“…first-ever theater festival dedicated to neurological conditions from January 5 through 29, 2006 in NYC.

A collection of theater artists from around the country will present work inspired by various neurological conditions, including:

• Amnesia (Korsakov’s Syndrome)
• Aphasia
• Autism
• Capgras Syndrome
• Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD)
• Dementia
• Meniere’s Disease
• Synesthesia
• Tourette’s Syndrome”

“Reindeer body clocks rely not on the cycle of day and night, but on their eating habits, so a well-fed Rudolph can stay awake for his Christmas duties.” (New Scientist)

“Despite promising discoveries and multibillion-dollar investments, cancer research is quietly undergoing a crisis. Federal drug regulators will soon announce several initiatives that they hope will help salvage the field.

Few drugs are being marketed, and most of those that have been introduced are enormously expensive and provide few of the benefits that patients expect. Officials of the Food and Drug Administration suggest that the failures may result from an obsolete testing system.

There is growing evidence that X-rays, long the standard, may not accurately assess a patient’s disease. The drug agency is creating collaborations to develop imaging, blood and other tests that better signal the progression of cancer.” (New York Times )

“In the last year this controversial exercise program has attracted a growing following of thousands nationwide, who log on to CrossFit.com for a daily workout, said its founder, Greg Glassman. Participants skip StairMasters and weight machines. Instead they do high-intensity workouts that mix gymnastics, track and field skills and bodybuilding, resting very little between movements.

The emphasis is on speed and weight hoisted, not technique. And the importance placed on quantifiable results has attracted hard-charging people like hedge fund managers, former Olympians and scientists. But some exercise experts are troubled by the lack of guidance for beginners, who may dive into stressful workouts as Mr. Anderson did. (He had not worked out regularly for two years.) ‘There’s no way inexperienced people doing this are not going to hurt themselves…'” (New York Times )

“The writ of Judge John E Jones III runs only within the state of Pennsylvania. Yet his judgment this week in the case of Kitzmiller v Dover Area School District is the proverbial shot heard round the world. The implications his ruling that religious dogma has no place in the teaching of science go far beyond the picturesque town of Dover. For this was a legal battle that posed uncomfortable questions about the kind of country that George Bush’s United States is now becoming.” (Guardian.UK editorial)