A new magazine from RU Sirius: The Thresher-Flailing at Current Events: ‘Welcome to The Thresher, a print political journal available through Disticor and Last Gasp. When we started working on The Thresher, we expressed our intentions to potential writers thusly; “Everybody knows that the next political paradigm is post- ideological, an unpredictable hybrid of all the influences on human thought and behavior. The smartest among us are looking for interesting ways to crossbreed left, right and center; mainstream and subculture; individual liberty and community; straight and queer; spirituality and critical intelligence; high technology and zero emissions; speed and permanence; rebellion and problem-solving; Caucasian and everybody else; ad infinitum. We’re not talking dialectics. We’re talking complexity. The Thresher will attempt to navigate its way through the tangled mess that is early 21st Century politics.”

Well, things have changed. For the moment, the only realistic goal seems to be to preserve the freedom to dissent, to question authority, to express even a bit of skepticism. In the words of George Clinton (the only Clinton that matters); “Think. It ain?t illegal yet.” We hope y’all find a few things here worth thinking on.’ [via boing boing]

In War, It’s Power to the President:

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the war in Afghanistan have dramatically accelerated a push by the Bush administration to strengthen presidential powers, giving President Bush a dominance over American government exceeding that of other post-Watergate presidents and rivaling even Franklin D. Roosevelt’s command…

David Walker, a Republican who is director of the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said: “There’s a feeling of some in the current administration that they want to draw a line in a different spot than previously has been drawn in the separation of powers. As a result of Watergate and the challenges [President Bill] Clinton had, Congress has been much more involved in a range of areas they don’t believe are appropriate.”

…Some in the legislative branch, particularly in the opposition party, detect a striking departure in public policy. “There’s just a philosophy in the administration that the public doesn’t have a right to know, which is counter to the trend of the last 30 years,” said Phil Schiliro, staff chief to Rep. Henry A. Waxman (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House oversight committee. “Now they can justify it with national security, but that’s more for convenience.” Washington Post

Supercourse – Epidemiology, the Internet and Global Health: a worldwide academic faculty in epidemiology and public health has created a freely shared online library of more than five hundred lectures “with quality control and cutting edge cognitive design” using an open source model.

The compiler of the supercourse has submitted an NIH grant proposal to create a new supercourse applying the epidemiological paradigm to disaster and terrorism response.

Amazing mindless entertainment. Don’t miss clicking on ‘duo’ along the bottom.

Painkillers show Alzheimer’s promise: NSAIDs like ibuprofen — albeit in much largeer doses than tolerable for humans — stops the production of harmful amyloid protein whose clumping in brain cells is considered one of the pathogenic processes in Alzheimer’s Disease. The finding presents promise that anti-plaque drugs without toxic side effects might utilize this mechanism. Nature [There has long been interest in anti-Alzheimer’s effects of NSAIDs as a result of the observation that seniors taking high doses of the medications for conditions like arthritis show amelioration of dementia symptoms. However, this is not likely to be due to the anti-clumping effect of the NSAIDs, which only ‘kicks in’ at higher doses. Instead, the medications may quell inflammation in the brain caused by already-formed plaques.]

“A somewhat motley crew of test pilots, dot-com dropouts, dreamers and others will change space travel as we know it. Or not.” Rocket Men: ‘The only real reason to put rockets on an aircraft these days, explains (XCOR Aerospace president Jeff) Greason… is to go into space. Jet engines can’t do it. Propellers can’t do it. And once you’re 50 miles or so in the air, or what’s called suborbital space, there’s business to be done: low-gravity experiments, satellite missions, military research and–here’s the sexy stuff–tourism.’ LA Times

Pope to give Net his blessing: his World Communication Day homily will be “Internet: A New Forum for Proclaiming the Gospel.” ‘The Pope’s aides make no secret of the fact that he is a technological Luddite. He still writes his speeches and documents by hand or dictates them to aides.’ ZDNet

All Aboard In Afghanistan:

‘America’s allies did not have to be hectored into committing national assets and their soldiers’ lives to this American-led battle. The Pentagon would have preferred to fight alone, with a little help from Britain. But for their own reasons, other European allies have chased after military roles in the Afghan campaign.

