Cholesterol-lowering drugs may prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. Here’s a Google search on the generic name of one of the most popular and effective, atorvastatin, AND (dementia OR cognition OR cognitive OR Alzheimer).

Israeli critics join Palestinians and human rights groups in condemning pinpoint killings [via Robot Wisdom]

Baudrillard Sees Dead People: “No one ages less gracefully than a hipster
past his prime — unless it’s a prophet of
technological revolution, once his vision reaches
the sell-by date. Roll them into one, and it’s a
miserable spectacle all around. The books Jean
Baudrillard started publishing in France about
thirty years ago ran selected concepts from Marx
and Freud on an operating system cobbled
together from Marshall McLuhan and Alvin Toffler.” Feed

Autoimmunity May Come From Confluence Of Normal Events. A new study elucidates the process of autoimmune disease, in which components of the immune system meant to defend against invaders turn on our own tissues.

Honey May Prevent Recurring Tumors AP

What Controls Nerve Growth?. “Impelled by the tragic plight of
paralyzed victims of spinal-cord
injuries, scientists move ever
closer to unlocking the mysteries
of nerve development and
regeneration.” The molecular mechanisms that guide axon growth are remarkably preserved throughout the animal world, so that research on simple species can bear enormous fruit with regard to humans.

Generation Statistics: ‘Trademarks have become so ingrained in our psyches that we
need hear only a few notes of a jingle or see the colourful swirl
of a logo and we are automatically drawn into their world,
reminded of how thirsty we really aren’t or how necessary a new
shirt is what we wear or drink defines us, as people. We are
whoring and de-valuing ourselves, but in exchange we get to be
a walking advertisement. But that’s okay because, hey, it’s
SHINY while we maintain that we have the ultimate decision, as
far as they’re concerned, they’ve already sold the shirt.’ Spark

A reporter’s coverage of the Pagan Federation Conference 2000 in Croydon (UK) in November found the witches, warlocks, druids and vampires “frighteningly clean and well-behaved.” Fortean Times

Blather: The Alan Moore Interview. In-depth musings of the master of the “graphic novel.”

America’s Tribes: ” In the past 40 years, the Democratic and Republican parties in the US have almost
entirely switched places. But a longer-lasting contest underlies this strange
history,” says Michael Lind, a senior fellow at the New American Foundation in Washington
“—a struggle between two tribal coalitions, the socially-minded Puritans of the
north and the colonial gentlemen of the south.” Ethnography, not ideology, is the way to understand American politican partisanship in this fascinating incisive essay. Prospect

The Bastardization of the ‘Masterpiece’: “…(I)f there are no ahistorical standards and no objective
criteria for assessing superior achievement, then every form
of cultural activity can claim masterpieces, which then
freely proliferate. All that can be done is to display those
varied tastes with appreciative acclaim. This can lead to
expanded horizons but also contracted perspective.” New York Times

The French Paradox. “They eat all the
butter, cream, foie gras, pastry and cheese that their hearts desire, and yet
their rates of obesity and heart disease are much lower than ours. The French
eat three times as much saturated animal fat as Americans do, and only a third
as many die of heart attacks.” All sorts of hypotheses have been proposed. Curiosity about this is stimulating a sort of culture war. Salon