut of An Inconvenient Truth. . . . But then, Rich told Times readers, all through Campaign 2000, that Bush and Gore were just alike. And he baldly lied about Gore in 2002, after Gore gave his speech warning against the war in Iraq. In short, nothing will stop this pandering fellow from his long, destructive jihad against all things Clinton-and-Gore. But then, we liberals tend to be easy; speaking completely Frankly here, it’s very easy to win our affections. See THE DAILY HOWLER, 6/9/06, for all five parts of our report on Rich’s long, damaging war.

Today, this glib Bush Enabler writes (in "A Résumé Can’t Buy You Love"):

In a two-page handwritten letter in response to a recent column of mine criticizing Mrs. Clinton’s Senate votes on Iraq and Iran, Bill Clinton made a serious and impassioned defense of her foreign-policy record. On the subject of her support for the so-called Kyl-Lieberman amendment on Iran this fall, Mr. Clinton wrote: “If Senator Obama, for example, had really believed it was an indirect authorization to attack Iran, he would not have stayed away on the campaign trail, but would have come back to vote against it.” That’s a fair point — and a fair criticism of Mr. Obama as he continues to vilify this particular Hillary Clinton vote. If voting for Kyl-Lieberman was as grave a step toward war as Mr. Obama claims, there’s no excuse for his absence.

Mr. Clinton’s narrow defense of his wife’s Iraq vote in 2002 — it was not “a blanket authorization to go to war,” he wrote — doesn’t persuade me. But even if it did, her choice for foreign-policy director in 2008 makes me question her ability to profit from experience and make a clean break with the establishment thinking in both parties that enabled the Iraq fiasco. Judgment calls like this rather than failures of the press may answer her husband’s question as to why the public finds her experience “irrelevant.” . . .

Do I sense he's getting a little testy?

Trouble in Belgium

Belgium (somewhat like Iraq) is an artificially created state. From The Guardian ("Divided Belgians draw line at divorce") (I'm part French and part Dutch and have no opinion on this--as if anyone would care--but who likes a divorce?):

But the crucial issues still remain. In three months Belgians will once again have to confront the vexed question of what - if anything - they want left in the power of a central state that has already delegated a large measure of independence to the northern Flemings and to the southern French-speaking Walloons.

At the heart of the crisis is a long-lived and growing cultural antagonism that has been exacerbated rather than relieved by Belgium's decades-long project of devolution. Long ruled by a French-speaking minority elite who looked down on the Dutch language as unsophisticated[*], the Francophone ascendancy came to an end in the mid-Sixties, when the previously poorer agricultural north overtook a heavily industrialised south in the throes of the decline of its steel and coal industries.

Needing the support of the wealthier north, Belgium's corrupt and once monolithic Socialist party made the first steps towards trading greater cultural rights for Dutch language and education in exchange for economic assistance. It resulted in the establishment of the prejudices of Belgium's constitutional conflict: the southern Francophone Walloons are unproductive, lazy and rely on subsidies, while the Flemings are money-obsessed, conservative and xenophobic. . . .

________
*In Belgium, the distinction between masculine and feminine nouns is usually, but not always, maintained, with speakers and writers of West-Flemish descent using the common gender more than other Belgians. For a large number of words no clear division is determined, and dictionaries just indicate them as de-words. In the case of persons and animals of known sex the pronouns used are generally determined by the biological sex rather than by the grammatical gender of the word. There are exceptions here too. (From Wikipedia, emphasis added.)

Queen E. Launches Royal YouTube Channel

Caught this in The Guardian.

The Queen has taken a bold stride into cyberspace by launching her own channel on the video-sharing website YouTube. The Royal Channel launches today as Buckingham Palace seeks to promote Britain's monarch to a youthful global audience.

While aides were utterly convinced it was the way forward, the 81-year-old Queen - who only recently mastered emailing and had never used a personal computer until two years ago - was not immediately acquainted with the YouTube phenomenon. But after the concept was explained to her by, among others, her granddaughters Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie - both avid Facebook fans - she personally approved the channel's go-ahead after viewing its contents. . . .

Two years ago the Queen confessed, while conferring an honorary knighthood on American Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, that she had not yet used a computer.

Since then, however, she has willingly embraced the internet and other major technological advances.

She has a mobile phone, and last year was presented with a six gigabyte iPod by Prince William, allegedly another Facebook fan, on which she reportedly stores the Last Night of the Proms. [link inserted by me]

She allowed her traditional Christmas broadcast to be podcast last year. And, not only has she acquired a BlackBerry, with its instant access to email on the move, but she has equipped all her senior aides with one too on the advice of her most technically savvy son, the Duke of York [Prince Andrew, her second son].

She has also, recently, learned how to email after years of relying on staff to do it for her.

(I wonder if she knows how to type.)

