Final Heal post: MSU on malaria

While I've been busy blogging about Ebola, I've been ignoring malaria.  Except for a brief mention in Third American doctor infected and other Ebola news, I haven't written it about since An interlude about malaria in January.  Michigan State University has given me the opportunity to revisit the disease in MSU doctor solves deadly mystery of malaria; will lead to life-saving treatments.

Cerebral malaria is the deadliest type of malaria and kills more than one-half million children under age five each year. However, knowing how it kills has eluded physicians from finding a treatment for centuries, until now. In groundbreaking research, Michigan State University’s Dr. Terrie Taylor and Dr. Karl Seydel, have found that children who die from cerebral malaria have massively swollen brains.

It's about time I mentioned Terrie Taylor here, although I've linked to four Examiner.com articles I've written about her, the ones that describe malaria as "a disease that infects at least 350 million people each year and kills about one million of them, mostly children in Sub-Saharan Africa" and one about an award she's earned "MSU Physician wins AMA Foundation Excellence in Medicine Award."   She deserved it.

Local stations return to two month price support

Here's what I wrote about the state of the neighborhood gas price was in Gas returns to being lower year-over-year.

I was right.  By this evening, all the neighborhood stations had lowered their price to $3.39.  Hey, a dime drop in two days, not next week--I'll take that!

That was Wednesday evening.  As of Friday, the three stations down the block lowered their price to $3.37.  On Saturday morning, the corner station joined them, only to have the other three neighborhood outlets drop their price to $3.35.  As of Sunday, the corner station had joined them.  That means gas prices are where they were two weeks ago, a month ago, eight weeks ago, and two months ago.  When I predicted price resistance at $3.35 near the end of July, I didn't expect it to go on this long!

Despite the repeated bouncing off the floor, gas prices are still lower than at this time last year, when they were at $3.39.  I'd post Professor Farnsworth, except I'm waiting for all four stations to lower prices to $3.32 or below.  After that, it's the limbo kitty's turn.

Speaking of bouncing off the floor, that's the picture GasBuddy paints for national gas prices.  The national average has finally returned to $3.33, where it was on September 22nd.  The Detroit average has finally fallen below $3.38, which it bounced off of twice since July, to $3.37.  The stations down the street could conceivably lower their prices to $3.29 this week, as I predicted a while ago.  In fact, they're getting pressure to do so already, as a station a mile down the road is advertising regular for $3.33 cash.  Stay tuned.

Predictions about Ebola coming true

It's been two weeks since The Archdruid on Ebola and other epidemic news, so it's time for another update.

First, this video from Discovery News: Everything You Need To Know About Ebola In Under 3 Minutes.

The current Ebola outbreak is the worst in history, and there are a lot of myths about this virus floating around. Julian is here to figure out what is fact, and what is fiction.

Now that the general introduction is out of the way, on September 19, 2014, Arizona State University posted Research predicts possible 6,800 new Ebola cases this month.

New research published in the online journal PLoS Outbreaks predicts new Ebola cases could reach 6,800 in West Africa by the end of the month if new control measures are not enacted.

Arizona State University and Harvard University researchers also discovered through modeling analysis that the rate of rise in cases significantly increased in August in Liberia and Guinea, around the time that a mass quarantine was put in place, indicating that the mass quarantine efforts may have made the outbreak worse than it would have been otherwise.

Deteriorating living and hygiene conditions in some of the quarantined areas sparked riots last month. Sierra Leone began a three day country-wide quarantine today, where all citizens have been asked to stay at home, said Sherry Towers, research professor for the ASU Simon A. Levin Mathematical, Computational and Modeling Sciences Center (MCMSC) in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Tomorrow is the end of the month, so it's time to see if that prediction is coming true.  In Liberia's top doctor in quarantine after assistant dies of Ebola, Reuters reported the latest.

The latest figures from the World Health Organization show that the death toll from the worst outbreak of Ebola on record has killed at least 3,091 people, out of 6,574 probable, suspected and confirmed cases.

Pretty close, especially since the numbers came out on Saturday.  I'm sure four more days would push the number of cases to and probably past 6,800.

As for the future, another Reuters report passed along these grim projections.

WHO said earlier this week the total number of infections could reach 20,000 by November, months earlier than previously forecast. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned between 550,000 and 1.4 million people might be infected in the region by January if nothing was done.

The Archdruid is right to be concerned about Ebola.  He concluded his response to a comment of mine on Dark Age America: The Senility of the Elites on the topic.

I probably need to do a post here on the likely role of pandemic disease in the transition to the deindustrial dark age. Given that Ebola cases are doubling every twenty days at this point, that may be a more immediately relevant point than most people like to think.

I hope he follows through.  If so, it wouldn't be the first time one of my comments prompted him to explore a topic.  I did it before when I inspired The Archdruid to write about Steampunk.  That's when I wrote the following to him.

On my blog, I've written that interacting with you has been good for my writing.  I'm glad to see that the reverse has been true for you, too.

May that continue to be so.

Driving update for September 2014: Ruby

Yesterday, my wife rolled over Ruby's odometer for 88,000 miles.  That means it's time for an another driving update.

I posted Driving update for May 2014: Ruby on May 15, 2014, the last time the car's odometer rolled over.  That means that it took 104 days to drive the car 1,000 miles for an average of 9.62 miles/day and 293.27 miles/month.  That's a lot more than the 7.14 miles/day and 217.9 miles/month for not only the previous update, but the one before that.  What happened?

I'm driving Ruby more and Yuki less while my wife holds her driving steady.  It's been 80 days since Driving update for July 2014: Yuki and I've only driven my car about 750 miles.  At that rate, it should be another 26 or 27 days before I roll her over to 222,000 miles for 1000 miles in 106.7 days.  That would be a rate of 9.37 miles/day or 285.85 miles/month.  That would be much less than the 11.90 miles/day and 363.10 miles/month during the comparable period last year.

That written, Yuki may not reach that milestone, at least not with me driving her.  My wife and I are shopping for another car, and Yuki will likely be the one traded in.  Sigh.  That will deserve a post of its own when that happens, along with the story of how buying Ruby was the fulfillment of a promise I made to my students.  Later.

In the meantime, I'll connect Ruby to my Sunday entertainment series.  As I wrote in Second driving update for December 2013: Other car, I named the car after a character in "Once Upon A Time."

I gave her that name because of the car's color and because my wife and I are fans of "Once Upon a Time," which had a character named Ruby, who is really Red Riding Hood, for the first two seasons.

Ruby/Red was a guest star in the second half of the third season as well.  As for whether she's in this season, my wife and I will find out tonight, as the season premiere is tonight.

Until then, we can whet our appetites on what io9 wrote about the show in The Ultimate Guide to this Fall's Science Fiction and Fantasy TV!

The fairy tale badasses are back, but how will the latest addition of the Snow Queen (Elsa from Frozen) change the world of Stroybrooke? Will it change anything at all? Specifically, will Hook change his clothes, ever? I guess we'll have to wait and see.

We can hardly wait.

MAVEN at Mars from the University of Colorado

I concluded Mars update for MAVEN's arrival with "stay tuned for more on MAVEN" later.  It's later, so here are the two top stories from tonight's Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (MAVEN at Mars) on Daily Kos.  Both of them are follow ups to the lead story from Space news from the University of Colorado.

NASA mission led by CU-Boulder achieves Martian orbit Sept. 21
September 21, 2014

The spacecraft for a NASA mission to probe the climate history of Mars led by the University of Colorado Boulder slid seamlessly into orbit at about 8:24 p.m. MDT on Sunday, Sept. 21, the last major hurdle of the 10-month, 442-million-mile journey.

