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We must be better

“In 2017, Roy Moore was accused of sexual misconduct with teenage girls, including one who was fourteen at the time of the alleged assault. Nine women came forward. The reporting was extensive and documented. The Republican Party of Alabama endorsed him anyway. The President of the United States endorsed him. He lost by less than two points, and half the party spent the following years insisting the allegations were fabricated.   “In 2018, Christine Blasey Ford testified under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee that Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her when she was fifteen. She had disclosed the assault to a therapist years before Kavanaugh’s nomination — the same evidentiary pattern that now, in the case of Jenny Racicot, is being cited by the very same right-wing media as proof of credibility. She was smeared. She was called a Democratic operative. Her therapist notes were dismissed. She was forced from her home by death threats. Kavanaugh sits on the Supreme Court ...
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The Trump slippery slope

My postdoc mentor used to say “We don’t compare ourselves to the worst, we compare ourselves to the best.” Does that aphorism apply in politics? “ POLITICO  REPORTED ON MONDAY AFTERNOON that Graham Platner’s ex-girlfriend  said  he “forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections.” Immediately after the story was published, Platner, the Democratic nominee in the race for Maine’s Senate seat, posted an uncomfortable  video  denying the allegations without making clear whether he would drop out of the race.   “He should, and not just on moral grounds. Because before this story was published, Maine voters in our focus groups told us that they would likely abandon Platner over this exact type of scandal.” *snip*   “There had already been months of talk about Platner’s bad behavior at this point, including about his Nazi tattoo. But many in the group were still planning on supporting him. So we asked them what would mak...
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Why is it so hot?

A heat dome that covered southern New England finally moved on yesterday. The highs touched 100°F, and with the humidity, the heat indices were five degrees higher. I have a feeling this won’t be the last of it. “The world’s oceans are the   hottest on record   for June, pushing past records set during the 2023–24 El Niño years.     “Right now, the average sea surface temperature is just under 21°C across the world’s tropical and temperate oceans. Before widespread industrialisation in 1870, the temperature was about 19.6°C.     “That may not sound like a big difference. But heating the world’s oceans this much requires a truly enormous amount of energy. Of all the extra heat trapped by greenhouse gases from burning coal, gas and oil, more than 90% has   gone into   the world’s oceans.     “As a result, the oceans are getting   rapidly warmer . In 2025, the heat added   was the equivalent   of about 12 Hiroshima-scale nucl...
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The future of medical genetics

Nearly three decades ago, I created a course for first year medical students called “Molecular Biology and Genetics.” Together with a clinical faculty, I co-directed the course for 22 years.   There’s a piece over at Medpage about “niche careers” in medicine. Here’s one: “ 7. Medical Genetics and Genomics Medical geneticists diagnose and manage hereditary conditions, using genomic data to guide treatment and counsel patients on inherited disease risk. As whole-genome sequencing becomes cheaper and more accessible, the specialty is moving from rare disease management to mainstream medicine. Within a generation, a medical geneticist's input may be standard in the workup of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and beyond.” Before I retired, I had a couple of discussions with physicians about whether medical genetics as a distinct field will cease to exist because genomics will make pedigrees and statistical genetics obsolete. I thought it would and I feel vindicated by current events. “Gen...
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Happy July 4th!

“I don’t know a soul who’s not been battered I don’t have a friend who feels at ease I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered Or driven to its knees Oh, but it’s all right, it’s all right For lived so well so long Still, when I think of the road We’re traveling on I wonder what went wrong I can’t help it, I wonder what’s gone wrong” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wu2teJTHMk
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Quote of the day

We've watched this pattern repeat itself for decades. Gay organizations distanced themselves from drag queens because they were considered too embarrassing for the movement. White-led organizations sidelined Black queer activists whose struggles complicated a cleaner public narrative. Transgender people were told, explicitly and implicitly, that their visibility threatened everyone else's acceptance and that their liberation could wait until a more politically convenient moment. The names and targets change, but the promise never does. If we simply push those deemed the least respectable to the edge of the movement, perhaps the rest of us will finally be allowed to belong. History has never been especially kind to that strategy, because respectability politics offers a promise it cannot keep. It imagines acceptance as something earned through conformity, when conformity only invites an ever narrower definition of what is considered acceptable.   ~Josh Ackley
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More activity, less cancer

“ Prolonged, uninterrupted sedentary behavior was associated with a significantly increased likelihood of dying of cancer, a study of more than 90,000 people showed.   “Every additional hour of prolonged sedentary behavior per day was linked with a 10% higher hazard of cancer mortality. Replacing an hour of sedentary behavior daily with light physical activity or with 30 minutes of moderate physical activity was associated with reduced cancer mortality risk -- which was 22% lower with an additional 5 minutes of vigorous physical activity.” How did they measure physical activity? "The main strength is the use of a reliable instrument [ accelerometer ] to measure people's sedentary and active behavior," Richardson said in a statement on the Science Media Centre. "Studies such as these often use self-reported activity, which is an unreliable way of measuring behavior.” Move your body, peeps. https://www.medpagetoday.com/primarycare/exercisefitness/122041?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_...
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