Large Furry Quadrupeds

Here are Deonandan.com we are constantly watching for signs of the impending wars between the USA and Iran and Syria. Due to the troubles the neocons are having at home, however, it is my stated belief that Washington will intead project power toward Iran via its proxy, Israel. This right-leaning website offers an interesting tidbit of information regarding a recent presentation given by a representative of the Iranian government, claiming that Israel needs to be removed from the planet. The website claims, foolishly I think, that the Iranians are trying to foment a limited war with the USA, knowing full well that Persian resilience far outstrips the American will to wage war. While I officially think this is all drivel, strangr things have happened.

Eat these to avoid cancer.

A new study finds that battered women tend to have disproportionately more sons than daughters. The authors suggest that "the women are unwitting pawns of a perverse evolutionary mechanism that polluted the population with more wife-beaters among our ancestors. " It's a fascinating thought, though fraught with problems. Give the article a read.

After the recent terror blast in India, someone actually asked me if I would reconsider my upcoming trip to that country. I was stunned. I hadn't realized people still think this way. India is a nation of close to a billion people, and a few score were tragically murdered by terrorists last week. My odds are still remarkably good that I will be untouched. Moreover, India has been the target of terror attacks for decades, by Sikhs, Muslims and any number of separatist and rebel groups we've never heard of. There is nothing new happening there, with respect to public security, except for greater Western interest in the phenomenon. In fact, my very first day in New Delhi, nine years ago, was punctuated by a story on page 12 of the morning paper: "Twelve Congressmen Hacked to Death in Andrah Pradesh." (Andrah is a state in India.) Terror campaigns are so common, and yet comparatively marginal, that they warrant page 12 treatment. So, yes, I'm still going to India.

Gettin' Old

Greetings from Via train #42. Gods, train travel is so overrated. No biting insights or poor math today. Rather, I just wanted to share the following observation:

This morning on Much More Music (ahhh, the 'rents and their big screen cable TV) was playing a video from the band Bauhaus, called "Bela Lugosi's dead." Now, I've been a mild Bauhaus fan all my life, though, truth be told, more for the fashion than for the music. (Shuddup, I'm not gay.)

Looking at the band members in the video, it reminded me of how I used to try to look when I was a teenager. The image influences remain with me today. Then I noticed the date of the video: 1979.

And I did the math. Yes, my droogies, the uber cool gentlemen who served as the template for everything I considered cool and fashionable image-wise are now pushing 50 and/or 60.

Ye gods, I feel old.

[Posted with hblogger 2.0 http://www.normsoft.com/hblogger/]

Captain Sulu, Queen of the Stars

There are new allegations of abuse of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. This time, the allegations go, those prisoners on hunger strike are being force-fed in a manner that is clearly abusive and meant to harm. This ongoing story continues to horrify me and really underlines the mutation that has undergone the American (and maybe Western) value system since 9/11. Maybe that mutation occurred a long time before, but at least now we have firm evidence of it. These individuals are not prisoners of war, they are not criminals charged with any crime, they are not even terrorists who have attacked American civilians (despite what the blowhard pundits will tell you). Yet they are being tortured indefinitely in a military prison, with zero contact with friends, relatives and counsel. Serial baby molesters have more rights than these men, most of whom were detained just because they dared raise a weapon against the invading US army. I hope that there's a Hell, so the neocons can rot in it.

And while the mutating American value system is increasingly accepting of the maltreatment of individuals, it is also increasingly intolerant of actual freedoms under the law. In Missouri, a law has been upheld that prevents sexually oriented businesses from advertising on billboards. On the face of it, the law seems reasonable in that it apparently is meant to uphold some sort of vague community standard.

But consider two things. First is that these businesses are legal, popular, tax-paying endeavours which are, in my opinion, less detrimental to society than, say, law firms and gun manufacturers. Why are they being singled out for such treatment? I would apply the same logic to tobacco advertising: so long as the product is legal, the business should be allowed to advertise in the same manner as any other business. The state denying a particular industry advertising rights is an admission that the state would like to see that industry abolished; again, tobacco is the obvious other example. If that is the case, then show some balls and make the product illegal. If you're not willing to do so, back off and let the industry thrive, so long as it is honest about what its product entails and about the risks associated with using it.

Second is that sexually oriented advertising already floods our senses, from lingerie ads to promos for Desperate Housewives. How is an ad for a strip club disproportionately contributing to the degradation of society's mores? It's all quite hypocritical and once again underlines the thinness of the growing morality movement south of the border.

Cousin Ajay sends us this article claiming that India has been particularly callous in its response to the earthquake tragedy in Pakistan. While the article's tone is a bit over the top, I don't think it's inaccurate. As Eric Margolis puts it, "Up to 70,000 may have died in Pakistan. Yet India and Pakistan still can’t agree on opening the border of divided Kashmir to allow relief convoys to get from Indian-ruled Srinagar to the Pakistani side. NATO needs urgently to come to the rescue." The continuing enmity between some peoples of Pakistan and India is beyond irrational, especially in these dire times.

On a related note, please keep November 30th open. A few of us are organizing a big photography exhibit here in Ottawa, meant to raise money or earthquake relief.

Brother Currie sends us this newsflash: George Takei, Star Trek's Mr Sulu, is gay. Yes, it's true. Sorry, ladies. I'm reminded of my favourite Sulu line from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home:

[The Enterprise arrives in orbit above 20th century Earth and scans for humpback whales near northern California.]

Sulu (with shit-eating grin and characteristic feminine accent): "San Francisco -- I was born there!"

Taxes, Etc

Gotta keep this short. I'm late for a reception....

