Today in the News (8 Jun 09)

I made a post about the UBC Freethinkers, and got a message from them. Seems they wish to chat with me for their podcast. Just wanted to mention this, and I will make sure to keep you all updated on this. I also want to thank contributor IVAN3MAN for picking up some slack for me as I was off cavorting at Disney World this weekend. Okay, on to the news:

Evolution:
I found this entry about "Constructual Theory of Evolution" interesting. Not particularly because I agree or disagree with it (immaterial) but because I can see how creationists will lie and make a mountain out of this... Again, this in no way makes any theory invalid, or any of our previous work or understanding. It just refines our understanding, yet creationists will insist that the theory of evolution is coming apart at the seams because of our refinement...

Vaccines:
Here goes that evil WHO trying to keep children from needlessly dying. I know that when my daughter actually had the RotaVirus, I was very concerned. After having lived through that, now that there is a vaccine for it, I would have had no hesitation about giving it to her when she was in danger from it.

I also found another follow up article on the Wakefield fiasco. I particularly enjoyed the bit of psychology that went into this article as well as the summation at the end.

Autism:
I'm not sure if this CACNA1C revelation is a culmination of several other articles pointing to the underlying genetic component of autism, or if this is just more and more information becoming digestible by the public. Either way, it's always good to be armed with good information.

And again, here go those pesky scientists collecting data. And there is even a chance for people to follow this even more closely by going to the research website. If you live near Philadelphia, Baltimore and northern California, are pregnant, and already have a child diagnosed with autism (or perhaps even a family history of autism), please give the site a look.