Book of Saturday, ch . 1 — Ink Teepee

Autour de la Lune is about men and knowledge. Its title echoes the album by Geir Jenssen, known as Biosphere. The album itself was composed in 2004 as a dramatisation of Jules Verne’s De La Terre À La Lune.

1. Shortcomings

A couple of posts back I said something snide about how right wing think tanks are not reality based. Actually, they’re where failed academics go to get jobs that don’t require them to do any actual research or make any sense. But you don’t have to take my word for it.

More on Right Wing ”Think” Tanks, Stayin’ Alive, 2 February 2007.

Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded think tank with close links to the Bush administration, offered the payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)…

Ian Sample, Scientists offered cash to dispute climate study, The Guardian, 2 February 2007.

2. Cytokines

March, 2007, marks the 1-year anniversary of the disastrous trial of the anti-CD28 monoclonal antibody, TGN1412, at Northwick Park Hospital, Harrow, UK, in which six healthy volunteers developed a cytokine storm leading to multiorgan failure within hours of being given the drug. The volunteers continue to have sequelae, such as headaches and memory loss, and one participant needs ongoing treatment for dry gangrene of his fingers and toes.

High stakes, high risks, Lancet Oncology, 8(2):85.

A cytokine storm is a potentially fatal immune reaction consisting of a positive feedback loop between cytokines and immune cells, with highly elevated levels of various cytokines.

Cytokine storm, Wikipedia, accessed 30 January 2007.

Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal. Albert Einstein.

3. Sanitizer

The Maryland Poison Center was called about a 49-year-old, usually calm prison inmate who was described as being red-eyed, loony, combative, and intoxicated, lecturing everyone about life. Other inmates and staff reported seeing this prisoner drinking from a gallon container of Purell hand sanitizer over the course of the evening. It was discovered that this sanitizer contains 62% ethanol by weight (more than 70% alcohol by volume). The inmate’s blood alcohol level was found to be 335 mg per deciliter. It was later confirmed that he had not consumed any other forms of ethanol or other illicit substances. The patient was treated with fluid repletion and haloperidol, with no complications. Suzanne Doyon, Christopher Welsh, Intoxication of a Prison Inmate with an Ethyl Alcohol–Based Hand Sanitizer, New England Journal of Medicine, 356(5): 529-530.

4. Killers

A survey of US physicians found that although the American Medical Association (AMA) ethical guidelines forbid physicians to participate in executions, 19% said they would inject lethal drugs and 41% said they would perform at least one action prohibited by the AMA guidelines, such as starting intravenous lines. In fact, only 3% of those asked were aware that there were guidelines. Medical collusion in the death penalty: an American atrocity, Lancet, 365(9468):1361.

Breathe, forfeit erection! Toxical injection Geriatric fuck-fest We still believe in lies Ministry, Thieves.

Without debating the death penalty itself, however, we believe that lethal injection cannot be “fixed”. It is an abominable perversion of the tools of healing. Participation by physicians and scientists in perfecting medical execution is morally wrong. Leonidas G. Koniarisa, Jon P. Sheldonb, Teresa A. Zimmersa, Can lethal injection for execution really be “fixed”?, Lancet, 369(9559):352-353

The debate over capital punishment has reached a tipping point. Health professionals around the world should speak out now against execution, to use their influence to persuade the public and those in power that capital punishment is a cruel and senseless practice that has no place in the 21st century. A complete and worldwide refusal by doctors, nurses, and other health technicians to have any involvement would show that the tide of opinion has turned against capital punishment, a seachange that must not be stopped. Stop killing people who kill people, Lancet, 369(9559):343.

Pour que tout soit consommé, pour que je me sente moins seul, il me restait à souhaiter qu’il y ait beaucoup de spectateurs le jour de mon exécution et qu’ils m’accueillent avec des cris de haine. Albert Camus, L’étranger.

Mais cette justice-là, nous sommes quelques-uns à la vomir, et ce n’est pas sans intention que j’ai choisi de faire parler, malgré le risque d’impudeur, ceux qui ont vécu et qui sont morts d’une toute autre exigence. Albert Camus, Les justes.

5. Trade

Branson launches Virgin stem-cell banking service Richard Branson has launched a stem cell bank, allowing parents to store blood from the umbilical cords of newborn babies, at a cost of £1,500 for 20 years storage. While 20% of the cord blood will be stored privately for the individual, the remaining 80% will be put in a public bank. Merlin Biosciences, a venture capital company, has invested £10 million; Branson owns half of the company and will give his share of the profit to related charities.

• Financial Times http://www.ft.com 2 February 2007 p.4

See also:

• Independent http://www.independent.co.uk 2 February 2007 p.1
• Daily Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk 2 February 2007 p.8

Science Policy and Information News (SPIN), 784.

6. Wars

In truth, there was nothing wrong with inventing science studies; the error was to leap from the valid observation that science arises in a social context to the extreme conclusion that it is nothing more than politics in disguise. Chris Mooney, Alan Sokal, Can Washington get smart about science?, Los Angeles Times, 4 February 2007.

7. Ghosts

Ghost authorship is the omission of the name of someone who contributed to a scientific paper from that paper’s list of authors. Sometimes this can be because what the individual contributed is not considered critical to the creation of that paper. Sometimes this can be because the inclusion of that author’s name would cast suspicion on the validity of the work. Gotzsche et al, publishing in PLoS Medicine, conducted a study of industry initiated trials conducted in Denmark in 1994 and 1995. They found that ghost authorship was incredibly widespread. In the 44 industry-initiated trials, 33 had examples of ghost authorship. Gøtzsche et al., Ghost Authorship in Industry-Initiated Randomised Trials, Los Angeles Times, 4 February 2007.