Caffeine causes birth defects ... or does it?

A New Scientist article (available online to subscribers only) talks about caffeine and health effects, and in so doing, raises a broader question.

Perhaps the most notorious study came in 1980 when Thomas Collins of the US Food and Drug Administration linked caffeine to birth defects in rats.  The study sent shock waves through the drinks industry and led the FDA to warn pregnant women to cut down on coffee and tea.

In the study, Collins gave pregnant rats enormous doses of caffeine, equivalent to 200 cups of coffee or tea in one gulp, via tubes inserted down their throats.

The problem with this, of course, is that nobody drinks 200 cups of coffee at once....

(Go to snobss for the full post and comments)

National State of Emergency

Never mind the politics of the site containing the link, for now.  That's not the issue.  I refer you to this post on DailyKOS, primarily for its inclusion of the text of President Bush's declaration extending the state of national emergency declared on 9/23/2001 in Presidential Executive Order 13224.

Reading that declaration, you will find that Dubya twice uses the phrase "unusual and extraordinary" referring to the threat of terrorism.

In the context of that usage, I pose this question:  For how long can a condition, situation or danger persist before it is no longer honest to refer to it as "unusual" or "extraordinary", and, in fact, before it de facto becomes usual and ordinary?

The corollary to this question is:  For how long can the President -- or, possibly, his successor[s] -- continue to simply extend this "state of national emergency"?

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(Crossposted to neph_politics)

LOOOOOOONNNYYYYY!

Today's loony alert:  Katrina was a Russian hurricane!  Proof:  Well, Katrina is a Russian-sounding name!

Uhhhhh....... explain to me how the Russians compelled the NHC to put the name Katrina on this year's tropical storm list?  And it gets better from there.  This guy is barking mad.

No more NOLA confiscations

"The United States District Court for the Eastern District in Louisiana today sided with the National Rifle Association (NRA) and issued a restraining order to bar further gun confiscations from peaceable and law-abiding victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans."

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(Crossposted to neph_politics; originally found on guns)