The sad truth is that nothing is the same.

I'll preface this post by saying that I was lucky enough to spend a week in Norway in 2005. I was taking tourism marketing classes abroad outside of London when a few friends and I decided to visit my extended family in Oslo and another little coastal town.

Oddly enough, the day after classes started in London on July 5, 2005, the city erupted in a terrorist attack of its own. I wrote a little about that here and also wrote a column when I was still in college about it, in The Plainsman. I'm going to post the clip as soon as I find it.

Aside from Norway being an obscenely cheap flight on Ryan Air, and the lovely family I had to visit there, another big draw to visiting the city was its relative safety. With London and Madrid both experiencing devastating attacks within a year of each other, Scandinavia seemed blissfully off the grid. And it was - absolutely lovely.

We went sailing in beautiful weather to different spots on the coast. We stayed up until midnight with with brightly lit skies and went sailing in the middle of the night. We ate seafood stew and amazing cheese and caught up with relatives. One of the absolute highlights of my trip was visiting downtown Oslo. My cousins - aside from looking like European royalty - were incredibly welcoming hosts. They took us all over - we saw the government buildings that were attacked Friday, the national museum, the royal palace and lots of gorgeous parks and green spaces with the most amazing public sculptures.

I hate that this happened in Oslo. Just like I hate that it happened in NYC and London and Madrid. Regardless of whether it's Norway's Oklahoma City (which it clearly was) or Norway's 9/11, the fact still remains that we live in trying times. No country is immune and no population is safe. It's a bit of a dark thought, but true nonetheless. Norway, I am thinking of you and remembering the amazing experience I had.

I hate it that there are so many bitterly opposing (and alarmingly drastic) opinions at play there - and in so many places, in Europe, here, everywhere... I hate it that this happened to your beautiful country, and mostly, I hope that this doesn't change the overall open, accepting nature of your people.

It's beer-thirty

Did you know there was such a product?


I had no idea. I saw them at a quickie-mart last Saturday in Nashville.

You learn something new every day.

Hope they're not as nasty as this beer/malt liquor caffeinated concoction. Yikes.

Frankenfish

Looks like the FDA is about to approve the country's first genetically-modified animal. We've been consuming modified corn and soybeans for years, but never an animal, until now.

Before I get into the fish, let me back up to one of my favorite outreach exercises our education team has created here at work - G-MOD. High schoolers are given a lab in a box that contains everything they need to determine whether their favorite snack foods - Cheetos, Doritos, Oreo cookies and others - have been genetically modified.

• Students break open popular snack bags, pulverize the contents,
• Extract the DNA, amplify the DNA using PCR technology (which I like to refer to as a photocopier for DNA, giving you a larger sample of a specific part of the DNA to refer to)
• And finally, use a flash gel to determine whether the product they are analyzing has been modified.

Why do I like this experiment so much for high-schoolers? News flash! Every. single. processed. snack. food. we. eat. was created using "Roundup Ready" corn, created by a company called Montsanto.

Scary modified.

The concept was great - rather than farmers tilling their land for weeds, they use this special corn, douse their entire crop with Roundup (a Montesanto chemical product), then watch the weeds whither away as the corn crop thrives. Fantastic! Until the weeds cross-bred with the corn, creating super weeds. No joke. Read about it here.

O.K., now back to the fish:
AquaBounty Technologies is in the process of introducing a modified salmon to U.S. grocery store counters. According to their Web site the AquaAdvantage® fish -

Advanced-hybrid salmon, trout, and tilapia designed to grow faster than traditional fish. AquAdvantage® Salmon (AAS) reach market size twice as fast as traditional salmon. This advancement provides a compelling economic benefit to farmers (reduced growing cycle) as well as enhancing the economic viability of inland operations, thereby diminishing the need for ocean pens. AAS are also reproductively sterile, which eliminates the threat of interbreeding amongst themselves or with native populations, a major recent concern in dealing with fish escaping from salmon farms.

So, theoretically, they have all of the answers to the issues faced with Roundup ready crops. No worries! All problems solved! And apparently the FDA agrees, stating in pre-meeting documents that the studies conducted by AquaBounty show that the gene is safe for the salmon, safe for humans and safe for the environment.

Oh my - an AquAdvantage salmon behind a non-transgenic Atlantic salmon sibling of the same age. (via)

Critics primary problems with the fish include food safety concerns - primarily to do with allergies - and, like the Roundup Ready crops, cross-breeding with conventionally grown salmon.

