More on HIV/AIDS Denial and Eliza Jane Scovill

Dr. Trent McBride refutes the major points of the criticisms of the coroner's report by Mohammed Al-Bayati regarding pathology, and Dr. Nick Bennett addresses the clinical issues.

Lottery winner tragedies continue

The body of Virginia Metcalf Merida, winner with her husband of a $65.4 million Powerball jackpot with her husband in 2000, was found dead in her 5,000 sf geodesic dome in Newport, Kentucky. She had apparently been dead for days before her son found her body Wednesday. She and her husband, Mack Wayne Metcalf, split up when they won the jackpot, and he died in 2003 at age 45 without "starting fresh" in Australia as he had planned. (Instead, he moved into a replica of George Washington's Mt. Vernon home in Kentucky.)

Jack Whittaker, the West Virginia millionaire who won the largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history in 2002 ($314.9 million, Powerball), had his granddaughter die of a drug overdose in his home, was robbed of $545,000 cash while unconscious in a strip club, had his home and office robbed, was arrested twice for drunk driving and once for assault, and was accused of groping women at a racetrack.

Rotten.com has a lengthy list of lottery winner troubles here.

UPDATE (September 15, 2007): The Arizona Republic has an update on Jack Whittaker--his wife has left him, he's been involved in 460 legal actions since his win, he has no friends, everyone is always asking him for money (or trying to steal from him, often successfully), and he says he's going to be remembered as "the lunatic who won the lottery" rather than, as he desires, "someone who helped a lot of people."

America is Safer

The Department of Homeland Security has awarded a $36,300 grant to prevent terrorists from using bingo halls in Kentucky to raise funds for their activities. The money will go to the state's Office of Charitable Gaming to provide five investigators with "laptop computers and access to a commercially operated law-enforcement database."

Gambling and Free Airfare

I just read in The Economist (I'm a few weeks behind and trying to catch up) that Ryanair wants to introduce gambling on flights by 2007, which it thinks may generate enough revenue to not have to charge passengers air fare. Ryanair has already offered free flights (you still have to pay about 15 pounds for taxes and fees) from London's Stansted airport to some European destinations, as well as fares under five pounds.

Ryanair took Southwest's playbook and took it to the next level. They fly using smaller regional airports, make the flight crews pay for their own uniforms, etc.

Pharyngula's P.Z. Myers Profiled

The Minneapolis/St. Paul City Pages features a nice profile piece on P.Z. Myers as the cover story for November 23, titled "The Mad Scientist: Biologist and blogger PZ Myers speaks out on the war on science, intelligent design, and the sexual habits of giant squid."

MoMA: SAFE: Design Takes on Risk

There's an interesting exhibition at the Museum of Modern art in New York called "SAFE: Design Takes on Risk." It was originally going to be an exhibition on "Emergency," planned in March 2001 by Paola Antonelli, MoMa's curator of architecture and design, but the events of September 11 put that on hold. She then broadened the topic to cover safety, survival, and rescue. The official description on the website is "devoted to objects designed to protect body and mind from dangerous or stressful circumstances; respond to situations of emergency; ensure clarity and information; and provide a sense of comfort and security."

The exhibit includes a wide variety of interesting objects designed to protect against dangers or survive dangerous conditions. There are anti-theft chairs (that you can hook a bag to while you're sitting in a public place to avoid purse snatchers), a NY subway "help point intercom," airline passenger briefing cards, a variety of locks, a bicycle that folds to 50% its original size to store or lock more securely, a kidney transporter that resembles an iMac, "QuikClot" temporary traumatic wound treatment, a bulletproof duvet cover, and many other interesting objects and devices.

Environmentalism as Religion

I promise I had not read this article prior to writing this.

Freedom Summit: photos and blog entries

There are some photos of the Freedom Summit at Flickr. I'm the guy in the green T-shirt on the left listening to David Friedman in this photo; Einzige and I are seen in this photo listening to Edward Stringham. (Apparently we avoided having our faces photographed.)

In addition to Angela's take at Liberated Space which Einzige already mentioned, Sunni Marravillosa (one of the speakers) has blogged about it here and Enjoy Every Sandwich has blogged about Jim Bovard, George H. Smith, and Freedom Summit days one and two.

Liberated Space on The Freedom Summit

Nice to know that my maladjustments are not obvious.

HIV/AIDS Denial and Death

Christine Maggiore, an HIV-positive former clothing executive who is convinced that HIV does not cause AIDS, refused to take AZT to prevent maternal-fetal transmission of the virus or have her children tested. Maggiore is the author of an HIV skeptical book and has gone on numerous TV shows to argue for her views. Her 3-year-old daughter, Eliza Jane Scovill, died in September, and the coroner diagnosed the cause of death as AIDS-related pneumonia.

Maggiore has now found another HIV/AIDS denier, a veterinary pathologist and toxicologist, to criticize and question the coroner's report. Orac dissects the vet's criticisms here.

(For more on HIV/AIDS skepticism, I recommend Steve Harris' "The AIDS Heresies" which was published in Skeptic magazine vol. 3, no. 2, 1995.)