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A Glimmer of Marketing Hope…

In a news release today, the American Physical Therapy Association reported that its Board of Directors had voted to create a grant program to help state chapters market the profession.

“The grants program will include, but not be limited to, public relations and advertising initiatives and activities — such as airing of APTA’s television/radio/print advertisements, National Physical Therapy Month efforts, booths for state events, direct mailings, public speaking on physical therapy professional topics, and other community awareness initiatives. Through the activities and initiatives supported by these grants, consumers will learn more about the services provided by physical therapists…”
Now, if the APTA could just make cooler commercials…

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The Unspoken Legacy

In earlier posts I have mentioned some instances where scientists have felt “limited” in their ability to speak freely about climate change. Today, a report in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer outlines another such instance. Scientists from the Fish and Wildlife Service were told on two separate occasions not to discuss the effect climate change has on polar bears. This, in reference to their upcoming meetings in Norway and Russia about polar bears. A third memo says the policy will apply for trips to those two nations as well as Canada and “any northern country.”

You see, polar bears are being considered for addition to the endangered species list. While their numbers are still fairly strong, there is mounting evidence that speaks to changes in the ice sheets they use seasonally for hunting. There has also been reports of polar bears showing up in odd places hunting. From what I can tell, ANY discussion of value about polar bear conservation must include discussion of climate change. I’m not learned in diplomatic protocol, so perhaps I am mistaken, but when administration officials report, “the memos were written to ensure that U.S. representatives wouldn’t stray outside the agenda of meetings, which they said would be a violation of diplomatic protocol,” I grow even more skeptical.

Any censoring of free speech is dangerous. And I understand the US has to tread dialogue on certain topics very carefully, but censoring of the opinions of scientists by this administration sets a frightening precedent. Scientists need complete autonomy from outside influence if we are to ever trust their facts. (And yes, it makes no sense that we should be expected to trust pharmaceutical scientists.)

If you want to learn more about Polar Bears, check out this article, written by one of the aforementioned Fish and Wildlife scientists, or Polar Bears International, which has good information, but a board of directors made up of only lawyers and marketing professionals…not scientists.

Other instances in which the administration has recently restricted scientists from discussing climate change include:

  • In June, a high-ranking official in the National Aeronauticsand Space Administration admitted in a letter to Sens. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, that the agency “inappropriately” denied a journalist’s request to interview James
    Hansen, an outspoken scientist who heads NASA’s Goddard Institute for
    Space Studies.
  • In September, news accounts revealed that the National
    Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had suppressed an internal
    agency e-mail intended to summarize scientists’ consensus on evidence
    of a link between hurricanes and climate change.
  • In December, two scientists from NOAA said they were
    forbidden to use the term “climate change” or to mention Kyoto, the
    Japanese city where the current international treaty on global warming
    was negotiated.

Source: “P-I reporters Robert McClure and Lisa Stiffler contributed to this report, which includes information from The New York Times.”

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The American Dream

I read this NYT article about Ernest Gallo with fascination. He lived every facet of the typical American dream. Second generation Italian immigrant, parents died in tragedy, took $5,900 and, with his brother, created an entirely family run business that now sells 1 of every 4 bottles of wine in this country. Wow!
The best part, his first wine recipe: from a book at the Public Library in Modesto, CA. He died there yesterday, at 97, still in full control of his empire.

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Umm, can you please reattach these? I'm a golfer?

After a freak accident last fall in which Brant Jobe had a broom cut off the pads of his thumb and forefinger, he’s ready to return to professional golf. This poor guy has suffered two major distal upper limb injuries. If he’s able to return from this with any success, it will really speak volumes to his athletic skill and work ethic.

Star-Telegram 03/05/2007 Jobe faces a new test on the tour

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Is God an "Agent"?


The New York Times Magazine had a piece right up my alley. Darwin’s God.

“Religious behavior may be a misfiring, an unfortunate byproduct of an underlying psychological propensity which in other circumstances is, or once was, useful,” Dawkins wrote.

I like to read and participate in debates that include both spirituality and science. I really like evolution. This is a really good read, but make some coffee, its a little long!

Bonus Points for anyone who can leave a comment that can answer these two questions about the late evolutionist, Stephen Jay Gould:

  1. What was his favorite sport?
  2. What is the name of his Theory of Evolution? (Important as we now consider that theory and not Darwin’s to be how things really work.)

