Roberts Suffered Seizure

US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts suffered what is being described as a "a benign idiopathic seizure." It is not known whether Roberts will require anti-seizure medication or exactly what this condition means at this time. But some are speculating that it may be some for of epilepsy.

"It's my understanding he's fully recovered, said Christopher Burke, a spokesman for Penobscot Bay Medical Center, where Roberts was taken.

Roberts, 52, was taken by ambulance to the medical center, where he underwent a "thorough neurological evaluation, which revealed no cause for concern," Arberg said in a statement.

Roberts had a similar episode in 1993, she said.

Doctors called Monday's incident "a benign idiopathic seizure," Arberg said. The White House described the January 1993 episode as an "isolated, idiosyncratic seizure."

A benign seizure means that doctors performed an MRI and other tests to conclude there was no tumor, stroke or other explanation.

In addition, doctors would have quickly ruled out simple explanations such as dehydration or low blood sugar.

By definition, someone who has had more than one seizure without any other cause is determined to have epilepsy, said Dr. Marc Schlosberg, a neurologist at Washington Hospital Center, who is not involved in the Roberts' case.

Whether Roberts will need anti-seizure medications to prevent another is something he and his doctor will have to decide.

But after two seizures, the likelihood of another at some point is greater than 60 percent.

"When it's going to occur, obviously nobody knows," Schlosberg said.

I do not know whether the expert quoted above is correct in the definition of epilepsy or not. The Epilepsy Foundation defines it as:

Epilepsy is a generic term used to define a family of seizure disorders. A person with recurring seizures is said to have epilepsy.

Does two episodes some 14 years apart automatically qualify? Maybe someone with more knowledge on the subject could clarify.

Do You Like My New Street?

Three Dog Night?!!
Yeah…
Oh! I love them! They're my favorite band!.. ow gawd.. oh, do you like my new car? I'm ah.. my Dad just gave it to me for graduation..
Ah yeaah?!! I'ts a … it's a Fillmore, isn't it? Real futuristic, ah.. I dig the fins… listen: do you know how to get to the ah Hollywood Inn from here?
(Frank Zappa, Do You Like My New Car?)

Officials in Berlin have just named a street after the late Frank Zappa. The street, now called Frank-Zappa-Strasse, is home to a former communist film factory that now houses practice space for musicians. The musicians from Orwo Haus campaigned for two years to get the street renamed in honor of Zappa.

Zappa's brother, Bobby Zappa, said the Grammy-winning rocker, who died in 1993, would have been pleased, in a letter of thanks.

Frank-Zappa-Strasse or Frank Zappa Street — formerly Street 13 — lies on the eastern outskirts of Berlin amid empty industrial buildings in what was communist East Germany.

The street is home to Orwo Haus, a former Communist-era film factory that now provides practice studios for more than 160 bands.

I'd be very careful there now. Remember to watch out where the huskies go. Nanook, a-no-no.

Glasgow

Beautiful city of Glasgow, with your streets so neat and clean,
Your stately mansions, and beautiful Green!
Likewise your beautiful bridges across the river Clyde,
And on your bonnie banks I would like to reside.

Chorus
Then away to the West — to the beautiful West!
To the fair city of Glasgow that I like the best,
Where the river Clyde rolls on to the sea,
And the lark and the blackbird whistle with glee.

'Tis beautiful to see ships passing to and fro,
Laden with goods for the high and the low,
So let the beautiful city of Glasgow flourish,
And may the inhabitants always find food their bodies to nourish.

Chorus
(William "Worst Poet in the World" McGonagall, Glasgow)

I don't believe I have ever heard of this guy, William McGonagall before. After reading a bit of his, um, work, I rather wish I had never heard of him at all. But misery loves company, so I'll share a bit about "The Worst Poet in the World".

EDINBURGH, Scotland - The land that gave the world Robert Burns also has the dubious honor of producing the "world's worst poet." Now fans of the hapless William McGonagall are campaigning to put him in the pantheon of Scottish literary greats.

