The 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

…and the prize goes to Bruce A. Beutler, Jules A. Hoffmann, and Ralph M. Steinman for their work on the innate immune system, the components of resistance that are evolutionarily older than the adaptive immune system (antibodies, T cells, all that stuff). The innate immune system includes all the cytokine and chemokine activators of other components of the immune system, NK (natural killer) cells, various lipid inflammation mediators, the histamine response, and the complement cascade — a welter of complex interacting elements that combine to make our bodies hostile places for any pathogen. This is the first, fast-acting part of the immune response, so it’s rather important; it also contributes to auto-immune diseases.

(Also on FtB)

Homeopathic birth control

I think this new birth control method will face the same problem they all do: the wacky abstinence-only crowd will reject it.

i-878cc16c8a12c8a1264bd47ed6aa0dca-homeopathicbc.jpeg

But then I had a brilliant idea: instead of making it with a homeopathic dilution of fetuses, I’m going to market a birth control pill made homeopathically from astronomically well-diluted penises. I’ve always wanted to be a billionaire.

(Also on FtB)

I am so out of touch

Seriously, half the time I don’t know where I am. I got a call last night from this madman, Scooter of KPFT, asking if I’d be available to do a radio show in Houston on Thursday, and I said, “Thursday? I’m not going to be in Texas this week, am I?” and he says, “Yes, you are” and I go “Huh? Whuh? I thought that was later this month!” But yes, he’s right, a hard-partying wildman of a radio DJ knows better where I’m going than I do.

This week, it’s time for the Texas Freethought Convention!

I’ll be there, I promise. I had my plane reservations and everything. Well, everything except my talk, which isn’t done, but last night after Scooter’s phone call, when I went to bed, my brain did nothing but dream about “Mutants!“, which is the title, and I laid out the entire thing in my sleep. I just have to slap it down in Keynote now, and I’ll be ready. Easy peasy. I think I have three minutes free in my schedule Tuesday night.

I just looked at the schedule, and woo-hoo, I’m the first talk on the opening day of the conference! I hope people are ready for a science-heavy talk to start the day. I also notice that Richard Dawkins has the last slot of the weekend — so it’s going to be like a great big science sandwich.

(Also on Sb)

I am so out of touch

Seriously, half the time I don’t know where I am. I got a call last night from this madman, Scooter of KPFT, asking if I’d be available to do a radio show in Houston on Thursday, and I said, “Thursday? I’m not going to be in Texas this week, am I?” and he says, “Yes, you are” and I go “Huh? Whuh? I thought that was later this month!” But yes, he’s right, a hard-partying wildman of a radio DJ knows better where I’m going than I do.

This week, it’s time for the Texas Freethought Convention!

I’ll be there, I promise. I had my plane reservations and everything. Well, everything except my talk, which isn’t done, but last night after Scooter’s phone call, when I went to bed, my brain did nothing but dream about “Mutants!“, which is the title, and I laid out the entire thing in my sleep. I just have to slap it down in Keynote now, and I’ll be ready. Easy peasy. I think I have three minutes free in my schedule Tuesday night.

I just looked at the schedule, and woo-hoo, I’m the first talk on the opening day of the conference! I hope people are ready for a science-heavy talk to start the day. I also notice that Richard Dawkins has the last slot of the weekend — so it’s going to be like a great big science sandwich.

(Also on FtB)

A greedy religiosity consuming everything in its path!

Alan Lightman is an excellent writer — I’ve enjoyed his fiction, like Einstein’s Dreams and his nonfiction, like Great Ideas in Physics. I’m afraid my interest has waned a bit with his recent offerings, though, because although beautifully written, they’ve become increasingly soft-focused and fuzzy and gentle, too absorbed in trying to be very delicately lyrical and thereby losing a lot of their edge. Lightman is openly atheist himself, but he’s wafting wispily into faitheism. If you haven’t read him, here’s a short sample: he has a new piece in Salon titled Does God exist?, and it’s a fine example of the faitheist oeuvre, simultaneously insisting that science and religion need to be reconciled and rebuking that philistine, Dawkins.

[Read more…]

Some students should not go into a health profession

I’m afraid Ben Cochran is one of them. He’s a nursing student who wrote a column in a newspaper because he was upset at the time it took for the emergency medical services at his local clinic to help him with his sneezy, phlegmy cold (which, I would have told him, is going to put a low priority on something they can’t really treat anyway). He places the blame: the clinic offers women’s reproductive services, and they were busy helping a “gaggle of preemie sluts [] get a free pass on harlotry” and treating their “cunt problems”.

But he really doesn’t have a problem with these women, he says. He just wants to end women’s medical services and the distribution of condoms on campus.

I don’t take issue with sex mongers. They serve their place. Hell, according to the bible, it’s the oldest known profession on earth. So you sultry sex fiends are clearly established, but this is a place of higher being. Please take your gaping holes elsewhere for medical services, and leave the real health issues to those that actually belong on a college campus

Yeah, he’s going to make a greeeeeat nurse. He’s already an expert on triage: men with runny noses must be treated before sluts with gynecological issues.

He’s going to have a tough time doing the work, though, with all the holes Ema ripped into him.

(Also on Sb)

Some students should not go into a health profession

I’m afraid Ben Cochran is one of them. He’s a nursing student who wrote a column in a newspaper because he was upset at the time it took for the emergency medical services at his local clinic to help him with his sneezy, phlegmy cold (which, I would have told him, is going to put a low priority on something they can’t really treat anyway). He places the blame: the clinic offers women’s reproductive services, and they were busy helping a “gaggle of preemie sluts [] get a free pass on harlotry” and treating their “cunt problems”.

But he really doesn’t have a problem with these women, he says. He just wants to end women’s medical services and the distribution of condoms on campus.

I don’t take issue with sex mongers. They serve their place. Hell, according to the bible, it’s
the oldest known profession on earth. So you sultry sex fiends are clearly established, but
this is a place of higher being. Please take your gaping holes elsewhere for medical services,
and leave the real health issues to those that actually belong on a college campus.

Yeah, he’s going to make a greeeeeat nurse. He’s already an expert on triage: men with runny noses must be treated before sluts with gynecological issues.

He’s going to have a tough time doing the work, though, with all the holes Ema ripped into him.

(Also on FtB)

Phase II of world conquest complete; initiating Phase III

On 1 September, we added another wave of bloggers to Freethoughtblogs.

It is now 1 October. Like clockwork, we have yet another wave incoming. I’ve organized them geographically, to help you realize how we’re closing in on you.

You should fear us. The awesomeness is rising, right on schedule. You now realize that you must visit the Freethoughtblogs home page every day, and then…not bother to leave.

Hmmm. Are there any other worthy godless blogs out there to which we should extend a pseudopod prior to absorption?