Losing Our Religion

What has already happened in Europe is slowly seeping into our culture:

 

A wide-ranging study on American religious life found that the Roman Catholic population has been shifting out of the Northeast to the Southwest, the percentage of Christians in the nation has declined and more people say they have no religion at all.

Fifteen percent of respondents said they had no religion, an increase from 14.2 percent in 2001 and 8.2 percent in 1990, according to the American Religious Identification Survey.

 

USA Today has an interactive graph that breaks down the survey results by state and year.

Hopefully, this trend won't cause more of these kinds of incidents.

And the Hits Just Keep on Coming..

More bad news today: 

Another 651,000 jobs were lost in February, adding to the millions of people who have been thrown out of work as the economic downturn deepens.

In a stark measure of the recession’s toll, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday that the national unemployment rate surged to 8.1 percent last month, its highest in 25 years.

The economy has now shed more than 4.4 million jobs since the recession started in December 2007, and economists expect that the losses will continue over the rest of the year and into 2010. The economy lost an upwardly revised 655,000 jobs in January, when the unemployment rate rose to 7.6 percent. December job loss was revised to 681,000, from 577,000.

And according to some economists, the worst is yet to come. Ouch.

More Than a Mouthful

It turns out that you are unique..just like everyone else:

..scientists took saliva samples from a total of 120 people in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. By sequencing and analyzing genes in the saliva, they identified 101 known bacterial genera, including 39 that had never been found in the mouth before. 

Mouth microbe makeup varied greatly from person to person, but not in any geographically structured way. Two people from Louisiana were likely to be as different as a Bolivian and a South African.

Also important is the reminder that microorganisms populate our every nook and cranny.

"This study confirms that the amount of microbial diversity on and in our bodies is really impressive," said Noah Fierer of the University of Colorado. "We're basically a walking microbial ecosystem."

In fact, the argument could be made that we're more microbe than human. Scientists estimate that microorganisms living on and inside us outnumber human cells more than 10 to one.

"A lot of people get freaked out when they hear that," Fierer said. "But a lot of microbes are either completely innocuous or beneficial."

Some gut bacteria, for example, stimulate immune-system development, help us digest carbohydrates and fats, and synthesize vitamins for us. These creatures have co-evolved with us for eons, and their biology is inextricably tied to ours.

Daily Show Rips CNBC, Wall Street

Hysterical:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

Techonology Moving Faster and Faster

As a gadget guy (don't mess with my iPhone or DVR!), I thought this was a cool graph showing how much more quickly we are adopting new technologies. For example, it took 14 years for 150 million people to start using cellphones. How long did it take for that many people to join Facebook? 5 years. 

For a more comprehensive graph, click here.

What these graphs don't take into account is cost. As would be expected, more people adopt new technologies as costs go down.

So what's the next big technology? Nobody knows for sure, but maybe it's this. 

Vultures!

Considering the interest rates that credit card companies (many of which are banks that have been bailed out with taxpayer money!) are charging these days, the thought of using the five stages of grief to manipulate people to pay money they don't legally owe is beyond dispicable. Don't these people have any shame?

Recession Deepens

Is it me or does it seem like many people don't realize how truly bad our economy is at the moment? 

Yesterday the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped below 7,000 for the first time since 1997 (keep in mind that the Dow reached 14,000 as recently as Oct. 2007; see graph above). At the end of trading today, Citigroup's (one of the largest full service banks in the world) stock price was an unbelievable $1.22 per share (it was in the $40-$50 range prior to the economic crisis). In the fourth quarter of last year, the GDP fell 6.2%, the steepest decline since the 1982 recession. Not surprisingly, people are not buying cars or houses. Over the past year, sales are down 53% at G.M., 48% at Ford and 40% at Toyota. 

In other bad news, insurance giant AIG reported that it lost $62 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008, the biggest quarterly loss in U.S. corporate history. After the bailing out AIG to the tune of $150 billion in November, the government announced a restructured bailout plan, extending $30 billion in additional aid to the company. You might be wondering why we need to keep throwing taxpayer money at this problem:

AIG is so big and sprawling, so intertwined with institutions around the globe, that its downfall could set off a vicious chain reaction. Upheaval on such a global scale would plunge the U.S. economy deeper into recession, drive up unemployment and stifle hopes for an economic rebound any time soon.

Geez. I thought we were there already.

Wanna Lose Weight? Reduce Calories (Duh!)

