Sunny Weekend

We had really lovely weather these past days, really spring-like and almost warm at 12°C (54°F), so I went for long walks three days in a row. This photo is from yesterday and shows the river Rhine roughly at the point that is closest to our house.

Glaubuli (3)

Spiegel online: USA: Behörde prüft Todesfälle durch Homöopathie. “Die Mittel sollen Babys die Schmerzen beim Zahnen nehmen. Nun warnt die US-Arzneimittelbehörde vor den homöopathischen Arzneien. Zehn Kleinkinder könnten durch die Einnahme der Globuli gestorben sein.” Von Julia Merlot.

“Die Tabletten werden auf Basis der Schwarzen Tollkirsche hergestellt, auch bekannt als Belladonna. Nach den Grundsätzen der Homöopathie (siehe unten) dürften die Wirkstoffe der Giftpflanze in den Tabletten allerdings nicht nachweisbar sein. Tatsächlich ist mitunter aber doch Wirkstoff enthalten, wie die FDA nach der Untersuchung mehrerer Tabletten berichtet. Offenbar wurden die Produkte nicht stark genug verdünnt.”

Erschreckend ist dieser Hinweis am Ende des Artikels:

“Bundesministerium übernimmt Schirmherrschaft bei Homöopathie-Kongress

Die deutsche Politik sucht derweil die Nähe zur Homöopathie. Wie das Bundesministerium für Gesundheit dem Spiegel bestätigte, hat die Parlamentarische Staatssekretärin Annette Widmann-Mauz die Schirmherrschaft für den Weltärztekongress der Homöopathen 2017 in Leipzig übernommen.”

“I lasted eight days.”

The Atlantic: I Was a Muslim in Trump’s White House. “When President Obama left, I stayed on at the National Security Council in order to serve my country. I lasted eight days.” By Rumana Ahmed.

“In 2011, I was hired, straight out of college, to work at the White House and eventually the National Security Council. My job there was to promote and protect the best of what my country stands for. I am a hijab-wearing Muslim woman––I was the only hijabi in the West Wing––and the Obama administration always made me feel welcome and included.

Like most of my fellow American Muslims, I spent much of 2016 watching with consternation as Donald Trump vilified our community. Despite this––or because of it––I thought I should try to stay on the NSC staff during the Trump Administration, in order to give the new president and his aides a more nuanced view of Islam, and of America’s Muslim citizens.

I lasted eight days.”

Link via Craig.

Sieben auf einen Streich

NPR the two-way: Astronomers Find 7 Earth-Size Planets Around A Nearby Star.

“A small, faint star relatively close by is home to seven Earth-size planets with conditions that could be right for liquid water and maybe even life.

The discovery sets a record for both the most Earth-size planets and the most potentially habitable planets ever discovered around a single star.

The strange planetary system is quite compact, with all of these worlds orbiting their star closer than Mercury orbits the sun, according to a newly published report in Nature.

“If you were on the surface of one of these planets, you would see the other ones as we see the moon, or a bit smaller,” says Michaël Gillon, an astronomer at the University of Liège in Belgium. “The view would be very impressive.””