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A semi-OT commentary:

(COMTEX) B: Recent Research Suggests...

WASHINGTON, Feb 07, 2003 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- If you
haven't heard about the "precautionary principle," you may do soon. Simply put,
this is the idea that any new technology or product must be proven completely
and utterly safe before it is introduced for general use.

It certainly sounds attractive. After all, we don't want dangerous technologies
killing untold numbers because their side effects weren't thought through
enough. However, the thing that differentiates the principle from good
old-fashioned common sense is that bit about technology being "completely safe."
Genetically modified food, for instance, has never harmed anyone; fears of
modified genes being transmitted to wild flora or killing off Monarch
butterflies seem to be overblown. Yet the principle is being used to halt the
introduction of the technology to areas like Africa or India where it could save
lives by preventing famine, because we're not 100 percent sure it's safe yet.

We see variants of the precautionary principle all the time. Cell phones are a
leading source of unfounded worry. Some biomedical researchers at Harvard, for
instance, recently declared cell phones unsafe because their tests discovered
that active cell phones might cause electronic medical equipment like
defibrillators or ventilators to shut down. Biomedical researcher Cheryl Iden
Shaw, admitting that most hospitals ask visitors to shut off cell phones, said
that doctors with active cell phones might cause a ventilator to shut off.

Shaw did not provide any evidence of this ever happening in an actual hospital,
rather than in a test lab. Doctors' use of cell phones has, of course, speeded
reactions and has probably saved many lives. Moreover, Shaw admitted that the
manufacturers of the ventilator that failed have upgraded the machine so that it
is no longer vulnerable to this problem. The problem is purely theoretical, yet
Shaw called for safety standards to be updated.

It is a good job researchers like Shaw were not around when fire was introduced.
We would probably still be huddling in caves, thankful that the dangerous new
technology was not blighting our lives

Another new danger that scientists have uncovered threatens the West Coast
particularly, it seems. The Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal reported
the findings of a study in the February 2003 European Respiratory Journal that
details a dreadful new condition called e-thrombosis.

It afflicted a young man from New Zealand, whose computer work caused a deep
vein thrombosis that resulted in a pulmonary embolism. It seems to be the fact
that the young man was sitting for prolonged periods of time at his computer
that caused the thrombosis, rather than any dangerous microwaves or some other
emanation from the device. In this respect, the condition is not new. As the
Journal mentioned, it has been known that sitting for long periods without
moving can cause thrombosis since the condition was discovered in people sitting
in deck chairs in air raid shelters during the London Blitz.

The Journal also mentioned that the young man was sitting at his computer for 18
hours at a stretch (perhaps not the right word, in the circumstances). Given
that astounding figure, it is a wonder that his legs had not withered away
before thrombosis had a chance to develop.

How do statisticians categorize Hispanics? "Variably" is the answer. Because
Hispanics can be of any race (Hispanic is an "ethnicity," not a race), Hispanics
are sometimes counted as white and sometimes as black. This can distort
statistics each way. For instance, for criminal justice purposes, most Hispanics
are categorized as White, so increasing the number of crimes committed by that
category.

Sometimes, however, Hispanics are counted as a non-white minority. This was the
case recently when a Harvard University Civil Rights Project study alleged that
the U.S. was "resegregating," because there were large concentrations of
non-whites in inner cities. A new study from the liberal Brookings Institution,
however, looking at the same data, separated out Hispanics from
African-Americans and discovered that, "for the third straight decade,
segregation between blacks and non-blacks across American metropolitan areas has
declined dramatically."

It found that Latinos, particularly families with large numbers of young
children, had moved into inner-city areas, leading to a boost in the number of
minority children in schools there. If they were counted as "non-white," it
seemed that segregation was increasing. If they were counted as "non-blacks,"
the reverse became true. The issue of race in America grows ever more complex.

Recent research from the Department of the Obvious: "People who chronically
doubt their judgments ... often feel anxious, are prone to sadness and mood
swings, and are likely to procrastinate and avoid thinking about difficult
problems." This was brought to you by researchers at Ohio State University, I
think.

By IAIN MURRAY, Special to UPI

Copyright 2003 by United Press International.

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