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Donald Trump and disgraced antivaccine “scientist” Andrew Wakefield: Best buds forever? [Respectful Insolence]

As I write this, the 2016 Election is lurching painfully to its conclusion, with about a week to go. In my entire adult life, dating back to when I first reached the age where I started paying attention to politics in the late 1970s, I cannot remember a more bizarre or painful election, nor can I remember an election in which one possible outcome actually terrifies me. I’m referring to the possibility of Donald Trump becoming our next President. I’ve made no secret of my contempt for his xenophobia, his blatant sexism and misogyny, his change from using racist dog whistles to racist bullhorns, his utter lack of qualifications, his temperament that is totally unfit to be President, and his generally vile personality.

I haven’t really written much about the political reasons that I oppose Trump, but I have written quite a bit over a medical and scientific reason. With one week to go before this election chugs painfully to its freak show conclusion, I was reminded of this just yesterday and figured, what the heck? I really should take one last opportunity to write about this in light of a post that I saw last night, which led me to ome Facebook postings by antivaccinationists about Trump.

If there’s one thing you might not realize, it’s that antivaccinationists (at least many of them) love Donald Trump. Love him. For example, our good buddy and conspiracy theorist, Jake Crosby, whom I like to refer to as Young Master Crosby or, if I’m on Twitter, The Gnat, has been posting Hillary for Prison graphics, urging people to donate to the Trump campaign, and generally worshiping the ground Donald Trump walks on. Elsewhere, a man every bit as deranged as The Gnat, Mike Adams, has been delivering a steady stream of pro-Trump propaganda, along with his other pseudoscience, quackery, and lies, for several months now. More recently, the Grand Poobah of the Antivaccine Movement himself, the man who almost singlehandedly brought measles back to the UK by using a crappy fraudulent case report to frighten parents with the lie that the MMR vaccine causes autism, Andrew Wakefield, has stated that this is a “one issue” election:

To be honest, I have a hard time believing that Andrew Wakefield is so stupid that he’d be repeating the utterly risible claim that by 2032 one out of two children will have autism and that the pharmaceutical industry and government somehow want this? Does Wakefield have any self-awareness? Does he have a clue just how stupid that sounds? He probably does, but it’s all about the con, and the antivaccine activists he’s addressing actually believe such flagrant nonsense. In any case, Wakefield strongly endorsed Donald Trump because Trump believes that vaccines cause autism. In fact, he claims to have met with Donald Trump and that Trump told him he’s on Wakefield’s (and, by extension, the antivaccinationists’) side. He then lays down an even bigger whopper, claiming that, if Hillary Clinton is elected President, within two years there will be mandatory vaccination nationwide. Clearly, either Wakefield doesn’t know how our federalist system operates and that it is the states, not the federal government, that determine school vaccination requirements, or he doesn’t care. I suspect the latter. Again, Wakefield is not stupid. He is a liar. But who knows? To be able to make such ridiculously over-the-top claims, he must be, in my opinion, either stupid or lying. Take your pick.

I’ve documented Donald Trump’s antivaccine views for a long time now. The first time I took notice of Trump spouting off about vaccines causing autism was in 2007, when he was quoted in an interview saying:

“When I was growing up, autism wasn’t really a factor,” Trump said. “And now all of a sudden, it’s an epidemic. Everybody has their theory. My theory, and I study it because I have young children, my theory is the shots. We’ve giving these massive injections at one time, and I really think it does something to the children.”

And:

“When a little baby that weighs 20 pounds and 30 pounds gets pumped with 10 and 20 shots at one time, with one injection that’s a giant injection, I personally think that has something to do with it. Now there’s a group that agrees with that and there’s a group that doesn’t agree with that.”

He was also quoted in 2012 blaming a “monster shot” causing autism:

They go in and they get this monster shot. I mean, have you ever seen the size of it? It’s like they’re pumping in–you know, it’s terrible, the amount. And they pump this in to this little body, and then all of a sudden the child is different a month later, and I strongly believe that’s it. They should have vaccinations, but do them separately and over an extended period of time, not all at one time.

Then, of course, he’s been seen on Twitter many times posting pure antivaccine pseudoscience, as I documented last year:

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

No wonder antivaccine loons love Donald Trump. It’s not my intention to rehash all the times that Donald Trump has spewed antivaccine idiocy hither, thither, and yon. There are simply too many examples over too long a period of time. Indeed, given how many times Donald Trump has changed positions on so many other issues, I can’t help but point out one last time that antivaccine pseudoscience is probably the one position that he’s been utterly consistent about for at least a decade.

Which brings me back to Andrew Wakefield’s claim. Did Donald Trump really meet with Andrew Wakefield, the disgraced UK surgeon and researcher who was struck off and whose research leading to his infamous 1998 case series in The Lancet implicating MMR as a risk factor for autism was shown to be fraudulent so brilliantly by Brian Deer. If, so, this would be a very disturbing development, far more disturbing than yet another insinuation about Hillary Clinton’s e-mails, as it would involve a major party candidate for President of the United States meeting with an antivaccine activist looking to bring measles back to the world.