There was some kafuffle a while back when Statistics Canada released its revenue analysis and concluded that the top 10% of earners in Canada pay more than half of the taxes. This news was greeted among the Right as justification for its policies of reducing the tax burden on the rich. Finally, someone has taken the time to look at these numbers more closely. Prof. Neil Brooks of Osgoode Hall Law School just released his analysis of these data, discussed here. His actual report can be accessed here (in PDF). Some highlights:

• All those earning more than $64,500 were considered by StatsCan to be top earners. This is a fairly low ceiling.
• This low ceiling is created by StatsCan including zero-income earners in its analyses.
  
• all Canadians pay about 30-35% in taxes, regardless of their income. So there already exists a flat tax in Canada.
• while the "top earners" are paying 52% of total tax revenue now, compared to 46% in 1990, this is not because they are being taxed more heavily, but because they are making more money than they did in 1990, relative to the low-end earners. In other words, the rich are getting richer while the poor are not, and this is what is manifesting in these supposedly skewed tax statistics.

And let's not forget some of the basics. If you're making $100,000 and pay 30% in taxes, you're still living on $70,000 net. If you're making $20,000 a year, you're going to have to live on $14,000. Sure, the rich appear to be paying more in taxes, but they are also retaining a heck of a lot more, as well.

Me go now.

Forgot to Mention.... RIP: Rosa Parks

Avian Flu, Etc.

I forgot to mention that last Thursday I attended the official diwali celebrations on Parliament Hill. In attendance were the Prime Minister, opposition leader Stephen Harper, celebrity minister Belinda Stronach, the omnipresent Indian High Commissioner and a host of lesser known political types. Strangely, the best speech by a Canadian politician was given by Stephen Harper, who showed a thorough knowledge of the history and tenets of diwali. The Prime Minister was not to be outdone, even sitting for puja and seemingly speaking off the cuff. Belinda rushed off before I could say hello. I doubt if she'd remember me anyway. I was looking for some visible signs of animosity between Belinda and Harper; can't say I saw any.

So much for political gossip. On to today's topic....

In March of this year, the Toronto Star commissioned me to write an article on the possibility of an avian flu pandemic, which I completed on my PDA in the back seat of a car bound for New York. To my chagrin, the article landed me invitations to appear on CBC Newsworld, the Discovery Channel and CanWest Global. Due to scheduling constraints, I was only able to do the latter, and was shocked to find myself in the midst of a UN-bashing session worthy of the most low-brow of the US neo-con set. (It was the UN, through the WHO, which had shut down Toronto in the wake of SARS, after all.) While I was arguing that the threat of pandemic was real, given humanity's growing familiarity with farm animals, isolated animal communities and our new ability to zip about the globe in mere hours, my position was dismissed rather offhandedly as fear-mongering by the likes of Donald Low and some other dude whose name I forget. Then my audio was cut off, so I don't know what else was being said.

Fast forward 7 months and we see the world bracing for this pandemic. People are hoarding tamiflu, one of the more potent flu remedies; PM Paul Martin is organizing an international response; and even George W. Bush seems to be taking the threat seriously. That's because the threat is real. If the avian flu virus manages to mutate into a human variety, which seems inevitable, all kinds of faeces will hit all kinds of fans.

So what should be done? At this point, in Canada, all responses are thus far appropriate, given the scale of the threat and the magnitude of risk. I would suggest one more thing: at the first confirmed case of human-to-human transmission anywhere in the world, Canada should institude airport screening. China has already promised to close its borders should a human transmission case be found. And at the first confirmed case anywhere in Canada, the entire country should go into epidemic alert, meaning hospitals retreat to their quarantine protocols.

A little extreme? Maybe. But such precautions are ultimately cheaper and less invasive than inaction.

Meanwhile, the earthquake in Kashmir may have slipped from the front pages, but it is still taking lives. By some reports, the Pakistani government has been inept in granting aid, and affected peoples are still stranded without shelter in the remote and freezing parts of the Himalayan foothills. Traditional tensions between Pakistan and India likely are not helping, either. I'm off to India (I hope) in January. Maybe I'll get a chance to tour the damaged areas. If anyone has any contacts with disaster response teams in the area, feel free to share them with me!

Invade the USA? Why Didn't I Think of That?

Update on that sample of DNA I sent out into the ether: the batch has been received by the National Geographic elves and my DNA has been extracted. Now we await the results!

Today's bestiality link is an unpleasant one. (Not that the others weren't unpleasant, but this one is... well, you'll see.) Bottom line: this appears to be a real and prevalent phenomenon.

So apparently more and more employers are blocking their employees from viewing blogs --like this one!-- while at work. I suppose it's an employer's right to deny their employees' almost any external distraction. It's interesting, though, that blogging is now lumped together with pornography. In blogs like this one, of course, the lumping is appropriate.

Little known fact: some Canadian types are seriously trying to bring a suit against George W. Bush for his role in advocating torture. Of course, the suit will not stand, since it's against international law to prosecute a sitting head of state. But that didn't stop the USA from prosecuting Saddam --they just invaded Iraq and replaced him as head of state. Hmmm, could that be a solution to Bush's immunity?

Meanwhile, tonight Condi Rice is doing something or other a few blocks down the street from me on Parliament Hill. If it weren't so bloody cold --and if I weren't so bloody lazy-- I'd head down there and report back. But I won't.

Darth Vadum sends us this story about first day of classes at exorcism school. Lessons include cleaning up green puke, counter-rotating spinning heads, and not porking the possessed girl even when she invites you in that sexy demonic voice.

Don't forget to check out my Ebay auctions. And, if you haven't done so already, take the Deonandan.com survey! Results to be posted in a few weeks.

