Comments for SciencePunk

Comment on End Times: three new diseases to worry about by Jo Problems

Jo Problems — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:14:41 +0000

The naming was largely political. While most viruses of the sort are named after the locale of the first outbreak (Marburg in Marburg, Germany, Junin by the Junin River in South America, etc.) Sin Nombre managed to break out in an area named in memory of a massacre of indigenous peoples. As such, there was more than a little sensitivity about naming the new virus (which emerged on a Navajo reservation, and was affected by good ol’ American racism pretty much right off the bat) after the location.
Since there was a team of scientists from multiple agencies working on the case, naming it after the founder was discarded as well.

Comment on Crop circle reveals Pi by Frank the SciencePunk

Frank the SciencePunk — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:54:40 +0000

@ 8. Robert:

#1. You’re a loony
#2. If you really want to understand the mathematics of a spiral, you’d be much better off studying the Fibonacci sequence.

Comment on End Times: three new diseases to worry about by Frank the SciencePunk

Frank the SciencePunk — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:43:18 +0000

There is something deeply disturbing about a virus whose name translates as “without name”.

Comment on Scientific Study on Detox Pads by james

james — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 06:40:54 +0000

Also, it should be noted that on the BODYRELIEF amazon page, one of those comments said:

I have been using Kinoki Detox pads for 7 weeks and they are great.

Comment on Scientific Study on Detox Pads by james

james — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 06:38:14 +0000

Just wanted to point out that for this other product thats probably the same thing, BodyRelief, the comments look like this:

Headaches. Back aches. Muscle aches. They come hand in hand with a 52 yr. old trying to keep up with his four grown children on the tennis courts and the ski slopes. Thanks to the Body Relief pads I feel 20 years younger. I’ve been using them for two years, placing them directly on the parts of my body that are hurting. They live up to their name!

All of the five star comments I’ve seen are like this. I’m not one for conspiracy theory, but the fact that A) these 52 year-olds have no typos and B) Body Relief is always capitalized and written the same way as the trademark seems fishy.

Comment on The 12 STIs of Christmas by Keith A. Williams

Keith A. Williams — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:04:19 +0000

I thought I had lost it forever, but Google had it for me.

Comment on End Times: three new diseases to worry about by Jo Problems

Jo Problems — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:58:51 +0000

I’m coming late to the party, having only stumbled upon your blog just now, but the cause for concern in rodent borne haemorrhagic fevers is that they are actually mostly transmitted through rodent urine. The virus (in the case of Junin and Lassa Fever, for example) is fairly hardy in the medium, and so when particles of dried rodent urine became aeresolized in the process of say, sweeping a floor, individuals became infected. Because of this, the mere presence of rodents in a living or working space is a significant risk factor.
These viruses are hardly specific to South America. The Sin Nombre virus (carried by deer mice) killed several young previously healthy adults in southwestern United States in the early 90’s and Lassa Fever which you mentioned is primarily found is West Africa.

Further cause for concern on the haemorrhagic virus front is a recent report in this month’s EID showing that the infection rates for travelers to Asia and Oceania were much higher for Dengue Fever than Malaria. (DHF is transmitted by mosquitoes rather than rodents, however.), even in Thailand where Malaria is endemic.

Comment on Nikon’s Powers of Ten by Robert B

Robert B — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:13:00 +0000

Watch it on this page www.tfyqa.com (the eames one)

Comment on Official: urine is worth more than champagne by Ted

Ted — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:00:57 +0000

The price of semen should attract one or two M.Ps

Comment on Crop circle reveals Pi by Robert B

Robert B — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 02:28:07 +0000

The point of the crop formation was to tell us that PI is incomplete, and when complete, PI lets us do amazing things with energy.