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I don't recall hearing about autism claims directly related to the MMR vaccine, but I do recall hearing a bunch of noise about Thimerosal.

Thimerosal is a preservative (used since the 1930's) to increase the shelf life of vaccines. It has ethylmercury in it, which is where the possible link to autism came from.

According to the CDC: "Measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR), varicella (chickenpox), and inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) have never contained thimerosal."

Even though the CDC says there doesn't seem to be anything to worry about (most vaccines have no Thimerosal in 'em), you can ask for vaccinations without the Thimerosal preservative. AFAIK, the only vaccine that still uses it is the flu vaccine.

Violent video games don't make kids violent; being human makes kids violent. Some are worse than others, and need special care and attention; despite my favouring violent games, films, etc I've never actually been in a fight in my life.

Thank you!

Despite the row about violent media in, well, the media (conflict of interest, anyone?), the CDC says that school violence is declining. And They aren't alone, either.

When did representatives lose the ability to get the facts and communicate them to their constituents, rather than enact farcical legislation that will accomplish nothing?

Let's look at the statistics. In 2004, a total of 42,636 people died, and 2.8 million were injured on U.S. highways... I'll bet that many of the drivers who instigated the accidents that led to those 42,636 deaths and 2.8 million injuries in 2004 had the same thoughts: "I want to be in control of my car." "I'm a better driver than a computer."

Apparently 39% of those who died were thinking, "I can drink and drive.". And 13% were minding their own business (pedestrians and bicyclists).

--Rob

Kentucky is a poor state. Sixteen of Kentucky's counties are among the 100 poorest in the country .

Major factors affecting Kentuckians residents earning power include lack of jobs, lack of education, and -- very importantly -- poor health. As a native New Yorker, I was surprised by just how pervasive smoking and smoking related illnesses are in this state. In fact, Kentucky is almost among the highest-rated states for risks on getting lung cancer.

Kentucky is a big receiver of Medicaid funding (18 percent of the state is enrolled in Medicaid, among the higher rates in the country), funding that we all help pay for. It would be nice if some of that financial responsibility feel on the people that need it. $.08 a pack seems nominally reasonable, I think.

Imagine a new line of German schnaps being promoted with those crossed symbolic fasces. It would -- understandibly -- cause an outrage.

Understandably. And stupidly. The delusional mass hysteria facing the swastika (and indeed all things supposedly-Nazi) is one of the more disheartening symptoms of the prevailing hypocrisy and idiocy of the hoi polloi in western society.

But new Russian vodkas continue to proudly display the murderous Red Star, and the above mentioned tools.

What about whiskies with American flags on them, then?

Not that the blankets will work even if you get some ordinary virus to work with. I know, I know, the whole native American thing, but really that history is doubtful. It's unclear whether Jeffrey Amherst's plan to send out infected blankets was at all effective. Smallpox was already epidemic among native Americans.

Smallpox isn't the most robust virus. In lab conditions, 90% of aerosolized smallpox -- the delivery method of the Soviet stockpile -- dies within 24 hours. With some exposure to UV light it does more poorly. Blankets just wouldn't be your best choice.

So you don't have the virus, and you don't have an effective delivery system.

According to a report on the CDC website (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol5no4/olson.htm), 12 people died in the attack on the subway.

By the end of that day, 15 subway stations in the world's busiest subway system had been affected. Of these, stations along the Hbiya line were the most heavily affected, some with as many as 300 to 400 persons involved. The number injured in the attacks was just under 3,800. Of those, nearly 1,000 actually required hospitalization--some for no more than a few hours, some for many days. A very few are still hospitalized. And 12 people were dead.

Ahem,

1. Fluoridation of Water

2. One of many other innovations in development.

3. Do you really think dentists are making anywhere near the kind of money our friends at Bayer, Merck, Pfizer, and Novartis reap on lifelong medications for heart disease, cancer, and ED?

An epidemic merely is a disease that is occuring at a rate far more prevalent than it's long term rate in a region. AIDS easily fits that definition on every continent in the world (excluding Anartica). For example, the Center for Disease Control, the International Red Cross, the World Health Organization, and the US Census Bureau all call it a pandemic. It's not just a matter of semantics either. For example, in the US, death from AIDS or related illnesses is among the top ten causes of deaths in people aged 20-54 (see this CDC report).