The orbit insertion included the firing of several thruster engines to shed velocity from the spacecraft, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, or MAVEN mission. The maneuver allowed the gravity of Mars to capture the MAVEN spacecraft into an elongated, 35-hour orbit. In the coming weeks MAVEN’s orbit will be reduced to an elliptical, 4.5-hour orbit in order to collect science data.

MAVEN will now begin a six-week commissioning phase that includes testing the instruments and science-mapping sequences. After that, MAVEN will begin its one-Earth-year primary mission, taking key measurements of Mars’ upper atmosphere.

CU-Boulder instrument onboard MAVEN sends back first images of Mars
September 24, 2014

NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft has obtained its first observations of the extended upper atmosphere surrounding Mars.

The Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS) instrument obtained these false-color images eight hours after the successful completion of Mars orbit insertion by the spacecraft at 10:24 p.m. EDT Sunday, Sept. 21 after a 10-month journey.

The image shows the planet from an altitude of 36,500 kilometers, or 22,680 miles, in three ultraviolet wavelength bands.  Blue shows the ultraviolet light from the sun scattered from atomic hydrogen gas in an extended cloud that goes to thousands of kilometers above the planet’s surface.  Green shows a different wavelength of ultraviolet light that is primarily sunlight reflected off of atomic oxygen, showing the smaller oxygen cloud. Red shows ultraviolet sunlight reflected from the planet’s surface; the bright spot in the lower right is light reflected either from polar ice or clouds.

Here's to more from MAVEN.

Passenger Pigeons: Extinction on exhibit

Today, I'm taking my geology students on their all-day field trip.  One of my usual stops is the MSU Museum, as I detailed in Field trip notes for April 2013.  Unfortunately, today is a football Saturday in East Lansing, so the museum is closed, just like it was last year as I mentioned in A Day at the museum--not!  Too bad, as it has a really cool exhibit about extinction that my students and I saw this summer.  Here's the write-up from MSU.

'They Passed like a Cloud' traces abundance to extinction
June 9, 2014

Despite such incredible abundance in the past, the Passenger Pigeon is now extinct. 2014 marks the 100th year of their disappearance, and it is perhaps better known today as a cautionary tale prompting a call-to-action for environmental awareness.

The MSU Museum presents “They Passed Like a Cloud: Extinction and the Passenger Pigeon,” open now through Jan. 25. The title comes from Chief Pokagon, last chief of the Michigan Potawatomi people, in 1850 as he observed their massive presence, passing through the skies and tree branches.

Easy to hunt and harvest in large numbers, the birds were pushed to the brink. The last documented mighty colony of Passenger Pigeons was in Northern Michigan.

“This exhibit provides a great opportunity to get people to think about our impact on the environment,” said MSU Museum assistant curator of ornithology and assistant professor in the Department of Zoology Pamela C. Rasmussen. “This cautionary tale about our ancestors eliminating one of the world's most abundant birds in a few decades is more relevant now than ever. We tend to take the natural world for granted, but we really can't. Hopefully this exhibit will help create awareness that translates into positive action.”

Exhibitions like this mark the anniversary, promote the conservation of species and habitat, strengthen the relationship between people and nature and foster the sustainable use of natural resources.

Not to be outdone, the University of Michigan has its own exhibit.

Art exhibit marks 100-year extinction of passenger pigeon, adds to events planned at U-M
September 11, 2014

ANN ARBOR—When artists across the country were invited to be part of a traveling exhibit to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the extinction of the passenger pigeon, many had no idea of the story they were about to hear.

"As I began my research about the passenger pigeon, and rapidly began to understand the radical, abrupt and total demise of this beautiful bird, my heart ached," wrote Karen Rand Anderson of Connecticut in her artist statement, upon hearing about how the actions of man had killed off this bird that once roamed the continent freely, in abundant numbers.

"The facts are stunning: a population in the billions eliminated in a few decades. This is an idea I am still processing," said Eileen Hout of New York.

Unfortunately, it's a football Saturday in Ann Arbor, too, so my students won't be going there, either.  I will pass along to my students that they can to go both locations for extra credit.

On that note, I'm going to bed, as I have to get up early to lead the field trip.  Good night!

Nemesis: essay and song

I found out yesterday the topic of this year's student essay contest--Nemesis.  It just so happened that I thought about posting a music video to the song of that name by Shriekback for Throwback Thursday yesterday, but I was running late and had already posted for the day.  On top of that, I was right on schedule for number of posts and page views for the month, so I decided to skip it.  It ended up being my best day for page views so far this month.

Today, I'm going to an event sponsored by the same committee who also came up with the essay idea, so I'm posting both the video and the essay prompt.  First, the video, which is from Shriekback's live show, Shriekback Jungle Of The Senses Part 1.


(Nothing but) Flowers may be the theme song for the blog and as such may be my theme song now, but "Nemesis" was my personal theme song before that.  It mentioned both prehistoric animals and parthenogenesis, which were subjects of my M.S. and Ph.D. research respectively and was a cool song to boot.  That's why I wanted to post it yesterday.

Follow over the jump for the essay prompt.

Gas returns to being lower year-over-year

I dispensed Monday's price movements along with a dismal assessment of where I thought prices were going in the middle of Gas prices surprise me with their rise.

Yesterday morning the corner station shot its price up to $3.55.  Meanwhile, the three stations down the street were still at $3.35.  I'd seen this before and thought it would be another charge into No Man's Land by the corner station.  Yesterday afternoon proved me wrong, as the rest of the neighborhood outlets followed it, raising their prices to $3.49.  Prices might resume going down by next week, but 20 cents lower by the end of the month, only one week away, just doesn't look good any more.  Just getting back down to $3.35 would be good news enough.

I was a little more optimistic in the conclusion, writing "the neighborhood price will drop, although maybe not to $3.29 by the 30th."  Tonight, I'm a bit more optimistic about meeting that goal by sometime next week, if not the 30th.

First, the corner station matched the rest at $3.49 on Tuesday.  Next, it dropped its price to $3.45 on Wednesday morning, when I bought half a tank.  I wasn't going to fill up, as I was fairly confident in the price dropping more before I needed more gas.  I was right.  By this evening, all the neighborhood stations had lowered their price to $3.39.  Hey, a dime drop in two days, not next week--I'll take that!

Also in the good news department, prices have returned to being lower than this time last year, when they were $3.44.  I'll take a nickel cheaper, too.

While the neighborhood prices are dropping, GasBuddy shows both the national and Detroit averages having been rising since the last update.  The national average is now $3.34, a penny above the $3.33 on Monday.  The Detroit average jumped even more from $3.39 to $3.43.  Even with the increasing averages, the nearby stations are still overpriced relative to the local retail price environment, although they won't be if prices keep rising.  Follow over the jump for news from Reuters that suggests they might.

Racetrack Playa, a story my students tell me

Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Blair Mountain and Labor Day) on Daily Kos contained articles about a story I tell my students and a story my students tell me.  Tonight, I'm sharing the story my students tell me when they submit articles about geology for extra credit, the sliding stones of Racetrack Playa.  I've received copies of that article more times than I care to count. Last month, the mystery of how these rocks moved was solved.

Scripps Research Institute via PhysOrg: Mystery solved: 'Sailing stones' of death valley seen in action for the first time
August 28, 2014

Racetrack Playa is home to an enduring Death Valley mystery. Littered across the surface of this dry lake, also called a "playa," are hundreds of rocks – some weighing as much as 320 kilograms (700 pounds) – that seem to have been dragged across the ground, leaving synchronized trails that can stretch for hundreds of meters.