The late 19th century poet's work is so bad he carried an umbrella with him at all times as protection from the barrage of rotten tomatoes he faced wherever he recited.

His most famous work, a poem initially titled "The Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay," drew derision from crowds when it required a hasty rewrite after the structure collapsed in 1879.

It became "The Tay Bridge Disaster" with the immortal opening stanza: "Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay!/Alas! I am very sorry to say/That ninety lives have been taken away/On the last Sabbath day of 1879/Which will be remember'd for a very long time."

More than 100 years after the poet's death, detractors still won't give him a break: The Scottish literary establishment has blocked plans for a memorial to him at the Writers Museum in Edinburgh alongside those honoring Robert Burns, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Sir Walter Scott.

"The decision to turn down a place for McGonagall was just snobbery pure and simple," said Bob Watt, chairman of the Edinburgh Friends of William McGonagall.

If you're a real glutton for punishment there are a number of websites devoted to William Topaz McGonagall where you can wallow in masochism to your heart's content. Blue Crab Boulevard is in no way responsible for any damage to the reader's psychic wellbeing due to McGonagall poisoning.

The Crisis In British Health Care

Continuing with all the "fabulous" news coming out about the British National Health Service, the Telegraph has a story detailing a crisis in a lack of hospital beds. Patients are being left in agony waiting to get treatment after sustaining serious injuries. How about waiting three weeks for badly broken bones to be repaired? Needless to say, the National Health Service is springing into action to address the problem: They want to censure the man who revealed the crisis.

The NHS is suffering from a chronic shortage of specialist beds which means seriously injured patients are having to wait for days in severe pain, according to a leading surgeon.

He said the hospital system was paralysed by red tape and funding disputes, which put thousands of patients waiting for treatment in specialist wards at risk.

In a damning critique of current NHS policy, Martin Bircher, a consultant treating victims of major accidents, said the best efforts of doctors and nurses on the frontline were hampered by layers of managers whose major concern is the budget rather than patient care.

Following his revelations in a Sunday newspaper, politicians and campaigners last night called for a shake-up in the management of Britain's trauma centres.

Mr Bircher, a consultant at St George's Hospital in south London, said all of Britain's specialist trauma beds are full, meaning some patients can wait three weeks before their badly broken bones can be repaired.

He said disputes between different managers over paying for patients can further delay treatment.

Mr Bircher, 52, who risks censure from the NHS for speaking out, told the Independent on Sunday: "These are basic core services that have to be provided. We shouldn't be sending each other little bills. Trauma and other emergency services like cardiac and stroke services should be top sliced. The money should come from central government funds."

Still singing the praises of socialized medicine? A little too much Moore-flavored kool-aid?

Socialized Medicine Springs Into Action!

The much-touted (by Michael Moore at least) British National Health Service has sprung into action to aid a 108-year old woman. Yes, they are going to take really good care of Olive Beal, one of the oldest women in Britain. They'll give her - completely free of charge - a new hearing aid!

In EIGHTEEN MONTHS.

A woman of 108 has been told by health chiefs that she must wait 18 months to get a new hearing aid.

Olive Beal, one of the oldest women in Britain, is confined to a wheelchair and losing her sight.

Being able to communicate and listen to music is her only contact with the outside world, says her family.

Mrs Beal, who has six grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren, has used an old-fashioned analogue hearing aid for the last five years.

But she struggles to hear with it and needs a modern digital hearing aid which cuts out background noise.

After being told of the wait, Mrs Beal, who lives in a care home in Deal, Kent, said: "I could be dead by then."

Her granddaughter Maria Scott, 52, said: "I'd have thought they would take her age into account as she probably has not got 18 months to wait. Olive has worked hard from the age of 16 to her late 60s and paid taxes.

Still think socialized medicine is a really super-keen idea? Really? What color is the sky in your world?

Arooooooooooo!

The Hound of the Baskervilles has been caught on film! Well, ok, the inspiration for the A. Conan Doyle story anyway. The Daily Mail is about jumping up and down over the pictures of a "Demon of Dartmoor" that were taken recently. They are simply having a ball with this story.