The Sokal Affair

Today's pervy link is here. Yes, it's what you think.

Had the parents over this weekend for the first time. Amazingly, they were fun to be with! Who knew? The weirdest part was when I left them alone for 3 hours to go to my Hindi class, and returned to find my fridge and freezer scrubbed and re-packed, all my dishes washed, my shower cleaned and dinner made! Ahhh, the glories of a visiting hygiene-obsessed mother.

If you haven't seen this already, check it out: dopplegangers of the Olsen twins singing for white nationalism. I predict that they'll both be knocked up by pot-smoking Jamaican black men before they're 20.

Cousin Ajay sends us this list of made-up words from the Simpsons.

Thanks to Eric G. for posting one of the longest and meatiest commentaries (to Friday's vaccination post) in Deonandan.com history. Eric mentioned something about Sokal's hoax. I just wanted to say a few things about that.

In 1996, a leading "post-modernist" peer-reviewed journal called Social Text published an article by physicist Alan Sokal titled, "Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity." Sounds like gobbledy-gook, right? That's because it is. Sokal had thrown together some random social science terminology and mixed it with quantum mechanics to see if anyone would catch on to his jibberish. Apparently no one did.

The article is peppered with such academic double-speak as "the dogma imposed by the long post-Enlightenment hegemony over the Western intellectual outlook" and mention of "emancipatory mathematics", "liberatory science" and "the morphogenic field", all of which affect "the elite caste['s] canon of 'high science'" for a "postmodern science [that] provide[s] powerful intellectual support for the progressive political project". See what I mean?

In the article, Sokal jokingly claims that "physical 'reality' ... is at bottom a social and linguistic construct" and that "liberal (and even some socialist) mathematicians are often content to work within the hegemonic Zermelo-Fraenkel framework (which, reflecting its nineteenth-century liberal origins, already incorporates the axiom of equality) supplemented only by the axiom of choice." Yes, it gives me a headache, too.

In another journal (now defunct) called Lingua Franca, Sokal confessed to his hoax, claiming he had done it as an experiment to see if a leading academic journal would publish such twaddle "liberally salted with nonsense if (a) it sounded good and (b) it flattered the editors' ideological preconceptions". In essence, the fake paper had as its thesis the supposition that the obscure physics theory of quantum gravity had political implications --which, of course, is utter nonsence.

Sokal went further, however, by claiming that this foolishness is a unique condition of the political Left, since the political implications had to be "progressive" in nature. In a sense, he is correct, since the Left is plagued with those who think they are smarter than they actually are. (Some would place yours truly in that category, as well, but whatever.) And the language he co-opted is that traditionally used by the bloviating Leftist pointy-heads.

However, I would point out that just as the Left is tempted to co-opt even the stringiest theory to support an ideology, so too is the Right. The Right may not have the linguistic or intellectual infrastructure to formalize the inclusion of, say, quantum theory into their political agenda, but they do have their own social machinery. That's how, for example, March of the Penguins somehow became a treatise on monogamy, heterosexuality and intelligent design. It's also how the Republican failures in the wake of Hurricane Katrina have been re-worked to look like triumphs of Conservatism. Those on the Left may overestimate their intelligence. But those on the Right tend to overestimate their morality, insight, depth and popularity.

More On Vaccinations

I feel I have to post a follow-up to yesterday's screed about people who don't get vaccinations. I have a few friends who fall into this camp, and at least one has taken exception to what I wrote. So let me be clear about a few things....

First, vaccines, like all medical interventions, have a risk associated with them: a risk of illness, discomfort, disease and even death. Not getting the vacine also has a risk associated with it: a risk of disease, morbidity and possible death. Those who appreciate fully the extent of these two risks and yet still choose not to get vaccinated are not dumbasses. In my opinion, they have made unwise choices, but that is their right.

On the other hand, those who deny that vaccines confer an effective benefit are exhibiting extreme dumbassery. To look around during flu season and not see anyone with the flu, then conclude that you don't need the flu vaccine is idiocy. On the other hand, to choose not to have the flu vaccine because you think the risk of getting the flu is less frightening than the adverse reactions of the vaccine itself may be an inadvisable decision, but it's not idiocy per se.

Are we clear now?

Now let's consider some of the science. This all started in 1998 when the respected medical journal The Lancet (for which I am a peer reviewer) published an article suggesting a connection between the MMR vaccine (for mumps, measles and rubella) and bowel disorders and between bowel disorders and autism. The Lancet editors have since regretted its publication, since the selection procedure for the subjects was severely tainted (the subjects were sent to the investigator by lawyers eager to prove a linkage between MMR and autism) and the sample size of 12 was miniscule. In 2004, 10 of the paper’s original 13 authors issued a statement saying that the paper was not evidence of a connection between MMR vaccine and autism, and indeed reams of large epidemiological studies have since been put forward to discredit the initial finding.

Somewhere along the way, the compound thimerosal was brought up as a potential cause of autism. Thimerosal contains mercury, which is a known neurotoxin, and is often used as a preservative in vaccines. To this day, many in the anti-vaccination lobby derides the MMR vaccine for its thimerosal-mediated cause of autism. But here's the kicker: the MMR vaccine has never contained thimerosal. Ever.

It has been suggested to me that there are other ways to bolster one's immune system to prevent against the big name disease. Okay, I'm open to that idea. But let's see some evidence. The accusation is oft lain at the foot of Science that the risks associated with such things as vaccination have not been widely measured. Maybe that is true, but the benefits of mass vaccination are impossible to deny. I would ask, have the risks associated with alternative immune treatments been widely measured? And how about the benefits? Where are the numbers? Show me some data and I will be open to the idea of discarding vaccination in favour of alternative means. Until then, the verdict of science is clear: vaccination remains the most effcicient, effective and concomittantly riskless means of reducing certain diseases in large populations.