The Royal Channel, www.youtube.com/theroyalchannel, launched initially with nine videos at midnight last night. . . .

Airport Security "Horror Stories"

This was on Left Coaster today, "Welcome to George W. Bush's America": "An Icelandic woman's memorable visit. (h/t The Reaction ["Invasion of the Viking Women"], via Sott)". This poor woman, on a vacation to New York City, was treated like a terrorist for having overstayed (by three weeks) a tourist visa back in 1995, at which time the authorities didn't have a problem with it. After being chained, interrogated, deprived of food and sleep, medically examined, and thrown in jail over a 24-hour period, they deported her back to Iceland. (I guess she won't be coming back.)

What happened to literary biographer Peter Kurth while on a trip to London was even worse, however. He wrote this for Salon in May. The English authorities threw him in prison for a month for allegedly causing a scene on an airplane.

Most surprising to me was the fact that the police had information about my family -- specifically, that my father is a convert to Islam, married to a Moroccan woman; that I have two Moroccan half-sisters; that I have spent long periods in the Middle East. I was appalled to find out that such details are available "at the click of a mouse" to any squirt with a badge, and I must have indicated as much to the squirts in question, because their notes about my "attitude and behavior" boiled down to one word: "obnoxious."

(I might be "obnoxious" too if somebody did that to me.) (Peter Kurth's latest Salon article here.)

This isn't a horror story but a couple of years ago B., who looks like an Egyptian but is a Puerto Rican from New York City, was detained by the American security authorities in the Toronto airport on our way back to the States from Quebec City. They kept him so long I was afraid we'd miss our flight back to Miami but we didn't. (The DHS people there reeked of power.) (I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't be saying that, to spare myself some future grief.)

My Noisy Neighbor

The past few weeks, someone has been blasting the rock music in the apartment next door, which is adjacent to my bedroom. (I've lived here five and a half years and never once heard the slightest sound from that apartment until now.) The noise has roused me out of bed on the weekend, spoiled my nap time, and persisted well into the early morning hours on weekdays. Afraid of confronting some kind of madman by knocking on the neighbor's door, I've called the security guard several times and the noise stops, only to return another day. It's been driving me crazy.

It turns out that my neighbor has moved out of the apartment temporarily while it's being renovated. So the person renovating the apartment is making all the noise.

Today it started up right after I'd got out of bed (thank God for that). The bass guitar was reverberating throughout the entire apartment. After a while I called the security guard, who said he couldn't leave the desk but would call the apartment. The noise didn't stop. The security guard called back a while later and said he'd called the apartment five times and no one answered. The noise went on for hours.

I didn't know my neighbor's name so I looked it up on a county property search and wrote her a letter, telling her about the problem and warning her that she could be fined by the condo association if she didn't address it. Then I looked up her telephone number on a White Pages website. I then called the number and spoke with the guy. He asked me who I was and I said I was a friend. He said she wasn't there and then I asked for a number where I could reach her. He said she was staying at his parents' temporarily. I said thank you and hung up. (So the handyman is my neighbor's boyfriend or something.)

The music meanwhile persisted, perhaps less noticeably, but when I tried to take a nap in the bedroom, it was too much. (I could have taken a nap on the futon here in the second bedroom but it's covered with cat hair and not very comfortable--at least nothing like the new bed and pillow, which now have me spoiled.) So I called the guy back and told him who I was and asked that he please turn the music down so I could take a nap. He graciously apologized and said he had temporarily moved the sound system from the living room into the bedroom (adjacent to mine) but that he would be moving it back out tomorrow. (Boy, was I glad to hear that.) Meanwhile he turned the music down to where I could barely make it out and asked me to call him back if it still bothered me, but by then I wasn't sleepy anymore. Oh well. At least things have been resolved.

Slow News Day

Here's a recap of the week from Towle Road. Don't miss Ricky Martin's randy twin.

Absinthe - The Green Fairy

Absinthe, which was banned in the U.S. in 1912, was legalized this year. Video here. Another video here. Absinthe website here. Salon article here. Marilyn Manson's red absinthe ("Mansinthe") here. New Yorker article abstract here. Wikipedia article here. Buy absinthe here ($50/bottle). I've not tried it yet, though I've heard and read enough about it (including the New Yorker article in March--too bad it isn't archived yet). I guess I'll have to go out and buy a bottle.

Absinthe is a strong alcoholic liquor made from wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) and many other herbs. Absinthe is a deep green drink with a very bitter taste [?]. Absinthe was very popular with 19th century intellectuals, poets and artists such as Degas, Picasso, Oscar Wilde, Vincent Van Gogh and many others. Besides having a very high alcohol content (120 to 160 proof), Absinthe was also said to induce a dreamlike state, enhance creativity and facilitate artistic expression. [Source]

You're supposed to drink it diluted with cold water. I may have had it in France and not known what it was. Years ago, my elderly cousin in Paris served me a drink from a bottle and diluted it with cold water and it turned cloudy. It was very tasty and refreshing, anise- or licorice-flavored. It could have been just an anise liqueur. (I don't recall it being green to start out with.)