Our old friend, Levi Quackenboss, one of the quackiest antivaccine bloggers out there, reports that it is indeed true that Wakefield met with Trump and offers to “share” a few things about the meeting. Why did she wait until November 1, when Wakefield’s talk dates to late August and his alleged meeting with Donald Trump a couple of days before his talk? Who knows? Who cares? I’m bringing this up because it’s something that needs to be known before the election, and Quackenboss has reported on previous meetings between the antivaccine activists behind the movie VAXXED and other legislators, such as Rep. Jason Chaffetz, before. Here’s what she says:

The team that visited Trump last summer says that he is very consistent in his position on vaccines. He has certainly not abandoned us. They specifically talked with him about vaccine-induced autism and they report that Trump undoubtedly knows that vaccines can and do cause autism.

Trump asked the type of questions that show the depth of his knowledge of the subject, such as how the current schedule came into being and how he can change it. He is already up to speed on what is happening. He already understands the issue.

At this point, I can’t help but note that, if Trump is truly “up to speed” on issues of vaccines and autism, even if it’s to be “up to speed” enough to know what antivaccine quacks are claiming, it would be the first time he’s been up-to-speed on pretty much any policy issue. If there’s one thing that’s been consistent about Donald Trump, it’s been that he assiduously avoids anything resembling the painful nasty details of science and policy and goes with conspiracy theories. Of course, that’s why he is so dangerous and why it is so disturbing that he actually met with the VAXXED team. Remember, the movie VAXXED is basically a movie about a conspiracy theory, that of the “CDC whistleblower.” As I mentioned a couple of days ago, VAXXED, which was directed by Wakefield and produced by Del Bigtree, is a propaganda movie disguised as a documentary that is so blatant, so full of misinformation and lies, that, if she were alive today to see it, Leni Riefenstahl would say, “Dudes, that’s a bit much. You might want to tone it down a bit.” (Yes, I like to imagine Riefenstahl calling Bigtree and Wakefield “dudes,” with a thick German accent.)

Now here’s the even more disturbing part:

The most important promise came at the end of their meeting when someone said, “Donald, you are the only one who can fix this.”

And Trump said, “I will.”

He will fix this.

Fixing this is not rocket science. Hell, it’s not even vaccine science. He will fix this. It is entirely fixable, and he appreciates our advocates lending their assistance in getting it done.

Friends, we have a direct route to stopping this madness. Can you imagine that for a second? Can you just imagine having vaccine education advocates getting face-time with the person who appoints the director of the CDC?

Trump asked for a follow-up with our side. They are giving him advice on how to help us.

It’s quite possible that Quackenboss is delusional about how much sway antivaccinationists have with the Trump campaign. She’s frequently delusional about a great many things. On the other hand, politicians—and, make no mistake, Trump is now a politician—frequently tell constituents what they want to hear. Also, Trump is known for being a most talented liar. However, there is a grain of plausibility here. Trump loves conspiracy theories, and the CDC whistleblower is a doozy of of a conspiracy theory. He believes Alex Jones. He Tweets conspiracy theories unaltered about a great many things. He lies. All the time. So who knows what Trump really thought meeting with Andrew Wakefield and the VAXXED crew (and whoever else came along for the ride)? If he actually watched the copy of VAXXED Quackenboss claims that he received from Wakefield, Trump would almost certainly eat it up.

So did Donald Trump meet with Andrew Wakefield? Wakefield is a liar, and Quackenboss is deluded, but that doesn’t mean they ‘aren’t telling the truth here. They might be exaggerating or spinning or they might be deluding themselves into believing that Trump cares about their pet conspiracy theories more than he actually does, but it does appear that Trump did meet with a man who is arguably the most famous antivaccine activist in the world.

Of course, Trump has no clue about how the government works. He’s frequently blamed Hillary Clinton for not getting things done in 25 years in the federal government, seemingly not understanding that, for example, a single junior Senator can’t change the law by fiat, and even the President’s power to achieve his or her aims is constrained by Congress and the Courts. If Trump were elected and actually did follow through with the promises that Quackenboss claims he made to Wakefield, what he could achieve would be limited. He couldn’t, for example, unilaterally change the laws in 50 states mandating certain vaccinations for children entering school and daycare. He could, however, royally screw up the CDC, reversing decades of progress, by meddling in the internal affairs of the CDC and appointing a Secretary of Health and Human Services who is antivaccine-sympathetic. True, given existing law and the permanent bureaucracy of HHS and the CDC, there are limits to what he could do without changing the law, but by promoting the myth that vaccines cause autism from the White House, as President, even if he makes no substantive difference in actual vaccine policy, he can still do enormous damage to public health that would take decades to reverse. Millions would believe the myth coming from the President of the United States.

