And further unpleasant news, Bird Flu seems to be spreading in Turkey.

For the panicked, the CDC website has a lot of good and useful information.

As I’ve mentioned before, this has been in the radar since 1997. The time for panic is long past. At this point the only P word we should be is Prepared.

I’m pretty sure that my dad and aunt will be surprised to learn that they come from the “fittest” city in the US.

When an annual survey named Baltimore the fittest city in America, many Charm City residents had the same response: You gotta be kidding.

FITTEST CITIES
1. Baltimore, Maryland
2. Honolulu, Hawaii
3. Virginia Beach, Virginia
4. Tucson, Arizona
5. Milwaukee, Wisconsin
6. Colorado Springs, Colorado
7. San Francisco, California
8. Seattle, Washington
9. Louisville-Jefferson, Kentucky
10. Boston, Massachusetts
–Source: Men’s Fitness Magazine

FATTEST CITIES
1. Chicago, Illinois
2. Las Vegas, Nevada
3. Los Angeles, California
4. Dallas, Texas
5. Houston, Texas
6. Memphis, Tennessee
7. Long Beach, California
8. El Paso, Texas
9. Kansas City, Missouri
10. Mesa, Arizona
–Source: Men’s Fitness Magazine

I have to wonder about their sources, since despite the fact that West Virginia has the highest obesity rates in the nation, not a single WV city made the “fattest” list.

Okay, I love the weather. So I can’t help but love this site:
NOAA’s Precipitation Analysis Page.

Unfortunately, I can’t get it to work in Firefox, but Internet Explorer is a small price to pay for such weather geekiness.

via the little green house on the corner.

Fructose may trick you into thinking you are hungrier than you should be

This is a very interesting piece of research. Anyone who has been paying the slightest bit of attention for the past several years knows that there is an increasing obesity problem in the United States–as well as in other countries.

There are a variety of possible causes put out, some more reasonable than others: yo-yo dieting, lack of exercise, too much meat, too many carbohydrates.

Although most people are looking for a magic bullet, reasonable people know that there is no single solution to the problem. There are, however, things that exacerbate the problem, and fructose looks to be one of those things.

UF research implicates a rise in uric acid in the bloodstream that occurs after fructose is consumed, Johnson said. That temporary spike blocks the action of insulin, which typically regulates how body cells use and store sugar and other food nutrients for energy. If uric acid levels are frequently elevated, over time features of metabolic syndrome may develop, including high blood pressure, obesity and elevated blood cholesterol levels.

I like the way that the researcher puts it:
“We cannot definitively state that fructose is driving the obesity epidemic,” said Johnson. “But we can say that there is evidence supporting the possibility that it could have a contributory role – if not a major role.”

Liver diseases, including cirrhosis, are increasingly being seen in overweight teenagers, experts report.

Cirrhosis, irreparable liver damage, is commonly linked with alcohol misuse, but can also be caused by a fatty diet.

Lifelong liver damage from a poor diet.

Think about that as you consider those upcoming Christmas cookies.

On the Effectiveness of Aluminium Foil Helmets: An Empirical Study

A Daily Workout Could Add 4 Years to Life

Yup. They’ve proved what we’ve all known for years. Exercise is good for you.

I just printed out the original Archives of Internal Medicine article, but the synopsis in the Post looks very interesting.

Will this change anyone’s habits though? Probably not. But you can’t say you haven’t been told.

This is definitely thinking outside the box.

A recent study has determined that antibacterial soaps are not any more effective than plain soap and water.

The group also recommended:

Consumer products that include bacteria-fighting ingredients should be required to have scientific data proving they prevent infections

As someone who despises antibacterial soaps and products, I hope that this means it will now be easier to find regular soap in stores.

The weather fascinates me. My browser homepage is the weather.

Now, I can get continual updates on the weather with forecastfox! Works with Mozilla and Firefox!

Right this second I can glance down and see that the current weather is overcast, and tomorrow’s forecast is rain.

Yay!

(And no, I can’t just look out the window. I don’t have a window. I’m in the middle of the building, and my only window opens into a hallway. [Also with no windows])

It’s very strange to have one of your interests–suddenly and for no discernable reason–become the center of public attention.

I’ve been interested in the avian flu since it was first discovered in 1997–I’ve got a whole file folder dedicated to it, as well as a bookmark folder filled with outdated links that have long since disappeared.

There are some great articles in Emerging Infectious Diseases, published by the CDC: “The Economic Impact of Pandemic Influenza in the United States: Priorities for Intervention (Meltzer, 1999, Vol 5 No 5) and “The Next Influenza Pandemic: Lessons from Hong Kong, 1997” (Snacken, 1999, Vol 5 No 2).

It’s not like this strain of the flu should come as a big surprise. We’ve known about it for years. We’ve also know for awhile that it’s capable of human to human transmission. So why the sudden panic? Why the sudden flurry of news stories about Avian flu?

I have several cynical answers I could make to this question of course, but I don’t know if politics is the answer.

And what happened to SARS? Have we suddenly found it less of a threat than Avian flu? It takes months to create a flu vaccine–why were we working on this problem years ago?

Furthermore, are we doing anything other than wringing our hands and printing article after article guaranteed to scare the general populace?

Why do these things happen like this?

CDC Influenza page
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
WHO Avian Influenza site
CDC Flu Map

The 2005 Ig Nobels were awarded this week!

(Hopefully I’ll be able to read some of the original articles from work.)

Of this years winners, I particularly liked

Edward Cussler of the University of Minnesota and Brian Gettelfinger of the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin, for conducting a careful experiment to settle the longstanding scientific question: can people swim faster in syrup or in water?

I’m pretty sure I’d swim faster in syrup, as I’d be completely disgusted and want to get out as quickly as possible.

One more reason not to live in Florida.

An unusual clash between a 6-foot (1.8m) alligator and a 13-foot (3.9m) python has left two of the deadliest predators dead in Florida’s swamps.

The Burmese python tried to swallow its fearsome rival whole but then exploded.

The news article has a picture. It isn’t as disgusting as I’d have expected, but is still rather gross.

Yet disturbingly fascinating.

…I think I’d really like some of these scarves.

Maybe Anthrax. Though smallpox looks rather pretty.