Milk vs. MRIs

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I purchased my current health insurance through my university.  It’s $1500 a year, which isn’t bad, but it covers almost nothing and has no prescription drug coverage.  If I were following my doctor’s instructions, I’d spend $1500 every 3 or 4 months on prescriptions alone.  This health insurance is definitely not worth $1500 a year, but for me to get better insurance isn’t really possible – I’m either turned down when I apply, or offered plans with $700 a month premiums and ridiculous deductibles.

I do well financially for a student and am always able to figure out a way to pay my bills on time, but I certainly don’t make a lot of money.  My state has a medical assistance program for people who don’t make a lot – kind of like Medicaid.  I don’t qualify for Medicaid, but I thought I might qualify for the state program.  I didn’t.

But the application was for both medical AND nutrition assistance.  While I was turned down for medical assistance, I was approved for food stamps.

Someone really needs to fix this system – the government is telling me “We think you can’t afford milk, but you can totally afford that MRI.”

What We Killed Thursday

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This week, I’ve got two more cycads that are extinct in the wild.  When Encephalartos relictus and Encephalartos woodii were discovered by western botanists, only one of each remained.

E. relictus was discovered in 1971 by J. J. P. du Preez on the eastern border of Swaziland near Mozambique.  There was only one plant.  du Preez relocated the plant to a garden in South Africa and the plant has never again been seen in the wild, despite repeated searches of the area.

John Medley Wood discovered E. woodii in 1895 in the Ngoye Forest of eastern South Africa.  There was just one plant with four main stems.  The stems were collected over the next several years, and E. woodii is now grown by collectors and in a few botanical gardens.  Like E. relictus, it is incredibly rare.

encephalartos woodii

Encephalartos woodii at Lotusland

E. relictus and E. woodii are both propogated from offshoots.  Cycads are dioecious (exceptions, anyone?) and the one specimen discovered of each species was male, so the plants can no longer reproduce sexually.  These plants are “evolutionarily extinct.”  Even if these species were reintroduced to their native habitats, their populations could never adapt to a changing environment.

Encephalartos woodii at Kew

Encephalartos woodii at Kew

There is still a chance for for E. woodii:

There is still the hope that a female plant is in the Ngoye forest somewhere and expeditions in that area always keep a look out for one. The most promising project is the crossing of Encephalartos woodii with its closest relative Encephalartos natalensis, and crossing the offspring with Encephalartos woodii again with the result that each successive generation is more and more Encephalartos woodii. There is also the remote possibility that a spontaneous sex change will occur in one of the male plants. Sex reversal has been observed in a few cases involving other species and once the process is more fully understood, it could be induced in an Encephalartos woodii plant.

Arboretums and botanical gardens carry out many vital conservation projects.  There’s almost certainly one near where you live.  Visiting an arboretum or botanical garden is always pleasant and usually inexpensive.  They are great places to volunteer, too!

Advocacy

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Many scientists try to separate advocacy and science, but that’s probably not a good idea:

The only two logically sound arguments that emerge, say the researchers, are the social harm that might result if scientists, who are the true experts, don’t advocate; and the fact that researchers are citizens first and scientists second, and therefore have an obligation to advocate.

Speaking of advocacy, climate change is almost certainly going to make most of Europe too warm for butterflies.  Things you should do to help deal with climate change: have fewer or no children, use less, and encourage your lawmakers to fund research and protect the environment.

What I’ve Noticed

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A beautiful post on hierarchies and judgement within marginalized communities.

The Skeptic’s Book of Pooh-Pooh points out an awesome news story on the danger anti-vaxers create for children in their communities.  The anti-vaxers hypocrisy is also on display in their support of chemical castration for autistic boys.

We can’t expect toxic products to stop coming from China anytime soon.  Honesty and transparency are impossible with a government that actively represses knowledge of its own history.

Women continue to be kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and brutally murdered in Mexico.  Despite the hundreds of victims that are likely the victims of one or more serial killers, the police aren’t doing anything about it.

As the AZ legislature slashes education funding across the state, especially at the university level, the AZ Republic has a timely article about the importance of research – even if it sounds ridiculous.

“Justice.”


Lindsay Beyerstein explains that we do still need journalists and should be paying them – most bloggers provide commentary and synthesis, not reporting.

The role of partisanship in California’s economic crisis.

Something to have nightmares about: the rise of private policing in the US.

Right wing extremists kill more law enforcement officers.

Dr. Isis’s fantastic post Boys Talk About How Girls Should Talk About Science…

It’s easy to consider a civil discourse when you’ve never had your ass grabbed by a colleague, been called “young lady” in front of your peers, or been asked about your reproductive plans.  It’s easy to ask the participants to be calm, and minimize profanity, when you don’t have to keep in the back of you mind which which men to avoid at a meeting when they’ve been drinking.

Plants recognize themselves.

The representation of hetero men in conventional pornography vs. the spectrum of things hetero men actually enjoy.

FSP on “us and them.”

The next cake I’m going to bake.

Pennsylvania is starting to look like the deep south half a century ago.

Texas AND Alaska charge victims for their own rape kits.