That scares me almost as much as the thought of Donald Trump’s finger on the nuclear trigger.



from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/2fDuoR6

As I write this, the 2016 Election is lurching painfully to its conclusion, with about a week to go. In my entire adult life, dating back to when I first reached the age where I started paying attention to politics in the late 1970s, I cannot remember a more bizarre or painful election, nor can I remember an election in which one possible outcome actually terrifies me. I’m referring to the possibility of Donald Trump becoming our next President. I’ve made no secret of my contempt for his xenophobia, his blatant sexism and misogyny, his change from using racist dog whistles to racist bullhorns, his utter lack of qualifications, his temperament that is totally unfit to be President, and his generally vile personality.

I haven’t really written much about the political reasons that I oppose Trump, but I have written quite a bit over a medical and scientific reason. With one week to go before this election chugs painfully to its freak show conclusion, I was reminded of this just yesterday and figured, what the heck? I really should take one last opportunity to write about this in light of a post that I saw last night, which led me to ome Facebook postings by antivaccinationists about Trump.

If there’s one thing you might not realize, it’s that antivaccinationists (at least many of them) love Donald Trump. Love him. For example, our good buddy and conspiracy theorist, Jake Crosby, whom I like to refer to as Young Master Crosby or, if I’m on Twitter, The Gnat, has been posting Hillary for Prison graphics, urging people to donate to the Trump campaign, and generally worshiping the ground Donald Trump walks on. Elsewhere, a man every bit as deranged as The Gnat, Mike Adams, has been delivering a steady stream of pro-Trump propaganda, along with his other pseudoscience, quackery, and lies, for several months now. More recently, the Grand Poobah of the Antivaccine Movement himself, the man who almost singlehandedly brought measles back to the UK by using a crappy fraudulent case report to frighten parents with the lie that the MMR vaccine causes autism, Andrew Wakefield, has stated that this is a “one issue” election:

To be honest, I have a hard time believing that Andrew Wakefield is so stupid that he’d be repeating the utterly risible claim that by 2032 one out of two children will have autism and that the pharmaceutical industry and government somehow want this? Does Wakefield have any self-awareness? Does he have a clue just how stupid that sounds? He probably does, but it’s all about the con, and the antivaccine activists he’s addressing actually believe such flagrant nonsense. In any case, Wakefield strongly endorsed Donald Trump because Trump believes that vaccines cause autism. In fact, he claims to have met with Donald Trump and that Trump told him he’s on Wakefield’s (and, by extension, the antivaccinationists’) side. He then lays down an even bigger whopper, claiming that, if Hillary Clinton is elected President, within two years there will be mandatory vaccination nationwide. Clearly, either Wakefield doesn’t know how our federalist system operates and that it is the states, not the federal government, that determine school vaccination requirements, or he doesn’t care. I suspect the latter. Again, Wakefield is not stupid. He is a liar. But who knows? To be able to make such ridiculously over-the-top claims, he must be, in my opinion, either stupid or lying. Take your pick.

I’ve documented Donald Trump’s antivaccine views for a long time now. The first time I took notice of Trump spouting off about vaccines causing autism was in 2007, when he was quoted in an interview saying:

“When I was growing up, autism wasn’t really a factor,” Trump said. “And now all of a sudden, it’s an epidemic. Everybody has their theory. My theory, and I study it because I have young children, my theory is the shots. We’ve giving these massive injections at one time, and I really think it does something to the children.”

And:

“When a little baby that weighs 20 pounds and 30 pounds gets pumped with 10 and 20 shots at one time, with one injection that’s a giant injection, I personally think that has something to do with it. Now there’s a group that agrees with that and there’s a group that doesn’t agree with that.”

He was also quoted in 2012 blaming a “monster shot” causing autism:

They go in and they get this monster shot. I mean, have you ever seen the size of it? It’s like they’re pumping in–you know, it’s terrible, the amount. And they pump this in to this little body, and then all of a sudden the child is different a month later, and I strongly believe that’s it. They should have vaccinations, but do them separately and over an extended period of time, not all at one time.

Then, of course, he’s been seen on Twitter many times posting pure antivaccine pseudoscience, as I documented last year:

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

No wonder antivaccine loons love Donald Trump. It’s not my intention to rehash all the times that Donald Trump has spewed antivaccine idiocy hither, thither, and yon. There are simply too many examples over too long a period of time. Indeed, given how many times Donald Trump has changed positions on so many other issues, I can’t help but point out one last time that antivaccine pseudoscience is probably the one position that he’s been utterly consistent about for at least a decade.

Which brings me back to Andrew Wakefield’s claim. Did Donald Trump really meet with Andrew Wakefield, the disgraced UK surgeon and researcher who was struck off and whose research leading to his infamous 1998 case series in The Lancet implicating MMR as a risk factor for autism was shown to be fraudulent so brilliantly by Brian Deer. If, so, this would be a very disturbing development, far more disturbing than yet another insinuation about Hillary Clinton’s e-mails, as it would involve a major party candidate for President of the United States meeting with an antivaccine activist looking to bring measles back to the world.