Legend has it that a four-legged fiend with glowing eyes and a blood-curdling howl stalks this very spot.

Which makes these pictures of a mystery creature taken near Hound Tor on Dartmoor more intriguing than ever.

Seen only yards away from a party of schoolchildren, the animal has a thick, shaggy coat, rounded ears and large front limbs which would be powerful enough to tear human flesh.

Some say it is a wild dog or cat. More fanciful theories include wolverine or bear.

Whatever its identity, the Beast of Dartmoor is giving some farmers sleepless nights because they fear it will prey on their stock.

Falconer Martin Whitley, who photographed the creature, said: "It was walking along a path about 200 yards away from me.

"It was black and grey and comparable in size to a miniature pony. It had very thick shoulders, a long, thick tail with a blunt end and small round ears.

"Its movements appeared feline, then bear-like sprang to mind. There was a party climbing on the tor opposite making a racket but it ignored them completely."

At the very end of the story the Daily Mail comes clean on this one. It is very likely nothing more than a large wild boar. The behavior fits perfectly. Wild boar are notoriously unaware of humans. So-called "animal rights activists" have raided local farms and torn down fencing leaving a large number of wild boar and feral pigs on the loose in the area. These are breeding rapidly, so there should soon be a steady supply of "hell hound" sightings.

Stop The Presses

In what can only be regarded as a stunning op-ed in, of all places, the New York Times, Michael O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack of the Brookings Institution make the case that the US is winning in Iraq. Both of these men have been harshly critical of the war effort to date, so this is a shocker.

VIEWED from Iraq, where we just spent eight days meeting with American and Iraqi military and civilian personnel, the political debate in Washington is surreal. The Bush administration has over four years lost essentially all credibility. Yet now the administration’s critics, in part as a result, seem unaware of the significant changes taking place.

Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration’s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily “victory” but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with.

O'Hanlon and Pollack detail vastly improved troop morale - attributable directly to the command of General Petraeus, greatly improved relations with everyday Iraqis, better focus on security and civilian needs and much, much more. Coming from these two critics and with the Brookings stamp on it, this is very significant. An illustration of how much better it is in Iraq:

The additional American military formations brought in as part of the surge, General Petraeus’s determination to hold areas until they are truly secure before redeploying units, and the increasing competence of the Iraqis has had another critical effect: no more whack-a-mole, with insurgents popping back up after the Americans leave.

In war, sometimes it’s important to pick the right adversary, and in Iraq we seem to have done so. A major factor in the sudden change in American fortunes has been the outpouring of popular animus against Al Qaeda and other Salafist groups, as well as (to a lesser extent) against Moktada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army.

These groups have tried to impose Shariah law, brutalized average Iraqis to keep them in line, killed important local leaders and seized young women to marry off to their loyalists. The result has been that in the last six months Iraqis have begun to turn on the extremists and turn to the Americans for security and help. The most important and best-known example of this is in Anbar Province, which in less than six months has gone from the worst part of Iraq to the best (outside the Kurdish areas). Today the Sunni sheiks there are close to crippling Al Qaeda and its Salafist allies. Just a few months ago, American marines were fighting for every yard of Ramadi; last week we strolled down its streets without body armor.

Please read the whole thing, it is that important.

UPDATE: That didn't take long. Apparently the "big tent" hasn't room for any dissent:

I have a new litmus test for the Dem Presidential candidates - they must promise not to have Michael O'Hanlon and Ken Pollock in their administration.

The Churchill Effect

David French, writing in the New York Post, takes a look at the fallout from the Ward Churchill firing. His conclusion is that this one incident has done more to expose the leftward skew in academia than years of conservative criticism. The monolithic ivory tower is showing some cracks.

Despite the mountain of evidence against Churchill, it took more than two years for the wheels of justice to turn. As he received more due process than ordinary Americans ever receive in the course of their professional lives, Churchill's dogged fight to keep his job only reinforced for many the notion that faculty members view themselves as a breed apart - entitled to lucrative lifetime employment no matter what they do.