What powerful force could be moving them? Researchers have investigated this question since the 1940s, but no one has seen the process in action – until now.

In a paper published in the journal PLOS ONE on Aug. 27, a team led by Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, paleobiologist Richard Norris reports on first-hand observations of the phenomenon.

Here's the video explaining the discovery of the mechanism: How Rocks Move.

Scripps Oceanography paleooceanographer Richard Norris describes the phenomenon of sliding rocks in Death Valley.

I tell my students I learn as much from them as a group as they learn from me individually.  The story of these rocks serves as one example of what my students have taught me.

Mars update for MAVEN's arrival

I led Space news from the University of Colorado with a preview of MAVEN's arrival at Mars.  I'll write about that even later.  Until then, I'm marking the occasion with the the Mars news from Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Blair Mountain and Labor Day), which makes this the first update about the Red Planet since Curiosity and other Mars news from the past two weeks more than a month ago.

Red Orbit: Signs of Life: How NASA JPL Uses Big Data to Explore Mars

In 60 minutes, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory accelerates discovery by 840% and explores Mars more quickly

High-performance computing in the cloud has enhanced the close collaboration between mission control and IT. As expert users of infrastructure-rather than simply infrastructure experts-IT has become tightly integrated into the mission teams. 

Research at the speed of light with big data cloud computing

The vast red plains and pink sky of Mars hint that volcanoes, meteors, and flash floods once shaped the landscape. Today, a number of robots, sent by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, explore the atmosphere and surface of Mars. These rovers are on a quest to find out whether the red planet is, or ever was, an environment able to support life.

However, giving instructions to a Mars rover is more difficult than most people realize. Unfortunately, there's no joystick controller a scientist can use to move the rover around. In fact, there's no real-time communication at all. Scientists are only able to communicate with the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover during short windows that occur once or twice a day. And transmissions that travel at the speed of light still take between 7 and 20 minutes to reach the rover itself.

Yes, this is an ad, which is why I have the corporate PR label. It's still good space news.

Follow over the jump from more from Red Orbit and Florida State University.

Gas prices surprise me with their rise

What did I forecast about gas prices in Retail prices drop despite OPEC production cut?

The corner station is still at $3.41, but it's only a matter of time before it drops its price, too.

On Friday, that happened.  That was an easy prediction.  What about the next one?

The Wall Street Journal gives me a reason not to expect local prices at the pump to fall more this week, reporting Oil Strengthens on Report that OPEC Could Cut Output.

Prices did not drop any more last week and as of Sunday night, all the neighborhood stations were still at $3.35.

I reinforced that successful prediction in the next one.

RBOB is now three cents higher than last week, when it was $2.5245 a gallon, while diesel is half a cent higher than last week's $2.7474 a gallon.  None of this suggests a rapid drop soon, although I expect the seasonal price trend to resume in a week or two.  My prediction of $3.29 by the end of the month is still possible.

Again, there was no drop, so that part of the prediction came true.  The jury is still out about the other part projecting a resumed drop in seasonal prices, but that specific price target seems much less likely now.

Yesterday morning the corner station shot its price up to $3.55.  Meanwhile, the three stations down the street were still at $3.35.  I'd seen this before and thought it would be another charge into No Man's Land by the corner station.  Yesterday afternoon proved me wrong, as the rest of the neighborhood outlets followed it, raising their prices to $3.49.  Prices might resume going down by next week, but 20 cents lower by the end of the month, only one week away, just doesn't look good any more.  Just getting back down to $3.35 would be good news enough.

Also, the neighborhood price is now higher than this time last year, when all four stations were selling gas at $3.45.  I was right not to post Professor Farnsworth.

Follow over the jump for the fundamentals.

Happy Autumnal Equinox 2014!

Usually, yesterday is the Autumnal Equinox, AKA the first day of Fall.  Not this year, as Joe Rao of Space.com reports in Fall Begins Monday: Equinox Myth Debunked.

Sick of long, hot summer days? Well, you're in luck. Astronomically speaking, autumn is about to begin in the north.

On Monday (Sept. 22), at 10:29 p.m. EDT (0229 Sept. 23 GMT) autumn begins astronomically in the Northern Hemisphere. This also marks the start of spring in the southern half of the globe.

This date is called an equinox, from the Latin for "equal night," alluding to the fact that day and night are then of equal length worldwide. But that is not necessarily correct.

If you don't believe Rao, National Geographic confirms it in Autumnal Equinox 2014: Facts About the First Day of Fall.

The true days of day-night equality always fall after the autumnal equinox and before the vernal equinox, Geoff Chester, a public affairs specialist with the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., explained to National Geographic News in 2005.

The difference is a matter of geometry, atmosphere, and language.
...
"Those factors all combine to make the day of the equinox not the day when we have 12 hours [each] of light and darkness," Chester said.

The true date of day-night equality will be September 26, not today.  Just the same, the official day is today.  Happy Equinox!

Marching bands of the zombie apocalypse, the sequel

I concluded Climate and environment news from Colorado State University by telling my readers to "Stay tuned for the Sunday evening entertainment entry."  I just returned from Colorado and I'm tired, so forgive me if I mail it in with a sequel to Marching bands of the zombie apocalypse.  Here are the marching bands I missed from last week's entry.

First, Clark Band UIL Infected Performance 10-12-13.


In case you're wondering about the last selection, "Mad World" fits right in with "The Walking Dead."  Here's The Walking Dead Promo A Mad World for the second half of last season.  Yes, it's official.


Follow over the jump for more of last year's "The Marching Dead."

Climate and environment news from Colorado State University

As the entry that posted yesterday stated, I'm in Colorado on business.  I've already posted the space news from the state's flagship university.  Now it's time to share some stories from its Land Grant university, Colorado State, that I included in Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Solar storm and aurora) on Daily Kos.  As today is the People's Climate March, I'll focus on environment and climate stories.  Since I'm in an "I can't be all DOOM all the time" mood, I begin with good news.

Researcher, UN panel find ozone layer on the mend
by Kortny Rolston
September 10, 2014

For years, experts have warned that the Earth’s protective ozone layer is shrinking.

This week, CSU professor A.R. “Ravi” Ravishankara delivered some good news about the fragile shield of stratospheric gas: The ozone layer appears to be recovering.

The discovery was made by a panel of 300 scientists appointed by the United Nations to assess ozone depletion. Ravishankara helped lead the group, which has spent the past four years sifting through and analyzing ozone data and studies.

The panel attributed the turnaround to the “concerted international action” that took place in the wake of the 1987 Montreal Protocol. The agreement called for phasing out the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) such as Freon and other harmful chemicals in refrigerators, air conditioners, aerosols, foam manufacture, etc., around the world.

This is exactly what the Montreal Protocol was supposed to do.  While the concentration of ozone-destroying gases has been decreasing, it's good to know that the ozone is increasing as well.

Next, a video and article about the subject of today's demonstration, climate.

Colorado State University Team Researches Arctic Soils and Climate Change

Colorado State University Associate Professor Matthew Wallenstein and his research team are studying how soil carbon storage is likely to respond to rapid environmental change.

Is global warming being accelerated in the Arctic?
by Jennifer Dimas
4 Sep, 2014

The soils in the Arctic have banked more carbon over thousands of years than the carbon contained in all of the world’s vegetation and the earth’s atmosphere combined. Why is that important? The Arctic has been taking carbon out of our atmosphere and storing it away in the soil lockbox for tens of thousands of years, until now.