Our old friend, Levi Quackenboss, one of the quackiest antivaccine bloggers out there, reports that it is indeed true that Wakefield met with Trump and offers to “share” a few things about the meeting. Why did she wait until November 1, when Wakefield’s talk dates to late August and his alleged meeting with Donald Trump a couple of days before his talk? Who knows? Who cares? I’m bringing this up because it’s something that needs to be known before the election, and Quackenboss has reported on previous meetings between the antivaccine activists behind the movie VAXXED and other legislators, such as Rep. Jason Chaffetz, before. Here’s what she says:

The team that visited Trump last summer says that he is very consistent in his position on vaccines. He has certainly not abandoned us. They specifically talked with him about vaccine-induced autism and they report that Trump undoubtedly knows that vaccines can and do cause autism.

Trump asked the type of questions that show the depth of his knowledge of the subject, such as how the current schedule came into being and how he can change it. He is already up to speed on what is happening. He already understands the issue.

At this point, I can’t help but note that, if Trump is truly “up to speed” on issues of vaccines and autism, even if it’s to be “up to speed” enough to know what antivaccine quacks are claiming, it would be the first time he’s been up-to-speed on pretty much any policy issue. If there’s one thing that’s been consistent about Donald Trump, it’s been that he assiduously avoids anything resembling the painful nasty details of science and policy and goes with conspiracy theories. Of course, that’s why he is so dangerous and why it is so disturbing that he actually met with the VAXXED team. Remember, the movie VAXXED is basically a movie about a conspiracy theory, that of the “CDC whistleblower.” As I mentioned a couple of days ago, VAXXED, which was directed by Wakefield and produced by Del Bigtree, is a propaganda movie disguised as a documentary that is so blatant, so full of misinformation and lies, that, if she were alive today to see it, Leni Riefenstahl would say, “Dudes, that’s a bit much. You might want to tone it down a bit.” (Yes, I like to imagine Riefenstahl calling Bigtree and Wakefield “dudes,” with a thick German accent.)

Now here’s the even more disturbing part:

The most important promise came at the end of their meeting when someone said, “Donald, you are the only one who can fix this.”

And Trump said, “I will.”

He will fix this.

Fixing this is not rocket science. Hell, it’s not even vaccine science. He will fix this. It is entirely fixable, and he appreciates our advocates lending their assistance in getting it done.

Friends, we have a direct route to stopping this madness. Can you imagine that for a second? Can you just imagine having vaccine education advocates getting face-time with the person who appoints the director of the CDC?

Trump asked for a follow-up with our side. They are giving him advice on how to help us.

It’s quite possible that Quackenboss is delusional about how much sway antivaccinationists have with the Trump campaign. She’s frequently delusional about a great many things. On the other hand, politicians—and, make no mistake, Trump is now a politician—frequently tell constituents what they want to hear. Also, Trump is known for being a most talented liar. However, there is a grain of plausibility here. Trump loves conspiracy theories, and the CDC whistleblower is a doozy of of a conspiracy theory. He believes Alex Jones. He Tweets conspiracy theories unaltered about a great many things. He lies. All the time. So who knows what Trump really thought meeting with Andrew Wakefield and the VAXXED crew (and whoever else came along for the ride)? If he actually watched the copy of VAXXED Quackenboss claims that he received from Wakefield, Trump would almost certainly eat it up.

So did Donald Trump meet with Andrew Wakefield? Wakefield is a liar, and Quackenboss is deluded, but that doesn’t mean they ‘aren’t telling the truth here. They might be exaggerating or spinning or they might be deluding themselves into believing that Trump cares about their pet conspiracy theories more than he actually does, but it does appear that Trump did meet with a man who is arguably the most famous antivaccine activist in the world.

Of course, Trump has no clue about how the government works. He’s frequently blamed Hillary Clinton for not getting things done in 25 years in the federal government, seemingly not understanding that, for example, a single junior Senator can’t change the law by fiat, and even the President’s power to achieve his or her aims is constrained by Congress and the Courts. If Trump were elected and actually did follow through with the promises that Quackenboss claims he made to Wakefield, what he could achieve would be limited. He couldn’t, for example, unilaterally change the laws in 50 states mandating certain vaccinations for children entering school and daycare. He could, however, royally screw up the CDC, reversing decades of progress, by meddling in the internal affairs of the CDC and appointing a Secretary of Health and Human Services who is antivaccine-sympathetic. True, given existing law and the permanent bureaucracy of HHS and the CDC, there are limits to what he could do without changing the law, but by promoting the myth that vaccines cause autism from the White House, as President, even if he makes no substantive difference in actual vaccine policy, he can still do enormous damage to public health that would take decades to reverse. Millions would believe the myth coming from the President of the United States.

