Living longer and better

A New York Times article on just how dramatically different we live today vs. our Civil War ancestors, including rate and age of onset of chronic diseases. Read it while you can -- NYTimes goes behind walls.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/30/health/30age.html

The article favors the Barker hypothesis: nutrition and health in the first three years (conception to 2 years old) makes a big difference. A Dutch famine in 1944, and the 1918 pandemic, are taken as big datapoints. People such as Robin Hanson claim that there's little correlation between health spending and health; things like this might help explain why. I note that "socialist" policies could still be pragmatically justified, but the emphasis would be less on heart surgery for all and more on childhood nutrition and health care for all.

In response to recent positive reinforcement:

More breadcrumbs! Pollan, Sen, Chinese fantasies, manga, anime, webcrap, games.

( Loooooong )

Big bang for dummies

http://angryastronomer.blogspot.com/2006/07/big-bang-common-misconceptions.html

Speaking of ancient Indian wisdom:

Smallpox inoculation claimed in India in 1000 BC. Also old practices in China and Africa.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox#Inoculation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inoculation

I'd wondered why inoculation works. Apparently there were two different strains of smallpox, and inoculation would hopefully use the less lethal version. Also, introduction at a single point through the skin is apparently easier for the body to deal with than inhaling smallpox viruses through the lungs. Vaccination, of course, is distinguished from inoculation by using cowpox instead of smallpox, with similar antigens but much lower fatality risk.

Rabbit afterlife

From a post on Pharyngula: Many years ago a butcher selling rabbits had a sign up: "Watership Down. You have read the book, you have seen the movie, now eat the cast!" There was such an outcry he was forced to take it down.

Also see my comment in my birthday meme entry, under Births/Richard Adams.