AquaBounty has answers to all of these concerns, but many scientists maintain that the data to back up these claims of safety does not yet exist.

So, what to do? This topic is so fascinating to me because I actually don't know where I stand on the issue.

We want to reduce our dependency on foreign oil. We want to be sure all of our population is fed and healthy. We want to keep our farmers solvent... but some become outraged at the idea of modifying our crops to grow faster, more efficiently and in more places. How do we expect to use corn or soy to power our vehicles if we are growing only enough to eat?

Same goes for animals - We have a seafood watch list a mile long of fish we are not to eat because we have over-fished and these populations are dying out. What if we could enhance the growing of these fish. What if this advance in science enhanced the diet of families in countries who eat only rice, because that's what they can afford? Hell, what if this advance offered families here the chance to eat fish instead of fast and processed food that are typically the only offerings they can afford?

I can definitely understand the looming risks of mega corporations pushing their brands of herbicides and perfected DNA strains for world domination in their products, pushing out the little guy and ruining the environment in the process...

But I can also see an opportunity for millions more mouths to be fed with corn that grows in harsher environments, due to genetic modification. I can see a faster-growing fish not only feeding hungry families, but feeding them a product that is not over-fished and endangered.

What do you think? Panic? Celebrate? Wait?

For now, I go with wait. See what FDA says about AquaBounty. And hope they decide to label the GMO salmon at the store so I, and others, can make the decision to consume for ourselves.

The Patrick Swayze edition.

I have a great deal of faith in faith; if you believe something strongly enough, it becomes true for you. I would like to believe [...] that there's life after death -- because if there isn't, why are we here? I don't believe that just flesh and bones can contain from the point of view of physics this very real recorded energy inside of us. Whether it's true or not, we need to believe it.

...Said Swayze in his June 2009 interview with Barbara Walters - the first one he ever gave after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

He was facing the cancer that kills four out of five people who are diagnosed with the disease within a year. He was skinnier than I have ever seen him on T.V. or in the movies - frail and jaundiced looking. Terrifying. And terrifyingly familiar.

Every time someone notable is diagnosed with the cancer that killed my dad, I can't help compulsively following the story.

Randy Pausch - the college professor who wrote The Last Lecture, becoming a YouTube and Oprah phenomenon before passing away this summer. Whose book my friend has loaned but which I have yet gotten the guts to read.




Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

There's also this guy on the radio, former journalist Leroy Sievers (had to look him up to remember his name) who I used to listen to talk about cancer in my car in DC and cry on my way to painting class in Alexandria.

And now, Swayze. Star of two of my absolute favorite movies as a kid - Dirty Dancing and Ghost. And of two of J's favorite movies - Point Break and Roadhouse (har har).

There's something cathartic about reliving stories like my dad's over and over again. Feeling the punch in the gut and the subsequent lost of wind to the lungs of hearing another person to have pancreatic cancer. Watching the news and RSS feeds for any news of the person's condition to hear how they're battling with the disease. Grieving all over again when the inevitable news of their death makes the papers.

And for me, casually asking the scientists and grant writers at the institute if they're ever going to do work on pancreatic cancer. There was a grant apparently, but it didn't go through.

I guess that's part of it - telling your story over and over again in the hopes that someday it will all make sense, then seeking out others like you who are going through the same scenario. And watching. And waiting. And wondering if this will be the person who triumphs over the disease.

According to the American Cancer Society, for all stages of pancreatic cancer combined, the one-year relative survival rate is 20 percent, and the five-year rate is four percent. And if Patrick Swayze can't make it, things don't look so good for less visible patients.

What a downer.

Something happened today, though. A group of Clearview Cancer Institute volunteers toured the institute came to tour. During my time with them, I learned that all of the group members are either cancer survivors or caretakers of those with cancer. And they are touring the institute learning what work we're doing here in the laboratory is on it's way to their clinic. This made me feel good - and also interested in looking into volunteering at CCI. More on that as I find out.

In lieu of favors at our wedding, J and I will be making a donation to the American Cancer Society for our loved ones lost, my dad and his grandmother who died of brain cancer a few years ago. A friend walked for my dad over the summer in a Relay for Life in Ohio and sent photos of his luminaries along the track. Things like these help; and talking, and following the stories of others.

If you ever want to hear about my dad sometime, ask me. I'll gladly tell you all about him. Or tell me about your story. Something about the telling and re-telling helps us process, I think.

I want to have a co-ed Patrick Swayze movie-viewing party to honor the life of another who should be celebrated for his living accomplishments more than the grace with with he faced death.