An epidemic merely is a disease that is occuring at a rate far more prevalent than it's long term rate in a region. AIDS easily fits that definition on every continent in the world (excluding Anartica). For example, the Center for Disease Control, the International Red Cross, the World Health Organization, and the US Census Bureau all call it a pandemic. It's not just a matter of semantics either. For example, in the US, death from AIDS or related illnesses is among the top ten causes of deaths in people aged 20-54 (see this CDC report).

What a bunch of tripe. Michael Moore would be really proud of the first paper. (I didn't read the second one, sorry) I can excuse the writer if 1/2 of the inaccuracies are from an ignorance of the field, but it honestly seems like she's trying to dissuade. Virtually every 3rd paragraph contains and inaccuracy or inappropriate insinuation that is subtle enough to be missed by someone who isn't trained in these fields. The author focuses her arguments by looking at small segments of the literature and history and ignoring the broader sweeps. For example:

The paper's initial assertion is that AIDS was introduced as a polio virus. Simple logical disproof: 1) polio vaccine is given across social/habitual classes. 2) There has not been 1 case of AIDS where the person didn't have one of the following three risk factors: blood transfusion, risky sex*, IV drug use. 3) Not everyone in the US has previous three risk factors. 4) If 2 is true 1 or 3 must be false or at least excruciatingly improbable. 5) 3 is true, therefore 1 must be false. QED. (*risky sex = sexual activity where both partners are not exclusively monogamous to each other at any time during or prior to their relationship)

Several pages deal with the controversy surrounding the initial discovery of the HIV virus. There was also controversy surrounding the discovery of DNA, therefore we shouldn't believe DNA is the 'source code' of life?

She makes light of the microliter aliquots used in the CBC tests but fails to mention that all CBC tests (test which count the types and number of cells in your blood) uses these metrics. We shouldn't trust tests for hundreds of diseases including leukemia, polycythemia, or even iron deficiency based on this implication. (for example, look at the normals on this page: http://www.saintfranciscare.com/11377.cfm)

She also does not respect the validity of the HIV Load test, saying that since it uses PCR (a very common technique in medicine) it cannot be accurate. (no more genetic testing, goodbye cancer diagnosis, goodbye endocrinology) She also asserts that the HIV Load assay will give false-positives and is inaccurate if the procedures are not followed. Yes, it does give false positives, it is a HIGHLY sensitive test, with a low specificity. It is not a screening test, and it cannot be used for one because of its high false positive rate. Additionally, I challenge anyone to find a test in any field that is valid when its procedures are not followed. (magnetism doesn't attract wood, therefore magnetism is false)
http://www.labtestsonline.org/understanding/analyt es/viral_load/test.html

But the coup-de-gras for me was her statistics that showed how low CD4 counts don't correlate to AIDS. (AIDS is, incidentally, practically being defined by low CD4 count)

* "61% of people with CD4 count = 200 in 1997 were AIDS free"
* -response: Yes, CD4=200 is the upper limit at which you see AIDS symptoms, this is expected

* "190,000 Americans in 1993 with CD4 count=200 were AIDS free"
* -response: See above, plus in 1993 the AIDS definition was changing so you see changes in the statistics. Additionally, that number is far less than a quarter of the number of AIDS cases in the US that year. (http://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/data/aidsPublic.html )

* "No studies have been done to show removal of anti-retrovirals = disease"
* -response: No, but anti-retovirals have been tightly correlated to increased CD4 counts, and their withdrawal to lower CD4 counts. It has also been shown repeatedly (and even in this paper!) that low CD4 count correlates with disease.

The list goes on and on. I just pointed out a few of the most egregious and most easily refuted examples. It just goes to show that if someone really wants to believe someth

1. Learn how to make a general sound compressor.
2. Hire a few electrical engineers and send them to order a few thousand PCB circuits.
3. Hire a mechanical engineer and have them make the encasings. Oh, most importantly, make sure the encasings are iPod white in color.
4. Your design should have a 1/8" audio jack in and a 1/8" audio jack out with a 3" length of audio cable. It's plugged into any media device and then your headphones plug into it.
5. Profit!

Port 8080 can go wherever the hell you want it to.

http://www.digg.com/links/Coral_Cache_(.nyud.net)_ Now_Uses_Port_8080
http://atsdr1.atsdr.cdc.gov:8080/

etc.

Try this or maybe this.

The first relies on an almost 15 year old report. The second is much more recent (and it's a journal article).