CSU Associate Professor Matthew Wallenstein and his research team are studying how soil carbon storage is likely to respond to rapid environmental change.

“The climate is changing rapidly in the Arctic,” said Wallenstein. “Warming is occurring twice as fast here as in the rest of the world. And the results are visible from space. The short growing season is getting longer, and the plants are getting bigger and greener. What you can’t see from space is that the microbes and other critters that live beneath the surface are waking up too. This “biotic awakening” sounds like a good thing, and it probably is if you are a microbe, but could be bad for us. That’s because these microbes could open this carbon lockbox, releasing some of that banked soil carbon back to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and methane. Because both of these are greenhouse gasses, that could further accelerate climate warming. There is some evidence that this is already happening. But there is a lot we don’t know, and we can’t really predict how this will play out in the future. That is why we are here.”

This is not good news, but not surprising, either.

Follow over the jump for a video and more environmentally related stories from CSU.

Space news from the University of Colorado

I'm traveling this weekend,* so once again I'm taking advantage of Blogger's ability to program entries in advance.  If all goes as planned, I'll be in Boulder, Colorado, when this posts.  To mark my visiting the home of the Buffalos, I'm posting space news from the University of Colorado, which I just happened to have already included in Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Solar storm and aurora) on Daily Kos.  Handy, that.

University of Colorado: CU-Boulder to host free event Sept. 21 to watch orbit insertion of Mars spacecraft
September 10, 2014

The public is invited to attend a watch party at the University of Colorado Boulder on Sunday, Sept. 21, when NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft, designed to understand past climate change on Mars, inserts itself into orbit after a 10-month journey to the planet.

The orbital insertion, the most important maneuver of the mission, will involve firing six thruster engines to shed velocity from the spacecraft, allowing it to be captured into Mars orbit. Televised by NASA, the event will be shown at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) Space Technology Building on the East Campus.

CU-Boulder is leading NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, or MAVEN mission. The event is free and open to the public, although seating will be limited. The doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and there is free parking. The orbit insertion, expected to last 34 minutes, will begin at 7:50 p.m. and end at 8:24 p.m.

Unfortunately, I will miss this, as I will be back in Detroit when it happens.  Darn.

I conclude with an event that already happened.

University of Colorado: CU-Boulder alum and NASA astronaut Steve Swanson set for return to Earth
September 9, 2014

After spending nearly six months on the International Space Station, University of Colorado Boulder astronaut-alumnus Steve Swanson is slated to drift back to Earth in a Russian space capsule Sept. 10 before banging down on the steppe of Kazakhstan.

Swanson, who earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering physics from CU-Boulder in 1983, launched to the International Space Station, or ISS, March 26 aboard a Russian Soyuz TMA-12 rocket and served as flight engineer for Expedition 39. Since late May, Swanson -- who considers Steamboat Springs, Colo., his hometown -- served as space station commander for Mission 40 on the ISS.

Swanson’s return will end 169 days in space, a mission that covered almost 72 million miles in orbit. The return journey from the ISS to Earth is expected to take about three and a half hours.

Colorado is expected to have a close election for the U.S. Senate and probably Governor, too, so expect more entries with stories from the state until election day.

*It's business--Coffee Party board meeting.  I'm an officer of the board.

Talk like a Japanese space pirate

For Talk Like a Pirate Day, I've done Jack Sparrow twice, Swedish hackers once, and even Ragnar Danneskjold the Objectivist pirate once.  Today, I will truly put the International in International Talk like a Pirate Day by featuring Captain Harlock, the most famous Japanese space pirate.  He's not even speaking English!

Captain Harlock Japanese Opening with English subs

The original Japanese opening for the '70 version of the show.

That's a pirate singing a pop song.  What about the character actually speaking his lines?

Captain Harlock movie with Theme of Pirates of the Caribbean


I couldn't leave Jack Sparrow completely behind, now could I?

Blast from the Past: Anonymous 1, Oregon Tea Party 0

I concluded Blast from the past: Sarah Palin's Naughty Monkey Shoes with the following tease.

I do think I have one more blast from the past to share: Anonymous 1, Oregon Tea Party 0.  Stay tuned.

I now present this diary from July 2010, which became the seventh most viewed diary on Daily Kos published during 2010, for Throwback Thursday.




Anonymous 1, Oregon Tea Party 0.

That's the score in one of the more unusual online political disputes so far in what is already a very strange political year--and it all began when the Oregon Tea Party decided to use the slogan of the infamous Internet group Anonymous.

Join me over the fold for the story as it unfolded yesterday.

Health news from the University of Massachusetts

Not all the health news from the University of Massachusetts has been about the third American doctor infected with Ebola and the the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.  There is another minor epidemic sweeping parts of the country that UMass has been reporting on, as the University of Massachusetts Medical Center explains in Pediatrician explains enterovirus D68 illness.

The Centers for Disease Control is warning of a spike in cases of a rare respiratory illness identified as enterovirus D68 that is sickening children in about a dozen states, though none have yet been reported in New England.

More in Expert’s Corner: UMMS pediatrician explains rare respiratory illness outbreak in parts of country By Bryan Goodchild on September 11, 2014.

“Enterovirus D68 is not a new virus,” said pediatrician Christina Hermos, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics. “What is different about this outbreak is that it seems to be larger than previous outbreaks. There are reports out of Denver and Kansas City of several hundred children presenting for care and a good proportion of them needing respiratory support until they are able to fight off the virus.”

This is not as serious a threat as Ebola, but it's much more immediate.  I'll do my best to keep abreast of it.

Follow over the jump for more health news from UMass.

Retail prices drop despite OPEC production cut

This was one of the predictions I made at the end of Another fall in gas prices surprised me.

As for next week, I wouldn't be surprised if gas prices fall again to between $3.35 and $3.39.

Today, it came true.  The three stations down the street all lowered their price for regular to $3.35.  The corner station is still at $3.41, but it's only a matter of time before it drops its price, too.

The next piece of good news is that prices are still 14 cents below this time last year, when the neighborhood price for regular was $3.49.  Even if prices don't budge during the rest of the week, they will still be a dime lower than they were a year ago this coming Thursday, when all the nearby stations sold gas at $3.45.  It's almost enough to make me post Professor Farnsworth.  Almost, but not yet.

The odd thing about this price drop is that it seems premature, just like the last one.  GasBuddy shows that both the national and Detroit averages are falling.  The national average is now $3.38, three cents below the $3.41 of the last update.  The Detroit average is now $3.49, also three cents lower than the previous report.  By these measures, the nearby stations are underpriced relative to the local retail price environment.  They should be at $3.39.  That means it's time to follow over the jump for the current wholesale price environment and what it portends for the near future.

Personal hygene in space

It's time for another entry featuring a Discovery News in the spirit of Sleeping in space, which lay at the intersection of space and health.  Tonight, it's How Do Astronauts Shave In Space?

Personal hygiene becomes very difficult when there’s a lack of gravity. How do astronauts shave and brush their teeth in space? Trace breaks down the ways that astronauts take care of their bodies.

That's enough to make me look for a video about using a space toilet. SciShow has one that asks How Do Astronauts Do Their Business?

So how do astronauts manage to pee and poop in microgravity? And what happens to all of their waste? Do you really want to know? If you do, the answers are inside!

As Sulu would say, oh my, TMI!

The Archdruid on Ebola and other epidemic news

I gave a partial update to Third American doctor infected and other Ebola news in No Ebola in Windsor in which I followed up on part of a comment I left to Technological Superstitions at The Archdruid Report.  It's time for the rest of my comment, Greer's response, and more of the week's Ebola news.

