Day: May 10, 2011

Cruisin' with The Nation: Why red isn't the new green (Update #1)

On April 4 we spotlighted the fluorescent green hypocrisy of a cruise to the Caribbean sponsored by the left-wing rag The Nation.

The Nation‘s editor Kristina vanden Heuvel recently said that,

…the money the government currently doles out to the oil and gas companies could instead go into the pockets of all Americans, where it could be put to much better use investing in green cars and other environment-friendly initiatives.

So if we divide the $4 billion in annual oil and gas subsidies by 300 million people that works out to about $13.33 per person — not quite enough to meet the $1,836 to $5,418 cost to cruise (in a not too environmentally friendly manner, by the way) with Katrina and Van Jones.

Finger length linked to ALS?

Ringer finger length has been “associated” with amyotropic lateral sclerosis (ALS or “Lou Gehrig’s disease”), claimed British researchers in the May 9 online edition of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.

But before you started looking at your fingers with too much concern, be aware that there seems to be no particularly sound biologic reason for looking at ring finger length in the context of ALS. Accordingly, one could collect any 100 people, measure their body parts and report a host of correlations between body part size/type and any disease. But correlation does not equal causation — that’s basic junk science judo.

(h/t Mitchell in Houston)

The Federal Government's Killer Salt Advice

The Federal Government’s Killer Salt Advice

By Steve Milloy
May 10, 2011, Forbes.com

A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (May 4), reports that among 3,681 study subjects followed for as long as 23 years, those on a low-salt diet were more than 50% more likely to die from cardiovascular causes than study subjects who consumed substantially more salt. Continue reading The Federal Government's Killer Salt Advice