I meant to point this out yesterday and completely forgot.  Yesterday’s Astronomy Picture of the Day is a breathtaking photo of the Witch’s Broom Nebula.

Grand Rounds 3.15 is available.  The host uses a rather humorous theme to present the best of the medical blogosphere, so head over and get a chuckle while you learn a thing or two about medicine and those who practice it.

Dolphin-friendly tuna may still kill: “Dolphin numbers have not recovered from the effects of tuna fishing as fishing boats can separate mothers from their calves, according to a new study on dolphin swimming behaviour.”  The research indicates fishing boats chase dolphins out of fishing areas at speeds too fast for the young to keep up with their mothers, and once separated, many starve to death.

Some of you may have noticed I added a new Disclosure Policy to the site.  Its statement has always been true for my blog, so it is marked as being effective since December 2002 when I fist launched my little corner of the intertubes.  The reason for this policy is a recent FTC decision that states “companies engaging in word-of-mouth marketing, in which people are compensated to promote products to their peers, must disclose those relationships. In a staff opinion issued [December 11, 2006], the consumer protection agency weighed in for the first time on the practice. Though no accurate figures exist on how much money advertisers spend on such marketing, it is quickly becoming a preferred method for reaching consumers who are skeptical of other forms of advertising.”  I wholeheartedly agree with their decision.  I especially think it’s crucial in the blogosphere where the line between opinion and advertising has long since vanished, and that is true when speaking of products and services as well as political candidates (one of the reasons I dropped Daily Kos like a diseased harlot was because I found a news article that showed several people who post there were actually being paid by political candidates, yet no such information had been disclosed by Markos or the talking monkeys themselves).

Life in a microscopic world: It’s a stunning gallery of microscopic images, from bacteria and viruses to crystals (including snow flakes) to plants, not to mention a great many other things.  This is a fascinating view of what cannot be seen with the naked eye, and who knew viruses and bacteria could be so beautiful…  You have to go see it.

This is absolutely disgusting.  “Darlene Bishop, the nationally renowned evangelical preacher, begins her book about how God cured the cancer afflicting one of her brothers with a Biblical verse: ‘And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.’ [. . .] On her Web site, Ms. Bishop promises that the book reveals ‘how God healed her of breast cancer’ and a brother of throat cancer.”  Ah, but how about this little tidbit: “Nowhere, though, does she mention, that the brother, Darrell Perry, a successful country music songwriter whom everyone called Wayne, died from the cancer a year and a half ago.”  Sounds like more of that Christian honesty and integrity that doesn’t exist.  But it gets better.  “In a sworn deposition responding to two lawsuits filed by Mr. Perry’s four children, Ms. Bishop stated that no doctor ever diagnosed the breast cancer she referred to prominently in her book. Instead, Ms. Bishop testified, she thought that she had cancer in 1986 and that it was cured.”  So that’s how it works, huh?  You can pull the mystic wool over people’s eyes by lying through your teeth about your own health as well as using a grain of truth from someone else’s life to spin yet another tall tale.

But it doesn’t even end there.  Get this: She convinced her brother not to seek treatment—against his doctors’ recommendations that he immediately begin chemo and radiation therapy.  She told him to rely on a make-believe god to heal him, so he did.  What did he get for his troubles?  Death from the very cancer she said he would defeat with the help of voodoo.  Now she’s being sued for wrongful death (as well as mismanaging her dead brother’s estate, something she’s done for her own financial gain, of course).  You see, poppets, this is what it means to be Christian: to take, to lie, to deceive, to hurt, to inflict harm, to steal, to worry only about one’s own well-being and financial health to the detriment of all others, to mislead, to misguide, to curse others to horrible suffering and anguish, and to put to death.  That is Christianity’s legacy.  It has been for 2,000 years and will be forever more.  Yet another example of why religion—ALL RELIGION—is the scourge of humanity.