I begin with the key sentence of Greer's that prompted my comment.

The Ebola epidemic in West Africa has continued to spread at an exponential rate as hopelessly underfunded attempts to contain it crumple, while the leaders of the world’s industrial nations distract themselves playing geopolitics in blithe disregard of the very real possibility that their inattention may be helping to launch the next great global pandemic.

That gave me my opening.

President Obama actually talked about Ebola on Meet the Press, saying that it could pose a danger to the U.S. and that the country should send troops and resources in.  That might be wiser in the long run than chasing ISIS, AKA The Sith Jihad, around Syria and Iraq, even though that would be a more popular thing to do, as people understand a fight with a human enemy better than an effort to contain The Red Death.  Speaking of which, the same people who observed relationship between food prices and unrest and predicted the onset of the Arab Spring and then the current spate of crises in Ukraine, Syria, and elsewhere, are calling attention to a model of Ebola spread that could turn into a global pandemic by just adding intercontinental transportation into the mix. That's an issue that was pointed out in "The Hot Zone" 20 years ago.  Welcome to the science-fiction future of two decades ago.

Greer's response was more chilling and alamist than usual, which is saying something.

Pinku-sensei, Obama's fairly good at talking. It's doing anything when he's finished with the speech that's his problem. At this point I think a global pandemic that could leave a quarter or more of the world's population dead in five to ten years is a serious possibility.

Yikes!

Greer wasn't alone in his grim assessment.  Rene concluded his comment by stating "as a retired public health professional, [I] do agree with your assessment about the possibilities for an Ebola outbreak."  On that cheery note, here's the story Reuters ran on Friday about the epidemic, which I included in a comment to Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Solar storm and aurora).

As Ebola grows out of control, WHO pleads for more health workers
By Kate Kelland and Tom Miles
LONDON/GENEVA Fri Sep 12, 2014 11:20am EDT

The number of new Ebola cases in West Africa is growing faster than authorities can manage them, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday, renewing a call for health workers from around the world to go to the region to help.

As the death toll rose to more than 2,400 people out of 4,784 cases, WHO director general Margaret Chan told a news conference in Geneva the vast nature of the outbreak -- particularly in the three hardest-hit countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone -- required a massive emergency response.

Sarah Crowe, a spokeswoman for UNICEF, said the U.N. children's agency was using innovative ways to tackle the epidemic, including telling people to "use whatever means they have, such as plastic bags, to cover themselves if they have to deal with sick members of their family".

The version of the story at Reuters India includes the following bullet points.

* Cuba to send 165 health workers to help in Sierra Leone

* WHO's Chan calls for more international support (Adds Dutch doctors, Piot comment, UNICEF comment)

Follow over the jump for more on the situation from Reuters and Agence France Press.

This weekend's auroras

The following article was among the five most read on Reuters on Friday, earning it the position of featured story in last night's Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Solar storm and aurora).

U.S. skygazers could get rare glimpse of northern lights
By Victoria Cavaliere
SEATTLE Fri Sep 12, 2014 7:58pm EDT

(Reuters) - Stargazers across a wide swath of the United States could get a rare view on Friday of the northern lights, a colorful cosmic display normally only visible in far northern latitudes.

The northern lights, or Aurora Borealis, was expected to be visible after dark on the East Coast from Maine to as far south as Maryland, and across large parts of Michigan and Iowa.

Forecasters said northwestern states including Idaho and Washington were expected to get the best view of the phenomenon, in which the sky is illuminated with streaks and swirls of green, red, blue and yellow.

While I didn't see any northern lights here, other locations were much luckier.  The image above came from Maine via Spaceweather.  Also, Space.com posted a really spectacular video, Auroras 'Will Never Be Forgotten' From X-Flare's Solar Storm.

Chad Blakley (http://lightsoverlapland.com) captured a vibrant display of Northern Lights over Abisko National Park in Sweden on Sept. 12, 2014. They were generated by a KP-7 geomagnetic storm that hit Earth as a result of two coronal mass ejections.

That reminds me of the aurora I watched 22 years ago, but that's a story for another time.

Encounter with Triton 25 years later

Time for another post in the spirit of Decade: Cassini arrives at Saturn.  This time, it's a 25th anniversary of an encounter, that of Voyager 2 Sailing Past Neptune's Moon Triton from JPL.

Sail past Neptune's moon Triton, with data obtained from NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1989. The historical footage has been restored and used to construct the best-ever global color map of the strange moon.
The new Triton map has a resolution of 1,970 feet (600 meters) per pixel. The colors have been enhanced to bring out contrast but are a close approximation to Triton's natural colors. Voyager's "eyes" saw in colors slightly different from human eyes, and this map was produced using orange, green and blue filter images.

In 1989, most of the northern hemisphere was in darkness and unseen by Voyager. Because of the speed of Voyager's visit and the slow rotation of Triton, only one hemisphere was seen clearly at close distance. The rest of the surface was either in darkness or seen as blurry markings.

One can still get new information out of quarter-century-old data.

That's one installment in the promise I made in September 2014 in space and skywatching to resume posting space and astronomy updates.  As this was from Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Bardarbunga eruption), which was from three weeks ago, it looks like I have a lot of catching up to do.

Marching bands of the zombie apocalypse

For my Sunday entertainment entry, I'm going to take advantage of my status as probably the only doomer blogger who writes about marching bands and drum corps to present marching band shows with zombie themes.  If nothing else, they demonstrate how pervasive the idea of a zombie apocalypse as popularized by the show "The Walking Dead" has become.

I begin with the Ferndale Marching Band - Puget Sound Festival of Bands 2013.

Performing at the Everett Memorial Stadium on Oct. 26th, 2013, the Ferndale Marching Band put on a show like no other. Zombies, intense music, classic marching, drama, dancing, special effects, and even the iconic, Michael Jackson's Thriller. All around pure entertainment. Worth the watch.

Unfortunately, this isn't Ferndale, Michigan, but Ferndale, Washington.  However, I've seen the local Ferndale H.S. band and this is a show they could carry off.

Follow over the jump for more marching bands of the zombie apocalypse AKA "The Marching Dead."

Examiner.com article on USA Today poll

Michigan Democrats lead in USA Today poll

A poll published Thursday afternoon by USA Today shows Democrats leading in all contests for statewide partisan offices surveyed.  U.S. Representative Gary Peters led former Secretary of State Republican Terri Lynn Land by 9% for U.S. Senate.  Former U.S. Representative Mark Schauer edged Republican incumbent Rick Snyder by 2%.

Farther down the ballot, the poll conducted by Suffolk University continued to show Democrats with more support than Republicans, all of whom are incumbents.  Oakland County Clerk Lisa Brown was well ahead of Republican Brian Calley by 10% for Lieutenant Governor.  Michigan State University professor Mark Totten led Bill Schuette by 7% for Attorney General.  Even Detroit attorney Godfrey Dillard managed a 4% lead over Republican Ruth Johnson.

The poll also looked at the generic Congressional ballot and the 2016 Presidential election.  A plurality said they planned on voting for the Democratic candidate over the Republican candidate by a margin of nearly 4% this year.  For the Democratic nomination, an overwhelming majority favored Hillary Clinton (60.8%) over Joe Biden (17.45%).  On the Republican side, undecided led at 17.02% with Jeb Bush and Mike Huckabee tied for second at 11.17%.