That scares me almost as much as the thought of Donald Trump’s finger on the nuclear trigger.



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Earliest noontime, plus evening planets

Today – November 2, 2016 – brings the earliest noontime of the year. Plus, this evening, you’ll find the moon in the west after sunset with two planets. A third planet is also nearby. More about earliest noontime below.

The planets are very bright Venus and fainter Saturn, near the moon after sunset in early November. The third planet is Mars, located higher in the sky. On November 2, look for the moon near Venus and Saturn at nightfall, as soon as the sky begins to darken. They’ll soon follow the sun below the western horizon. On November 2, an imaginary line from the moon through Saturn points in the general direction of Mars. See the chart below.

In the coming evenings, the moon will be climbing toward the red planet Mars. Look for the moon to partner up with Mars on November 5 and 6. And, if you’re blessed with a dark sky, look for The Teapot star pattern – a well-known asterism in the constellation Sagittarius – in between Venus and Mars, as depicted on the sky chart below.

The Teapot marks the approximate direction to the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

2017 EarthSky Lunar Calendar pre-sale…is happening NOW!

In a dark sky, you might even be able to catch The Teapot in between Venus and Mars.

In a dark sky, you might even be able to catch The Teapot in between Venus and Mars. The moon will be near Mars on November 5 and 6.

Now, about today’s other astronomical event – earliest noontime – November 2, 2016.

Earliest noon recurs every year on or near this same date. What does it mean? Only that – all around the world – the sun reaches its midday noontime position earlier by the clock today than at any other time of the year.

After today, the day length as measured by successive solar noons lasts a bit longer than 24 hours by the clock. So discrepancy between solar noon and clock noon will gradually lessen over the next 7 to 8 weeks, until local noon by the clock and sun agree on or near December 25. (See the equation of time graph below.) Every year, the year’s latest noon occurs on or near February 11.

The year’s latest noon in February comes about one-half hour later by the clock than the year’s earliest noon in early November.

A combination of factors is responsible for the discrepancy between time as kept by the sun and clock. First, the Earth’s axis is tilted out of perpendicular to it’s orbital plane by about 23.4o; second, the Earth’s orbit is an ellipse rather than a perfect circle. Four times a year – mid-April, mid-June, September 1 and December 25 – time by the sun and clock agree. At other times of the year, the discrepancy between the sun and clock is depicted by the equation of time.

The equation of time graph via Wikipedia. The earliest noontime by the clock comes in early November and the latest noontime occurs around February 11.

The equation of time graph via Wikipedia. The earliest noontime by the clock comes in early November and the latest noontime occurs around February 11.

For people living at the equator, the earliest sunrise and earliest sunset occur on the same day, on or near November 2. That’s because the daylight hours don’t appreciably change throughout the year.

Elsewhere around the world, where the daylight hours change with the seasons, the earliest sunrise and earliest sunset happen roughly six months apart. At temperate latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, the earliest sunrise comes a few weeks before the December summer solstice; and in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s the earliest sunset that precedes the December winter solstice. Then some six months later, it’s the other way around, as the Northern Hemisphere’s earliest sunrise and the Southern Hemisphere’s earliest sunset happen a week or two before the June solstice.

Bottom line: Around the world on November 2, 2016, the earliest noontime of the year occurs. Also on this date, the moon joins with the planets Venus and Saturn in the west after sunset.



from EarthSky http://ift.tt/2dUJVMN

Today – November 2, 2016 – brings the earliest noontime of the year. Plus, this evening, you’ll find the moon in the west after sunset with two planets. A third planet is also nearby. More about earliest noontime below.

The planets are very bright Venus and fainter Saturn, near the moon after sunset in early November. The third planet is Mars, located higher in the sky. On November 2, look for the moon near Venus and Saturn at nightfall, as soon as the sky begins to darken. They’ll soon follow the sun below the western horizon. On November 2, an imaginary line from the moon through Saturn points in the general direction of Mars. See the chart below.

In the coming evenings, the moon will be climbing toward the red planet Mars. Look for the moon to partner up with Mars on November 5 and 6. And, if you’re blessed with a dark sky, look for The Teapot star pattern – a well-known asterism in the constellation Sagittarius – in between Venus and Mars, as depicted on the sky chart below.

The Teapot marks the approximate direction to the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

2017 EarthSky Lunar Calendar pre-sale…is happening NOW!

In a dark sky, you might even be able to catch The Teapot in between Venus and Mars.

In a dark sky, you might even be able to catch The Teapot in between Venus and Mars. The moon will be near Mars on November 5 and 6.

Now, about today’s other astronomical event – earliest noontime – November 2, 2016.

Earliest noon recurs every year on or near this same date. What does it mean? Only that – all around the world – the sun reaches its midday noontime position earlier by the clock today than at any other time of the year.