I've often wondered why people insist on trying to lose weight via low-carb (eg. Atkins) or low-fat diets. A study in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine this week found that what you eat matters less than the number of calories you take in:

..participants were assigned to and taught about diets that emphasized different contents of carbohydrates, fat, and protein and were given reinforcement for 2 years through group and individual sessions. The principal finding is that the diets were equally successful in promoting clinically meaningful weight loss and the maintenance of weight loss over the course of 2 years. 

..diets that are successful in causing weight loss can emphasize a range of fat, protein, and carbohydrate compositions that have beneficial effects on risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Such diets can also be tailored to individual patients on the basis of their personal and cultural preferences and may therefore have the best chance for long-term success.

In other words, it makes little sense to suffer by trying to avoid bread, pasta, or fats. As the old adage goes: everything in moderation.

Obama Outlines Bold Plan for America

In his first address (technically it was not a 'State of the Union' address since he's only been in office for 5 weeks) to a joint session of Congress, President Obama sought to convince anxious Americans that the current economic crisis should not stop us from dealing with our biggest problems. Specifically, he argued that education, health care and energy were a vital part of the long-term sustainability of the economy and laid out ambitious plans to attack all three:

Now is the time to act boldly and wisely – to not only revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity. Now is the time to jumpstart job creation, re-start lending, and invest in areas like energy, health care, and education that will grow our economy, even as we make hard choices to bring our deficit down.  

Some of the highlights of his speech:

Energy independence? Education reform (ie. better teachers, more pay)? Healthcare for all Americans? These are things most people can get behind. Most important of all, he gave the country a vision of itself in this new era. We've been coasting on our reputation for far too long. He said it better than I ever could:

..we have lived through an era where too often, short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity, where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election. A surplus became an excuse to transfer wealth to the wealthy instead of an opportunity to invest in our future. Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market. People bought homes they knew they couldn't afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway. And all the while, critical debates and difficult decisions were put off for some other time on some other day.

The full speech can be seen here.

Alan Keyes: Stop Obama or US Will Cease to Exist

If one were to Google "right-wing nutjob" this hilariously funny video really should come up first:

Obama supports the killing of babies that were supposed to be aborted? LOL.

52,000 Greedy A-Holes

After hearing this news, there have got to be a lot of nervous millionaires out there:

The UBS memo was blunt: the “Swiss solution” could help affluent Americans. That message, sent to the bank’s executives in July 2004, referred to a UBS plan to help rich customers evade taxes by hiding money in offshore havens like the Bahamas.

The memo, along with dozens of e-mail messages like it, were disclosed on Thursday in a blistering court document filed by the Justice Department, which sought to compel UBS, based in Switzerland, to divulge the identities of 52,000 Americans whom the authorities suspect of using secret offshore accounts at the bank to dodge taxes.

In the criminal investigation that led to this week’s settlement, the Justice Department had zeroed in on about 19,000 wealthy Americans. Those UBS customers had a combined $20 billion in assets at the bank, and may have evaded $300 million a year in federal taxes through UBS’s undeclared offshore private banking services.

Extreme Makeover, GOP Edition

After the drubbing the Republicans took in November, particularly by black and Latino voters, it's obvious they need to do something to increase the diversity of their party (did you see the monochromatic RNC convention?), but I didn't expect it to be this funny:

Newly elected Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele plans an “off the hook” public relations offensive to attract younger voters, especially blacks and Hispanics, by applying the party's principles to “urban-suburban hip-hop settings.”

Does this mean that we can expect to see GOP leaders like John McCain and Jim Boehner pumping Lil' Wayne in their tricked out golf carts? I sure hope so.

Recovery Package Invests Heavily in Clean Energy

As Obama mentioned repeatedly during the presidential campaign, we must make it a national priority to become energy independent (we're sending more $700B to the Middle East for oil). Not to mention, it's about time that we started doing something about climate change. He's following through on those promises:

* A large sum for energy efficiency, including $5 billion for low-income weatherization programs; over $6 billion in grants for state and local governments; and several billion to modernize federal buildings, with a particular emphasis on energy efficiency.

* $11 billion for “smart grid” investments.

* $3.4 billion for carbon capture and sequestration demonstration projects (otherwise known as “clean coal”).

* $2 billion for research into batteries for electric cars.

* $500 million to help workers train for “green jobs.”

