I noticed a lot of media outlets headlining “Girl dies after HPV vaccination”. This is the follow-up from the BBC: Cancer jab ‘unlikely’ death cause

Dr Caron Grainger, joint director of public health for NHS Coventry and Coventry City Council, said the results of a preliminary post-mortem examination had “revealed a serious underlying medical condition which was likely to have caused death”.

“We are awaiting further test results which will take some time,” she said. “However indications are that it was most unlikely that the HPV vaccination was the cause of death.”

There have been approximately 1.4 million HPV vaccinations in Britain that have resulted in less that 5,000 adverse reactions. The reactions have been: headache, nausea, dizziness, sore arm, and a rash.

Note: A side benefit of the National Health Service in Britain is that they can actually get reliable information on health problems and the effects of procedures and drugs because everyone can go to the doctor and afford their medications.

A week or so ago John McKay was expressing annoyance that people in Seattle don’t use their turn signals.

Well, of course they don’t. Being the Pacific Northwest they are saving energy and reducing pollution by not turning on those lights. It takes extra fuel to power those lights and they do generate heat. Every little bit helps, even if it is infinitesimal.

Down here there are two major reasons for large groups of people not using their directional signals.

In the first group, the retired, they used them when they drove the car off the dealer’s lot, never turned them off, and eventually they burned out.

The second, larger group, believes that using directional signals makes them easier for the black helicopters and government satellites to track, and why do you want to know where they are going? They aren’t going to help the jack-booted stormtroopers kick down their door and take their weapons by advertising they are going to make a left turn from the right-hand lane on a six-lane highway. They have to lose the people who are following them.

Update: The ABC is now carrying reports of deaths and injuries in Samoa, American Samoa, and Tonga, as a result of the earthquake, and tsunami. The USGS has logged 13 additional aftershocks in the area in the 5 to 6 range.

The CBC reports South Pacific tsunami alert issued after earthquake

The quake struck 35 kilometres below the ocean floor and was 190 kilometres from American Samoa and 200 kilometres from Samoa, the survey said.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a general alert for the South Pacific region, from American Samoa to New Zealand.

The ABC has a later report

Sea level readings indicated a tsunami was generated in the Pacific, said the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre, a branch of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said the quake had been 8.3-magnitude and said it “may have been destructive along coasts” near the epicentre.

The USGS earthquake site lists the initial shock as 8.0 on 2009/09/29 at 17:48:11 UTC [12:48PM CDT] with a 5.6 aftershock.

There are too many variables for anyone to predict the height of a tsunami or the direction of travel, but a beach visit in the South Pacific would not be a good idea. This was a major shock and will probably trigger multiple shocks in other places.