Best tweet on Marvel's announcement of a Black Panther movie:

"Think J. Jonah Jameson & The Daily Bugle hates Spider-Man? Wait till Sean Hannity & Fox News gets a load of Black Panther."

- Frank Conniff

Ok, who broke General Discussion?

I refer to the out of whack "response to" organization.

Last day to request an absentee ballot in VA. Know anyone who needs one?

Scanners

Can any recommend a not too pricey multipage scanner for home use?

TIA

Lalo Alcaraz with a RW health alert!

Fox News' Haunted House from Tom Toles

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley on Ebola: ‘We can’t live our lives in fear.’

Good articles on Ebola

Judy Stone (Scientific American) - Ebola in the U.S.—Politics and Public Health Don’t Mix
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/molecules-to-medicine/2014/10/06/ebola-in-the-u-s-politics-and-public-health-dont-mix/

Atul Gawande – The Ebola Epidemic Is Stoppable
http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/ebola-epidemic-stoppable

David Dobbs – Our Ebola response shows our true colors. Ain’t pretty.
http://daviddobbs.net/smoothpebbles/our-ebola-response-shows-our-true-colors-aint-pretty/

Eli Perencevich – Ebola and WHO budget cuts
http://haicontroversies.blogspot.com/2014/10/ebola-and-who-budget-cuts.html

Ian MacKay – What words would you use to separate influenza spread from Ebola virus disease spread?
http://virologydownunder.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/what-words-would-you-use-to-separate.html

Laurie Garrett – Obamacare may hold the key to saving the U.S. from Ebola
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/10/02/obamacare_may_hold_the_key_to_saving_the_us_from_ebola

Tara Smith – No, Ebola in Dallas does not mean you and everyone else in the US is going to get it, too
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/30/ebola-dallas-spreading-across-america

Peter Piot- ‘In 1976 I discovered Ebola – now I fear an unimaginable tragedy‘
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/04/ebola-zaire-peter-piot-outbreak?CMP=twt_gu

If you are getting your info from CNN, HuffPost, or cable TV, you are probably misinformed.

"annual funding for the CDC’s public health preparedness & response efforts were $1 billion lower

for 2013 fiscal year than for 2002."

This quote is from a Scientific American article by Judy Stone: Ebola in the U.S.—Politics and Public Health Don’t Mix

And we need to take the politics out of funding for public health and research. We need to approve a strong Surgeon General like Dr. Vivek Murthy, and not have appointments like his be derailed by the NRA and their politicians. NIH’s budget was reduced by $446 million from 2010 to 2014, and subjected to inappropriate politically motivated interference in its decision making. The CDC’s discretionary funding was cut by $585 million during this same period. Shockingly, annual funding for the CDC’s public health preparedness and response efforts were $1 billion lower for 2013 fiscal year than for 2002. These funding decreases have resulted in more than 45,700 job losses at state and local health departments since 2008. Again, it is not just the Ebola that is a looming threat. We need to worry about vaccine-preventable but neglected infections like influenza, measles, and whooping cough; the serious emerging viral infections in the US like Enterovirus-D68, chikungunya and dengue, as well as overseas MERS and bird flus, and natural disasters.

Robert McDonnell’s other big scandal

Bob McDonnell will go into history as the first of 72 Virginia governors to be convicted of corruption, but we should remember him as well for a second scandal that cost the taxpayers a ton of money.

McDonnell’s curious, long-standing obsession with building a new highway parallel to U.S. 460 outside Hampton Roads led his administration to spend $300 million (and counting) without first ensuring that the project would receive necessary environmental permits.

As a result, the state can’t recoup the $300 million it has spent. That money is gone, wasted, without a spadeful of dirt being turned for a 55-mile highway so little needed that I previously dubbed it the Road for Nobody.