August 2009
43 posts
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Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers... →
“Half of all drugs that fail in late-stage trials drop out of the pipeline due to their inability to beat sugar pills.”
givemesomethingtoread:
Why are inert pills suddenly overwhelming promising new drugs and established medicines alike? The reasons are only just beginning to be understood. A network of independent researchers is doggedly uncovering the inner workings—and potential...
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Fight Against Your Short-Term Rewards →
All that we do is governed by reward systems, and the most powerful reward systems are short-term. Short-term rewards keep society in full function. Short-term rewards are meant to sustain, to keep the status quo. It is during the pursuit of extraordinary achievements that traditional short-term rewards fail.
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“Obama is walking a tightrope - the left wants someone more partisan; the right...”
– CharlesMBlow
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Sure, America cannot afford health care reform...
While this is certainly the most reasonable argument for delaying health care reform — we can’t afford it right now — it still misses the point. When in recent memory have we ever “been able to afford it”? The fact is for the past 30 years not one Republican administration has pledged the goal of ensuring that all Americans have good, affordable health care. Rather,...
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Excerpt from an email I wrote in 2007
I’m not so hyperbolic to suggest that racism, homophobia, and misogynism drive US foreign policy, but I still maintain that religious and cultural sensibilities are severely lacking in the people who execute said policy. From the interrogators at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib to the Blackwater mercenaries who kill indiscriminately, “bad apples” certainly exist among policy...
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“I want cake! Urge for cake! CAAAAKE!”
– Best tweet I received today, from Jessica / sijeka
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“The US is the only major industrialised country that does not provide regular...”
– Really good article from the Independent.
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Watchrickyv:
A clip from last night’s Daily Show, which was amazing.
There’s a reason beind the well-worn statistic that young people get their news from The Daily Show, and it isn’t because they’re too lazy or unsophisticated to get it from a news program without dick jokes.
I’m pretty sure is has to do with the fact that Jon Stewart appears to be the only broadcaster who puts basic reason and...
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Cyclists launch well-mannered rival to Critical... →
Good luck, Vancouver!
Iraq censorship laws move ahead and wish I had... →
The [Iraqi] government, which has been proceeding quietly on the new censorship laws, said prohibitions were necessary because material currently available in the country had had the effect of encouraging sectarian violence in the fragile democracy and of warping the minds of the young.
This new development makes me want to add a chapter to my dissertation I wrote in 2006, when I argued that the...