As you may or may not already be aware, members of the Watcher’s Council hold a vote every week on what they consider to be the most link-worthy pieces of writing around… per the Watcher’s instructions, I am submitting one of my own posts for consideration in the upcoming nominations process.

Here is the most recent winning council post, here is the most recent winning non-council post, here is the list of results for the latest vote, and here is the initial posting of all the nominees that were voted on.

I was a little disappointed that my own post “In Defense of Cats” received “Honorable Mention” status. After reading most of the other posts, however, I realized it was up against some stiff competition.

The winning Council post comes to us via Dr. Sanity whose post on the panic over Celebrex makes many valid points about how the media reports medical stories.

“The ridiculous reporting on issues in medicine in general—you know, the stories that intone that there is a “three-fold increase in deaths” and such—are designed to inspire fear, not information to the public. What exactly IS a “three-fold increase in deaths” anyway? Well, to judge that you have to go to the original study and see how the study was done (something that somehow never makes it into the news story). In Celebrex’s case, the death rate went from 1 out of 100 to 3 out of 100. In other studies it might be 10 in 10,000 going to 30 in 10.000. In either case, the odds are that a person taking the drug WON’T die. But there is a slightly increased risk, which means that if millions take the drug, that increased risk will be evident.”

The debate over Celebrex hits close to home due to Significant Otherhawk’s dependence on that drug to control swelling in her arthritic neck. At first, she was panicked by the news. Later, as it was shown that higher than needed doses were the problem, she calmed down considerably.

The winning non-council post is from The Diplomad. An American posted abroad, “Ratman of the Far Abroad” is a hilarious piece on living in the third world. After discovering rats on his property…”

“The Chief Diplomad grabbed a Maglight, a heavy walking stick (you never know, those things might be a yard long) and accompanied by the ever-faithful houseboy Babu (not his real name) took a tour of the Diplomadic estate. Yes, indeed, I, Chief Diplomad and Internet Pontificator, confirmed the presence of several large rats in the yard – but maybe not a yard long—congregating around the dog’s food bowl. Using the command voice honed by many years of staff meetings, I said, “Babu, have the Embassy send the Ratman tomorrow.”

If you’d like to enter a post for this weeks council vote, go here.