Much more at the link in the headline, including statistics for all candidates, a video about the U.S. Senate contest featuring Terri Lynn Land putting her foot in her mouth over equal pay for women, and summaries of two other polls this week.  One of those polls included a look ahead to the next presidential campaign.

For 2016, poll respondents overwhelmingly favored Clinton over all the potential Republican nominees surveyed.  She would beat Ted Cruz by 14%, both Chris Christie and Mike Huckabee by 12%, Jeb Bush by 11%, and Rand Paul by 10%.

Good news for Democrats, indeed.

September 2014 in space and skywatching

It's been way too long since I posted any space updates, the last one being Sleeping in space, which fits into this month's Heal theme.  Time to start making up for that with these two previews of the month's space and skywatching events that I originally posted in Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Blair Mountain and Labor Day) on Daily Kos.

First, JPL tells its YouTube subscribers What's Up for September 2014.

View the red star Antares near the red planet Mars, plus the Zodiacal Light that points towards Jupiter in the morning sky.

Next, Hubble Space Telescope describes Tonights Sky: September 2014.

Backyard stargazers get a monthly guide to the northern hemisphere's skywatching events with "Tonight's Sky." In September, Mars and Saturn are visible low in the evening sky and the star cluster M2 in Aquarius is featured.

That felt good.  Expect more of these alternating with entries about health and current events.

No Ebola in Windsor

In my comment to Technological Superstitions at The Archdruid Report, I passed along this bit of news.

Ebola may already be spreading through travel. There is a patient exhibiting Ebola-like symptoms in a hospital in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, right across the river from Detroit.  That's very close to home, literally.

I learned about it from this WXYZ news report: Ebola scare in Windsor.


I should have kept following that story, as the information was out-of-date before I posted it over at Greer's blog.  The headline of WXYZ's follow-up says it all: Officials say Windsor, Ontario patient does not have Ebola.  Whew.

Just the same, local hospitals are preparing, as WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids reports in Spectrum Health preps for unlikely Ebola.

The deadly Ebola epidemic is a long way from Grand Rapids, but the city's largest hospital is prepared for the unlikely event that it does.

I'm glad the hospital is prepared.  Just the same, I hope, its staff never has to actually treat the disease.  That will mean that the epidemic has reached Michigan.

Another fall in gas prices surprised me

When I wrote "I don't expect any more price drops this week" in The parachute ride begins with fall gas prices, I was premature.  The same day I posted that, all four neighborhood stations, including the one on the corner, lowered their price for regular to $3.41 by nightfall.  Based on GasBuddy's Detroit data, that shouldn't have happened yesterday, when the Detroit average was $3.54.  In fact, it's still a bit ahead of the curve for today, as the Detroit average is just above $3.52.  By tomorrow, it should be about right so long as the average price for the metro area keeps dropping.

While the bad news is that I was wrong, although I was wrong in the way I'd like to be, the good news is that the neighborhood outlets are now at the national average of $3.41 and local prices are below where they were last year both before and after the price drop.  Before yesterday, when the stations were at $3.45, they were 14 cents below where they were a year before when they were selling regular for $3.59.  Should the neighborhood stations remain at $3.41 through tomorrow, they'll still be 14 cents lower than they were on the same day last year when the local price was $3.55.  I'd post Professor Farnsworth except that I'm saving that for when prices drop below $3.32 and that there is better news this week that I'm saving him for.

As for why I was wrong, it was probably because I didn't look at wholesale commodity prices yesterday and the local outlets were reacting to falling prices on that front.  Follow over the jump for the latest on those.

The parachute ride begins with fall gas prices

Since I wrote Bad and good news for gas prices over Labor Day weekend, my expectations that first the corner station, then all four neighborhood stations, would lower their prices after Labor Day were confirmed, although the corner station was not cooperative at first.  It did match the other three stations down the street for a day or two after Labor Day, but then promptly charged into No Man's Land by shooting its price up to $3.65 while the rest remained at $3.49.  By the weekend, it dropped down to $3.59, then $3.54  By Monday morning, it finally matched where the other three stations had been at $3.49.  By that time, it was already behind the curve, as the one station still open down the street (the other two were closed because of the power outage caused by the 10th worst storm in DTE history) had lowered their price to $3.45.  By the afternoon, the corner station had joined them.  As of Tuesday, the other two stations had their power restored and joined the rest at $3.45.

When I checked GasBuddy on Tuesday, the neighborhood stations were selling in line with their price history of being a dime below the metro average, which was $3.55 at the time.  In fact, the one station opened from Saturday through Monday was able to resist raising their prices, as the Detroit average shot up to $3.66 during that time.  The neighborhood stations are still selling at their usual discount, as the metro area mean has only gone down to $3.54.  I don't expect any more price drops this week.

By the way, the national average is the lowest it's been in 30 days, in fact, the lowest it's been since the end of February, at $3.42.  That should translate into lower prices in a week or two here should this trend continue.

Food prices and unrest, a story I tell my students

Yesterday, I showed my students the most important graphic from Vice's The Math That Predicted the Revolutions Sweeping the Globe Right Now, which I linked to in Third American doctor infected and other Ebola news.

It's happening in Ukraine, Venezuela, Thailand, Bosnia, Syria, and beyond. Revolutions, unrest, and riots are sweeping the globe. The near-simultaneous eruption of violent protest can seem random and chaotic; inevitable symptoms of an unstable world. But there's at least one common thread between the disparate nations, cultures, and people in conflict, one element that has demonstrably proven to make these uprisings more likely: high global food prices.

Just over a year ago, complex systems theorists at the New England Complex Systems Institute warned us that if food prices continued to climb, so too would the likelihood that there would be riots across the globe. Sure enough, we're seeing them now. The paper's author, Yaneer Bar-Yam, charted the rise in the FAO food price index—a measure the UN uses to map the cost of food over time—and found that whenever it rose above 210, riots broke out worldwide. It happened in 2008 after the economic collapse, and again in 2011, when a Tunisian street vendor who could no longer feed his family set himself on fire in protest.

Bar-Yam built a model with the data, which then predicted that something like the Arab Spring would ensue just weeks before it did. Four days before Mohammed Bouazizi's self-immolation helped ignite the revolution that would spread across the region, NECSI submitted a government report that highlighted the risk that rising food prices posed to global stability. Now, the model has once again proven prescient—2013 saw the third-highest food prices on record, and that's when the seeds for the conflicts across the world were sown.

"I have a long list of the countries that have had major social unrest in the past 18 months consistent with our projections," Bar-Yam tells me. "The food prices are surely a major contributor---our analysis says that 210 on the FAO index is the boiling point and we have been hovering there for the past 18 months."

None of this should be news.  Food riots have been the start of revolutions in the modern world going at least as far back as the French Revolution, as I pointed out in Today is the anniversary of the Women's March on Versailles.  Still, it's a lesson that bears repeating--starving poor people under a repressive regime is a recipe for disaster.

Follow over the jump for more, including an update on the graphs.

The Ice Bucket Challenge supports ALS research at UMass

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has been a viral phenomenon.  Quite a few of my co-workers have participated, including the president of my campus and the chancellor of my college.  I got to watch both of the latter get doused.  In case my readers are wondering where their contributions are going to, the University of Massachusetts Medical School explains in Video: Scientists at UMMS working toward ALS cure By Bryan Goodchild, UMass Medical School Communications, on August 18, 2014.

The viral video “Ice Bucket Challenge” campaign is making ALS a household word across the country and shining a light on the scientists around the world searching for a cure. At UMass Medical School, Robert H. Brown Jr., DPhil, MD, one of the world’s foremost authorities on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, heads a multi-disciplinary team of scientists researching treatments and a cure for the disease.