That will be Ward Churchill's lasting legacy. He was the tipping point. Now, it's not just leading conservatives who view the academy as an out-of-control, disconnected bastion of petulant entitlement. In a recent Zogby poll, 58 percent of Americans reported that they now believe that political bias of professors is a "serious problem." Even more, 65 percent, viewed non-tenured professors as more motivated to do a good job in the classroom.

These are not isolated findings. A survey by the American Association of University Professors found that 58.4 percent of Americans had only some or no confidence in our colleges and that 82 percent want to modify or eliminate tenure.

Ultimately, the people will vote with their dollars. Schools that fail to correct the most egregious cases of academic fraud - like Churchill got away with for years - will find themselves short on students. Churchill's fall also points out one other thing: those with skeletons in their closets might want to think long and hard before they begin screeching publicly about pretty much anything. )I'd also point out that the gang of academics at Duke who advocated the legal lynching of three innocent men did a lot to poison academia in the public's perception.) The public is wising up to the leftward tilt and isn't very happy about it.

GIGO In Action

USA Today presents us with today's object lesson in the concept of GIGO, or 'Garbage In, Garbage Out'. Reporting on a new study that claims to have found a direct link between global warming and a rise in the number of hurricanes.

The researchers found that average hurricane numbers jumped sharply during the 20th century, from 3.5 per year in the first 30 years to 8.4 in the earliest years of the 21st century. Over that time, Atlantic Ocean surface temperatures increased .65 degrees, which experts call a significant increase.

This study also shows that years with more hurricanes didn't coincide with changes in the way storms are measured, says hurricane researcher Kerry Emanuel of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who was not part of the study. "This makes it very unlikely that these upward jumps are owing to changing measurements and suggests that they are real."

But buried way down at the end, USA presents this:

The new study drew criticism from experts who dispute the merits of combining data from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when hurricane-tracking satellites didn't exist, with statistics gleaned from more modern technology.

"Looking for trends in noisy count data is fraught with problems," says researcher James Elsner of Florida State University in Tallahassee. "I agree with the message, but cannot recommend the science."

"They're saying there's a long, upward trend of the last 100 years in tropical storms. All the data I have looked at show that's not the case," says scientist William Gray, head of the Tropical Meteorological Project at Colorado State University.

Gray, a critic of the view that human-induced greenhouse gases drive climate and hurricanes, says 19th-century data "is just not that good."

Reuters report on the same study has this:

Skeptics say hurricane data from the early decades of the 20th century are not reliable because cyclones likely formed and died in mid-ocean, where no one knew they existed.

More reliable data became available in 1944 when researchers had airplane observations, and from 1970 when satellites came into use.

Despite the confident claims, consider for a moment: Until the mid 1940s, there were no reliably consistent way to track the majority of storms. Unless a ship sailed through the storms itself - and reported that to someone - there would be no records. You can look at the compiled hurricane data yourself and notice that hurricane reporting from the 19th and early 20th century very often show no activity out in the middle of the Atlantic. At all. Does anyone in their right mind believe that? Also, how many ships gathered temperature data through the 19th and 20th centuries? Probably the most significant criticism noted above is the one from James Elsner of Florida State University. He believes that warming increases hurricanes,, but also points out that the claims of the two researchers are based on nothing.

UPDATE: The AP headline is actually the worst one yet, but their story also has the most strongly worded slap at these two charlatans:

Atlantic tropical storms have doubled

Chris Landsea, science and operations officer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Hurricane Center, said the study is inconsistent in its use of data.

The work, he said, is "sloppy science that neglects the fact that better monitoring by satellites allows us to observe storms and hurricanes that were simply missed earlier. The doubling in the number of storms and hurricanes in 100 years that they found in their paper is just an artifact of technology, not climate change."

I wouldn't even call it sloppy. Fraudulent fits better.

UPDATE: Others: Wizbang, Iowa Voice, Flopping Aces, Iconic Midwest, Wizbang has a really excellent graphic up that shows exactly how much data collection has changed over the time period in question. Paul did a really good job putting that post together. So did Rich Horton over at Iconic Midwest.