* A three-year extension of the “production tax credit” for wind energy (as well as a tax credit extension for biomass, geothermal, landfill gas and some hydropower projects).

"It’s an investment that will double the amount of renewable energy produced over the next three years,” said Mr. Obama, who also promised that the bill would help “transform the way we use energy.”

Obama Signs $787B Recovery Package into Law

During a week when GM announced that it plans to cut 47,000 jobs and asked the government for an additional $14 billion in aid, President Obama signed the recovery bill that will help many of the struggling masses. However, he did note that the recovery package alone would not magically fix all our economic problems:

Today does not mark the end of our economic troubles. Nor does it constitute all of what we must do to turn our economy around. But it does mark the beginning of the end – the beginning of what we need to do to create jobs for Americans scrambling in the wake of layoffs; to provide relief for families worried they won’t be able to pay next month’s bills; and to set our economy on a firmer foundation, paving the way to long-term growth and prosperity.

So the big question on everyone's mind is: what's in it for me? Here are some of the larger provisions in the bill:

1) In 2009 and 2010, there is a tax credit of up to $400 for individuals and $800 for married couples filing their taxes jointly.

2) In 2009, you won’t have to pay taxes on the first $2,400 in federal unemployment benefits you receive.

3) If you lost your job, the government will subsidize 65% of your COBRA health insurance premium for up to 9 months.

4) In 2009 a number of retirees and disabled people, including Social Security recipients, will receive a $250 refundable tax credit.

5) For the rest of 2009, you’ll be able to deduct the state and local sales and excise taxes you pay on the purchase of a new (not used) car, light truck, recreational vehicle or motorcycle.

6) The maximum Pell Grant will increase by $500, to $5,350 in 2009 and $5,550 in 2010.

7) First-time home buyers are eligible for a refundable tax credit equal to 10 percent of the purchase price of their home, up to $8,000.

Why We Drink

A "scientific" explanation:

Don't Bother

I don't know what multivitamins cost these days, but save your money:

In the past few years, several high-quality studies have failed to show that extra vitamins, at least in pill form, help prevent chronic disease or prolong life.

The latest news came last week after researchers in the Women’s Health Initiative study tracked eight years of multivitamin use among more than 161,000 older women. Despite earlier findings suggesting that multivitamins might lower the risk for heart disease and certain cancers, the study, published in The Archives of Internal Medicine, found no such benefit.

“I’m puzzled why the public in general ignores the results of well-done trials,” said Dr. Eric Klein, national study coordinator for the prostate cancer trial and chairman of the Cleveland Clinic’s Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute. “The public’s belief in the benefits of vitamins and nutrients is not supported by the available scientific data.”

Everyone needs vitamins, which are essential nutrients that the body can’t produce on its own. Inadequate vitamin C leads to scurvy, for instance, and a lack of vitamin D can cause rickets. But a balanced diet typically provides an adequate level of these nutrients, and today many popular foods are fortified with extra vitamins and minerals. As a result, diseases caused by nutrient deficiency are rare in the United States.

A Cure For the Common Cold on the Horizon?

Another example of how taxpayer-backed scientific research benefits everyone:

Researchers said Thursday that they had decoded the genomes of the 99 strains of common cold virus and developed a catalog of its vulnerabilities.

“We are now quite certain that we see the Achilles’ heel, and that a very effective treatment for the common cold is at hand,” said Stephen B. Liggett, an asthma expert at the University of Maryland and co-author of the finding.

Industry hurdles aside, perhaps the biggest reason the common cold has long defied treatment is that the rhinovirus has so many strains and presents a moving target for any drug or vaccine.

By comparing the 99 genomes with one another, the researchers were able to arrange them in a family tree based on similarities in their genomes. That family tree shows that some regions of the rhinovirus genome are changing all the time but that others never change.

..The fact that the unchanging regions are so conserved over the course of evolutionary time means that they perform vital roles and that the virus cannot let them change without perishing. They are therefore ideal targets for drugs because, in principle, any of the 99 strains would succumb to the same drug.

While I'm on the subject, don't waste your money on Airborne if you get a cold. You're best bet:

Frequent hand-washing is the best preventive, Dr. Miller said. Once a cold has started, she recommended washing out the nasal passages, warm drinks and rest.