"Traditional" medical methods have been in play for thousands of years, yet epidemics of forgotten diseases ravaged nations regularly. So why were they not successful in curtailing epidemics? As for allopathic medicine, when was the last time you knew of someone with measles, mumps, rubella, polio, diphtheria or small pox? Decades, I'd warrant, because vaccination programmes have been so successful.

Now, I am the first to say that vaccination is not perfect. Sometimes the formulation is poor; the yearly flu vaccine, for example, is a bit of hit-and-miss. Sometimes the vaccine can make you sick and, I'm told, lead to death. There is some evidence to suggest that even in immunized people, there exists unnoticed sub-clinical infection that may or may not make the person into a longterm carrier. And even herd immunity has its flaws as a theory, since outbreaks have been known to occur in highly immunized populations. But given all that, the overwhelming evidence is that innoculation prevents killer diseases among the vast majority of immunized people, without causing them any serious adverse effects.

Is it possible that there are longterm effects yet to be discovered? Yes, it's possible. But there is no appreciable evidence for this and no reason to suspect it is so. With a century of vaccination data, it's a matter of number crunching to see if such effects have arisen. Until someone shows me evidence of such, Occam's Razor dictates that such speculation has no place in this discussion. It is, for example, possible that toothpaste causes migraines; but without evidence, should we abandon toothpaste despite its many benefits?

I am not anti-alternative medicine. I swear by my chiropractor and I have sought treatment from naturopaths, accupuncturists, reiki healers, witch doctors and even that Indian dude on TV who says he can heal you with his eyes. But I also believe in science. So if your therapy is so gosh-darned effective, it should be able to withstand the full brunt of objective scientific scrutiny. Studies of homeopathy, for example, have been largely disquieting. Yet, the Society of Homeopaths responds with:

"It has been established beyond doubt and accepted by many researchers, that the placebo-controlled randomised controlled trial is not a fitting research tool with which to test homeopathy."

What does this mean? Why is the gold standard medical test for effectiveness not appropriate for homeopathy? The means of taking the treatment (usually a pill of fluid) is usually the same as any other intervention. Why then must homeopathy be given a pass by science? Please, someone tell me!

For years, many chiropractors claimed that spinal ajustments can be useful in treating allergies. Then a series of objective studies showed that there was no association between chiropractic care and allergy relief. To its great credit, the chiropractic profession accepted this evidence and backed away from making this claim any longer. All medical practitioners --allopathic, homeopathic and naturopathic-- should show the same degree of honour and reason.

My point is this: either you accept science or you do not. What is science? The procedural test and re-test of theory in an objective fashion to elucidate truth. In absence of science, from where does medical knowledge arise? Superstition and religion, of course. We are thus back to the culture of the middle ages, where we seem to be heading anyway, with large scale denial of science at every turn: intelligent design, climate change denial, and now vaccine efficacy denial. So if we are to accept science as a methodology for extracting truth, where does that leave us with respect to medicine? Simply that if a treatment can be shown to be efficacious, using the gold standard evluative tools at our disposal (i.e., the randomised clinical trial), then its risks should be measured and it should be presented to the public as an option for use. And if it cannot be shown to be efficacious, it should be abandoned. This goes for modern medicine and homeopathy/naturopathy alike.

But let us not forget: in areas of the world with no MMR vaccination, measles kill hundreds of thousands of children yearly; 12oo die of it every day in Africa. It is one of --if not the-- leading cause of blindness in kids around the world. There is a real cost in the spread of poor science. If the risks associated with vaccination continue to be inflated to the point where their uptake in large populations is curtailed, real people will suffer. Say it with me: real people will die.

Update: here's a personal and historical take on the anti-vaccination movement.

Vaccines and Dumb Asses

Because lately this is why everyone reads this blog, here's your daily perversion link.

After 1.5 all-nighters, I looked in the mirror this morning and realized to my horror that I finally look my age. Sigh. May as well pack it in.

But this is what I really wanted to talk about today: people not getting vaccinated, as in this story about the Amish in Minnesota refusing the polio vaccine in the wake of a local polio epidemic.

Most of you are probably aware of the movement away from vaccination. It was spurred by overblown reports of allergic reactions to some vaccine formulations, notably ones containing thimerosal, an organomercurial compound which is included as a preservative. The reactions fo thimerosal are real, but not very prevalent.

Adding to the flame is the unscientific belief of a link between measles vaccine (MMR) and autism. The causal link between these two was proposed in a couple of small clinical studies with major flaws. But this evidence has been far outstripped by many larger epidemiological studies that failed to show any linkage. In the words of the CDC:

"Current scientific evidence does not support the hypothesis that measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine causes autism. The question about a possible link between MMR vaccine and autism has been extensively reviewed by independent groups of experts in the U.S. including the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine. These reviews have concluded that the available epidemiologic evidence does not support a causal link between MMR vaccine and autism."

Occasionally I come across a parent who refuses to immunize his/her child claiming that, "I never get sick, and no one I know ever gets these diseases, so clearly my child does not need the vaccine." Well, the reason you don't see people with polio, rubella and diphtheria is that most people get immunuzed against these diseases, conferring upon the population something called "herd immunity." It's not that the vaccine does not work, rather it's that it works quite well --your peers have taken it and are immune, hence you are less likely to be exposed to it. Herd immunity is what allowed "us" to eradicate small pox. It only works, though, when the majority get vaccinated. So be in the majority, dumbass.

