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Wednesday, October 19, 2011

News Nuggets 779


The Thirsk area in North Yorkshire in England.  From the Daily Mail of the UK.

UP-FRONT GLOBAL HEALTH NUGGET!!
Experimental Malaria Vaccine Slashes Infection Risk By Half (Richard Knox) from NPR's All Things Considered
"After decades of disappointment, researchers think they're finally on track to unleash the first practical vaccine against malaria, one of mankind's ancient scourges. In the world's first large field trial of an experimental malaria vaccine, several thousand young children who got three doses had about 55 percent less risk of getting the disease over a year than those who got a control vaccine against rabies or meningitis."

How Critics of Obama Foreign Policy Get it Wrong (David Shorr) from Democracy Arsenal
"Should US foreign policy presume that the American example's unassailable power trumps any and all skepticism? For governments of some countries, questioning American motives is just a way to deflect pressure off of themselves, but that doesn't answer the question of whether moral authority can be overplayed? This isn't a debate about moral authority, but about smug self-satisfaction versus savvy self-awareness."

We Can All Become Job Creators (Joe Nocera) from the New York Times
"Here’s the idea they came up with: Americans themselves would start lending to small businesses, with Starbucks serving as the middleman. Starbucks would find financial institutions willing to loan to small businesses."

Student Loan Debt Hits Record Levels from USA Today
"Students and workers seeking retraining are borrowing extraordinary amounts of money through federal loan programs, potentially putting a huge burden on the backs of young people looking for jobs and trying to start careers."

The Occupy Wall Street Image that Marks the End of the Global Consensus (Jonathan Jones) from the Guardian [of the UK]
"Even the word 'capitalism' once seemed corny. Here, amid Times Square's corporate citadels, a monster is exposed."

Why Occupy Wall Street Is Bigger Than Left vs. Right (Matt Taibbi) from Rolling Stone Magazine
"This whole episode to me underscores an unpleasant development for OWS. There is going to be a fusillade of attempts from many different corners to force these demonstrations into the liberal-conservative blue-red narrative. This will be an effort to transform OWS from a populist and wholly non-partisan protest against bailouts, theft, insider trading, self-dealing, regulatory capture and the market-perverting effect of the Too-Big-To-Fail banks into something a little more familiar and less threatening, i.e. a captive "liberal" uprising that the right will use to whip up support and the Democrats will try to turn into electoral energy for 2012."

The Republicans Exit History (Roger Ebert) from the Chicago Sun-Times [from July during the debt ceiling crisis]
Who knew the film critic was such a savvy political pundit?!
"In Tuesday's charade as the House put the Tea Party debt legislation to a vote, what we saw was an example of the kind of coalition voting common in Europe, where separate parties arrive at an agreement to govern. There are now essentially three parties in Congress: Democrats, Republicans, and the Tea Party. Reasonable Republicans with a sense of the possible do not subscribe to the Tea Party's implacable ideology, but they feel they must deal with it to placate its zealots. They are essentially in a coalition with a third party."

Herman Cain, Barack Obama: The Real Winners Of Las Vegas Debate (Howard Fineman) from the Huffington Post
"The winners of Tuesday night's GOP debate: Herman Cain and President Obama. With the devastating accuracy of a CIA drone, the Republican candidates zeroed in on their own party's chances with exchanges that played right into Democrats' hands on a series of issues, from immigration to taxes."

Tracking the Nevada Debate: GOP Field Erupts in Las Vegas Prize Fight from the National Journal
"Las Vegas is accustomed to playing host to prize fights, but the the multi-direction fisticuffs on CNN’s fit-for-professional-wrestling stage had the audience at Tuesday's Republican presidential debate ooohing and aahing, whether in admiration or dismay it was hard to say. At any rate, no one can fault any of the candidates for timidity."

Las Vegas Republican Debate: Winners and Losers (Chris Cillizza) from the Washington Post
"We liveblogged the whole thing but also made time to scribble down a few of the best — and the worst — moments of the night."

The Republican Bickersons (E.J. Dionne Jr.) from the Washington Post
"That was fun tonight. Attack, defend, attack and attack some more. Texas Gov. Rick Perry had some problems in tonight’s Republican presidential debate, as he’s had before -- do we really want to “defund the United Nations”? -- but he was a real presence this time, and I thought he put some life back into his campaign."

The Five Take Home Lessons From The Las Vegas GOP Debate from the Talking Points Memo
"The debate set the stage for the next round of campaigning. If you missed it, here it is shrunk down to a convenient 5-point lesson plan."

The GOP Debate: 9 Takeaways (Maggie Haberman) from Politico
"Here are POLITICO’s nine takeaways from the spirited Las Vegas debate:..."

The GOP Self-Destructs (Michael Medved) from the Daily Beast
"Not a single candidate came out ahead in last night’s Vegas slugfest—Romney looked petty, Perry looked desperate, and Cain was obviously lying to himself about his 9-9-9 plan. Plus, more Daily Beast contributors weigh in."

This is Really the Best the GOP Can Do? (Steve Kornacki) from Salon
"In Las Vegas, Perry overcompensates, Romney loses his cool, and Herman Cain can't stop talking about fruit."

Mitt Gets Flustered, Cain Gets Shelled (Rich Lowry) from the National Review
"It was Romney’s worst debate so far, if only because his opponents finally delved a little deeper on Romneycare and for the first time ever he showed anger in public. The exchange with Perry on illegal immigrants was quite extraordinary–Romney actually reached out and touched Perry on the shoulder when he was trying to get him to stop talking, the kind of physical contact that should always be out of bounds."

TECHNOLOGY NUGGET!!
Quantum Levitation (VIDEO) from the Association of Science - Technology Centers 2011
"Tel-Aviv University demos quantum superconductors locked in a magnetic field (www.quantumlevitation.com)."
VERY cool!!

SEX AND CULTURE NUGGET!!
How College Students Respond to Being Propositioned for Sex from Psychology Today
"75% of men, and zero percent of women, when propositioned by a total stranger for sex (out of the blue) will say "yes.""


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