The extreme cynicism with which the French considered H1N1 vaccination just one week ago has been replaced by panic and exasperation at not being able to get vaccinated. Riot police have been deployed at certain vaccination stations. Flesh & Stone has already reported that people have been taking the government to court for attempted mass poisoning or, as the charge sheet puts it: “Attempting to administer substances…of a nature which could result in death.” Polls taken... Read Full Story

Olivier Fontaine coordinates study data for the technical data unit of the Rhône-Mediterranean-Corsica branch of the ‘Agence de l’eau’ (Water Agency), the French body that oversees the use and conditions of all water resources in France. The branch headquarters are in Lyon. Fontaine has a privileged overview of just how polluted French water is, who is responsible for that pollution, what kinds of pollution are to be found in the water and methods of combating polluti... Read Full Story

Rom Houben describes his experiences in an interview with German magazine Der Spiegel which is being published in many European papers, including Liberation in France. He was totally paralysed after the accident and has been cared for in a hospital in Liège, Belgium. “I cried and shouted but no sound came out” said the ex-engineering student and amateur combat sport fan, who has learned how to express himself on a specially adapted computer. “I’ll never forget t... Read Full Story

Six Minnesotans are suing Gov. Tim Pawlenty over his decision this past summer to cut (or “unallot”) $5.3 million from a special dietary program that covered 5,072 residents. Last week, members of the state House of Representatives Rules Committee voted to file an amicus brief in support of the class action suit. The legal actions assert that the governor’s unallotment was unconstitutional because he bypassed the legislature in making the cuts. The monthly diet supplement ... Read Full Story

Last night in a tunnel near Geneva, Switzerland, CERN physicists smashed proton beams together for the first time in the Large Hedron Collider (LHC). The LHC was restarted  last Friday after the massive machine was taken down for repairs in September 2008. Since the restart, scientists have made rapid progress. They began circulating beams around the 17-mile (27 km) long ring alternately in one direction and then the other at the injection energy of around 450 billion electron volts pe... Read Full Story

The following is an authorized translation of an article appearing in Le Figaro. The original version is available here. Internet members of Le Figaro recount their foreign student experiences acquired via the student exchange programme Erasmus (European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students), and compare the French university system to those of other countries. The Erasmus exchange programme has recently suffered a drop in numbers and although there is general a... Read Full Story

"The (task force) recommends against routine screening mammography in women aged 40 to 49 years." U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, Nov. 17, 2009 "My message to women is simple. Mammograms have always been an important life-saving tool in the fight against breast cancer and they still are today. Keep doing what you have been doing for years - talk to your doctor about your individual history, ask questions, and make the decision that is right for you."  Kathleen Sebelius, Health a... Read Full Story

The illegal trade of ineffective or dangerous copies of many commonly used drugs, including Viagra, steroids, slimming aids and antidepressants, is proliferating around the world. France, the United States and many other countries this week took part in a global effort to shut down the illegal trade in prescription drugs.  Most of the drugs are sold via virtual Internet drugstores, where half of them are counterfeit, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) which recently call... Read Full Story

Paleontologists Paul Sereno and Hans Larsson today unveiled five ancient African crocodyliforms in the November National Geographic and in an extensive scientific paper published in the open access journal ZooKeys. Named BoarCroc, RatCroc, DogCroc, DuckCroc and PancakeCroc after their physical characteristics, the crocs were discovered in the Sahara by Sereno, a University of Chicago professor and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, and Larsson, associate professor at McGill Univers... Read Full Story

“Jeff's right that when it comes to our health care grid, America resembles a developing country,” commented George Trone, PhD, managing editor at The Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine where the poem was first published. ---- We are misdirected on the health care issue, confused by the facts applied to all sides of the great shell game called the health care debate. It seems simple enough: Decide that all are entitled to health care (apparently they are, if you look ... Read Full Story