Lastly, every medical procedure or intervention confers some kind of risk. What matters is how much benefit it also confers, relative to that risk. In the early 1980s, 350 people were dying each year in the USA due to accidents in the bathtub (American Journal of Public Health, 75: 630-633, 1985). Does this mean we should eschew taking baths? No, because the benefits of better hygiene are obvious. Similarly, I would encourage vaccine-deniers to think about what life was like 200 years ago, with a majority of children dying before age 4, due to today's preventable diseases.

So get your heads out of your New Age asses and get vaccinated.

It's Not An Obsession, Just A Motif

(Note: Before reading this post, please consult the very serious Deonandan.com disclaimer.)

Somewhere beneath the stories about Canadian Parliamentary bickering, Karl Rove testifying before a grand jury and thousands suffocating beneath rock in Pakistan is the story of a certain fellow being elected to the new Afghan parliament. Mawlawi Mohammed Islam Mohammadi was the Taliban governor who oversaw the destruction of two huge 1500 year old statues of Buddha, an act considered by many to be a crime against the culture history of humanity. Yet Mohammadi was just swept back into a seat of power.

So let's get this straight. Billions of dollars are spent to kill hundreds of people and impose a mutant form of democracy on Afghanistan... only to see the same miscreants voted back into office. Good job, boys. Mission Accomplished, indeed.

Here's something I never considered. It seems the Xerox corporation has secretly been in cahoots with the US government to insert invisible codes onto every sheet printed by a Xerox copier. These codes allow federal investigators to trace copies back to the machine that made them, much like old-time cops would match a ransom note with the typewriter that made it. Does this make anyone else a little mad? These codes have been inserted in secret. More and more, the US government is looking more like the old Soviet Union.

I know many of you are waiting for today's shocking bestiality story. Sorry, don't have one. Instead I have a Village Voice article on potential human-animal marriages!

Google The Moon

(Note: Before reading this post, please consult the very serious Deonandan.com disclaimer.)

Oh my God, it's 6:AM and I'm blogging. I need a life. And because I have a cold, I can't even go for a run. So much for my much vaunted fitness level. Got some random things to talk about today...

I'm still watching ABC's Lost, though I'm concerned that the mysteries will soon become less interesting. Here's a new clue, however: this photo shows the Dharma swan logo on the shark (top left) and on the wreckage of the plane (right). What does this mean? It suggests that the crash was not an accident, but all part of the great Dharma plan. By the way, it seems to me that the markings on the Dharma logo are in fact I Ching hexagrams. What does this mean? Who knows.

Google now offers a searchable map of the moon at moon.google.com. Want to see what the moon is really made of? Go to the map and zoom in all the way.

Speaking of google, Kevin H. tells us that if you type "failure" into a google search, the first find is quite enlightening. This is a case of google bombing.

This is great. It's a blog maintained by real clerks at a porn shop. My favourite entry is the one titled, "Interesting Porn Phenomena."

So NBC's The Today Show had a segment rightfully deriding President Bush for staging a rehearsed interview with soldiers in Iraq. Then they cut to a reporter doing a story on flooding in New Jersey, while sitting in a canoe atop the flooded city streets! What the reporter hadn't planned on was two dudes walking in front of the camera, clearly showing that the water was ankle deep! Talk about staged performances. See the clip here.

Brother Hrab sends us this link: www.notcanada.com. It's a website ostensibly dedicated to showing how unfair Canada is to well qualified immigrants. He also found reference to the site in this convoluted letter to the Times of India. Some snooping on my part reveals that the owner of the site has gone to some lengths to hide his identity. The site is registered with a domain proxy in Scottsdale, Arizona. What does all this mean? Not sure, but I'm suspicious. It seems to me that this might be a front for yet another supremacist group trying to discourage immigration, this time by pretending to act in the best interests of potential immigrants.

And what would a blog entry on Deonandan.com be without a bestiality story. Read about today's bunny-fucker here. (For those of you new to this site, I am not advocating bestial behaviour; quite the opposite, really. Rather, I collect these news items as exemplars of my thesis that such episodes are being increasingly reported in the media.)

NB: New items for sale over on my Ebay page. So go buy my used crap! Go!

Epidemics, Epishmemics

When I tell people I'm an epidemiologist, I often see the look of revelation on their pleased faces, and must interrupt their reply: "It has nothing to do with skin, you know," I say. "You're thinking of the word epidermis, which is what dermatologists deal with. The root word for epidemiology is epidemic." And this usually launches into a discussion of current, past or projected epidemics, most of which I know little about, since most epidemiologists are not infectious disease experts, and are instead just over-educated and under-paid data entry clerks.

As a generalist, of course, I've been called upon to speak authoritatively about a variety of global epidemics, such as SARS and Avian Flu. These topics are so trendy that even war correspondents are writing about them, as in this week's Eric Margolis column. And London's Sunday Times, in an article sent to me by Good Ol' Nojjy Boy, takes time out to deride our definitions of epidemic and pandemic. The Guardian does a similar thing here, though without the derision. So today, let us discuss briefly some of the suggested underreported epidemics of our time.

1. Male Sexuality

There has been strong anecdotal, and some empirical, evidence of a continued increase in global prevalence of male impotence and infertility. There is, of course, no baseline data for either of these pathologies, so it's hard to say whether the increase is real or not. And how much of the furor is driven by drug companies' need to market their new anti-impotence drugs? Female sexuality is even more problematic, since it's less well defined, poorly measured and less researched. Part of the problem is that women tend not to report sexual dysfunction as readily as do men. Or perhaps they don't recognize their issues as medically dysfunctional.

