+ Michael Moore’s next film, tentatively titled “Sicko” was slated to be released mid 2006. It’s late! It’s about the pharmaceutical industry. Have they gotten to you?
From PLoSJournals.org, comes this:Serotonin and Depression: A Disconnect between the Advertisements and the Scientific Literature

With direct proof of serotonin deficiency in any mental disorder lacking, the claimed efficacy of SSRIs is often cited as indirect support for the serotonin hypothesis. Yet, this ex juvantibus line of reasoning (i.e., reasoning “backwards” to make assumptions about disease causation based on the response of the disease to a treatment) is logically problematic—the fact that aspirin cures headaches does not prove that headaches are due to low levels of aspirin in the brain. Serotonin researchers from the US National Institute of Mental Health Laboratory of Clinical Science clearly state, “[T]he demonstrated efficacy of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors…cannot be used as primary evidence for serotonergic dysfunction in the pathophysiology of these disorders” [12].

Reasoning backwards, from SSRI efficacy to presumed serotonin deficiency, is thus highly contested. The validity of this reasoning becomes even more unlikely when one considers recent studies that even call into question the very efficacy of the SSRIs. Irving Kirsch and colleagues, using the Freedom of Information Act, gained access to all clinical trials of antidepressants submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by the pharmaceutical companies for medication approval. When the published and unpublished trials were pooled, the placebo duplicated about 80% of the antidepressant response [13]; 57% of these pharmaceutical company–funded trials failed to show a statistically significant difference between antidepressant and inert placebo [14]. A recent Cochrane review suggests that these results are inflated as compared to trials that use an active placebo [15]. This modest efficacy and extremely high rate of placebo response are not seen in the treatment of well-studied imbalances such as insulin deficiency, and casts doubt on the serotonin hypothesis.

+ The headline from CTV reads

CTV.ca | MP Wrzesnewskyj resigns over Hezbollah comments

To paraphrase Wrzesnewskyj, he said that, though aknowledging Hezbollah is a terrorist organization, it would be a sensible thing to talk with them. That the Canadian law which forbids dialogue with terrorist organizations might better serve peace if it were reversed. And I absolutely agree.

But since it isn’t peace that Israel wants. It clearly wants more power in the middle east, more land, and more resources. Dialogue, if it were to be reported in mainstream media, would only enlighten the international community of Israels ultimate aim. Neither Israel, nor vested american businesses want this to happen. Someone in america is benefiting from the BILLIONS in military aid US taxpayers are giving to the Israeli army every year. So kick Wrzesnewskyj’s ass, cause Canadians have to be kept in the dark too.

Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land - Google Video. -not anti-semetic, a view of Israeli PR’s effect on American and Canadian opinion of the Jewish occupaton of the West Bank and the killing of civilians to do so.

Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land provides a striking comparison of U.S. and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, zeroing in on how structural distortions in U.S. coverage have reinforced false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This pivotal documentary exposes how the foreign policy interests of American political elites–oil, and a need to have a secure military base in the region, among others–work in combination with Israeli public relations strategies to exercise a powerful influence over how news from the region is reported. Through the voices of scholars, media critics, peace activists, religious figures, and Middle East experts, Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land carefully analyzes and explains how–through the use of language, framing and context–the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza remains hidden in the news media, and Israeli colonization of the occupied terrorities appears to be a defensive move rather than an offensive one. The documentary also explores the ways that U.S. journalists, for reasons ranging from intimidation to a lack of thorough investigation, have become complicit in carrying out Israel’s PR campaign. At its core, the documentary raises questions about the ethics and role of journalism, and the relationship between media and politics.

Orwell Rolls In His Grave - Google Video. The quality of image is poor, but it’s a well-worth-watching, frank, if not scathing, comentary on the state of media in the US, and due to proximity, Canada.

+ Thermogenic Foods - Carbohydrate-Guide.com

Here’s a list of specific foods that raise your metabolism and help burn body fat.

Has Bush v. Gore Become the Case That Must Not Be Named? - New York Times

There is a legal argument for pushing Bush v. Gore aside. The majority opinion announced that the ruling was “limited to the present circumstances” and could not be cited as precedent. But many legal scholars insisted at the time that this assertion was itself dictum — the part of a legal opinion that is nonbinding — and illegitimate, because under the doctrine of stare decisis, courts cannot make rulings whose reasoning applies only to a single case.

Bush v. Gore’s lasting significance is being fought over right now by the Ohio-based United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, whose judges disagree not only on what it stands for, but on whether it stands for anything at all. This debate, which has been quietly under way in the courts and academia since 2000, is important both because of what it says about the legitimacy of the courts and because of what Bush v. Gore could represent today. The majority reached its antidemocratic result by reading the equal protection clause in a very pro-democratic way. If Bush v. Gore’s equal protection analysis is integrated into constitutional law, it could make future elections considerably more fair.

The heart of Bush v. Gore’s analysis was its holding that the recount was unacceptable because the standards for vote counting varied from county to county. “Having once granted the right to vote on equal terms,” the court declared, “the state may not, by later arbitrary and disparate treatment, value one person’s vote over that of another.” If this equal protection principle is taken seriously, if it was not just a pretext to put a preferred candidate in the White House, it should mean that states cannot provide some voters better voting machines, shorter lines, or more lenient standards for when their provisional ballots get counted — precisely the system that exists across the country right now.

A question posed at Metafilter
via an article in the New York Times.

Of the trillions and trillions of cells in a typical human body — at least 10 times as many cells in a single individual as there are stars in the Milky Way — only about 1 in 10 is human. The other 90 percent are microbial. These microbes — a term that encompasses all forms of microscopic organisms, including bacteria, fungi, protozoa and a form of life called archaea — exist everywhere. New evidence suggests microbes in our bodies can determine how efficiently we process food and affect our hunger centers.

How VoIP works: protocols, codecs, and more
Learn the basics of packetization, network latency and bandwidth, transport and media protocols, and speech and video codecs
By David Katz, Tomasz Lukasiak, Rick Gentile, and Wayne Meyer, Analog Devices

Variations in the prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii “may explain a substantial proportion of human population differences we see in cultural aspects that relate to ego, money, material possessions, work and rules.” It sounds like an absurdly grand claim, but toxoplasma, a protozoan, is such strange organism that it might not be entirely crazy.

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