Professional liars and death from cholera and war
Whether they are called the White House Press Secretary or the regime’s Information Minister, they seem to have in common one characteristic: they are professional liars. It goes without saying that...
View ArticleA pill with a glass of water, hold the pill
One of the triumphs of 19th and 20th century public health was the provision of piped water into cities and towns. With the use of modern methods of disinfection (primarily chlorination) water as a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Secrets of the toilet
Way back on New Year’s Eve of 2005, when we were still hosted over at Blogger, I did one of my more popular posts about how a toilet works. Most people don’t know. I’m guessing they have some kind of...
View ArticlePharma fish found
There has been more talk recently that our wastewater are loaded with pharmaceuticals. No surprise. People often dump out of date pills down the toilet, but much more important, they send them flushing...
View ArticleOrgies and antibiotic resistance
When a small body of water, say a slow flowing creek or water in a drainage ditch, “goes septic” it starts to stink, often giving off a rotten egg odor (hydrogen sulfide, H2S). This isn’t a sign that...
View ArticleViruses and sandcastles at the beach
It’s Saturday and it’s summertime and Mrs. R. and I are still in the city. OK with me. I’m a city boy and find it easiest to maintain upright posture on asphalt, but my bride of 37 years likes the...
View ArticleBeverage of your choice and at your own risk
I don’t fly as much as I used to but I still fly too often for my likes and when the cart comes around for the free beverages it’s either orange juice “with no ice” or a bloody mary mix “with no ice.”...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Grant writing and the day that my ship comes in (or goes down)
Still working on the grant and today was our Mock Study Section. It was an experiment that in the view of all participants (there were about 35 reviewers in the room) was a highly successful one. But...
View ArticleJohn Snow
Yesterday I gave a nod to an important epidemiologist, the late Alice Stewart. I’m old enough to have known her, but not old enough to know the most famous epidemiologist of all — indeed sometimes...
View ArticleWater, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink
Everyone has heard by now that there is a catastrophic oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. I’m not an oil expert, so I won’t discuss this much here. There is a lot of information already in the media. I am...
View Article
