A New York Times article describes a study conducted by the NIH that basically asked scientists to simply sift through the massive evidence of the past twenty years to answer one question; what factors can cause or prevent Alzheimer’s disease? The answer is unsurprisingly depressing- there is basically no proven therapy, personal habit, dietary supplement or mental task that correlates with the prevention of AD

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Miles to go before…

This post is part of a Nature Blog Focus on hallucinogenic drugs in medicine and mental health, inspired by a recent Nature Reviews Neuroscience paper ‘The neurobiology of psychedelic drugs: implications for the treatment of mood disorders’ by Franz Vollenweider and Michael Kometer. This article will be available, open-access, until September 23

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Visions of a psychedelic future

Online video may be wildly popular among the Internet savvy, but it is a minor part of the TV-viewing habits of the mainstream crowd. Because online video offerings are still catching on among the masses, the US Department of Justice is considering whether the proposed Comcast/NBC merger is really meant to lock up the market and keep the competition at bay, according to insiders speaking to the Wall Street Journal

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DoJ focusing on Comcast/NBC’s effect on Internet video market

So New York Times blogger Andy Revkin has written perhaps his worst post yet. The blogosphere and my inbox are filled with the most amazing rebukes I’ve seen from scientists and others, which I’m reposting here, including Steve Easterbrook’s, “When did ignorance become a badge of honour for journalists?” Revkin’s guilt-by-(distant)-association piece, “On Harvard Misconduct, Climate Research and Trust,” betrays a remarkable lack of understanding of the scientific process.

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What’s the difference between climate science and climate journalism? – The former is self-correcting, the latter has become self-destructive

A wave out of Africa: birth of a hurricane [Via CEJournal] Danielle now a Category 1 hurricane. Watch its birth below Update 8/23: I replaced the original global image with this close up of the North Atlantic. It depicts the formation of Danielle more clearly, and also doesn’t take as long to load! Second update, morning of 8/24: According to the National Hurricane Center, the second wave of low pressure flowing out of Africa — in the wake of Hurricane Danielle — stands a 90 percent chance …

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Tracking hurricanes is so cool today

When you began your career as a freelance writer, you probably did so knowing that you were giving up some level of job security (assuming you left a full-time job to pursue freelancing). But if we’ve learned anything in recent years it’s that very few “real jobs” are actually secure. That’s often a myth

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How to Make Freelance Writing the Most Secure Job Opportunity Around

Does your Windows computer take really long to start-up? Well, you are not alone with this problem but fortunately, with some minor tweaks, you can get your sluggish Windows to start much faster without re-installing Windows or adding any new hardware

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How to Make your Windows Start-up Faster

The issue of executive compensation in health care seems to be attracting more media attention. A St Louis Post-Dispatch editorial noted how executive compensation for for-profit health insurance CEOs has grown. It started with a quote from Steven Hemsley, the CEO of UnitedHealth: Today the American people are questioning whether or not we receive fair value for the $2.6 trillion we, as a society, are expecting to spend this year on our health care system .

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Can a $1 Billion Group of Babies Provide Fair Value in Health Care?

Effective marketing requires a knowledge of both search engine optimization (getting your web site ranked on the first page of Google and other search engines) as well as Pay-Per-Click marketing. If you haven’t strengthened your knowledge in each of these areas, I recommend that you consider doing so. This past week, both Google and Yahoo! made pretty significant announcements

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SEO Changes From the Leaders

Arrange This: Rustic Floral Centerpiece Create a floral centerpiece that lends an elegant touch to a rustic container. For this arrangement a cork and plastic pot made to look like tree trunk was perfect for the rustic elegance vibe. Supplies: Floral container Floral foam for fresh flowers (not the dried and artificial flower foam) Large bloomed flowers, such as hydrangeas Stalk flowers, such as delphiniums Other delicate accent flowers, such as Queen Anne’s lace Steps: 1

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Arrange This: Rustic Floral Centerpiece

Two recent stories from two different parts of the US continue the theme of ever increasing concentration of power in our health care system. Connecticut The Hartford Business Journal reported on growing interest in mergers among small Connecticut hospitals.

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More Examples of US Hospital Market Consolidation: Connecticut and Florida

Image via Wikipedia Autism is a spectrum disorder , better referred to as ASD, It has been known for some time that differences like autism are, multi-dimensional and not readily reducible to a single set of mechanisms or genetic causes. In the past we have discussed how the disorder may be related to structural differences in the brain like those due to minicolumnar differences.

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The five dimensions of an autistic brain

I tell ya, I go away for a few days and something always seems to happen that I’d be all over if I were at home and blogging normally. Either something major happens in the anti-vaccine movement or there’s a new study being touted by woos or womthing else big happens.

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Tai chi for fibromyalgia in the NEJM: A triumph of the Trojan horse

In the Battle of Britain in WW2, the Royal Air Force (RAF) heroically repelled a foreign invasion of the UK. The Supermarine Spitfire , key defense tool in the Battle of Britain. (Worked without major glitches.) Now, the invasion is American, and the battlefield is healthcare..

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Cerner’s Blitzkrieg on London: Where’s the RAF?

Astronomy writer Stuart Clark tackles some of the biggest questions about our universe, including gravity and dark energy. His book The Big Questions: The Universe is out now

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Science Weekly podcast: Big questions about our universe; zombie ants; plus, a session with a sex scientist

How can journalists make the most of the interviews that they do? And how can interviewees protect themselves from being misquoted? I’ve been thinking about both of these questions for some time and was delighted when an excellent opportunity to test out some answers presented itself.

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When Interviewees Record! An experiment/interview on journalism | Not Exactly Rocket Science

Progressives have had to fight some tough fights over the past two years — on Healthcare and the public option, Wall Street Reform, on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and even on the Stimulus package which was crucial to beginning our economic recovery. Sometimes, it’s easy to get so focused on beating the Villains in those fights that we don’t stand up enough for our Heroes. But if we’re going to build a progressive majority — one that fights for people and not for corporations — then we have to deliver for our Heroes this November.

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Heroes and Villains

“Your call is very important to us,” said the chipper robo-voice, just before throwing me into the middle of a familiar easy listening song from the 60s. And as I continued to listen to the entire loop from the “Various Artists” soundtrack, she interrupted each ditty in turn, just as I was starting to get

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And we wonder why we are in this mess.

There was a Perivale Gallery envelope in the stack of mail that built up while we were away earlier this month. A Shield For My Open Heart sold in July. Shiela told me that a thin black-wearing art teacher from Mississauga purchased it.

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Shield

Bow Wow WOW! (click the link to see inside the book at Barnes and Noble) Here is a giveaway for all you love to dress your pups in Halloween costumes ! Oct 31st will be here before we know it and the time to get stitching is soon. I’ll be giving away a few copies during September and October so if you don’t win the first time check back for future giveaways! How do you enter

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Bow Wow WOW! Giveaway!