I'm BAAAAAAACK!

After a long, unplanned, and rather eventful absence, I'm back. I got scared off of blogging by a sudden exponential increase in hits (I never really expected or wanted anyone to actually read this thing) following a link from Inside Higher Ed and temporarily abandoned cyberspace.

During my time away I was productive. Not academically of course. Instead, I spawned. (Holy SH*T, I'm a MOM!) The spawn is now 3 months old. What have I learned as a new parent? That I am way less paranoid than I thought I'd be. Also I don't have much patience. Also, I'm in love. But more about the spawn later.

Now that I'm a postdoc and a few months away from my first faculty placement, I think it's time to rethink how to approach my anonymity and the purpose of this blog. In the world of academic blogs I follow, many are pseudo-anonymous, some are totally unidentifiable, and a few are totally transparent. I've always operated this blog as a pseudo-anonymous forum, primarily because I started this as a graduate student and my main goal was kvetching about Dissertation Hell. And who wants that kind of stuff attached to their permanent record? Also because it is mostly a collection of random posts, many of which are personal. But I have a lot to say about my academic field and some of these thoughts are actually pretty good; maybe I should lay claim to them. OTOH, I also have a lot to say about my waistline, the Spawn, politics, general annoyances, and my cats. And I don't need that kind of stuff cropping up when I am on the job market again.

I'll be sorting this out in the next few weeks. I may opt to start anew and abandon this forum entirely. Why? Well, because I can think of way better blog names. If any of you are still reading and have thoughts about anonymity and blogging, especially academic blogging, please share.

The Public's Health

I have been following Sandy Szwarc's blog, Junkfood Science lately.

In a nutshell, Szwarc critically reviews recent medical and public health research and legislation, and media coverage of health, with a particular emphasis on anything relating to food, nutrition, physical activity, and obesity. As near as I can tell, she is pretty critical of any study or policies attempting to prevent, treat, or quantify the impact of fatness, or any health conditions relating to being fat. Sometimes she's critical in ways I agree with (for example, I think she's right when she repeatedly claims that a lot of public health policies are unsupported by solid evidence). Sometimes I disagree (for example, when she claims there is no credible evidence linking food intake to incidence of type II diabetes.)


She has a major axe to grind about "lifestyle medicine." I do too, actually. Just for very different reasons. Overall, I find her underlying theories (unspoken but obvious) to be too reactionary and well, atomistic. My philosophy about health centers on the social-ecological foundation of health, social determinants of health, and constrained choice...in a nutshell. And it drives me *NUTZ* to read Szwarc's reactionary rants that 1) claims the medical, media, and political industries are fabricating evidence; 2) all health outcomes are the direct result of genetics; 3) hails the randomized controlled trial as the final word regarding scientific evidence; and 4)fancies itself to be the end-all-be-all of renegade smoking-gun/myth-busting truth-busting information on health.

If I was motivated, which I am not, I think it would be a fun challenge to provide another perspective on her posts. Instead, I think I'll just rant about it in a non-productive way and leave you all with this!

New Blog Ideas: Health and Medicine in the Media

I feel strangely empty PD (post dissertation). What the hell should I do with all my free time? I mean, besides writing and submitting all 3 of my dissertation manuscripts in the next 3 months (!!!!!!!!!yes, I know, this is what my advisor wants from me!!)

Perhaps even more importantly, what the hell am I going to blog about? I don't have an adventurous interesting life these days--I spent it either in the cubicle, buried in a book, watching t.v., eating, sleeping, or hanging out with my motley friends.

But I do have an interest that I would like to explore in more depth. I am fascinated by the intersection of media, public opinion, and medical research. I am particularly amazed when normal, seemingly intelligent people take a headline and then suddenly cull themselves from cell phone usage because they think phones cause cancer.

For example, just the other day, during a 15 minute chair massage, my massage therapist, when finding out that I do research, encouraged me to learn more about the groundbreaking discoveries in China and Japan regarding acid/base balance and cancer. Whoa.

So in my feeble attempt at fighting the machine(s), I am thinking about a Health Blog in which I critique medical research that hits the media in a small attempt to give the lay reader some perspective on what it all really means.

I'm not sure where or how I'll start this up or exactly what it'll look like. Friends who know me know I am attracted to the quirky and bizarre, so I'll definitely have to occasionally indulge these interests by highlighting bizarre medical practices or diets. Any other ideas?

Bad, bad words

I've been rated and I am shocked. Shocked!

Bloggers Resign

There has been a lot of hullabaloo lately about Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan who recently resigned from their positions with the John Edwards campaign.

This all started with the reactionary bully Bill Donahue, the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. (He's come up here before.) Last I checked, while it's perhaps not politically correct, it's not against the law to criticize the Catholic Church. Personally I have learned not to throw the word "fascist" around lightly but I do think that the blogsphere needs to be given some leeway. Like, you know, some consideration for this ol’ thing. Actually I’m pretty surprised and pleased with John Edwards for not immediately giving up when the bully picked a fight.

When these women, and other like them, are blogging, they are not crafting campaign speeches. They aren't writing pieces that are picked over and cleaned up until they only hint at opinions or policy. They are mentioning the unmentionable, and in doing so, challenging the (still) unchallengeable.

I wish both of them the best of luck in their futures. What is it they say…..Hell hath no wrath....