Momathon Blog

iPhone app takes on global warming skeptics

I love The Skeptical Science iPhone app. And believe me, I will have plenty of opportunities to use it in my little town. Sure it won't help me win every argument with global warming skeptics. But I'll keep using this app and supporting mother earth because as my daughter tells me: We love polar bears, penguins, lady bugs, blue sky, and the fish in the sea. 

According to a report by Leo Hickman in the www.guardian.co.uk:

"I'm not sure this is going to quell the climate wars raging at present, but it's an interesting development nonetheless. An Australian solar physicist called John Cook, who runs the popular Skeptical Science website, has developed an app which "lets you use an iPhone or iPod to view the entire list of skeptic arguments as well as (more importantly) what the science says on each argument". So the next time you're caught at the fag end of a wedding reception in an interminable one-way conversation with a reactionary uncle who's boring on about how "the climate's always changed", just switch on this app, hand them your iPhone, and proceed to the bar."

So far the app has 90 rebuttals to global warming skeptic arguments.

Thanks to this clever app developed by solar physicist John Cook, I'll know exactly what to say the next time someone tells me to stop worrying about polar bears starving to death on melting ice. 

B&N "Meet the Author" Podcast with Carl Hiaasen

Carl Hiaasen writes about the connection kids have with animals and wildlife in his books for young adults: Hoot, Flush, and now his newest novel, Scat.

In a Barnes & Noble Meet the Writers interview, Hiaasen talks about writing Scat, a book about a fearsome biology teacher who never returned from a field trip to Black Vine Swamp and the endangered elusive panther in the Florida Everglades. (384 pp, Hardcover, $16.99)

Buy Scat on SALE

Barnes & Noble is currently running a special 40% discounted price on this book in their Great Kids' Book discount coupon. If you are a B&N member you can get the book at 50% with the coupon.

Podcast link

Want to listen to the Hiaasen interview podcast? Just click on this B&N link and then click on the "Meet the Writer" audio player.

New Duke University Study Helps Treat Peanut Allergy

I can't imagine how stressful it must be to have a child with peanut allergies. Peanut products are everywhere including in thousands of processed foods. Eating even a tiny piece of peanut could result in a fatal reaction for some children with peanut allergies. According to USNnews.com

"Of the 150 deaths each year from food allergies, half are caused by peanuts, and most of those deaths happen in teenagers and young adults. That's why two new reports on an experimental treatment for peanut allergy are good news. They offer the possibility that some kids will be able to "outgrow" peanut allergy, as well as dangerous allergies to such foods as eggs, milk, tree nuts, and shellfish."

New research by Wesley Burks, the chief of the division of pediatric allergy and immunology at Duke University Medical Center, offers hope by using medically supervised daily dose of peanuts to help children with peanut allergies increase their tolerance to the food. According to NYTimes.com, "The new treatment uses doses of peanuts that start as small as one-thousandth of a peanut and eventually increase to about 15 peanuts a day."

Health: Stopping the Superbugs

We've got lots of creepy crawly big bad bugs in my area. Some bugs are poisonous and some just look gross. Today I'm not writing about the bugs in my garage, but those deadly superbugs with completely different legs. 

Last week my son spent four days in the hospital. Thank God he is slowly getting better. Unfortunately kids (and adults) who stay in hospitals are at a higher risk of catching the deadly antiobiotic superbugs like C. diff (Clostiridium difficile) and MRSA (a form of staph) which create drug-resistant infections.

The good news is that hospitals and researchers are working to solve this issue. The bad news is that for now we only have a few "big guns" in our antibiotic arsenal. The trend of infections is increasing. The superbugs are now infecting more children and even healthy adults.

When my son was admitted to the hospital because he couldn't swallow and barely breath due to severely swollen tonsils, he was given the last ditch antibiotic vancomycin. While this drug and other antibiotics can treat many of the most serious infections, it can also suppress both the good and bad bacteria and allow drug resistant infections to grow out of control. My son was lucky. He does not have C. diff. (Although I am still crossing my fingers because C.diff infections can emerge days or weeks after antibiotic therapy.)

I am not a doctor or a medical professional. I am a parent. That is why it is so difficult for many parents to know what questions to ask doctors and health professionals in the hospital. Infections such as C.diff can last as dry spores on hospital surfaces and other surfaces for months. Am I being paranoid when I wonder how effectively the hospital cleaned my son's room? 

If you are concerned about the spread of superbugs and the use of antibiotics, I recommend you read an excellent Wall Street Journal article by Laura Landro.

--Chris at Momathon Blog