Drug-coated stents and blood clots

The Washington Times has a good brief article on the new fears that drug-coated stents (the little coil that’s put into coronary arteries to keep them open) are not as safe as originally believed. Drug-coated stents might raise risk of blood clots – Nation/Politics – insider.washingtontimes.com Doctors think these stents may raise the risk of … Read more

Militant atheism

There’s an interesting discussion going on the weblog althouse, right here Althouse: Those contemptuous atheists… why won’t they be kind? Ann Althouse writes about Nicholas Kristoff’s NY Times column this morning, quoting Kristoff: [There is] an increasingly assertive, often obnoxious atheist offensive led in part by [Richard] Dawkins — the Oxford scientist who is author … Read more

Latest read: The Shackled Continent

This excellent book of 288 pages is an examination of Africa and all it’s problems and potential, by a reporter for the London-based The Economist magazine. Robert Guest was one of their African correspondents for seven years, residing for most of the time in Johannesburg, South Africa. My friend Tom Hardy and his wife Mabvuto … Read more

Another loss in the family

Yesterday evening my Aunt Ardis called with the terrible news that my cousin Tim – my oldest cousin, a year younger than me – had died. Of course a shock, but not a surprise – Tim had been diagnosed in January with thyroid cancer, and seemingly everything that could go wrong did go wrong. He … Read more