The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons Knows Plan B Propaganda

Photo by u2canreed

Great news:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit seeking to halt sales of the only "morning-after" contraceptive pill available in the United States without a prescription.

The suit was filed against U.S. health regulators over their decision to allow non-prescription sales of Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc's Plan B pill.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Barr were sued by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons and other groups seeking to overturn the FDA decision.

Wait, what? A legitimate medical organization suing to restrict Plan B availability? Something doesn't sound right here.

Having never even heard of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (do I lead an insular life, or what?), I looked it up ( more here, and here). And figured out what the problem was (emphasis mine):

AAPS emphasizes that childbirth confers undeniable health benefits on the mother, and interruption of a pregnancy is indisputably harmful compared to childbirth. The FDA should not render any decision concerning increased availability of a drug to interfere with pregnancy without hearing from all sides of the medical community about the harm of preventing childbirth.

Turns out AAPS isn't so much a medical organization as it is just another crank propaganda outfit. And not a very good one at that [undeniable health benefits, indisputably harmful, the harm of preventing childbirth, seriously?].

Still, as lame as AAPS's propaganda might be, I can't help but notice that it's still far more effective than the [nonexistent] counter propaganda effort from those on the side of science and reality.

It's Raining...Bacteria

Photo by viamoi

Now this is interesting:

Those beautiful snowflakes drifting out of the sky may have a surprise inside -- bacteria.

Atmospheric scientists have long known that under most conditions moisture needs something to cling to in order to condense into snow and rain. A study published Friday in the journal Science shows a large share of those so-called nucleators turn out to be bacteria that can affect plants.

"Bacteria are by far the most active ice nuclei in nature," said Brent C. Christner, an assistant professor of biological sciences at Louisiana State University.

Christner and colleagues sampled snow from Antarctica, France, Montana and Canada's Yukon and found that as much as 85% of the nuclei were bacteria, he said. The bacteria finding was most common in France, followed by Montana and the Yukon, and was even present in Antarctica.

The most common bacteria found were Pseudomonas syringae, which can cause disease in several types of plants including tomatoes and beans.