I Speak of Dreams

If Health Insurance Companies Ran Public Safety

I found this at Nurse Ratched's

Kind of like this, too:

Angrytownhall.com

Blum's of San Francisco Coffe Crunch Cake -- Now With Activism!

Back in March of 2005, I published this memory of Blum's and the recipe for their coffee crunch cake.  It has had a constant stream of comments over the year, most notably this one, from Sandy Weil

I saw an article and recipe you had posted March 20, 2005 about your memories of the Blum's Coffee Crunch Cake. I thought you might find it interesting my father, Ernest Weil was the original baker who created the famous Crunch Cake while working at Blum's back in the mid 1940's. He left Blum's in 1948 to open his dream bakery, Fantasia Confections. He continued to make the Coffee Crunch Cake long after Blum's closed their doors. It was one of our best sellers. People would travel many miles to get that cake!

We sold our family bakery in 1989. In 2000, after many years of people requesting my father's recipes he started working on Love To Bake Pastry Cookbook. Six years later.... it is finally complete and available at http://www.lovetobakecookbook.com. Since the folks who come to your site seemed to respond with various recipes of the cake, I thought they might like to know about the cookbook. All the authors profits are going to benefit children's organizations. The book has 150 of Fantasia's mouthwatering recipes in it.

Sandy just left a comment at the 2005 post I want you to read:

Two sweet treats at once! With the holidays approaching...those of you that are interested in helping support kids programs in the SF area and love to bake... Fantasia Bakery's cookbook is available via download and 100% of the "sale" goes to help kids' groups. There are also some copies available on CD - great holiday gifts. Visit: fantasiabakerycookbook.com and read instructions about downloading book.

Ernest Weil the founder of Fantasia was the original baker at Blum's that created the first ever Coffee Crunch Cake.

Happy Baking!

Please go to fantasiabakerycookbook.com, download, help kids, and sweeten the world.

A "Project Steve" for Pro-Science, Pro-Vaccine Scientists, Physicians, and Health Care Professionals?

Over at Confutata, Squillo observed

I’ve been thinking about the apparent permeation of anti-vaccination attitudes into mainstream culture, and how the scientific community and its supporters could better combat it.

What if we were to create a group similar to the Union of Concerned Scientists, focused on vaccination?

I think what we need is something akin to the NCSE's "Project Steve"

NCSE's "Project Steve" is a tongue-in-cheek parody of a long-standing creationist tradition of amassing lists of "scientists who doubt evolution" or "scientists who dissent from Darwinism."

Creationists draw up these lists to try to convince the public that evolution is somehow being rejected by scientists, that it is a "theory in crisis." Not everyone realizes that this claim is unfounded. NCSE has been asked numerous times to compile a list of thousands of scientists affirming the validity of the theory of evolution. Although we easily could have done so, we have resisted. We did not wish to mislead the public into thinking that scientific issues are decided by who has the longer list of scientists!

Project Steve pokes fun at this practice and, because "Steves" are only about 1% of scientists, it also makes the point that tens of thousands of scientists support evolution. And it honors the late Stephen Jay Gould, evolutionary biologist, NCSE supporter, and friend.

We'd like to think that after Project Steve, we'll have seen the last of bogus "scientists doubting evolution" lists, but it's probably too much to ask. We hope that when such lists are proposed, reporters and other citizens will ask, "How many Steves are on your list!?"

So I thought of doing a similar project to illustrate the depth of support among scientists -- those with a Ph.D or an M.D. or both -- for the proposition that vaccines are safe and an essential element of public health.

Project Paul to honor Paul Offit? Project Maurice to honor Maurice Hilleman? (neither first name has the popularity or flexibility of Steve).

Hmmn. Need to find a person seminal to vaccine research & development who has a pretty common first name.

Wait, the internets...

http://www.pokemyname.com/firstname_43_paul.htm

popularity of name PAUL is 16.57 people per thousand.

Names That Includes PAUL as a Whole: Names that are Paul - like:

Paula, Pauline, Paulette, Paulo, Paulina, Paulino, Paule, Paulus, Spaulding, Johnpaul, Paull, Paulita, Paulomi, Pauling, Paulos, Harpaul, Paulose, Jeanpaul, Jaspaul, Pauliina, Polly, Pol, Pawl, Pablo, Paolo, Pauly, Pauley, Pawley, Paulin, Pavlo, Paulo, Paulus, Powell, Pál, Paul

Can you suggest some homophones for Paul, or some names from non-Latin roots that mean "Little one" or small; humble 

Next items of business:

1. A site to host the petition and the signatories, as NCSE does for  Project Steve
2. A committee or group to draft a position statement for vaccines analogous to the Project Steve position statement.

   Evolution is a vital, well-supported, unifying principle of the biological sciences, and the scientific evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of the idea that all living things share a common ancestry. Although there are legitimate debates about the patterns and processes of evolution, there is no serious scientific doubt that evolution occurred or that natural selection is a major mechanism in its occurrence. It is scientifically inappropriate and pedagogically irresponsible for creationist pseudoscience, including but not limited to "intelligent design," to be introduced into the science curricula of our nation's public schools.

Any takers?

Amy Wallace's Pro-Vaccination, Pro-Science Article in Wired & Reactions to It

The short version: Who is Amy Wallace, and what's all the talk about?  She published a pro-science, pro-vaccine article in Wired, and several anti-vaccine heavyweights mouthpieces with big bankrolls mounted sexist personal attacks.

Update: On November 1, Dr. Isis of "Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess" published a post ridiculing J. B. Handley and asking her readers to also post their opinions on Handley's anti-vaccine stance and his misogyny.  Scroll down to the bottom for the list.

Update: Paul Smalera at True/Slant links here.  See link below.

Update: On November 5, Mr. Handley returned to the attack at the Age of Autism blog.  See link below.

The very long version follows:

Note: I've found several more reactions, pro and con, and have added them without comment.

Council for Exceptional Children -- Division for Learning Disabilites -- 2009 Conference

I spent last Friday and Saturday at the Council for Exceptional Children -- Division for Learning Disabilites's annual conference, which always focuses on Bridging the Gap Between Research and Practice. If you are involved in special education in any way, put it on your calendar for next year -- probably October 22 and 23, certainly in Baltimore.  I already have it on mine.

LD Blog has a complete list of sessions.  Sessions I attended:

• Phonological Awareness Assessment and Instruction: A Sound Beginning by Paige C. Pullen
• Self-Regulated Strategy Development for Writing by Karen R. Harris and her doctoral candidate, Karin Sandmel (also see NCLD Talks, interview with professors Harris and Graham)
• The ORDER Routine: For Comprehending Content-Area Concepts by David Scanlon
• Building a Strong Numbers and Operations Foundation to Enhance Mathematics by Susan P. Miller
  (also see this peer-reviewed article)

Every single one of the sessions I attended were excellent -- full of valuable content I can put to use, well-organized and well presented.