ATLANTA (AP) -- It sounds like a freakish ailment from a horror movie: Sores erupt on your skin, mysterious threads pop out of them, and you feel like tiny bugs are crawling all over you. Some experts believe it's a psychiatric phenomenon, yet hundreds of people say it's a true physical condition. It's called Morgellons, and now the government is about to begin its first medical study of it.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is paying California-based health care giant Kaiser Permanente $338,000 to test and interview patients suffering from Morgellons' bizarre symptoms. The one-year effort will attempt to define the condition and better determine how common it is.

Apparently not as much horseshit as i originally thought.

News from The Associated Press

Sweden, considered a world leader in gender equality, should ban all advertising that could be considered sexist, according to a government-commissioned report published on Tuesday.

* Swedish advertisers drawn online (20 Jan 08)
* Internet wins advertising battle (28 Nov 07)
* Internet advertising now bigger than TV (7 Nov 07)

In the report, special government rapporteur Eva-Maria Svensson suggested the creation of a law "banning advertising containing sexist content."

Right, because everybody knows repression=equality. If you can't create a world that doesnt think about sex, you can hide it with censorship.

The Local - Sweden mulls ban on sexist ads

Fibromyalgia is a real disease. Or so says Pfizer in a new television advertising campaign for Lyrica, the first medicine approved to treat the pain condition, whose very existence is questioned by some doctors.
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Jamie Rector for The New York Times

Lynne Matallana, who says she has fibromyalgia, said the drugs would aid acceptance.
Related
Times Health Guide: Fibromyalgia

For patient advocacy groups and doctors who specialize in fibromyalgia, the Lyrica approval is a milestone. They say they hope Lyrica and two other drugs that may be approved this year will legitimize fibromyalgia, just as Prozac brought depression into the mainstream.

But other doctors — including the one who wrote the 1990 paper that defined fibromyalgia but who has since changed his mind — say that the disease does not exist and that Lyrica and the other drugs will be taken by millions of people who do not need them.

Well, the drug is a painkiller, there's lots of things that can be used for. It doesn't matter whether or not theres a specific condition called fibromyalgia, the market exists and all the people have pain symptoms.

Drug Approved. Is Disease Real? - New York Times

British Chess Magazine
January 18, 2008

We have just heard from the press room in Wijk aan Zee that former world champion Bobby Fischer has died, aged 64. There is a news report (in Icelandic) at www.mbl.is. He died of kidney failure, having been hospitalised with this condition for quite some time. More news when we have it.

More at Fox News and CNN.

Bobby Fischer Has Died At Age 64

Bring bad design to justice.

Design Police

* Bonus: 2 Eraser Refills/Refill Cartridge.
* No. 2 lead equivalent.
* No lead to break!
* Refillable.
* Conforms to ASTM D-4236.
* Made in China.

Really great pencils.

Liquaphite Liquid Graphite Mechanical Pencils | Pentech | Walgreens

My two favorite people in the entire world (this month), Lindsay and Kristy Landers, put out a music video this past Summer and it is truly a masterpiece. Not since Michael Jackson's Thriller has there been such a groundbreaking and important video. High art!

I've been talking about these two lovely ladies for the past few weeks, but you might have no idea who they are. It's probably better that way. They are the 16 and 18-year-old daughters of Judy Landers. They want to be big pop stars.

I'm not even joking when I say that I think this video was made at one of those kiosks at Six Flags amusement park. You know that shit where you can make your own music video and pick your own background. I think that's how this video was made. That being said, this is some hot shit.

Nothing says "mother of the year" like allowing your teen daughters to dress and dance like Laughlin, NV strippers. I really think their inspiration for this video came from Elizabeth Berkeley's performance in "Showgirls."

lol...

Better to watch on mute.

The Greatest Music Video Ever Made | Dlisted

Holy crap. Maybe the bipolars in scientology aren't that functional.

YouTube - Tom Cruise Babbles Like a Narcissistic Maniac

Ever wondered where your opinions come from, how you manage to be creative, or how you solve problems? Well, don't bother. Psychology studies examining these areas and more have found that while we're good at inventing plausible explanations, these explanations are frequently completely made-up.

In this series of posts, I examine some of the classic findings in psychology that show we have precious little insight into our own thought processes.

Really interesting series.

PsyBlog: What Everyone Should Know About Their Own Minds: 6 Introspective Insights From Psychology

"Ed Giorgio, who is working with McConnell on the plan, said that would mean giving the government the authority to examine the content of any e-mail, file transfer or Web search," author Lawrence Wright pens.

“Google has records that could help in a cyber-investigation, he said," Wright adds. "Giorgio warned me, 'We have a saying in this business: ‘Privacy and security are a zero-sum game.'"

This guy needs to be fired.

The Raw Story | US drafting plan to allow government access to any email or Web search