{ Wednesday, September 20, 2006 } 2:20 PM

Some short news flash today

Michigan legislators proposed mandatory vaccinations of sixth graders for a sexually transmitted disease. The vaccine blocks human papilloma virus (HPV) infections, which can cause cervical cancer, which kills 3,700 American women each year.

Argument for the proposal:
This is a cancer we can wipe out through vaccination.

Arguments against it:
1) This is an STD, so kids can avoid it by abstaining from sex.
2) Vaccinating all girls sends a message that sex is OK.
3) Making the vaccine mandatory, even with an opt-out clause, violates parents' rights.





The first man and woman to get "bionic" arms demonstrated the devices. After losing your arm, your brain thinks the nerves that went to the arm still operate it. Surgeons attach the stumps of these nerves to expendable muscle in your chest. Then they wire the muscle to your prosthetic arm by electrodes.

Result: When your brain tells the arm to move, the chest muscle twitches, and the electrodes make the arm move. The Department of Defense is funding the technology.

Approved spin: This will be great for the 400 soldiers who lost limbs in Iraq.

Unapproved spin: Or we could just pull out and let soldiers keep the arms they were born with.





Bicycle helmets may backfire by encouraging cars to drive closer to the cyclist.

Theory: Wearing a helmet makes you look like you know what you're doing, so drivers assume you can operate in tighter space.

Evidence: A traffic psychologist rode a sensor-equipped bike around Britain, and when he wore a helmet, cars passed more than three inches closer, on average, than when he didn't. He was also hit by two vehicles while wearing the helmet.

Bonus finding: When he dressed as a woman, drivers gave him more than five inches of extra space.

Psychologist's interpretation: Helmets protect you in a low-speed tumble but may backfire in serious car traffic.

Accident-prevention group's rebuttal: Wear your helmet, and we'll educate drivers to give you more space.





The U.S. House voted to ban the slaughter of horses for meat.

Arguments for the ban:
1) Unlike cattle, "horses are American icons."
2) "They're as close to human as any animal you can get."
3) They're like pets.
4) They're smart, hardworking, and good companions.
5) Our treatment of them reflects our "core values."

Arguments against it:
1) Keeping useless horses alive is too expensive.
2) If we don't let owners "process" their horses, they'll leave the poor beasts to suffer and die slowly.
3) If we don't slaughter the horses, Mexican and Canadian plants will take our market share.
4) If we let the gummint ban horse slaughter, next it'll mess with the beef, pork, and poultry bidness.





Men are programmed for war, according to a scientist whose study will appear soon in Psychological Science. In a money game, men increased their cooperation (potentially at each one's expense) more than women did when participants were told that they were competing collectively against a rival group.

Additional evidence:
1) "Men are more likely to support a country going to war."
2) "Men are more likely to lead groups in more autocratic, militaristic ways."
3) Male chimps don't often cooperate, but "they go out on raids into … and kill off members of rival groups.''

Anti-male spin:
War among men is "inevitable," and the solution is to elect more women.

Alternative anti-male spin:
Men don't even like war; they just do it to show off.

Pro-male spin:
We don't just fight; we fight cooperatively.





Aging may be nature's way of preventing cancer. A gene that inhibits cancer appears to do so by preventing adult stem cells from multiplying. As you age and become more cancer-prone, the gene makes multiplication harder and harder.

Result:
Your body stops repairing itself, and you die.

The good news:
Aging isn't inevitable wear and tear.

The bad news:
Aging is programmed, and if we block the program, we'll get cancer.

Optimistic spin:
Maybe we can avoid both by learning to switch the program off and on.

Political spin:
Adult stem cells will never be as effective as embryonic stem cells.

Midlife divorce increases heart disease for women but not men. Based on several thousand cases beginning at age 51, researchers calculated that by age 60, women who were divorced, remarried, or widowed were nearly 50 percent more likely to have cardiovascular disease than women who stayed married. "

No such difference was seen for men. In fact, men who remarried were actually 19% less likely to develop heart disease than those who had stayed married to the same person."

The authors conclude that "emotional distress and socioeconomic status" cause the harm to women. (Economics can't account for the whole effect, since "remarried women were more likely to have heart disease than continuously married women, although their financial circumstances were not substantially worse.")

Feminist spin:
Men have no hearts.

Anti-feminist spin:
We're just happier without you.