2. Allergies

Anyone who has small children or spends a lot of time with small children knows that in North America one of the biggest concerns in schools and daycare centres is the prevalence of life-threatening food allergies. Peanut-butter, a staple of toddler nutrition for decades, is now a killer. This seems to be exclusively a North American phenomenon, so the theory is floated that a unique American behavioural element has triggered this epidemic; perhaps the overexposure of the current generation of parents to peanut products?

3. Crazy People

My sister is a professor at a Canadian university. Both she and her professor husband have reported anecdotally a problem with an increasing number of their students having pathological emotional issues. In their experience, it's young women who typically display this behaviour. As I seem to have dated most of these crazy chicks, I'm wont to agree. A friend of my sister estimates that 40% of young people are taking drugs for mental illness. I cannot confirm this statistic, but it does not surprise me. The questions are, of course: whether mental pathology is being over-diagnosed; whether psycho-pharma drugs are being over-prescribed; whether there is a social phenomenon indicating a true increase in prevalence; or whether this is yet again a case of improved surveillance providing what we epidemiologists call "detection bias", whereby we are finding more cases simply because we are looking for them.


All gripping stuff, I'm sure. Got any more potential epidemics you'd like to share with me? Smart-ass comments are, as always, quite welcome.

In Lieu of Flowers

This is the very first real blog entry using blogger's email interface. This will mean nothing to most of you, but to me it's immensely cool, as it means I will be able to blog from ever more remote parts of the world, using only an email account.

Thanks to Brother Hrab for sending us this obituary from The Chicago Tribune. The key
bits are the words after, "in lieu of flowers".

Regular readers of this blog will know that ever since 2000, I've been predicting that Al Gore will be, not only a Presidential candidate, but the winner of the US Presidential campaign in 2008. Despite his comments to the press earlier this week denying any presidential ambitions, it seems the pundit-sphere is finally coming around to my view. The Huffington Post blog is starting to see it my way, too.

That's all I got today. See you tomorrow!

Should I Or Shouldn't I?

(Note: Before reading this post, please consult the very serious Deonandan.com disclaimer.)

You know, it all started as an innocent epidemiological observation about the seeming increase in prevalence of human-animal sexual acts. The question I posed was a valid scientific one: is this seeming increase due to: a true rise in the cases of pet-molestation, an increase in media reporting of such molestation, or the power of the internet and its army of pervs (ahem) to collate such reports? My strong suspicion is that there has always been a substantial base number of such events, and that media sensitivity (or society's greater willingness to discuss such issues) has amplified the effect. What is new, however, is the growing number of online communities dedicated to sharing information on how to go about gettin' jiggy with our four-legged friends. I think that's where the true sociological phenomenon is to be observed.

Regardless, several people have pointed out to me that perhaps it's not a wise idea to be discussing dog-, pig- and horse-fucking in the same space with my cv and family photos, especially since my clients, colleagues, aunties and employers tend to visit this site. (As an aside, during a job interview with a company in San Francisco, the interviewer asked me, "So, Dr. Deonandan. what exactly qualifies you as a 'professor of mad, mad monkey love'?" [such is stated in my guestbook]. I replied, "You'd have to ask the monkey.")

So maybe in the interest of decorum and maintainin a professional demeanour, I should desist in discussing graphically the more lurid of society's pasttimes.....

...Nah.

Here's Dan Savage's take on dog-fucking.

Tards, Sperm Donors and More Dog-Fucking

(Note: Please, I implore you to read the very serious Deonandan.com disclaimer before reading this post.)

In our on-going quest for daily dog-fucking stories, we occasionally come across some truly distasteful shit. What's more distasteful than dog-fucking, you ask? Well how about dog-fucking as a form of torture? There have been repeated reports of dogs being trained to rape humans. Typically, such dogs are used by the secret police of certain Latin American governments. But here is a really disturbing tale of South African freelance torturers doing the deed.

As I've contended on this site, there appears to be a dramatic worldwide increase in the prevalence of barnyard sex acts. Maybe it's just that they are being reported more regularly now. Or maybe it's just that the Internet now provides an easy means of collecting such stories. Or maybe it's a case of pervs (and concerned citizens like me) finally noticing and collating them. Who knows. But it now seems that the Swedish Animal Welfare Agency has also noted a seeming rise in cases of bestiality in that country. Please note that the site on which that article resides appears to have a specific morality-based political agenda, so read with caution.

(And for any new readers here: no I am not advocating dog-fucking. Quite the opposite, in fact. I discuss the topic here only to explore whether this is a case of increased reporting or of an actual increase in the behaviour.)

While we're on disturbing subjects, this one is strange for me to present, given that I have committed a portion of my career to the promotion of children's mental health. Here is a website called The Tard Blog, written by "a real life special education teacher" about her mentally ill students. Some of it is hilarious. Some of it is both hilarious and genuinely disturbing, like this entry. For those offended by my use of the word "tard", I do apologize; I am only quoting the site, and of course would never advocate the use of such a disparaging term to describe mentally challenged children. It has long been my thesis, however, that words only have the power that we imbue them with, so I am a proponent of outing supposedly nasty epithets and of making them harmless.

And today we end off with a story I've been predicting for years. A couple of times in my past, I've been approached by single women asking me to be the sperm donor for their intended pregnancies. Each time, I have declined for a number of reasons. One of the minor reasons was that, regardless of what papers he signs, it will never be clear what rights and responsibilities the donor/father will have with respect to his child. One of my lawyer ex-girlfriends found this attitude short-sighted because she felt that once a donor signs away his parental rights and responsibilities, they can never be revisited upon him; it's a closed story, in her opinion.