“It’s very exciting to do ALS work here because we have a span of expertise all the way from people who are experts at figuring out the genetics of this disease to those who have built gene therapy centers who know how to get inside the iron curtain around the brain so we can put medications inside and treat a disease like ALS, or maybe also Parkinson’s or Huntington’s or other types of these brain degenerative disorders,” said Dr. Brown, the Leo P. and Theresa M. LaChance Chair in Medical Research and chair and professor of neurology. “The tools for finding out what causes ALS have never been better.”

Melissa Moore, PhD, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, the Eleanor Eustis Farrington Chair in Cancer Research, professor of biochemistry & molecular pharmacology, and co-director of the RNA and Neurotherapeutics Institutes, said the teamwork at UMMS is key to advancing the science.

“UMass Medical School is an amazing place for ALS research because we have so many people in different disciplines that are contributing to trying to understand the basis of the disease and also to develop cures for the disease,” said Dr. Moore.

To support the groundbreaking research taking place at UMass Medical School through the UMass ALS Cellucci Fund, visit umassals.com.

That's a worthy cause to support for healing.

Last primary elections today

According to the Green Papers, the last primaries of the year will be held today in Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Rhode Island.  Here is a story about one of those elections that turns into a pumpkin today from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell: Poll: Coakley leads race for governor.

Survey Also Finds Majority of Voters Do Not Want to Repeal Casino Law

LOWELL, Mass. – With just a week to go before the Democratic primary in Massachusetts, Martha Coakley has a commanding lead over all other candidates in the race for the party’s nomination for governor, according to a new UMass Lowell/7News poll released today.

Coakley, the current Massachusetts attorney general, has a 32 point lead (52 percent to 20 percent) among likely Democratic primary voters over fellow candidate state Treasurer Steve Grossman and an even greater margin over former federal health-care administrator Donald Berwick with 9 percent and 19 percent undecided in the independent, nonpartisan poll. Conducted from Aug. 25 through Aug. 31 for the UMass Lowell Center for Public Opinion and 7News, the survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.55 percent among likely Democratic primary voters.

“Coakley is now a prohibitive favorite to win the Democratic nomination. Her support is still somewhat soft, but Steve Grossman’s campaign has simply not captured the attention of a largely unengaged Democratic primary electorate,” said Prof. Joshua Dyck, co-director of the Center for Public Opinion, who wrote and analyzed the poll, which is the first in a new partnership between UMass Lowell and 7News.

The last time I saw Martha Coakley's name mentioned in connection with an election, she lost to Scott Brown for U.S. Senate.  That turned out O.K., as it led to Elizabeth Warren winning that seat.  I'd much rather have Warren there and Coakley as Governor.   As for pretty boy Brown, he's running for Senate in New Hampshire now.  May that carpetbagger lose to Jeanne Shaheen in November.

Third American doctor infected and other Ebola news

It's Monday, so it's time for more on the Ebola outbreak.  This morning's lead story is Massachusetts doctor infected with Ebola.  Here is the video from CNN.

Dr. Rick Sacra is the third American physician to be diagnosed with Ebola while working in Liberia.

The University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he is a professor, posted Debbie Sacra requests prayers for husband and practical help for Ebola-stricken Liberia by Sandra Gray and Bryan Goodchild on September 04, 2014.

Wife of American doctor infected with Ebola addresses news media at UMass Medical School

In response to the outpouring of concern about her husband, Richard Sacra, MD, who is the third American doctor to be infected with Ebola in Liberia, Debbie Sacra shared a message of gratitude and hope at a press conference held today at UMass Medical School.

Mrs. Sacra’s comments came moments after the announcement from the international Christian mission organization SIM that Dr. Sacra is being transported from Liberia to the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, which has a biocontainment patient care unit, for treatment.

“He walked onto the plane and he is in good spirits,” said Mrs. Sacra. She fought back tears while expressing her hopes for his recovery, and thanked the media for bringing attention to the plight of Liberians “who needed a hospital to open” whether for malaria treatment, maternity care or other medical care.

UMass Medical School faculty joined Mrs. Sacra in commenting on the situation in UMMS faculty speak on colleague diagnosed with Ebola.

Dr. Warren Ferguson and Dr. Virginia Van Duyne worked with Dr. Richard Sacra and spoke briefly about their relationship with Dr. Sacra, UMMS Assistant Professor of Family Medicine & Community Health, and his work in Worcester and elsewhere.

Dr. Sacra has spent much of his career working overseas, including nearly two decades in Liberia. He has a faculty appointment at UMMS as an assistant professor of family medicine & community health, as a function of teaching in the medical school’s residency program at the Family Health Center of Worcester when he returns to the U.S. for periodic respite visits.

Dr. Sacra left Liberia to be treated in the U.S.  Reuters reported on his progress in U.S. missionary with Ebola showing signs of improvement, wife says.

The third U.S. medical missionary to become infected with the Ebola virus was showing signs of improvement Saturday at a Nebraska hospital but was still very ill, his wife said.

Dr. Rick Sacra, a 51-year-old Boston physician, arrived Friday at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha for treatment after being flown there from Liberia, one of five West African countries affected by an outbreak of the virus.

"Rick is very sick and weak, but slightly improved from when he arrived yesterday," Debbie Sacra said Saturday. "He asked for something to eat and had a little chicken soup," she said.

Here's to a successful recovery, just like the other two U.S. physicians who came back to be treated.

Follow over the jump for other news about the epidemic from the past week, including statements from President Obama and the director of the WHO and the scariest silent video about the epidemic one could possibly watch.

Judge Doom and the Red Car

Time to dispense with two promises.  First, I decided that Blast from the past: Sarah Palin's Naughty Monkey Shoes won't serve as my collapse-and-decline-related entertainment entry for today, even though I passed along Kunstler's fear that she might be the "corn pone Hitler" he's predicted first in On 'Weimar America' with The Archdruid and his readers then in The Archdruid on Fascism, part 2.  Second, I'm not going to look ahead to the upcoming TV season this week as I said I might in 'Breaking Bad' goes out on top.  Instead, I bring my readers Judge Doom's Plot to Destroy Public Transit, which has been taken down, so I'm replacing it with Judge Doom's Freeway Proposal although I'm retaining the original video's description.

My favorite thing about this movie is that the villain's evil plot is to bring about car culture in America. Watch and giggle/shiver. Read about Pacific City Lines, National City Lines, and the Great American Streetcar Scandal if you'd like to know more about its historical parallels.

Believe it or not, I mention this very scene in class.  Follow over the jump for the context.

Blast from the past: Sarah Palin's Naughty Monkey Shoes

After posting Blast from the past: Joan Rivers vs. Sarah Palin, I remembered that I had another entry in the Daily Kos archives about Governor Palin, Palin's Naughty Monkey Shoes, which was also posted to my LiveJournal.  Since I'm in an "I can't be all DOOM all the time" mood and I can't resist another trip to the well, here it is.

As I was reading one of Vanity Fair's two recent articles on Sarah Palin, quite a few things struck me, both serious and silly.  I'm saving the serious ones for another post.  This entry is for the silly ones.

Follow me over the jump for the details.

10th worst storm in DTE history

For those of my readers who have been wondering why I didn't update for more than 24 hours this early in the month,* I couldn't.  The power was out for more than 12 hours.  The Detroit Free Press has the story in DTE calls storm '10th most impactful' in 111 years; 350K without power.