After today, the day length as measured by successive solar noons lasts a bit longer than 24 hours by the clock. So discrepancy between solar noon and clock noon will gradually lessen over the next 7 to 8 weeks, until local noon by the clock and sun agree on or near December 25. (See the equation of time graph below.) Every year, the year’s latest noon occurs on or near February 11.

The year’s latest noon in February comes about one-half hour later by the clock than the year’s earliest noon in early November.

A combination of factors is responsible for the discrepancy between time as kept by the sun and clock. First, the Earth’s axis is tilted out of perpendicular to it’s orbital plane by about 23.4o; second, the Earth’s orbit is an ellipse rather than a perfect circle. Four times a year – mid-April, mid-June, September 1 and December 25 – time by the sun and clock agree. At other times of the year, the discrepancy between the sun and clock is depicted by the equation of time.

The equation of time graph via Wikipedia. The earliest noontime by the clock comes in early November and the latest noontime occurs around February 11.

The equation of time graph via Wikipedia. The earliest noontime by the clock comes in early November and the latest noontime occurs around February 11.

For people living at the equator, the earliest sunrise and earliest sunset occur on the same day, on or near November 2. That’s because the daylight hours don’t appreciably change throughout the year.

Elsewhere around the world, where the daylight hours change with the seasons, the earliest sunrise and earliest sunset happen roughly six months apart. At temperate latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, the earliest sunrise comes a few weeks before the December summer solstice; and in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s the earliest sunset that precedes the December winter solstice. Then some six months later, it’s the other way around, as the Northern Hemisphere’s earliest sunrise and the Southern Hemisphere’s earliest sunset happen a week or two before the June solstice.

Bottom line: Around the world on November 2, 2016, the earliest noontime of the year occurs. Also on this date, the moon joins with the planets Venus and Saturn in the west after sunset.



from EarthSky http://ift.tt/2dUJVMN
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The Integrative Biology of Exercise VII [Life Lines]

The annual American Physiological Society sponsored conference, The Integrative Biology of Exercise is hosting their 7th meeting in Phoenix, AZ this week! I just unpacked my bags and I am highlighting my program book now to see what sessions to attend tomorrow. Can’t wait!



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The annual American Physiological Society sponsored conference, The Integrative Biology of Exercise is hosting their 7th meeting in Phoenix, AZ this week! I just unpacked my bags and I am highlighting my program book now to see what sessions to attend tomorrow. Can’t wait!



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In the meantime, I think I’ll hibernate [Life Lines]

By Shanghai killer whale (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://ift.tt/HKkdTz)], via Wikimedia Commons

I just read an interesting blog from the I Spy Physiology website sponsored by the American Physiological Society which described results from a recent study suggesting that chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) might be a human equivalent to hibernation.

Chronic fatigue syndrome reportedly affects over 2.5 million people in the United States alone. People with this condition have the type of fatigue that does not seem to improve, even with adequate sleep.

By examining the blood of people with and without CFS, researchers have now discovered that those with the condition have less metabolites. What this means is that metabolism is reduced in people with CFS, much like a hibernating animal. Hibernation is typically a state animals enter to conserve energy in order to deal with environmental challenges (like winter) or stressors. For humans, this hibernation-like state may be a way to cope with stress as well since it often begins following an illness or major stress event. Hopefully this new research will help identify potential therapeutic targets to turn off this seemingly protective mechanism in those who suffer from CFS.

Sources:

http://ift.tt/2cBFm6T

I Spy Physiology blog

 



from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/2eywrBQ

By Shanghai killer whale (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://ift.tt/HKkdTz)], via Wikimedia Commons

I just read an interesting blog from the I Spy Physiology website sponsored by the American Physiological Society which described results from a recent study suggesting that chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) might be a human equivalent to hibernation.

Chronic fatigue syndrome reportedly affects over 2.5 million people in the United States alone. People with this condition have the type of fatigue that does not seem to improve, even with adequate sleep.

By examining the blood of people with and without CFS, researchers have now discovered that those with the condition have less metabolites. What this means is that metabolism is reduced in people with CFS, much like a hibernating animal. Hibernation is typically a state animals enter to conserve energy in order to deal with environmental challenges (like winter) or stressors. For humans, this hibernation-like state may be a way to cope with stress as well since it often begins following an illness or major stress event. Hopefully this new research will help identify potential therapeutic targets to turn off this seemingly protective mechanism in those who suffer from CFS.

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I Spy Physiology blog

 



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November 2016 Open Thread [Deltoid]

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News from the APHA Annual Meeting and Expo in Denver [The Pump Handle]

Celeste Monforton and I are currently in Denver at APHA’s 2016 Annual Meeting and Exposition — the year’s largest gathering of public health professionals. The meeting is packed with hundreds of scientific sessions, leading public health researchers and new findings on just about any public health topic you can imagine. Below are some highlights of the past few days, courtesy the APHA Annual Meeting Blog.