Now comes this story from Sweden, land of rampant bestiality. A man donated his sperm to a lesbian couple and now, 13 years later, is being sued for child support. I call bullshit.

Pig Fucking. Yeah, You Read That Right.

(Note: at this time, I direct all readers to the very serious Deonandan.com disclaimer.)

Need a job with the Bush administration? Apply here.

Check out this year's list of Ig Nobel winners here. My favourite is the economics prize, which went to the inventor of "an alarm clock that runs away and hides when it goes off."

Breaking news: veteran UK broadcaster David Frost has joined Al Jazeera! I predict the Arab network will be globally bigger than CNN in 5 years.

Calculate your life expectancy. I'm going to live to a measly 70. I'm more than halfway done, folks. On a bright spring morning in 2038 I will download my last porn clip and join the great Hall of Perverts in the sky.

Thanks to Mischa for his horse-fucking link yesterday. I follow it up today with a pig-fucking link. I wish to reiterate that these links and this topic are not placed here for reasons of titillation, but rather as exemplars of my thesis that there is an increased prevalence of reports of bestial sex in the media, the reasons for which I can only theorize.

Last night I was privileged to see sitar maestro Ravi Shankar in concert at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. Ravi is getting on in years and he seemed so very frail. Even to naive ears, it was obvious that he made a few mistakes. And to more trained ears, the mistakes were more frequent. His daughter Anoushka, a technical marvel, more than made up for the main man's faltering, though. Regardless, it was great to see a legend before he shuffles off the great ashram in the sky (which, I'm told, is nowhere near the the great Hall of Perverts).

Tonight the Milan book club is meeting at my place in Ottawa. Instead of reading a book, we're going to watch the movie version of Rudyard Kipling's kim. All are welcome, even if you've never attended before. If you want to come, email me.

Happy birthday to Julie G. and Anju G. No, they're not related.

Earthquakes, Movies and Lewinsky

So, um, someone just voted in my online poll from last year. You know, the one asking about who would win the 2004 US election. Geez. Speaking of polls, if you haven't yet taken the current user survey, please do.

I had a fun time in Toronto this weekend, though it was jam-packed full of activities. To all the friends I did not see this weekend, I apologize profusely, but my schedule only allows so much! I'm still suffering from the excess of lifestyle and from lack of sleep. Picture me in my office in Ottawa with an ice pack on my head. I'd photograph the scene, but you already have enough photos of me.

I have to plug this. It's my friend Rachelle's online "children's book", though clearly it isn't for children. Hilarious.

Another friend, Michelle, is in her first year of studies at the London Schools in, of course, London, UK. The London Schools are a federation of top level London-based universities, which includes LSHTM and LSE. Guess who else is a first year student there? Monica Lewinsky, at one point the most famous woman in the world! After much urging from me, Michelle finally offered a brief insight into what Monica is like in person. (I stress the urging bit because I don't want anyone to think that Michelle is gossip-mongering. I'm the gossip monger, not she.)

Michelle has nothing but positive things to say about Miss Lewinsky: "...she's smart and has good opinions." And I have no reason to doubt her. I think Monica Lewisnky has been given a bum deal by society. Sure, it can be argued that an otherwise mediocre life was turned historic by the conflux of events of which she was a part. But it's unfair to suggest such a thing to someone so young, for whom the world of possibilities should still be open. She might have achieved greatness all on her own, after all. Besides, from where I sit, she never did anything wrong. Bill Clinton did something wrong, but not Monica. He was the liar and the philanderer. She was just a compliant intern doing what we all secretly (and not so secretly) wish all interns would do. So here's wishing her (and Michelle) all the scholastic luck in the world.

The local South Asian social group, Milan, has another event tomorrow night. Our book club was supposed to have read Rudyard Kipling's Kim last time, but only two of us showed up. So this time around, we will be gathering at my place and watching the movie version of Kim. If you're in the Ottawa area and would like to come around, do let me know.

At the end of November we will be hosting a photograph exhibition featuring the works of Toronto artist Richard von Erlac, who has a series of startlingly artistic and non-exploitative pics of Sri Lanka. All proceeds will go to charity, so stay tuned for more details. In reference to this event, I would ask anyone with the following information to please share it with me:

1. Do you know of any other Ottawa- or Toronto-based artistic photographers of either South Asian origin or whose work is South Asian-themed who would appreciate being showcased in this venue?

2. Do you know of any charities or groups needing funding --other than the Red Cross-- who are doing relief work on the recent India/Pakistan earthquake?

Lost

So I promised I'd present my theory of what the fuck is going on on ABC's Lost. So here it is, as of viewing episode #3 of season #2. Keep in mind that I reserve the right to change my theory as the show unfolds. For those of you who do not watch the show: tough titties.

As is becoming clear, the island is the site of a series of paranormal experiments which began in the 1970s (hence all the stylish memorabilia in Desmond's hatch). What kind of experiments? Well, my first instinct is to say ultra-magnetism studies, since magnetism has been known to affect human psychology. But ABC has launched a new weird-ass website: The Hanso Foundation. (Keep in mind that on the show, Alvar Hanso funds the weird experiements.) On the site, it is suggested that Hanso was interested in research on life extension, electromagnetism, extra-terrestrials and, among other things, remote viewing.

I suggest that many of the castaways were in fact unknowing subjects of Hanso's experiments. It explains Walt's apparent psychic abilities, Hugo's affinity for the mystic numbers, which he might have seen in a remote sensing vision. The electromagetism or life extension may explain Locke's miraculous healing.