Calling Friday night’s damaging weather “one of the strongest storms to hit southeast Michigan this year, DTE Energy said 350,000 customers remain without power today.

About 375,000 DTE Energy customers lost electric service Friday night, the company said in a news release late this morning. Winds of 75 m.p.h. hit some areas while winds of 60-70 m.p.h. were found throughout the region.

“This is the 10th most impactful storm in the company’s 111-year history. DTE has enlisted the help of 600 linemen from utilities in Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New York and Tennessee to assist the restoration effort,” the release said, noting that wind gusts had downed more than 2,000 power lines.

My wife and I lost power last night at 3:00 AM, when the lights flickered, went off, came back on again a few seconds later, stayed on for a minute, then went off again, this time for good.  Given the circumstances and late hour, we went to bed.  We woke up to no power.

Follow over the jump for more from the Free Press as well as videos from WXYZ along with the rest of our personal experience.

Blast from the past: Joan Rivers vs. Sarah Palin

Yesterday brought this sad news: Joan Rivers, Comedic Legend, Dead at 81.

Investigation into the death of Joan Rivers; fellow comedians comment on her death.

I'll miss her, as she was one of my favorite comics.  She was fearless.

Speaking of Rivers being fearless, she was not afraid to tackle anyone, no matter how famous or dangerous.  I wrote about one such incident on Daily Kos back in January 2011: Fox News bans Joan Rivers for saying Sarah Palin is "stupid and a threat."  As a tribute to Rivers' talent for comedy and controversy, I bring it back as a blast from the past.

It seems that Fox News will go to great lengths to protect its on-air talent and punish those who criticize them.  Joan Rivers found this out the hard way today.

Last weekend, TMZ interviewed Rivers at the Critics' Choice Awards.  The interviewer asked her about her opinion of Sarah Palin.  Rivers gave a candid and snarky appraisal of the half-term governor of Alaska, saying, among other things, that Palin was "stupid and a threat" and that she should be blamed for the shootings in Tucson.

This morning, Rivers tweeted that her appearance on Fox News' morning show had been cancelled.

Details, including a transcript and follow-up, over the jump.

Another victory for marriage equality

Last week offered an opportunity to revising a topic I hadn't written about since A song for marriage equality in Michigan.  Last Tuesday, I included the following story from Reuters in a comment to another diarist's Overnight News Digest, along with the rest of the day's top U.S. news, including the story that formed the core of Update on Detroit water shut-offs and bankruptcy.

U.S. appeals court challenges states on gay marriage bans
By Fiona Ortiz
CHICAGO Tue Aug 26, 2014 3:38pm EDT

(Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court in Chicago appeared ready to strike down gay marriage bans in Indiana and Wisconsin after vigorously challenging the two states' attorneys at a hearing on Tuesday.

The oral arguments before a three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals come at a crucial stage in the legal fight over same-sex marriage as the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to take up the issue in its next term.

At the U.S. appeals court level, judges have struck down similar bans on gay marriage in Utah, Oklahoma and Virginia.

Ortiz got it right, as Vox reported Thursday in An appeals court struck down same-sex marriage bans in Wisconsin and Indiana.

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday struck down same-sex marriage bans in Wisconsin and Indiana, upholding previous rulings from lower courts.

The unanimous decision, written by US Circuit Judge Richard Posner, cited the Constitution's Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses. It continues a number of legal victories for same-sex couples following the US Supreme Court ruling that ended the federal ban on same-sex marriage.

That's the good news.  The bad news is that it won't take effect immediately.  Just like the ruling legalizing same-sex marriage in Michigan, it's going to have to go through the appeals process and will likely end up in front of the Supreme Court.  In the meantime, Professor Farnsworth and I approve of this step toward healing.

Update on Detroit water shut-offs and bankruptcy

Last week, I included the following story from Reuters in a comment to another diarist's Overnight News Digest, along with the rest of the day's top U.S. news.

Detroit resumes water shutoffs for unpaid bills
By Aaron Foley
DETROIT Tue Aug 26, 2014 9:17pm EDT

(Reuters) - Controversial water shutoffs in Detroit resumed on Tuesday after a month-long moratorium to allow delinquent customers to catch up with past-due bills, city officials said.

The bankrupt city's water authority attracted unwanted international attention earlier this summer when it launched an aggressive effort to cut service to customers who were months behind or owed thousands of dollars.

The campaign, intended to deal with a $90 million backlog in unpaid bills, prompted accusations that it was unfair to the poor.

That action was challenged in court this week as part of the proceedings for Detroit's bankruptcy trial, as the Detroit Free Press reported yesterday.  Follow over the jump for that story and a video clip from WXYZ.

Sleeping in space

I'm combining healing and space tonight with Discovery News explaining Why Astronauts Have A Hard Time Sleeping In Space.

Sleeping in space can be very difficult, and many astronauts turn to sleeping aids to fall asleep. Are these astronauts abusing these drugs? Join Trace as he explains why it’s hard to sleep in space.

Sleep is supposed to be the great healer.  On that note, I'm going to take advantage of it and go to bed.  Good night!

Healthier and more sustainable cities

Time to revisit the topic of The intersection of public health and the environment, how to design cities that are healthier and more sustainable.  I begin with research from the University of Connecticut I originally included in Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Shark Week) on Daily Kos: Older Cities May Be Good for Your Health by Colin Poitras on August 12, 2014.

Older cities with compact neighborhoods that encourage walking and biking are generally healthier places to live than many newer cities with wide, multi-lane streets designed for cars, a new study by researchers at the University of Connecticut and University of Colorado-Denver shows.

The researchers looked at street network patterns in 24 medium-sized California cities with populations between 30,000 and 100,000. They then looked for correlations between street patterns and network density and health outcomes such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and asthma.

The health data was gleaned from about 50,000 adults who completed the California Health Interview Survey over multiple years.

What they found was that the more intersections a city had, the better people living there generally felt. An increased intersection density was significantly linked to reduction in obesity at the neighborhood level and in obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease at the city level.

Pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods are good for their residents health.  It's one of the reasons why I enjoy living where I do, because it's probably the most walkable neighborhood I've ever lived in.

Follow over the jump for two more articles from Arizona State University I used in Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Bardarbunga eruption).

Nablopomo for September: Heal

I opened Second outbreak of Ebola in Congo and other Ebola news with a program note.

This month's Nablopomo theme is Heal.  I'll get around to posting the usual entry about the theme later.

It's later.  Here's what the email said.

America is hurting right now following the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and we're taking a month to start the healing process by asking you not to be quiet but instead to take to your blogs to talk through your thoughts. Why is it so difficult for us to speak about race? And how did you process this recent violence?

Those are good questions that I won't answer right now, although I did start working through the issues in The science of tear gas from Discovery News, which was the most popular entry during August with 211 page views.  That's the kind of tack I've been taking with the event over at Join the Coffee Party Movement's Facebook page.  I'll see if I can retrieve the links I've posted there.

Beyond that, as R.E.M. famously said, "everybody hurts." This is a month where we're going to talk about what we do to be kind to ourselves when we need to encourage our hearts to heal.

If I wanted to write those kind of entries, I'd still be blogging on my LiveJournal.  That's why I'm going to mostly ignore the prompts.  Just the same, there are other kinds of healing I can discuss that are more in keeping with the general subject of this blog, such as advances in health and preparations for the future to make it healthier and more sustainable.  I have enough of those in my archive that I can do with them what I did for Nourish, post a food and nutrition entry a day.  I enjoyed doing that.

You can read more about the new NaBloPoMo theme on our opening post.

Follow over the jump for the passages from the home page.