Philadelphia Housing Considered Under-Valued 1st Time Since 2003

After seven consecutive quarters of declining house prices, the typical Philadelphia home actually rose in value by an average of 6.8% on a quality- and seasonally- adjusted basis this past spring. This is a reversal from nearly two years of price declines.

The Deep Peace of the Wild

There isn't an indigenous American sadhu tradition, ascetic wanderers on the (south Asia) Indian model. But we do have, thanks to our vast open spaces, celebrated individual instances of semi-ascetic wanderers in the American West and Alaska.

Inglourious Basterds: a Film Review

The title refers to a Jewish-American military unit who are parachuted into Occupied France prior to D-Day to kill Nazis brutally and without mercy. To put that another way, two words which do not feature in the script are "Geneva Convention". However, whilst the film draws on the likes of Robert Aldrich's The Dirty Dozen and Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West for inspiration, with Quentin Tarantino at the helm, this was never going to be a conventionally gritty wartime revenge flick either.

Israeli Scientists Show That DNA Evidence Can Be Faked

The New York Times has a report that a group of Israeli scientists has demonstrated the feasibility of producing "counterfeit" DNA, in a test tube, mimicking that of a selected person, such that currently used tests cannot distinguish between the counterfeit and the real thing.

Save the Public Option: Let Individuals Buy Into Medicare

As the major newspapers write their obituaries for the public option, progressives across the nation are making it clear: no public option, no mandate to buy private health insurance. If it is true that there are not enough votes in the US Senate to pass the public option, then what do we do?

Poliovirus Type 2 Returns

The global battle to eradicate poliomyelitis is already 9 years behind schedule. To make matters worse, type 2 poliovirus, which was declared eradicated in 1999, has returned. There are three serotypes of poliovirus, each of which causes poliomyelitis. The vaccine used by WHO in the global eradication effort is a trivalent preparation comprising all three serotypes.

Coxsackie NY and the Virus Named After It

Recently while driving north on the New York State Thruway I passed the exit for the town of Coxsackie, NY (population 8,884). I grabbed my camera and photographed the exit sign, and reminded myself to write about the virus named after this small town.

Personal Protective Equipment and Influenza

We've had several discussions on the value of personal protective equipment (PPE) in preventing influenza infection. CIDRAP has an excellent summary of an Institute of Medicine meeting on this subject. The IOM has been asked to make recommendations about how to protect healthcare workers against swine-origin H1N1 influenza.

Sell Sell Sell

Up until the recent recession, it was advertisers who paid for most of your news. Not all of it " the cover price of the newspaper covered some of the costs, and of course there's the BBC " but publishing was able to be a truly profitable business because of advertisers paying for access to readers.

Reverse Mortgage Could Help Seniors

My husband and I are in our mid-'40s but already we are looking
forward to retirement. One reason is because we moved right down the
road from my retired parents who have shown us just how much fun two
old folks could have. Both are in relatively good health and enjoy
many different activities. But just this past year they've decided to
stop their annual vacation to St Maarten where they met up with
long-time friends for a week of celebration. Mother suffered a blood
clot that blocked circulation to her leg long enough to cause some
permanent damage. My father was also diagnosed with Parkinson's.