“Independents’ Day is a concept. ID is a goal. We plan to promote, support, and increase public awareness of independent content and design through live events, digital events, and crass, unashamed manipulation of the mainstream media.”

Mark Twain’s Covert War with His Maker — “When Mark Twain died in 1910, he was an international superstar and an American institution. He was cheered at home and abroad for his droll wit, frontier bluffness, and corn-pone wisdom. ..

Only a handful of intimates knew this revered creator of Tom Sawyer, Becky Thatcher, and Huck Finn had died a bilious adversary of the Almighty.” unquiet mind [via wood s lot]

Riot fears force IMF to cut meeting short — “Anti-globalisation campaigners have scored a considerable victory by forcing the World Bank and the IMF to shorten drastically their annual meeting in Washington next month.

In a joint statement, the organisations said they were cutting the meeting from a week to just two days to try to avoid the sort of chaos and disruption that erupted at the G8 summit in Genoa last month.” Independent UK

Medical journals hit back at the drug companies.

“Leading medical journals have formed an alliance to block publication of the results of drug trials that they believe have been distorted by pressure from pharmaceutical companies.

From next month, the Lancet, the British Medical Journal and 25 other specialist magazines will demand that authors give written guarantees that their scientific research was independent.

The editors of the journals are said to have evidence that drug manufacturers are using sponsorship to persuade scientists and doctors to write favourably about their products. The agreement follows several recent cases involving allegations that drug companies tried to withhold research results or present them in a biased manner.” Telegraph UK

Do unhappy mice give bad information? “Poor housing and extreme

inbreeding is taking a toll on the

value of mice in biomedical

research, say ethologists at this

week’s meeting of the

International Society of Applied

Ethology in Davis, California.

Most lab mice are housed in

shoebox-sized containers with

sawdust bedding and plenty of food and water. When they are

allowed companions, these are usually of the same sex.” BioMedNet

Great expectations: “Expectation can be an

effective drug. A placebo

stimulates the brain in the

same way as drug treatment

in Parkinson’s disease,

shows a Canadian study.

Both increase the release of

the brain chemical

dopamine, fuelling recent

controversy over whether the

placebo effect exists at all.

Thought to affect around

30% of patients, the placebo

effect, in which patients

benefit from treatment

because of expectation

alone, is a long-standing

medical conundrum. Drugs

are generally approved on

the basis of their

effectiveness over placebos.” Nature It is unclear to me what is so astounding about this paper, widely blinked as mindboggling. Of course the placebo effect must accomplish the same physiological and biochemical effects as the ‘real’ treatment, to the extent that it works. The mystery is how the mind’s belief mobilizes the physiological reactions, not that it does. Actually, given the intimate relationship between dopamine and cognition, I’m not surprised there is a robust placebo effect in Parkinson’s Disease. Perhaps the question should be turned on its head — how much of the effect of the active treatment too is mobilized by belief? Physicians have always known that the hopeful attitude they bring toward the treatments they propose to their afflicted patients makes a great deal of difference to the outcome.

Cultural habits of chimps:

“Primate experts have found more evidence

that chimpanzees, like humans, show cultural

diversity.

They say chimps living

in different parts of

Africa have developed

distinct customs.

Habits such as

grooming, and the use

of stone and wooden

tools, vary among nine

populations in the wild.

Some chimps inspect

each other for parasites, flick the bugs on to

leaves, then inspect or kill them. However their

neighbours show quite different behaviour,

simply squashing the parasites on their

forearms.” BBC

Hunger Site Seeks Sustenance. While it wasn’t a very good business model, it was a boon for charities. A deal may be imminent with new, socially-conscious investors. Wired

Hunger Site Seeks Sustenance. While it wasn’t a very good business model, it was a boon for charities. A deal may be imminent with new, socially-conscious investors. Wired

Hunger Site Seeks Sustenance. While it wasn’t a very good business model, it was a boon for charities. A deal may be imminent with new, socially-conscious investors. Wired

Hunger Site Seeks Sustenance. While it wasn’t a very good business model, it was a boon for charities. A deal may be imminent with new, socially-conscious investors. Wired