Joe Conason: "Why conservatives love Barack Obama"

Column in Salon (emphasis added):

Exactly why the American right hates the Clintons so fervidly remains a subject of debate among both political scientists and psychiatrists, but the persistence of those emotions is beyond dispute, especially among commentators and activists with little actual exposure to Hillary Clinton herself. (Evidently her conservative colleagues in the Senate have developed warmer feelings for the first lady they once demonized, but that's another topic.) So powerful is their fury that they will not hesitate to promote the career of a liberal black politician whose background and religious affiliation they regard with suspicion. Of course, they're also quite confident that they can bring him down later, too.

For the moment, at least, he is their shining hero. . . .

But Obama and his supporters must cherish no illusions about what will happen to him if he vanquishes Clinton. He will need the same kind of armor that she has worn proudly for years. What the right likes best about him is that he doesn't seem to own any.

Medical Myth Busted - Nails Do Not Grow After Death

From the BBC, "'Medical myths' exposed as untrue."

Some claim drinking eight glasses of water a day leads to good health, while reading in dim light damages eyesight.

Others believe we only use 10% of our brains or that shaving legs causes hair to grow back thicker.

But a review of evidence by US researchers surrounding seven commonly-hold beliefs suggests they are actually "medical myths".

Some are utterly untrue, while others have no evidential proof, the British Medical Journal reports.

Researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis hunted medical literature for evidence on each claim. . . .

From The Guardian

Apeldoorn, the Netherlands: Apartments in a building illuminated in different colours as part of a project by artists Marije Vermeulen and Guido Nieuwendijk (Photograph: Vincent Jannink/EPA) [I thought it would look nice on the blog.]

Consumer Reports Rates Cell Service

The cover report in the January 2008 issue of Consumer Reports magazine is on cellular phone service. While some people do not agree with Consumer Reports' ratings, I find them useful (not that I'm a huge consumer) and subscribe online. I think it's worth it. (My parents used to subscribe to the magazine.) A bit about Consumer Reports, from the website:

Consumer Reports® and ConsumerReports.org® are published by Consumers Union, an expert, independent nonprofit organization whose mission is to work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for all consumers and to empower consumers to protect themselves. To achieve this mission, we test, inform, and protect. To maintain our independence and impartiality, CU accepts no outside advertising, no free test samples, and has no agenda other than the interests of consumers. CU supports itself through the sale of our information products and services, individual contributions, and a few noncommercial grants. Consumers Union is governed by a board of 18 directors, who are elected by CU members and meet three times a year. CU's President, James Guest, oversees a staff of more than 450.

In other words, they buy everything they test and do not accept advertising. Now for the dirt. The ratings are based on a survey of 47,000 CR readers in 20 urban markets ranging from Atlanta to Washington, D.C. In all the markets except Minneapolis/St. Paul, Sprint was rated last. (AT&T was rated last in the Minneapolis market.) In all the markets except Dallas and Minneapolis, AT&T was rated second-last. (In Dallas it was T-Mobile and in Minneapolis it was Sprint.) In 16 markets, Verizon was rated No. 1. In Cleveland, Phoenix and Tampa, Alltel was rated No. 1. In Minneapolis, T-Mobile was rated No. 1. The ratings for Miami, for example, are: (1) Verizon, (2) T-Mobile, (3) AT&T, and (4) yes, Sprint, which is what we have (I guess I didn't do my research--in case CR treated it at the time). (Same results for most other markets.) Consumer Reports says of Sprint:

Missing from the [Quick Picks] is Sprint, whose satisfaction record makes it worth considering only if you especially value special offerings such as its walkie-talkie "push to talk" service, which is now available through Verizon as well.

A Sure Way to Cut Medical Costs AND Save Lives

The New Yorker had an excellent article by Atul Gawande on how using something as simple as checklists (as airline pilots do) can save lives and lots of money in the hospital ICU. (You would think they used them already, but you'd be wrong.)

The checklists provided two main benefits, Pronovost observed. First, they helped with memory recall, especially with mundane matters that are easily overlooked in patients undergoing more drastic events. (When you’re worrying about what treatment to give a woman who won’t stop seizing, it’s hard to remember to make sure that the head of her bed is in the right position.) A second effect was to make explicit the minimum, expected steps in complex processes. Pronovost was surprised to discover how often even experienced personnel failed to grasp the importance of certain precautions. In a survey of I.C.U. staff taken before introducing the ventilator checklists, he found that half hadn’t realized that there was evidence strongly supporting giving ventilated patients antacid medication. Checklists established a higher standard of baseline performance.