While the State Department emphasizes how much the United States needs coalition partners — and ladles out economic aid and political bribes to support this view — the Pentagon has been showing how much coalition partners need the United States in developing effective countermeasures to global terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction…

In contrast to Kosovo, where 19 NATO nations coordinated air targeting and argued inconclusively over the use of ground troops, European participation in this war is on a bilateral basis and undertaken under clear U.S. command authority. This is no accident.

The Europeans have clambered aboard because they (correctly) sense that the long campaign begun in Afghanistan represents a watershed in alliance management as well as world politics.’ Washington Post

Fareed Zakaria: Arabs on Our Side:

“While the events of last week have transformed the situation in Afghanistan, their effects in Washington have been more comical. Gen. Tommy Franks, who 10 days earlier was facing a barrage of criticism, is now being showered with praise. Commentators who had been thundering about Washington’s feeble war plans now extol the suppleness of our strategy. The Northern Alliance, once scorned as a ragtag bunch of misfits, is now spoken of with awe and affection. We should not have been so surprised that the Afghans switched to the winning side so quickly. People in Washington do it all the time.

So one great myth about the war against the Taliban — that we were losing on the ground — has exploded. But another still stays strong. We hear daily that even as it is vanquishing the foe, America is losing the propaganda war. Tensions are bubbling over as we enter the month of Ramadan. The Arab street is angry. But is it?” Washington Post

Mystery surrounds Indian child deaths. Fifteen deaths so far and over 3000 taken ill in Assam eight days after UNICEF-sponsored administration of vitamin A supplements in anti-blindness campaign. Incorrect dosing? reaction to co-administered polio vaccine? Contamination of the vitamin supplements? No one is sure, and charges and countercharges are flying. New Scientist

Bush ranch in Crawford cursed? Washington Post

“HIV patients who take cholesterol-lowering drugs may be able to slow the advance of the virus, say researchers…

This suggestion follows more discoveries about the way that the virus manages to get in and out of human cells.

It turns out that the virus may need patches of cholesterol on the surface of the cell in order to make this happen.” BBC

Particle physics telescope explodes: “The underground Super-Kamiokande Observatory in Japan detects elusive neutrino particles from space by using photomultiplier tubes to register the flashes of light they produce when they pass through a huge tank of water.

On 12 November, one of the photomultiplier tubes exploded causing a chain reaction that resulted in most of the other 11,200 light detectors also blowing up.

Scientists say the accident is a major setback, as Super-Kamiokande has produced spectacular results, helping to answer long-standing questions about the Universe. Super-Kamiokande was the very first detector to establish that neutrinos can change into different types.” BBC

UK denies rift over Afghan troops: ‘Downing Street has denied any rift with the US and the Northern Alliance over deployment of troops in Afghanistan.

There have been reports that Tony Blair wants to commit a significant number of troops to establish order in the country, while President Bush favours a smaller force.

But the prime minister’s official spokesman said such reports were “simply not true”. ‘ BBC

Taliban offer up Kunduz, rebels say — “The Taliban offered on Sunday to surrender their last northern stronghold if Arab and other foreign fighters loyal to Osama bin Laden in the city are spared, an anti-Taliban commander said. The northern alliance, meanwhile, agreed to a conference on neutral ground to plan a multiethnic government.

The offer to surrender Kunduz came after U.S. bombers unleashed their heaviest strikes so far on the city. Warplanes were also reported in action near the Taliban southern stronghold of Kandahar and areas of eastern Afghanistan where bin Laden is believed to maintain camps and hide-outs.” AP [Salon]

The way we thought we were: ‘Two months ago, ground zero was the beginning of a new world. Now a volunteer looks back and finds we’ve returned to the old one.’ Salon