The Hepatitis B vaccine is normally done in three shots over a period of six months, not years. Smallpox vaccines have a chance of adverse side effects, even in otherwise healthy adults. For details see:

http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/vaccination/r eactions-vacc-public.asp

Effective treatment for Malaria--research for which Gates has donated a small fortune--would have major economic and health benefits throughout Africa and the developing world. For details see:

http://www.rbm.who.int/cmc_upload/0/000/015/363/RB MInfosheet_10.htm

I know that actually giving references on Slashdot isn't in fashion, but your foolishness was annoying me.

Each year between 50 - 100 people per million of population die from the various forms of influenza that are commonly refered to as flu. Since 1997, only 50 people who had close contact with birds have died from Avian flu. The media is full of reports that this flu has the potential to become a pandemic. If so, it could kill between 5 to 250 million people. Most likely it will only be 5 people ... but it could be 250 million!

So wait a minute, doesn't every disease have the chance to mutate into something much worse not just avian flu? AIDs is incurable, has infected hundreds of millions and is transmited only by contact. What if it mutated so it was spread airborne? Everyday millions of bad things could happen but don't and we are not panicking over all of them.

So ask yourself why all the fuss? What is going on that could benefit from people being distracted?

Could it be the war in Iraq, scandals, economy, politics? Take your pick. We should be demanding the media to focus on the real issues and hold the politician's feet to the fire and not be distracted by nonissues.

The impact of this pandemic was not limited to 1918-1919. All influenza A pandemics since that time, and indeed almost all cases of influenza A worldwide (excepting human infections from avian viruses such as H5N1 and H7N7), have been caused by descendants of the 1918 virus, including "drifted" H1N1 viruses and reassorted H2N2 and H3N2 viruses. The latter are composed of key genes from the 1918 virus, updated by subsequently incorporated avian influenza genes that code for novel surface proteins, making the 1918 virus indeed the "mother" of all pandemics. /blockquote

To promote health and quality of life by preventing and controlling disease, injury, and disability. The CDC seeks to accomplish its mission by working with partners throughout the nation and the world to

• monitor health,
• detect and investigate health problems,
• conduct research to enhance prevention,
• develop and advocate sound public health policies,
• implement prevention strategies,
• promote healthy behaviors,
• foster safe and healthful environments,
• provide leadership and training.

The early years of a child's life are crucial for cognitive, social and emotional development. Therefore, it is important that we take every step necessary to ensure that children grow up in environments where their social, emotional and educational needs are met.

Cost to society of less than optimal development are enormous and far-reaching. Children who grow up in environments where their developmental needs are not met are at an increased risk for compromised health and safety, and learning and developmental delays. Failure to invest time and resources during children's early years may have long term effects on the foster care, health care, and education systems. Therefore, it is in the public's interest to ensure that children develop in safe, loving, and secure environments.

To promote health and quality of life by preventing and controlling disease, injury, and disability. The CDC seeks to accomplish its mission by working with partners throughout the nation and the world to

• monitor health,
• detect and investigate health problems,
• conduct research to enhance prevention,
• develop and advocate sound public health policies,
• implement prevention strategies,
• promote healthy behaviors,
• foster safe and healthful environments,
• provide leadership and training.

The early years of a child's life are crucial for cognitive, social and emotional development. Therefore, it is important that we take every step necessary to ensure that children grow up in environments where their social, emotional and educational needs are met.

Cost to society of less than optimal development are enormous and far-reaching. Children who grow up in environments where their developmental needs are not met are at an increased risk for compromised health and safety, and learning and developmental delays. Failure to invest time and resources during children's early years may have long term effects on the foster care, health care, and education systems. Therefore, it is in the public's interest to ensure that children develop in safe, loving, and secure environments.

"killed more people in 24 weeks than AIDS has killed in 24 years, more people in a year than the Black Death of the Middle Ages killed in a century."
The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague In History, by John Barry

If you're looking for a massive plague that would have conferred resistance on survivors, that would suit the argument.

(And yet we're looking at the bird flu now. Also the pandemics of 1957 and 1968. The picture's muddied by modern vaccination practices, which were having some grab by '57.)

The interesting thing is that this one and only victory was won by immunization, not by drugs. Maybe the development of hordes of new anti-resistance drugs is not the way to go after all?

I'm not saying you are wrong about the 2-21 days, merely that you use a bad argument to support your case. Instead, you could have used Questions and Answers about Ebola. Don't worry, I already added that as a source in Wikipedia.