Yeaaaaah Swayze:

Susan Boyle, i love you. Part two.

Let me count the ways.

Apparently, Susan Boyle is not only immensely talented, but she's her own woman as well. I seriously can't get enough of this woman.

Ever since she's been thrown into the international media spotlight with her Britain's Got Talent performance, everyone from Tina Fey to Larry King have been speculating whether Boyle would make an almost inevitable princess transformation.



Love that she says that she feels no need to change her personality for the show. Exactly right, why should she change.

Best to you, Susan Boyle, with or without the bushy eyebrows! Nice leather jacket, too. :)

Mail goggles and other life savers

This just in: Google creates idiot-proof Gmail. Love it. Too bad even though we use Gmail for work, I feed it through Entourage. Potentially even considering switching back to it's pure form 'cause these features are priceless:

• Five second send delay - in case you spot an awkward typo or accidental.
• "Are you sure?" reply all - so that (potentially snarky?) response intended solely for the sender doesn't reach all of those unintended recipients.
• The ever popular "Mail Goggles" (Doesn't this sound like one of their April Fool's jokes?)
  
• Facemail... corresponding photos with emails showing up in the to: line so that you don't accidentally autofill the wrong name...
• Attachment check. I do this at least three times a week. "Hmm. Sorry - here's the attachment." And I always catch it seconds after the darn thing sends.
  

[...]the lawyer for Eli Lilly who wanted to e-mail her co-counsel Bradford Berenson details of a negotiation but instead sent them to Alex Berenson, a reporter for the New York Times. The result was a front-page scoop revealing that Eli Lilly was talking with the government about a billion-dollar fine for improperly marketing its anti-psychotic drug Zyprexa. (And so much for the effectiveness of those lengthy legal disclaimers at the bottom of corporate e-mails.) - from Slate

Because sometimes doing something as easy as activating "Undo Send" in Gmail Labs under Settings, and you’ll see a new “Undo” link on every sent mail confirmation. Click “Undo,” Gmail grabs the message before it’s sent and take you right back to compose. Woohoo! Check out the full post here.

Now if only they'd create similar features for Facebook...

God's gift to women

In case you were unaware, Sunday was International Women's Day. Slate did a slideshow of famous women in the literary world. Stories of women gathering to observe the occasion (that I had no idea even existed) worldwide popped up on my Google reader all day long.

And then comes this article from The Independent about the Vatican getting in on the act.

As International Women’s Day is celebrated, the Vatican had a novel message for the women of the world: give thanks for the washing machine. This humble domestic appliance had done more for the women’s liberation movement than the contraceptive pill or working outside the home, said the the official Vatican newspaper, Osservatore Romano.

"In the 20th century, what contributed most to the emancipation of Western women?" questioned the article. "The debate is still open. Some say it was the pill, others the liberalisation of abortion, or being able to work outside the home. Others go even further: the washing machine."

Lovely! I mean, I get that the Vatican would not be any sort of proponent for the Pill. Or legalized abortion. Those are all topics that I fully believe everyone is entitled to their own opinion about...

But what about suffrage?! Or the right to equal work for equal pay - a privilege for which Alabama's own Lily Ledbetter fought all the way to the Supreme Court?

I'm uncomfortable with the word feminist because of the spectrum of different meanings it insinuates. But really - WTF? You don't have to be a feminist to find this laughable... or insulting?

Recovery.gov

Did you know that the massive U.S. economic stimulus plan has a Web site? And a logo?! I did not, until just now.

Going to have to check this out further when I am not up to my eyeballs in work projects because I am woefully under informed as far as the stimulus package goes.

Upon initial glance, though, I'm impressed with the site. I'm sure that a lot of it is pure PR, but as a PR person myself, I'm appreciating the language used on the site, timelines and graphs.

From recovery.gov:

This is your money. You have a right to know where it's going and how it's being spent. Learn what steps we're taking to ensure that you can track our progress every step of the way.

The site includes, among other things, a scrollable timeline with milestones, a place to share recovery stories, a link list of state specific recovery sites (only available in 12 states so far...), the full bill for reviewing and a message from the president.

Checking it out more thoroughly soon... What does everyone else think? Do you buy this? Are you skeptical? At this point for me, any sign of transparency and progress is better than nothing at all - and the approach taken here with an interactive Web site updated regularly is a great way to start.

Italian lawmakers are sleazier than ours!

