Barbara Ehrenreich reviews Trust Us, We’re Experts: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles With Your Future by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber:

“… a gripping exposé of the public
relations industry and the scientists who
back their business-funded,
anti-consumer-safety agendas. There are two kinds of “experts”
in question–the PR spin doctors behind the scenes and the
“independent” experts paraded before the public, scientists who
have been hand-selected, cultivated, and paid handsomely to
promote the views of corporations involved in controversial
actions. Lively writing on controversial topics such as dioxin,
bovine growth hormone, and genetically modified food makes this
a real page-turner…”

Polar Bears and Three-Year-Olds on Thin Ice : Donella Meadows’ last Global Citizen column before her death, which I previously noted here.

LA Times op-ed piece by two Rand Corporation analysts on why the NMD (national missile defense) program could make China a bona fide nuclear threat.

The only thing that stands between China and a large strategic nuclear arsenal is
motivation. And that could be deeply affected by the decisions that the United
States makes about national missile defense and perhaps even theater missile
defense in Asia.
Ultimately, the United States may decide that, on balance, its security would be
better off with a national missile defense, even if China expands its nuclear forces
significantly. But China’s possible response and all of its implications must become
part of the debate.

As the Spike Report pointed out, this piece carries one of the more idiosyncratic headlines seen on an op-ed page in a long time.

Skeptic Magazine editor Michael Shermer’s exposé of How Psychics and Mediums Work: a case study of James Van Praagh. “Throughout much of 1998 and 1999, the best-selling book in America was by a man who says he can talk to the dead (and so can you, if you buy his book).” Shermer concludes, “The freedom to grieve and love is one of the fundamentals of being human. To try to take tht freedom away on a chimera of feigned hope and promises that cannot be filled is inhuman…”

Happy Mardi Gras! …your last chance for awhile?

humanspellcheck.com: spelling-bee survivors R us. The quest for typographical and orthographical excellence on the web.

More fMRIe (functional magnetic resonance imaging excitement): Location of Sense of Humor Discovered. Activity in a region in the orbital prefrontal cortex correlates with the experience of appreciating a joke or a pun. It makes sense that the arguably uniquely human (cf. for example the 1938 classic Homo Ludens: a study of the play element in culture by historian Johann Huizinga) capacity to appreciate the complex phenomenon of a joke resides in this uniquely human cortical area. Independent

Online debate “What is the evidence for and against the modern theory of
evolution?” between Dr. Jonathan Wells, who has Ph.D.’s in molecular and cell biology (Berkeley) and religious studies (Yale) and is the author of the recent Icons of Evolution, who argues that therre are serious chellenges to the “neo-Darwinian idea
that random mutations can create new body plans and organisms”; and Dr. Massimo Pigliucci, director of the Evolutionary Ecology Lab at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and prize-winning teacher of evolution. The URL above links you to the complete debate in Real Video. The recent event was hosted by U.T.’s Theatre dept. as part of a week commemorating the
75th anniversary of the Scopes-Monkey Trial.

Study: Autumn Babies Live Longer. There’s a 0.3- to 0.6-year increase in lifespan for babies born during the autumn in either the northern or southern hemispheres, according to a new study. Authors speculate that it relates to the nutritional benefits of being pregnant during summer and early fall; if so, this would probably speak to maximizing consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables during pregnancy regardless of the season. [Sorry, an earlier version of this post misstated the study as finding a “3-6%” increase in lifespan, which is of course far more substantial.]

Jackie Mason on Starbucks. Old, but apropos. [thanks, Anihoo]

Did You Ever Wonder? … worth the wait for the download [thanks to David Anderson]