See the thing is, in just about every city where smoking is banned from bars, lots of bars close down.

I've seen reports that say there is no significant impact; please cite your source for this claim. Thanks. (Hate secondhand smoke; love bar. Usually try to sit by the door of my favorite tavern when fresh air dillutes the cigarette fumes.)

Instead of banning smoking entirely, the correct way to handle it would have been to simply enforce a minimum standard of air quality in the "workplace" where people are serving smokers

Sounds good in theory, though I'm not sure if that can be enforced in practice.

It would also be helpful to get the radioactive polonium and lead out of cigarette smoke with appropriate agricultural regulation.

Males are four times more likely to die from suicide than females, Women report attempting suicide during their lifetime about three times as often as men.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/suifacts.htm

I have it from a reputable (to me at least) biologist and veterinarian that this has been blown out of proportion. This only affects people under very specific criteria (e.g. pregnant females)

As for a link with schizophrenia, your argument makes about as much sense as: since 100% per cent of drivers aren't dead from traffic accidents, these can't be caused by motor vehicles!

Fuck yahoo. Here is a link trail back through time:

yyyy.mm.dd url

2006.xx.xx Who knows where this will be gay-linked next
2006.02.12 http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/1 2/0738233
2006.02.11 http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060211/sc_space/mi ndcontrolbyparasites
2006.01.17 http://loom.corante.com/archives/2006/01/17/the_re turn_of_the_puppet_masters.php
2003.11.?? http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol9no11/03-0143.htm
1997.11.?? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd= Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9487962&dopt=Abstract
1896.??.?? Is insanity due to a microbe? [editorial] Sci Am 1896
1066.10.14 Reported scuffle broke out due to some tosspot road builders being toxoplamarised. //ghey

At the hospital I work at, there are any number of reasons why a computer might be connected to the Internet. Perhaps someone might wish to visit the site of the CDC to get up to date information on some disease or other. Maybe the hospital offers training services via a third-party web site. Of course, they don't have full-blown access to the Internet, but they are connected for various legitimate reasons.

There's varying evidence, but the infection rate in the US is somewhere around 23% according to a report by the cdc. The infection rate also appears to be dropping.

Toxoplasma is actually the eggs for body thetans. If you do not want to believe this, read this link

The earth is a battlefield, my friend. I'm going to get audited errrr tested.

This study is interesting because it ties antidepressants right back to behavior. The percentage of Americans who use antidepressants is at least 15% and rising. Taken together, this means a sizeable segment of society is acting differently than they would have before. What, I wonder, are the aggregate impacts on society?

That's actually a very good point. Logically you should be right. I must admit I ripped the factoid about tooth discolouration from the CDC's page here. It's not particularly clear on the point.

Ok so you found a site with an agenda: Eliminating flouride consumption, that claims it's bad. Right, of course they are going to claim that. Now I can find information from respected orignizations, like the CDC and NIH, that says it's not only fine but good for oral health.

http://www.cdc.gov/oralhealth/waterfluoridation/in dex.htm
http://www.nidcr.nih.gov/HealthInformation/Disease sAndConditions/Fluoride/WaterFluoridation.htm

Now I don't care to argue with you about who to believe, I'm just pointing you that you are presenting only a source with an agenda. Have a look at what the CDC has to say, as well as others.

I was just Googling for the same information, and it seems that the CDC agrees with you (page 5, table 3).

Here's the summary from the Center for Disease Controls' Department of Health and Human Services: Overweight and Obesity: Contributing Factors

• Energy Imbalance
• Environment
• Genetics
• Other factors - for example, diseases and drugs

We already know some diseases can help cause obesity. However, it is one factor among many and in many cases, it is not the primary factor.

Quit. Seriously. The answer is to quit. A bad boss makes for a horrible working environment. Horrible working environments are detrimental to your health. Your working environment will affect your mental health and that's not somethin you can leave at the office when you go home at not. Your home and love life will suffer just as much as your health. Take it from me; I've been there.

Just last week I was diagnosed with two partially-healed ulcers.

Stress does not cause ulcers. That's one of those persistent medical myths. Ulcers are caused by gut bacteria and it's typically poor diet that causes them to flare.

That's a bit of a stretch. Most of us won't find A. Baumannii on our keyboards, it's commonly isolated from the hospital environment. Hospitals are full of nasty stuff that isn't common in the outside world.

