Quasi-Control

Today’s post is going to be short, but two major events transpired that will change the world for the better.

1. Bill and Melinda gates have devoted $10 billion for the development and deployment of vaccines world wide.
2. The doctor, Andrew Wakefield,  who intentionally started spreading lies that the MMR vaccine caused Autism has had his medical license revoked. There was overwhelming evidence of misconduct, data falsification, lying, and improper treatment of patients (all of which related to his claims that  autism was caused by the MMR vaccine)

THIS IS FANTASTIC NEWS!!!!!!!

I applaud Bill and Melinda for using their wealth to help the world.  Think about it, instead of the wealthy getting their names on buildings they’ll get their names on diseases.  Instead of people saying “Thats the Bill & Melinda Gates Auditorium” they’ll be able to say things like “Bill and Melinda Gates payed to eradicate (insert disease name here)“.  Ask anybody over the age of 40 who Jonas Salk is and they’ll tell you he is the man who invented the first polio vaccine (I’ve talked about Dr Salk and vaccines before in case you missed it). Bill and Melinda Gates have once again secured their place in history in a very good and laudable way.

Secondly now that Ex-Dr. Wakefield has officially been censured for starting a myth that has lead to the deaths of hundreds of children, hopefully people will begin to disbelieve the terrible lie he started, and we can devote precious resources to trying to uncover the true cause of autism.

UPDATE Feb 3, 2010: The Lancet has officially retracted the article by Ex-Dr. Wakefield, with the statement that the paper never should have been published in the first place, its a wonderful move but they should have done this years ago.

My little spider just keeps growing.  She started out really small but that was alright by me after all she came 5 weeks early.

So she had her 9 month check up last week and the doctor was amazed by how big her head is getting. He head is growing faster than normal and doesn’t show any signs of slowing yet.  Anyway this is great because as your brain grows it pushes on your skull to get bigger so a big head means a big brain.  So yeah my daughter is pretty much a genius.

click on the picture to see it bigger

These billboards are popping up all over Cambridge and sparking a bit of controversy.   I’m not very familiar with the biology of leprosy but for some reason I want to say that simple hygiene is sufficient to prevent the disease and that modern medicines are not required to treat it (I could totally be wrong though).

Anyway as a person who uses animals for medical research I like what this billboard is trying to do, I just wish it wasn’t so ridiculous sensational.

This particular post is the culmination of several months of thought and study. I ask you to read it completely; and if you feel inclined please respond with your thoughts.

A number of months ago I wrote a blog post about vegetarian chili, where I mentioned that I’ve been teetering on the edge of vegetarianism. A week ago Aubrey and I decided to do a six week experiment in Pescetarianism, which is essentially vegetarianism but where you can eat fish. (The pescetarianism was a compromise I made with Aubrey as she told me she’d die before giving up her sea food).  Along with not eating meat we’ve decided to cut out a lot of junk food as well (no soda, no ice cream, no cookies, etc).

The point of this post isn’t to declare our recent decision rather I want to explain my motivations for making this change and that our recent decision isn’t just about meat. There are a several motivating factors behind this recent decision, and I guess they can roughly be divided into three major categories (although I’ll be the first to say these categories aren’t perfect): Health, Responsibility, and Spirituality.  Keep reading and I’ll explain more…

Read more…

From my previous two posts its quite obvious that I participated in the Ragnar Relay. Its is a 36 hour run that takes place at different times of year all over the country.  This particular race started in New Haven, CT and finished on Harvard Campus in Cambridge, MA.  In all the race was about 190 miles and involved 12 runners. We ran constantly without stopping, which means that somebody on our team was running constantly from the time we started until we got to Boston.

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I finished my second leg about an hour ago. My legs are really starting to express their dislike for distance running. About two miles in I was certain that I was not going to be able to finish. My uncle leon has told me that runs don’t start until after 4 miles, and this was certainly the case on this run. After about 4 miles I was not hurting as bad. I really don’t know how I am going to pull off another 5 mile run but I don’t have to think about that yet. Now I just to focus on getting my team to our checkpoint and trying to get some sleep.