] Each person drank two glasses of champagne per session.
] Ridout adjusted the exact intakes so that everyone drank
] the same amount of alcohol per kilogram of body mass.
] Sure enough, alcohol levels rose much faster among the
] bubbly drinkers. After just five minutes, they had an
] average of 0.54 milligrams of alcohol per millilitre of
] blood. Those drinking flat champagne averaged just 0.39
] milligrams of alcohol.

Champagne does get you drunk faster

] Preliminary research on the new drug suggests it could be
] much better at preventing breast cancer than tamoxifen,
] an earlier cancer "wonder drug". Tamoxifen reduces the
] risk of breast cancer by about a third. But crucially,
] anastrozole also has a much lower risk of side-effects,
] say researchers.

Interesting comparison of tamoxifen to anastrozole.

Major trial tackles breast cancer prevention: Anastrozole vs. Tamoxifen

] "I think this study is very important," says Mark Pagel,
] an evolutionary biologist at the University of Reading,
] UK. "What they are trying to show is that human mating
] patterns, wealth inheritance and dominance systems
] respond to ecological variation in the same way that we
] would expect animal populations to behave."
]
]
] Bride wealth
]
] Holden believes reason the acquisition of cattle led to a
] switch to male-dominated societies is most probably
] linked to the system of "bridewealth". This tradition, in
] which a bridegroom gives cattle to a bride's family, is
] particular to the Bantu speaking regions of
] sub-equatorial Africa.
]
] "If a man's got lots of cattle he can have lots of wives.
] So if you have cattle it makes sense to give it to sons
] rather than the daughters," she says. The fundamental
] reason for this is that wealthy, and therefore
] attractive, sons are likely to have more children than
] daughters, because while women must bear each child a man
] need only impregnate a woman.

Feminist Cows Moo: Eat more Chiken.

Cattle ownership makes it a man's world

] So the fact that she's been undercover for three decades
] and that has been divulged is outrageous because she was
] put undercover for certain reasons. One, she works in an
] area where people she meets with overseas could be
] compromised. When you start tracing back who she met
] with, even people who innocently met with her, who are
] not involved in CIA operations, could be compromised. For
] these journalists to argue that this is no big deal and
] if I hear another Republican operative suggesting that
] well, this was just an analyst fine, let them go
] undercover. Let's put them overseas and let's out them
] and then see how they like it. They won't be able to
] stand the heat [...]

Daily Kos: Plame's former classmate vents

] In a hotly contested lawsuit before a federal appeals
] court, two peer-to-peer companies are about to gain a
] vast army of allies: America's librarians.
]
] The five major U.S. library associations are planning to
] file a legal brief Friday siding with Streamcast Networks
] and Grokster in the California suit, brought by the major
] record labels and Hollywood studios. The development
] could complicate the Recording Industry Association of
] America's efforts to portray file-swapping services as
] rife with spam and illegal pornography.
]
] According to an attorney who has seen the document, the
] brief argues that Streamcast--distributor of the Morpheus
] software--and Grokster should not be shut down. It asks
] the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold the April
] decision by a Los Angeles judge that dismissed much of
] the entertainment industry's suit against the two
] peer-to-peer companies.
]
] Among the groups signing the brief are the American
] Library Association (ALA), the Association of Research
] Libraries, the American Association of Law Libraries, the
] Medical Library Association and the Special Libraries
] Association. The American Civil Liberties Union, in one
] of the group's first forays into copyright law, has
] drafted the brief opposing the Motion Picture Association
] of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association
] of America (RIAA).

Librarians to the rescue!

BusinessWeek Online: News from C|Net.com

The official website of the X Prize competition. The chairman suggests that the Prize could be won in the next few months.

X P R I Z E

cool

Antibiotic Laced Nanoballs Could Improve Infection Treatment

Fukuyama argues that the United States, like Japan and Germany, has been a high-trust society historically but that this status has eroded in recent years. This well-researched book provides a fresh, new perspective on how economic prosperity is grounded in social life.

OOH OOH I read this! :) I enjoyed it, for all the same reasons as the reviewer. I understand he continued this line of thought in The Great Disruption.

Trust: Human Nature and the Reconstitution of Social Order

] Several months ago, my husband and I received two rebate
] checks simply for having children, all part of the Jobs
] and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, an
] economy-stimulating incentive. Congress approved this
] quickie tax cut so we'd all go out and buy Pottery Barn
] lamps and Gap boot-cut trousers and then presumably the
] economy, and we, would be saved. Instead, I cashed the
] checks, paid off some bills, and then tucked my dignity
] under my arm and went to file for food stamps.

We've all ready plenty of stories about how the economy sucks, but this article strikes a chord because the author has such a great command of imagery. I suggest you read it simply because of the clear picture that she is able to paint.

Falling down

] The Wollemi Pine, a plant from the Jurassic age which
] survived in a single isolated Australian grove, is set
] for an amazing comeback.
]
] It was once thought to be extinct, but in 2005 small
] plants cultivated from the pines will go on sale.

wilpig:
] While the story for this is neat. I just love the title of
] the article.

I think the meant potted.... Doh!

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Jurassic pot plants on sale soon