I'm not sure, but I think most common are S. Aureus (aka staph) and S. Pneumoniae (aka pneumonia). It's not that you won't find these outside, but the concentration is much higher or the pathogen is much nastier in intensive or acute care settings. In your house you're more likely to find Staph or E. Coli, but they're more benign than their hospital equivalent would be.

As far as badness, pathophys of your baby is roughly the same as other gram-negatives, and it's drug-resistant, like MRSA or some forms of TB. The big guns (new generation fluoroquinolones and similar antibiotics) still work, but it's getting to be a problem.

Doctors and nurses, please wash your hands!

It isn't Sarin, it isn't a CBW agent (although it could be used for temporary area denial). Just think of a very, very powerful stink bomb. It probably was used during a shake down by a rival outfit offering "security services".

I'm following this with more than a little interest as I'll be staying a few klicks away from their next week (Moscow district in St Petersburg). Back to the subject, the cheap CDs were still available from a nearby market.

Evolution is true, and one day you'll find this out the hard way

Well, I found firm numbers on the number of deaths, where are the numbers or even a source for "People with guns that want to kill you ARE going to kill you most of the time, even if you also have a gun." As for "People driving drunk don't (99% of the time anyway) want to kill anyone", that is like saying "People who play Russian Roulete with a revolver don't (99% of the time anyway) want to kill themselves nor are they stupid".

"Heat of the moment crimes, such as one spouse murdering their cheating spouse when they find out about an affair, are unquestionably reduced when guns are hard to come by for the average citizen."

The number of Right To Carry Firearms (RTC) states is at an all-time high, up from 10 in 1987 to 38 today.States with RTC laws, compared to other states, had lower violent crime rates on average with total violent crime was lower by 21%, murder by 28%, robbery by 43%, and aggravated assault by 13%.

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm#cius
http://www.nraila.org/Issues/factsheets/read.aspx? ID=18

Furthermore, the number of firearms in the United States and the number of gunowners are increasing, but the number of firearms related deaths is decreasing.

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5002a1. htm

"Data in this report regarding trends in firearm-related injury rates during 1993--1998 indicate that both mortality and morbidity from gunshot wounds declined substantially in the United States. However, firearm-related injury continues to be a public health concern accounting for approximately 31,000 deaths and 64,500 nonfatal injuries treated in hospital EDs in 1998."

I'd love to see a genuinely objective study on it.
I would too, but I'd be wary, seeing as how the CDC did a study on it, and their results were 'inconclusive'. Of course, other actions by the CDC has shown itself to be biased against firearms.

John Lott did a study on CCW, though alot of people are trashing him over it. I haven't heard of an objective study or validation/invalidation of his work though. General thought among anti-gun control people is that they tried to find problems in his work, but were unable, so have fallen back on attacking his character. He found that liberalizing(making easier) self defense tends to drop crime rates. It tends to be modest gains, however, because few people take advantage of CCW laws, and those that do tend to be non-victims to begin with. It seems that the most frequent victims of violence are other criminals.

By the way, what's your idea of 'effective gun control'? I'll admit that I tend towards the tounge in cheek 'using both hands' statement. I don't object to the NICS check, I'd love to see gun safety taught in schools, and severe penalties for the usage of a weapon(not necessarily a gun) in commision of a crime. I can even see somebody being charged with 'negligent storage' if a child gets ahold of a gun and hurts somebody with it.

Since so much crime is done by repeat offenders, longer terms for violent offenders. I couldn't care less about non-violent drug offenses.

But, back to the whole surveilance thing, I've read about all sorts of incidents in England where they catch the crime on four seperate monitors, and still don't catch the criminal. In many ways you're safer in New York City than many parts of England.

And you can get a driver's licence as young as 14 in some States. In the United States in 2001 there were the following numbers of deaths from firearms Suicide 16,869, Homicide 11,348; Accident 802; Legal Intervention 323; Undetermined 231. The same year there were 37,500 fatal auto accidents.

http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/

Alcohol-induced deaths, excluding accidents and homicides: 19,928, Alcoholic liver disease: 12,121
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/alcohol.htm

Taking out Suicide from firearms, since a suicidal person is going to end it anyway they can, I reckon that driving and alcohol are both more dangerous than guns.

I'm not sure if there's stats here about how fructose intake (and sugar intake in general) have increased, but the CDC has a site about obesity trends that has a PowerPoint presentation you can download to see how obesity has sharply risen in the past twenty years.