Also: 

Blowing your nose to alleviate stuffiness may be second nature, but..it does no good, reversing the flow of mucus into the sinuses and slowing the drainage. The proper method is to blow one nostril at a time and to take decongestants, said Dr. Anil Kumar Lalwani, chairman of the department of otolaryngology at the NYU Langone Medical Center. This prevents a buildup of excess pressure.

You Probably Shouldn't Read This Over Lunch..

I mistakenly assumed this was somewhat of an urban legend:

The F.D.A. actually condones a certain percentage of “natural contaminants” in our food supply — meaning, among other things, bugs, mold, rodent hairs and maggots.

Tomato juice, for example, may average “10 or more fly eggs per 100 grams [the equivalent of a small juice glass] or five or more fly eggs and one or more maggots.” Tomato paste and other pizza sauces are allowed a denser infestation — 30 or more fly eggs per 100 grams or 15 or more fly eggs and one or more maggots per 100 grams.

Canned mushrooms may have “over 20 or more maggots of any size per 100 grams of drained mushrooms and proportionate liquid” or “five or more maggots two millimeters or longer per 100 grams of drained mushrooms and proportionate liquid” or an “average of 75 mites” before provoking action by the F.D.A.

In case you’re curious: you’re probably ingesting one to two pounds of flies, maggots and mites each year without knowing it, a quantity of insects that clearly does not cut the mustard, even as insects may well be in the mustard.

The F.D.A. considers the significance of these defects to be “aesthetic” or “offensive to the senses,” which is to say, merely icky as opposed to the “mouth/tooth injury” one risks with, for example, insufficiently pitted prunes. This policy is justified on economic grounds, stating that it is “impractical to grow, harvest or process raw products that are totally free of non-hazardous, naturally occurring, unavoidable defects.”

Bon Appétit!

By the way:

Just about everyone has heard about the recent recall of peanut products, but many Americans don’t realize that cakes, snack bars, brownies, cookies and ice cream may also be contaminated with salmonella, a Harvard University survey has found.

Happy Birthday, Darwin!

This week marks the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, a man who in my opinion, holds a rightful place alongside Galileo, Copernicus, Newton and Einstein. Darwin's theory of evolution is one of the great intellectual revolutions of human history, drastically changing our perception of the world and of our place in it. 

Given its importance, it's hard to believe how little most  science teachers spend on evolution (I have a PhD in biology and I can tell you that most of my teachers/professors skimmed over it), I thought Darwin's birthday would be a good occasion for a brief lesson.

Darwin's theory of evolution has four main parts:

1. Organisms have changed over time, and the ones living today are different from those that lived in the past. The world is not constant, but changing. The fossil and genomic record provide ample evidence for this.
2. All organisms are derived from common ancestors by a process of branching. Over time, populations split into different species, which are related because they are descended from a common ancestor. Thus, if one goes far enough back in time, any pair of organisms has a common ancestor. This explained the similarities of organisms that were classified together -- they were similar because of shared traits inherited from their common ancestor. It also explained why similar species tended to occur in the same geographic region.
3. Change is gradual and slow, taking place over billions of years. 
4. The mechanism of evolutionary change was natural selection. This was the most important and revolutionary part of Darwin's theory.

Don't remember what natural selection is? Let me briefly explain:

Natural selection is the process by which favorable heritable traits become more common in successive generations of a population of reproducing organisms, and unfavorable heritable traits become less common, due to differential reproduction of individuals in a population. 

Let's take giraffes as an example. Today's giraffes have longer necks (a heritable trait) than their ancestors (see pic above) because over the millenia the giraffes with longer necks (in a population of giraffes with necks of slightly different lengths--not unlike the variation in height in humans) were more successful than shorter neck giraffes in getting food (leaves from high branches). These longer necked giraffes would therefore be less likely to starve and more likely to reproduce, passing their long neck genes to their offspring. Over time, the average neck length of giraffes increased.

There are many, many other examples and the fossil and DNA evidence supporting evolution is simply overwhelming. Of course, you wouldn't know this if you asked the American public. According to Gallup poll this week, only 39% of Americans say they "believe in the theory of evolution," while a quarter say they do not believe in the theory, and another 36% don't have an opinion either way. Way sad, especially when one considers how beautiful this idea is. Think about it: We humans evolved from lower apes, which evolved from lower mammals, which evolved from reptiles, which evolved from fish, who evolved from lower multicellular organisms, which evolved from bacteria. 

As another great biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky famously, and correctly, said, "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution." Indeed.

By the way, if you want to learn more about evolution, check this out.