Trees don’t just make neighborhoods pretty. They can also save lives: With flowers in the spring, lush green leaves in the summer and changing colors in the fall, trees have long been appreciated for their natural beauty. A new report from the Nature Conservancy shows that they can also be appreciated for their ability to save lives.

Released at APHA’s Annual Meeting and Expo Tuesday, the “Planting Healthy Air” report finds that investing $4 per resident to plant trees in some of the world’s largest cities could lead to better health for humans. Trees reduce air pollution and cool urban streets, thereby providing health benefits to their human neighbors, said the report, which was created in partnership with the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group. Continue reading

South Carolina flooding becomes case study in community resiliency: When Hurricane Joaquin hovered over South Carolina in the fall of 2015 causing historic flooding, state residents — particularly in the Midlands region — had to quickly discover what they were made of.

In the midst of disaster, researchers from the University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health saw an opportunity to see how residents acted and adapted to a life-changing event. They presented on their work during Monday’s Annual Meeting session “Response, Recovery and Resiliency: Understanding Public Health in Practice During and After the Flood of October 2015.” Continue reading

Transgender health behind bars: How to improve care: In a Monday session on transgender health and health disparities, two presenters took a look at how to improve care for an even more marginalized group: transgender prisoners.

Kirsty Clark and Jackie White Hughto, two Yale University researchers, presented their findings during an Annual Meeting presentation on “Development and Pilot Testing of a Transgender Knowledge Intervention for Correctional Health Care Providers.” Continue reading

Insuring the right to health: Making the marketplaces work for everyone: It’s been six years since the passage of the Affordable Care Act and the nation’s uninsured rate has dropped to a record low. That’s the good news.

On the other hand, a cornerstone of the ACA — the health insurance marketplaces — are facing some real challenges in reaching some of the nation’s most vulnerable populations, according to presenters at a Monday morning Annual Meeting session on “Insuring the Right to Health — Enrolling Underserved Populations through Health Insurance Exchanges.” Presenter Mary Pittman, president and CEO of the Public Health Institute, said the big questions facing the ACA today are how states address continuing barriers to insurance enrollment as well as ensure that affordable insurance is available to all. Continue reading

Opening General Session: ‘I’ve never been prouder to be on the side of public health’: “Everyone means everyone.”

That’s a quote from Opening General Session keynote speaker and Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, and it pretty much sums up the overriding message of this year’s APHA Annual Meeting in Denver: That ensuring the right to health means recognizing, acknowledging and speaking out against the systemic social barriers — from racism and sexism to homophobia and classism — that give certain groups a built-in advantage toward healthier lives, greater longevity and greater prosperity. Continue reading

Catch up on all the news from the APHA Annual Meeting here.

Kim Krisberg is a freelance public health writer living in Austin, Texas, and has been writing about public health for nearly 15 years.



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Celeste Monforton and I are currently in Denver at APHA’s 2016 Annual Meeting and Exposition — the year’s largest gathering of public health professionals. The meeting is packed with hundreds of scientific sessions, leading public health researchers and new findings on just about any public health topic you can imagine. Below are some highlights of the past few days, courtesy the APHA Annual Meeting Blog.

Trees don’t just make neighborhoods pretty. They can also save lives: With flowers in the spring, lush green leaves in the summer and changing colors in the fall, trees have long been appreciated for their natural beauty. A new report from the Nature Conservancy shows that they can also be appreciated for their ability to save lives.

Released at APHA’s Annual Meeting and Expo Tuesday, the “Planting Healthy Air” report finds that investing $4 per resident to plant trees in some of the world’s largest cities could lead to better health for humans. Trees reduce air pollution and cool urban streets, thereby providing health benefits to their human neighbors, said the report, which was created in partnership with the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group. Continue reading

South Carolina flooding becomes case study in community resiliency: When Hurricane Joaquin hovered over South Carolina in the fall of 2015 causing historic flooding, state residents — particularly in the Midlands region — had to quickly discover what they were made of.

In the midst of disaster, researchers from the University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health saw an opportunity to see how residents acted and adapted to a life-changing event. They presented on their work during Monday’s Annual Meeting session “Response, Recovery and Resiliency: Understanding Public Health in Practice During and After the Flood of October 2015.” Continue reading

Transgender health behind bars: How to improve care: In a Monday session on transgender health and health disparities, two presenters took a look at how to improve care for an even more marginalized group: transgender prisoners.

Kirsty Clark and Jackie White Hughto, two Yale University researchers, presented their findings during an Annual Meeting presentation on “Development and Pilot Testing of a Transgender Knowledge Intervention for Correctional Health Care Providers.” Continue reading

Insuring the right to health: Making the marketplaces work for everyone: It’s been six years since the passage of the Affordable Care Act and the nation’s uninsured rate has dropped to a record low. That’s the good news.

