The newest Republican Front-Runner

I just had to post this to get some relief from the idea of Newt Gingrich as the Republican nominee.  The Borowitz Report had the scoop.

Gingrich says CBO must go.

Why I'm taking Gingrich seriously, knowing what I know about him from my CBO days, is a mystery to me. I guess it's just that I worry about who the Prez might be if not Obama.  So, here he is at his most Gingrich, espousing the death of CBO BECAUSE OF ITS HEALTH WORK!  Neat!  Thanks to the CBO alumni group for alerting me to this.  Link to Stan Collander's article is here: http://capitalgainsandgames.com/blog/stan-collender/2416/newt-gingrich-wants-kill-cbo

First RCT of Vitamin D supplementation in MS shows no benefit of high dose.

Recently reported in Neurology (and available to the public) this was a small trial of short duration of patients with established MS.  Nevertheless, it shows no benefit, and the direction of effect was towards harm, though it was insignificant.  So, while Vitamin D deficiency appears to be causally related to onset of MS, high-doses of D, which raise blood levels to 40ng or more, don't appear to help.  An interesting "patient page" lays out the strengths and weaknesses of the study.

More environmental hazards of Fracking showing up.

ProPublica's latest report on the inability of the fracking industry to protect our aquifers.  What a surprise!

The best summary of the causes of the financial crisis

The Washington Post's Sunday business section had a wonderful piece by Barry Ritholtz on the causes of the meltdown:  The Big Lie.
He could have made more of the long-running idiocy of the SEC that anointed the three ratings agencies (S&P, Moodys and Fitch) as the only "nationally recognized" sources of bond ratings, thereby requiring pension funds and insurance companies to rely on those ratings for SEC compliance, and at the same time taking the pension fund managers off the hook for failure -- "What else could I do?  I had to rely on the ratings agencies.  Besides, if I had to do more work, I wouldn't have been able to go home to my beautiful family and our house in the Hamptons (or Martha's Vineyard, take your pick) on the weekends."

Here's some charts he put up on his web site as of 11-20-2011. Ritholtz Charts

Largest increase in greenhouse gas emissions in 2010, a recession year

This Time Magazine article summarizing the latest findings from the U.S. Department of Energy also has photos of the results of global warming that make it hard to sleep.

Vitamin D's role in prevention of infections becoming clearer

This time it's TB.  See the Medline news article for more detail.  All the more reason to keep track of your vitamin D status this winter.  The only problem with this article:  what is "sufficient" level of Vitamin D?  I'll have to research and amend this posting.