Texan girls will get protection against cancer

Via Mediagirl, here’s encouraging news: The governor of Texas, Rick Perry, has used an executive order to mandate that schoolgirls will receive protection against a major cause of cervical cancer.

Beginning in September 2008, girls entering the sixth grade — meaning, generally, girls ages 11 and 12 — will have to get Gardasil, Merck & Co.’s new vaccine against strains of the human papillomavirus, or HPV.

Perry, a conservative Christian who opposes abortion and stem-cell research using embryonic cells, counts on the religious right for his political base. But he has said the cervical cancer vaccine is no different from the one that protects children against polio.

Perhaps he has a daughter.

Friday cephalopod – deep sea images

I’m away from home and my usual computer with its library of cephalopod images. But Deep Sea Images is a place to gaze your fill at hundreds of beautiful critters.

Big Pork threatens mother promoting breast milk

This would be funny if it weren’t true. A stay-at-home mother who posted an image of a T-shirt suggesting that breast milk is the other white milk has received a letter from the U.S. National Pork Board threatening to sue her for infringing on their use of the phrase “the other white meat.” I hope she just ignores them. Lawyers can be hired to write letters telling people that they should leave their rental accommodations because the landlord wants to sell the house. In Canada, rhat is not a valid reason to ask someone to leave: the house must be sold with a sitting tenant and it is up to the next owner to request them to leave if the space is needed for their own family. But people panic at the sight of the lawyer’s letter and move without a fuss. I sincerely hope that the Pork Marketing Board gets over itself. In the meantime: “Soap flakes–the other white snow.” “Latex–the other white paint.” “Ivory–the other white soap.” “Wiarton Willie–the other white groundhog.” Sue me.