The monster is mostly a storytelling metaphor, but Rousseau did suggest that the monster is merely the island's "security system", much like the shark, which astute viewers have noted was banded with the Dharma Initiative's swan logo. So perhaps it's just a machine that can broadcast fear.

And what of the "others"? Might I suggest that they are failed experimental subjects, now gone mad?

You know, the more I think about this, the less sense it all makes. Maybe I should just sit back and enjoy the ride like everyone else.

Political Football

For those who still haven't done so, please take our survey.

The book Desilicious, which contains my story "Destroyer of Worlds", has a new review.

Here's an important story. The ongoing torture of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers is now being attributed to "stress." Memo to the blowhards still claiming that this is no different from frat hazing or that because they are torturing less that Saddam would have, it should be overlooked: fuck off.

And how many of you are aware that ever since Al Gore invented the Internet, it has effectively remained in possession and control of the US government? According to the linked article, the US feds have refrained from passing control of the Internet to the UN or another world body. Can't say that I blame them. Why give up such enormous power after having paid for built the damned network in the first place? But I hope they realize the futility of their grabbery. It's only a matter of months/years before the Chinese or Indians erect powerful enough file servers to essentially wrest control away from the West. Then watch the Texan six-guns come a-blazing with characteristic pointless bravado. It is in everyone's best interest to move toward a multipolar administration of the Internet now, rather than allow it to become an inevitable political football.

Sorry for today's brevity. So very, very busy. Tomorrow I will grace you with my uninformed theory of what's really happening on the island in Lost.

Writers Can Do That? No One Told Me!

This is rich: Senator James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), invited a science fiction writer to advise the US Environment and Public Works Committee on the facts behins climate change. The writer? Michael Crichton, of course, he of Jurassic Park and Westworld fame. Crichton is also famous for being a mouthy climate change denier. He is entitled to his opinion, of course, but let's be clear: he is no more or less informed about the issue than you or me. Crichton's claim to being a "scientist" is that he has a medical degree, but has never actually practised medicine. He's a Hollywood writer, for fuck's sake, and not even a good one! What qualifies him to comment on science fact before a senate committee? Oh right, he's rich.

This is comparable to inviting Steven Spielberg to discuss appropriate responses to an alien invasion. Or inviting Brendan Fraser to comment on Egyptology. Or asking Peter O'Toole to help write Middle Eastern policy. Or getting the actress who plays the chick on Alias to help re-design the CIA. Or asking George Bush his opinion on world affairs.

Apropos of nothing, Jennifer M. sends us this amusing clip of UN soldiers in Kosovo. (You'll need audio.)

Make Your Own Kind of Music

Really pressed for time this morning, so I'll make it quick today...

In the past, to develop will power, I've given up (for months and years at a time) caffeine, alcohol, meat and sex (though the latter was never voluntary). Earlier this year, I gave up television. Slowly, however, I've been sucked back into boob-tubery. The finest shows currently on TV are Justice League Unlimited, the new Battlestar Galactica and, of course, Lost.

What's this, you say? Ray has lost his obsession with reality TV? Maybe a bit. Anyway, the new season of Lost is so far an example of superlative storytelling, especially with respect to the small things: angles, chronology, characterisation and music. The music in the season opener was, interestingly, Mama Cass's "Make Your Own Kind of Music." I was so taken with this song that I downloaded an entire album of the Mamas and Papas' greatest hits, and have been grooving to it all morning. Yes, my droogies, that's how weird my life has become. But hey, it's making me happy, so fuck you.

TONIGHT the local South Asian social group, Milan, is presenting a showing of the cult classic Harold and Kumar Go to Whitecastle at the Fox & Feather pub in Ottawa (283 Elgin street) at 7pm. Admission is free and you don't have to be South Asian to attend, so COME ON DOWN!

Yadda Yadda

"The so-called war against terrorism is unwinnable... The analogy of war is a false one. The proper analogy is simply dealing with individual criminals and a few criminal gangs. To do that, you don't have to put the nation on a war footing; you don't have to destroy or injure civil liberties at home or spend billions of dollars. You just doggedly pursue the criminals as they arise, knowing, as police forces do, that this is steady work. You will never get them all because they are replenishable." -Charley Reese.

Egg-zackily! And we all know it's true. Which means the grand military mobilization to fight this "war" has to be for another reason. Reese points to one such reason: to provide a rationale to support the expansion of the military-industrial complex, a parallel civilization whose economy was on the brink of severe shrinkage in the wake of the end of the Cold War. That's right, folks, it's all ultimately about the almighty dollar (or these days, Euro).

This is also one of the main reasons the West (i.e., the Americans) continue to support anti-democratic tyrants in the mold of Saddam, such as Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan. Here is the model: choose a local strongman who will enforce American-friendly trade rights and provide a base of operations for commercial and military endeavours. Assist him in either gaining or solidifying a leadership position. Once established, require him to purchase Western military hardware. Since his treasury is typically quite thin, loan him the money to buy these arms he does not need. Thus the already impoverished and brutalized local citizenry is further burdened by increased national debt. Is it a surprise, then, when one of these "clients" decides to actually use the arms we have encouraged him to buy?

Moving on...

As some of you know, I have successfully avoided all sources of caffeine --coffee, tea, cola, etc-- for 3 years now (with an exception in Uganda earlier this year, when I happily downed a bottle of Coca Cola). Well, I just did it again. Drank a bottle of cola. Just had to. So now I'm wired!

So the rumour is that my all-time favourite Japanese anime show, Evangelion, will soon be aired on MTV. Is the mainstream North American audience ready for the mature, sexily disturbing and psychological story-telling of this unique and twisted show? I doubt it.