Thursday, April 4, 2024

Reading archive 2024-04-04

A Native American tribe once called D.C. home. It’s had no living members for centuries.: As the number of Anacostans dwindled, they merged with larger tribes in the region.

Trump urges Netanyahu to ‘get it over with,’ questions Israel’s approach to war in Gaza: The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has in recent weeks found himself increasingly at odds with the GOP’s unwavering loyalty to Israel.

RFK Jr. campaign describes Jan. 6 defendants as ‘activists,’ then disavows email: Candidate’s team later said the communication, which stated the defendants had been stripped of their rights, ‘does not reflect Mr. Kennedy’s views’

What is May-Thurner syndrome? Lauren Boebert’s diagnosis, explained.

Are walking pads worth it? Why I’m never leaving my desk treadmill.: Early studies show walking desks might improve mood and stress. For me, the tiny treadmill was a life-changer.

Far-right politics could hurt business in North Carolina, some fear. Again.

Republican candidate’s wife sentenced to prison for voter fraud

Truck crash hurls 77,000 ‘threatened’ salmon into wrong creek

Centrist group No Labels won’t field a ticket in the presidential election: The group said in a statement that it had not identified candidates “with a credible path to winning the White House.”

Trump defends Judge Cannon in fight over classified documents trial: Known for attacking other judges, the indicted former president calls Cannon ‘highly respected’ amid dispute over presidential records law

Judge Cannon shoots down Trump’s presidential records act claim: The ruling may avoid a potential showdown between special counsel Jack Smith and the judge

How a steel ball protected Taiwan’s tallest skyscraper in an earthquake

American killed in Israeli strike in Gaza was father, military veteran

Police identify 4 accused of attacking police officer’s cruiser

Opinion  Pay Ronna McDaniel

Israel risking being left holding bag for getting aid to Gazans, US warns

Opinion  The mournful isolation of Israel six months after terrorists attacked - "Here in Israel, my worries remain, but they are tinged by the understanding of how vulnerable this tiny country is and how present the threat." [ed. note: if Israel is small and vulnerable, what then of Gaza and West Bank?]

Opinion  Israel is at a crisis point: The world has had enough

Opinion  No, Big Pharma’s high prices don’t drive innovation - "Our research shows that the biggest drug companies largely fail to turn their enormous profits into discoveries. Instead, most innovation is taking place at small, unprofitable start-ups, whose drugs are largely excluded from Medicare’s new price negotiation system. When it comes to pharmaceutical innovation, smaller is better."

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate and the vaccine wars - "'Every piece of legitimate evidence we have suggests that the causes of autism are present in utero,' said David Mandell, director of the Penn Center for Mental Health at the University of Pennsylvania, in an email. 'To the extent that environmental factors are causative, they likely interact with genetic risk factors in the womb.'

"Of course, even if a link to air pollution is not yet proved, that does not mean it can be ruled out. 'It’s hard to disagree with the opinion that exposure to neurotoxins and air pollution is bad for our health and that we should be doing more to protect our environment and prevent these exposures,' Maureen Durkin, chair of the Department of Population Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said in an email. 'Credible research into the causal links of these exposures to autism specifically is difficult to do but should be done and critically evaluated to inform environmental policies.'

...

"Fears about a link between autism and vaccines started in 1998 after the publication of a genuine hoax — the Wakefield study, in the journal Lancet. Based on a supposedly random sample of 12 children, now-discredited anti-vaccine activist and former physician Andrew Wakefield suggested that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine led to gastrointestinal symptoms, which in turn put harmful proteins in the bloodstream that resulted in autism.

"Dozens of studies followed, including one that studied 1.8 million children over 14 years, all of which showed there was no link. Eventually, it was revealed that Wakefield had received secret payments from a lawyer seeking to sue MMR manufacturers and who supplied some of the patients, had filed a patent application for his own measles vaccine, and had misrepresented or altered medical histories of the 12 patients. In 2010, the article was retracted and Wakefield lost his medical license.

...

"'This is fearmongering,' Mandell said, noting that Wakefield first said autism was the result of the MMR vaccine and no link was found. Then 'RFK Jr. said that the thimerosal in vaccines caused autism. Then thimerosal was removed from vaccines, with no change in increasing rates of diagnosis. … Then they said that it was the number of vaccines or the timing of the vaccines.'"

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