I have been a negligent poster lately, mostly because I don't have a second to think about anything not work related, and when do come up for air, the last thing I want to do is spend more time on the computer.

This was too good, though. And it makes me feel better about our entire political system here in the U.S. - bank bailouts, bipartisan bickering and all.

On my way home from work yesterday, I heard this lovely piece about how Italian members of parliament were protesting a proposed fingerprint ID voting system because...

...they would actually have to be present to cast their votes. Um, SERIOUSLY?!

These guys apparently skip all the time (probably to conduct steamy affairs with Sophia Loren lookalike mistresses - in my head, anyway) and have their buddies lean over the table to hit their electronic voting button for them. Lawmakers are concerned that they will have to spend too much time in the chambers. The lawmakers. Don't want to waste their time. Casting their own (the public's?!) votes. And making laws. The lawmakers.

But they've reached a great compromise! In return for being so flexible and compliant with, oh, agreeing to complete their civic duties as lawmakers and being there for all the votes, they get an extra hour long coffee break each day! And a two hour break on Wednesdays! Gah, we all know how pesky those hump days are - they definitely call for a two hour break to make them more manageable.

So, let's not feel too badly about our politicians... It'd be interesting to see what state of affairs Italy is in right now. If they're better off than we are, perhaps we should consider coffee breaks for all!

Fingerprint voting not popular in Italy’s parliament (1:00) | PRI's The World

Posted using ShareThis

Tweeting a plane crash... mobile phone photographing a terror attack

...Or, how citizen journalism combined with social media continues to out report mainstream media.

The first time I remember regular people witnessing and recording newsworthy events with camera phones and pushing those images out through social media was during the terror attacks in London in 2005. Oddly enough, I was there. Two days after I arrived to Middlesex University outside of London for summer marketing classes, it was announced that London would host the 2012 summer Olympics.

The following morning, London erupted. Metro stations and city buses exploded with homemade explosives accompanied by homegrown terrorists. Young men from UK soil, brainwashed into demolishing their countrymen and women, systematically blew up local London transportation hubs.

After calling my mom and J to let them know that I was, in fact, alive and well (at 6 a.m. their time, before they even knew anything was amiss... "Uh, don't worry. Everything blew up here. I'm fine. Sorry to spring this on you first thing in the morning....") we all parked in front of the news, looking for answers about what happened, how many were killed... and why. The photo at the left is one that sticks in my mind from the days following those attacks... Passengers trapped in the tube after a tunnel caved in.

The news was thoroughly disappointing. They knew nothing. All they covered were statements from public officials and interviews with stunned victims and witnesses from the attack. The most compelling new information was consistently provided by those on the scene, snapping images with their phones and emailing them to friends and contacts from all over the world. These images, when they finally reached the news media, were far more informative than anything that London journalists were able to gather with their cutting edge video and camera equipment.

What's happened recently is one step beyond London.

Not only are witnesses and victims alike taking photos, but they are going further than emailing their captures to one friend at a time... They are posting images to social media outlets like Twitter in real time.

From an Information Week blog:

Within minutes there were hundreds of Tweets about the crash, complete with pictures from eyewitnesses and even one person who was on a NYC ferry headed to the crash site to pick up passengers.

Crash photos linked from Twitter were circulating all over the world before the story was even picked up by any of the major news outlets - and I'm talking websites, not just televised news! NYTimes.com, CNN.com, FoxNews.com... NOTHING.

Hell, back in December when another Continental flight skidded off of a Denver runway, crashing, a passenger live Tweeted the incident (this is actually kind of funny.... from The Guardian)

14 December, 4.06pm Whew! Christmas shopping pretty much done. 100% online except for a couple of gift certs.

20 December, 5.25pm Holy fucking shit, I was just in a plane crash!

5.58pm This was crash No 2 for me. Maybe I should start taking the bus.

8.22pm You have your wits scared out of you, drag your butt out of a flaming ball of wreckage and you can't even get a vodka-tonic. Boo.

11.22pm [From computer at home] Sorry for the radio silence, but my battery died in the middle of all this and I just made it home.

11.57pm Pretty exhausted at this point, so I'm heading off to bed. Good night!

21 December, 8.29am Waiting in the continental club for the "replacement" flight. Noticing I'm a little sore.

5.25pm I'm sitting as close to the exit as possible this time.

7.57pm Touchdown! Crowd goes wild!

All I can say is that if something this traumatic ever happens to me, I hope I have this guy's sense of humor about the scenario. And Tweeting it?! I barely have enough going on in my life to keep tweeting on a regular basis anyway. I guess a crisis might spice things up a bit...