The site Ban Trans Fats also has the data for 1985-2001 on the web page I just linked so that you can see the maps without PowerPoint. It's insane. In 1985, the fattest states had overweight people making up 10-14% of their population. About half the states had map of incidents of type 2 diabetes from the CDC also corresponds nicely to the fattest areas of the nation.

This is a public health crisis regardless of the cause. I've read several books on diet and health, and I'm just staying away from what's generally agreed to be crap nowdays -- foods with added sugars, refined starches, and trans fats. I don't eat fast food and junk food anymore, and neither should you or anyone else you love. Avoiding sugars (outside of fruits) and starches is key to keeping hunger under control and trans fats are just bad, bad, bad for you.

Terrorism was the number one cause of death in America for a week. It was passed by Americans killing other Americans in about 3 months (which is #20 on the top 20 causes of death).

How many rights are you willing to give up to not be in constant terror of septicemia (#11 on the list, kills over 10 times as many people than terrorism)? How about the 10 times as many people that kill themselves (#10)? Terrorists have almost EXACTLY the power we give them. They can only kill you. The government can enslave you, toss you into a prison cell for the rest of your life without charge and then kill you. (If they really want to)

Actually reading statistics is fun!

Uhm.... sodium chloride is indeed salt. One of many compounds called "salts".

Yes you can buy table salt with other compounds in it if you want. However, the chief component of sodium chloride is required for it to be sold as "salt" in a grocery store.

If you are changing the stuff with radiation, you are using too much radiation.

I like cheap wine. Drink whatever floats your particular boat I guess.

Your food snobbery doesn't change the physics of what happens during irradiation of food. Here's the Center For Disease Control's take on it; CDC on Irradiation

You should expect that if you spout pseudo-science crap on Slashdot that someone will call you out on it.

The incidence of liver disease among non-hepatitis infected people is incredibly small. If you take all comers it is 12th among cause of death (lower than suicde) according to the NIH (pdf of causes of death).

Because even if the result is statistically significant, if not that many people die of it (~2500 in 2003), then the harm caused by this drug (caffine) may not outway the rare case it saves (and yes, I understand if you're the one it is significant, but this is public health)

For instance "Zipia reduces aliens ripping out of your abdomen by 99%" sounds very impressive, until you look at how many people this would affect (there were the 4 alien movies plus spaceballs). So everyone should not start using zipia, which undoubtably will cause some bad side effect, versus those few actors who would be saved.

Are you talking about the power applied at American Media, Inc. in Boca? Yowsir, you insensitive.... And right there in Florida, too!

Sorry... I guess I wasn't totally clear... I'm a Ph.D. student in Audiology, meaning that I have background in physiology/hearing science as well as clinical aspects (hearing loss, treatment). I do research specifically in noise-induced hearing loss. I'm working on MP3 player output levels at the moment...

As to your question about #3,4... that is a current speculation as to the additive properties of aspirin to tinnitus. However, tinnitus is typically idiopathic, meaning that it has no cause. Aspirin is related, but not causal at all. If you sever the auditory nerve, for example, tinnitis usually remains, indicating that it is central (brain). As to bloodflow, we're typically talking near the cochlea, not near the eardrum. You can have tinnitis caused by vascular problems in the middle ear (glomus tumor, for example)... which is real and caused, essentially, by hearing your own heart beat.

Unfortunately, tinnitis is a ridiculously difficult subject. I recommend the American Tinnitis Association's website for more info...

Some other links...

• American Academy of Audiology hearing anatomy/physiology info

• CDC info on Noise-induced hearing loss

• Wikipedia entry on Hearing Loss

There are many more on the web, too!

Hello

According to CDC, about 23% of all deaths are due to cancer, so I don't understand your comment.

Eventually everybody dies and is so subjet at some point to some pretty catastrophic health problem. The objective of a "civilised" society should to be able to treat everybody for every condition with the best care available. This is an ideal of course, but your proposal seems to me like "Sorry dear sir/madam, you've got some pretty serious condition. We could treat you and you would have some chance of recovery, but you can't pay for the care and it is not covered by insurance or health care. You can now go home to die".

To me that sounds pretty unacceptable, given that some nations seem to be able to cope with the problem with a better approach than the US.

Gah! Wash your hands, e.coli boy! I wish we bowed in the west instead of shook hands, there are so many dirty people out there.

It's fatal in up to 2.7 million cases a year (mostly African children):

http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/facts.htm