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Thursday, October 13, 2005
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If you didn't see it tonight on MSNBC's Countdown, Keith Olbermann nailed the Bush White House right between the eyes for their tendency to try to distract Americans with terror alerts whenever bad news for Team Bush arises.
Of course, Crooks and Liars has the video up already and you can also read a detailed account of the Bad News/Terror Alert correlation at Olbermann's blog.
Meantime, I threw together a handy chart that shows the date the White House got pieces of bad news and their rapid response with a terror alert or warning.
What an astounding coincidence!
(Via Yellow Dog Blog.)
11:33:31 PM 
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Inspired by Joyce and Beckett, Harold Pinter wrote plays that veer from comedy to examinations of fear and evil.
(Via The New York Times > Books.)
I was hoping for Frederik Pohl or Elmore Leonard, but I guess Pinter's OK, too.
11:29:52 PM
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TWO PERCENT: That's Bush's approval rate among African-Americans. No president has ever sunk that low.
(Via Daily Dish.)
11:19:27 PM
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How pot might make you smarter (NewSci)
A synthetic chemical similar to the active ingredient in marijuana makes new cells grow in rat brains. What is more, in rats this cell growth appears to be linked with reducing anxiety and depression. The results suggest that marijuana, or its derivatives, could actually be good for the brain.
In mammals, new nerve cells are constantly being produced in a part of the brain called the hippocampus, which is associated with learning, memory, anxiety and depression. Other recreational drugs, such as alcohol, nicotine and cocaine, have been shown to suppress this new growth. Xia Zhang of the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada, and colleagues decided to see what effects a synthetic cannabinoid called HU210 had on rats' brains.
They found that giving rats high doses of HU210 twice a day for 10 days increased the rate of nerve cell formation, or neurogenesis, in the hippocampus by about 40%.
(Via robot wisdom weblog.)
10:30:11 PM
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The other day I wrote about the Double Cluster in Peseus, a gorgeous site. I was just in the backyard for a few minutes, looked up and saw that the sky was clear, and had a great view of Cassiopeia up there. I grabbed my binoculars, and in less than a minute had the Double Cluster in view. This under pretty light-polluted skies, with an almost-full moon up (I stood in the shade of the garage). If I can do it, you can too, and if you're reading this at night, go have a look. There's a simple map here that should be good; the W of Cassiopeia is easy to find turn towards the west then north just a bit, and once you've got that, it's a very simple hop to the Double Cluster.
(This space.com article is pretty, good, and is part of a larger series on the top 10 winter items. Why not plan some observing now?)
10:22:16 PM
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© Copyright 2005 Steve Michel.
Last update: 11/1/2005; 9:47:00 PM.
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