On the other hand, a cornerstone of the ACA — the health insurance marketplaces — are facing some real challenges in reaching some of the nation’s most vulnerable populations, according to presenters at a Monday morning Annual Meeting session on “Insuring the Right to Health — Enrolling Underserved Populations through Health Insurance Exchanges.” Presenter Mary Pittman, president and CEO of the Public Health Institute, said the big questions facing the ACA today are how states address continuing barriers to insurance enrollment as well as ensure that affordable insurance is available to all. Continue reading

Opening General Session: ‘I’ve never been prouder to be on the side of public health’: “Everyone means everyone.”

That’s a quote from Opening General Session keynote speaker and Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, and it pretty much sums up the overriding message of this year’s APHA Annual Meeting in Denver: That ensuring the right to health means recognizing, acknowledging and speaking out against the systemic social barriers — from racism and sexism to homophobia and classism — that give certain groups a built-in advantage toward healthier lives, greater longevity and greater prosperity. Continue reading

Catch up on all the news from the APHA Annual Meeting here.

Kim Krisberg is a freelance public health writer living in Austin, Texas, and has been writing about public health for nearly 15 years.



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Why Are Dark Matter And Modified Gravity In Such Conflict? (Synopsis) [Starts With A Bang]

“All we know so far is what doesn’t work.” -Richard Feynman

The past month has seen a slew of papers out highlighting the tension between modified gravity and dark matter. Both recognize the same puzzles and problems with the Universe, and both ideas recognize that either one could be valid. In fact, if you look at the two greatest “crises” in gravity in the 19th century, it’s arguable that dark matter (Neptune) solved one, the Uranus problem, while modifying gravity (with Einstein’s general relativity) solved the other.

The X-ray (pink) and overall matter (blue) maps of various colliding galaxy clusters show a clear separation between normal matter and dark matter. Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland/D.Harvey & NASA/CXC/Durham Univ/R.Massey; Optical & Lensing Map: NASA, ESA, D. Harvey (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland) and R. Massey (Durham University, UK).

The X-ray (pink) and overall matter (blue) maps of various colliding galaxy clusters show a clear separation between normal matter and dark matter. Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland/D.Harvey & NASA/CXC/Durham Univ/R.Massey; Optical & Lensing Map: NASA, ESA, D. Harvey (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland) and R. Massey (Durham University, UK).

Now in the 21st century, we have a whole Universe to explain, and while dark matter is definitely the leading theory, the idea of modifying gravity isn’t crazy. Moreover, it has a success that dark matter can’t match: on galaxy-scales and below.

The details of the small-scale structure predicted by dark matter do not match with what we observe. The hope of the dark matter camp is that improved simulations and models will come to reproduce them accurately and robustly. Image credit: NASA, ESA, and T. Brown and J. Tumlinson (STScI).

The details of the small-scale structure predicted by dark matter do not match with what we observe. The hope of the dark matter camp is that improved simulations and models will come to reproduce them accurately and robustly. Image credit: NASA, ESA, and T. Brown and J. Tumlinson (STScI).

In the end, it will take a big step forward for a true victor to emerge, but here’s where the science stands right now.



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“All we know so far is what doesn’t work.” -Richard Feynman

The past month has seen a slew of papers out highlighting the tension between modified gravity and dark matter. Both recognize the same puzzles and problems with the Universe, and both ideas recognize that either one could be valid. In fact, if you look at the two greatest “crises” in gravity in the 19th century, it’s arguable that dark matter (Neptune) solved one, the Uranus problem, while modifying gravity (with Einstein’s general relativity) solved the other.

The X-ray (pink) and overall matter (blue) maps of various colliding galaxy clusters show a clear separation between normal matter and dark matter. Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland/D.Harvey & NASA/CXC/Durham Univ/R.Massey; Optical & Lensing Map: NASA, ESA, D. Harvey (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland) and R. Massey (Durham University, UK).

The X-ray (pink) and overall matter (blue) maps of various colliding galaxy clusters show a clear separation between normal matter and dark matter. Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland/D.Harvey & NASA/CXC/Durham Univ/R.Massey; Optical & Lensing Map: NASA, ESA, D. Harvey (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland) and R. Massey (Durham University, UK).

Now in the 21st century, we have a whole Universe to explain, and while dark matter is definitely the leading theory, the idea of modifying gravity isn’t crazy. Moreover, it has a success that dark matter can’t match: on galaxy-scales and below.

The details of the small-scale structure predicted by dark matter do not match with what we observe. The hope of the dark matter camp is that improved simulations and models will come to reproduce them accurately and robustly. Image credit: NASA, ESA, and T. Brown and J. Tumlinson (STScI).

The details of the small-scale structure predicted by dark matter do not match with what we observe. The hope of the dark matter camp is that improved simulations and models will come to reproduce them accurately and robustly. Image credit: NASA, ESA, and T. Brown and J. Tumlinson (STScI).

In the end, it will take a big step forward for a true victor to emerge, but here’s where the science stands right now.



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