January 2011
13 posts
“Do you know what, it was cultural,” he concludes. “I never came from the place...”
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James Blake, from this Guardian interview.
As a North American, the concept of being an unwanted, uncomprehending outsider because you’re from twenty-seven miles away makes me boggle. I actually thought this might be a very deadpan joke; Dan Hancox has been kind enough to enlighten me about UK...
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Join Dana Milkbank's Sarah Palin moratorium
I feel powerless to control my obsession, even though it cheapens and demeans me. But today is the first day of the rest of my life. And so, I hereby pledge that, beginning on Feb. 1, 2011, I will not mention Sarah Palin — in print, online or on television — for one month. Furthermore, I call on others in the news media to join me in this pledge of a Palin-free February. With enough...
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Synthetic Spirits →
Why is alcohol so widely available if it is so toxic and what can we do about it? … I think it is time to use the now-considerable knowledge of the neuropsychopharmacology of alcohol to develop safer, alternative intoxicants whose effects can be reversed by antidotes.
The Scientist; free registration required.
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“It is facile and mistaken to attribute this particular madman’s act directly to...”
– NYT
Pretty much my thoughts exactly.
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Late update: … and The Shrill One jumps on board:
It’s important to be clear here about the nature of our sickness. It’s not a general lack of “civility,” the favorite term of pundits who want to wish away fundamental policy disagreements. Politeness may be...
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Piltdown medicine: The missing link between MMR... →
Revealing the layers of fraud and deception behind the Wakefield MMR jab paper that sparked the autism-vaccine hysteria that refuses to die no matter how extensively it’s debunked. This blog entry serves as an introduction to the article published in BMJ; read both.
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State Dep't SOI request: Internet Freedom Programs →
REQUESTED STATEMENT OF INTEREST PROGRAM OBJECTIVES
DRL and NEA invite organizations to submit statements of interest outlining program concepts and capacity to manage projects that will foster freedom of expression and the free flow of information on the Internet and other connection technologies in East Asia, including China and Burma; the Near East, including Iran; Southeast Asia; the...
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Why the Rich are Getting Richer
The U.S. economy appears to be coming apart at the seams. Unemployment remains at nearly ten percent, the highest level in almost 30 years; foreclosures have forced millions of Americans out of their homes; and real incomes have fallen faster and further than at any time since the Great Depression. Many of those laid off fear that the jobs they have lost — the secure, often unionized,...
Molecular Cell - Stress in Biomedical Research:... →
The point here is that science [which is impossible], and this form of science that I and presumably you do, biomedical research (which I suppose is impossible squared), is unbelievably frustrating. And, as a consequence, stressful. … My mandate here is to identify the sources of stress in our scientific lives and to suggest ways to deal with them. … Each one is impossible (by which...