These are, of course, ridiculously primitive insights. Pronovost is routinely described by colleagues as “brilliant,” “inspiring,” a “genius.” He has an M.D. and a Ph.D. in public health from Johns Hopkins, and is trained in emergency medicine, anesthesiology, and critical-care medicine. But, really, does it take all that to figure out what house movers, wedding planners, and tax accountants figured out ages ago? . . .

In December, 2006, the Keystone Initiative published its findings in a landmark article in The New England Journal of Medicine. Within the first three months of the project, the infection rate in Michigan’s I.C.U.s decreased by sixty-six per cent. The typical I.C.U.—including the ones at Sinai-Grace Hospital—cut its quarterly infection rate to zero. Michigan’s infection rates fell so low that its average I.C.U. outperformed ninety per cent of I.C.U.s nationwide. In the Keystone Initiative’s first eighteen months, the hospitals saved an estimated hundred and seventy-five million dollars in costs and more than fifteen hundred lives. The successes have been sustained for almost four years—all because of a stupid little checklist.

You would think this would be a no-brainer, but the idea of checklists and regimentation goes against the current medical culture in the U.S. (and elsewhere?), with its emphasis on the doctor as a kind of maverick.

It’s ludicrous, though, to suppose that checklists are going to do away with the need for courage, wits, and improvisation. The body is too intricate and individual for that: good medicine will not be able to dispense with expert audacity. Yet it should also be ready to accept the virtues of regimentation. . . .

“We could get I.C.U. checklists in use throughout the United States within two years, if the country wanted it,” he said.

So far, it seems, we don’t. The United States could have been the first to adopt medical checklists nationwide, but, instead, Spain will beat us. “I at least hope we’re not the last,” Pronovost said. . . .

(Emphasis added.)

Guy Dies on Disney World Ride

Story here. He was only 44.

Life in Miami: Cold Snap!

It's been unseasonably warm here for this time of year. Usually it starts to cool off in October (it used to be September--I was born here) but, generally speaking, not this year. Sunday night, however, it started to really cool down, so much so that we were able to turn off the air conditioner for the first time in months (except for the times I cleaned the filter) and open the windows and the sliding glass door. Ah, natural air conditioning. (There's nothing quite like it.) We also put on our long lounging pajama bottoms. Still, it wasn't cold enough for us to get out the plush slippers. (Mine are Goofy and B.'s are Pepe le Pew.) Also, I wore a t-shirt with the arms cut off instead of the usual tank top. Brrrrr.

Pigeons of a Different Color

Actually these are "fruit doves." I'd never heard of them until I saw this segment last night on 60 Minutes, about the isolated Foja Mountains in Indonesia, where they've been discovering new animal species. (You can watch the whole segment at the link.) (It may not be new but it was new to me.) You couldn't Photoshop a prettier pigeon. (I wonder if that's two males snuggling in the tree.)

What George Bush Hath Wrought: "Why Ruin a Good Surge?"

From Bill Scher at LiberalOasis (read the whole thing--it's short):

How awesome is the surge?

So awesome, the occupying US military doesn't want the millions of Iraqis forced out of their country to come back.

Because then the surge wouldn't be awesome anymore.

From the W. Post: (emphasis added)

When the Iraqi government last month invited home the 1.4 million refugees who had fled this war-ravaged country for Syria -- and said it would send buses to pick them up -- the United Nations and the U.S. military reacted with horror.

U.N. refugee officials immediately advised against the move, saying any new arrivals risked homelessness, unemployment and deprivation in a place still struggling to take care of the people already here. For the military, the prospect of refugees returning to reclaim houses long since occupied by others, particularly in Baghdad, threatened to destroy fragile security improvements. . . .

The vast population upheaval resulting from Iraq's sectarian conflict has left the country with yet another looming crisis. At least one of every six Iraqis -- about 4.5 million people -- has left home, some for other parts of Iraq, others for neighboring nations.

Hey, why ruin a good surge by letting people come back home? . . .

Girl Born With 8 Limbs Leaves Hospital After Operation

Story from The Guardian.

'Lakshmi can now stand with help,' said Sharan Patil, chairman of the hospital. 'Medically, I have no reasons to believe she will not be a normal adult.'

60 Minutes on 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'

Tonight. Story here.

Discharges of gay soldiers have dropped dramatically since the Afghan and Iraq wars began, from 1,200 a year in 2001 to barely 600 now. With the military struggling to recruit and retain soldiers, gay soldiers claim that commanders are reluctant to discharge critical personnel in the middle of a war. . . .

As Steve Benen noted on TPM:

A few months ago, John McCain said gay people in the military represent an "intolerable risk" to morale, cohesion, and discipline. When push comes to shove, the
military apparently disagrees.