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Thoughts on Eliot, the Fierce…


Today’s New York Times had this article about Eliot Spitzer:

Health Care Lobby Is Served Bagels and a Scolding From the Governor – New York Times

The low-down for non-readers: The governor called out 2 leaders of very powerful health care lobbies in New York, unexpectedly, during a conference at which he was speaking. The leaders who were in attendance, were “stunned” as the governor served up a slide with their logos entitled, “Guardians of the Status Quo.”

These two companies are largely credited with running ads responsible for driving down Pataki’s approval ratings before he left office when he attempted reform of the medical system. Now, here they are running even more personally attacking ads to suggest Spitzer is no good. “I don’t understand why Gov. Spitzer is attacking me and my hospital,” proclaims one of the ads. Perhaps the nurses in these ads could take up that question with one of the doctors who work there, or better yet, one of the CEOs of these non-profit facilities making over $20 million a year!

These unions/lobbies exist to preserve large amounts of spending in the health sector and have no interest in reform of the system. The NYT article has some pretty staggering stats about how much cash these lobbies have hold of.

Kudos, Eliot Spitzer, for a bold move. You’re growing on me.

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Healthcare Guarantee

This article in the New York Times suggests most Americans are willing to pay some more taxes for the promise of free healthcare, as much as $500 more.

Let’s think about this…

  • premiums for most health policies are well over $500 a month.
  • The cost of Healthcare will not be dropping any time soon.
  • Of course Americans are in favor of guaranteed anything!
  • Will $500 more in taxes actually pay for anything…an MRI costs $800!

This survey is simply stating the obvious. Especially taking into account my previous post on science illiteracy, how can Americans truly know what they want if they can understand the media reports about it? This doesn’t look good as we roll upon a new election cycle in which healthcare reform “ranked far more important than immigration, cutting taxes or promoting traditional values.”

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Science Literacy

I was reading through some blogs this weekend and came across two unrelated blogs that discussed the same topic: literacy; specifically, science and health literacy.

The first, entitled, “40% of Indian Women Are Ignorant of AIDS” from Retrospectacle, made a nice tie-in from the press release to literacy in India.

“Disturbing, but not really surprising considering only 54 percent of Indian women are literate (compared to 76 percent of men). Actually the literacy rate seems to play a huge part in the disinformation: 80% of Indian men are familiar with AIDS (76% literacy rate) and 56% of Indian women are (54% literacy rate).”
The second post I noted was from Scientific American, describing the growth of science literacy in the US. “Americans more science-literate than Japanese, Europeans,” points out the following:

“In 1988 only about 10 percent knew enough about science to understand reports in major newspapers, a figure that grew to 28 percent by 2005. “
So, this suggests that 72% of Americans can’t understand what they’re reading in health and science media reports. Striking, no?
The fact that so many Americans are missing vital information could account a great deal towards the cost of health care in the US today. How can an Indian women who is ignorant about AIDS protect herself from acquiring it? How can an unhealthy young adult make changes to their lifestyle if they’re unable to understand what changes to make. It doesn’t help that on top of poor understanding of science, Americans are being overwhelmed by over-simplified advertising from both food and drug companies.
I will suggest that perhaps health care reform should not begin with tax credits, but rather through a literacy campaign. There is tremendous room for improvement.

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Planet of the Apes, here we come!

Every so often, I read something that makes me all kinds of excited. Today, I learned of chimpanzees using a spear to hunt.
It seems this group of chimps, specifically, the younger females, cleared a branch of leaves, fashioned the end to a point, and hunted some little lemur type creatures by spearing them on the stick. This is the first time non-humans have been shown to use tools for hunting. Wow!
Planning for the Future
It seems the Srub-Jay, a small bird, has an awesome memory. It can store and keep track of over 30,000 different caches of food. It can even plan ahead to meet its food needs by re-arranging it’s food storage patterns if it expects to be in a location that was previously either devoid of food or had food of non-desirable quality.
This week’s tally: Animal Kingdom: 2 Mankind: 0
Here is a video at National Geographic, it’s only a little cool, but it reminded me to mention this point: It is the weaker, less dominant individual that has developed a new skill. This skill has propelled them higher up the dominance ladder in that they are now able to aquire more food. Hmm.

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