Seriously... meh.

As it happens, the official Merriam-Webster word of the year is bailout.

The rest of the top 10 are as follows:

2. vet
3. socialism
4. maverick
5. bipartisan
6. trepidation
7. precipice
8. rogue
9. mysogyny
10. turmoil

Well, isn't that just the sunniest word wrap up you've ever heard?! Gah, new year, new buzzwords, better economy, I say!

None of my words made the MW.com list, but the gist is most certainly the same.

I am going to find something happier to post about soon. Until then, you should read Katie's musings - she's been leading quite the entertaining life lately. I honestly can't say anyone has fallen through the ceiling of my brand new house. Though, I can't say I've ever bought a house, either. I have some catching up to do!

Greetings from the future Texas Republic!

From the WSJ and CitizenSugar:

According to Igor Panarin, the US is going to disintegrate by June 2010, breaking into six portions under the control of various other world powers.

A polite and cheerful man with a buzz cut, Mr. Panarin insists he does not dislike Americans. But he warns that the outlook for them is dire.

"There's a 55-45% chance right now that disintegration will occur," he says. "One could rejoice in that process," he adds, poker-faced. "But if we're talking reasonably, it's not the best scenario -- for Russia." Though Russia would become more powerful on the global stage, he says, its economy would suffer because it currently depends heavily on the dollar and on trade with the U.S.

Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces -- with Alaska reverting to Russian control.

This is hilarious of course, for lots of reasons. Numbers one and two being that Canada would gain control over the Midwest and Mexico the Southeast. I love Canadians, really. And I know that out of all of the US regions, Midwesterners are probably the most mild mannered. However, I have a hard time envisioning Canada taking part of any takeover, hostile or otherwise. Unless it was a takeover of a Tim Horton's. Or perhaps a hockey riot. But even that one I'd be surprised to see....

How we'll be divvied up:

• California Republic: Formed by the Western states, this area would be controlled by China or be under Chinese influence
• Texas Republic: A cluster of states in the Southwest would go to Mexico.
• Atlantic America: Eastern states, from South Carolina to Maine, will join the European Union.
• Central North American Republic: Northern Midwest and Great Plain states will go to Canada.
• Hawaii: The state will become a territory of China or Japan.
• Alaska: Putin will rear his head into Alaskan air space, making Russia the proud new owner of the great state of Alaska.

This is mainly a comical post. However, this last piece of info. is a bit of a buzzkill...

The professor says he's convinced that people are taking his theory more seriously. People like him have forecast similar cataclysms before, he says, and been right. He cites French political scientist Emmanuel Todd. Mr. Todd is famous for having rightly forecast the demise of the Soviet Union -- 15 years beforehand. "When he forecast the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1976, people laughed at him," says Prof. Panarin.

Meh.

So, I did find a news piece during my Hotdogger writing last week that announces the introduction of the Simpson's-coined phrase, "meh" into the Collins English Dictionary 30th anniversary edition.

The greatest part about this news piece is that it actually explains "meh" purely by its existence.

Let me clarify. If any dictionary I've ever heard of added meh to its lexicon, I would be impressed. If meh were recognized as a word by, say, the OED, or even Merriam-Webster, that might warrant more than just an expression of indifference or boredom.

I s'pose these are all media stunts by dictionary PR people... (dictionary PR people... interesting... meh.) but at least Merriam-Webster has some national clout. They are the ones responsible for determining the word of the year, after all - which was w00t last year.

Merriam-Webster creates a list of the 10 most popular words of the year... new words enter the lexicon when MW editors "read and mark" news sources to find new words, define them, and track their usage. If a word looks like its starting to catch on in popular vocabulary, then editors consider adding the word into the MW lexicon.

The top 10 are voted upon by MW.com web visitors and aren't necessarily included into the official dictionary - (like w00t or facebook) but others are already part of the english language... like terrorist, or insurgent.

Sure, it's gimmicky, but I really like their top 10s - they're like a barometer for the national mood of each year.

The lists for the past few years really are interesting. For example, in addition to w00t, 2007 featured conundrum, hypocrite and charlatan. Hmmm, time for another election, perhaps?

2006 highlighted more war words - insurgent, terrorist, vendetta, sectarian, quagmire and war were all chosen by MW.com voters. On a lighter note, voters selected the Colbert-coined truthiness and google as a verb. (Gah, these voters are late adopters...)

2005 was the year of the natural disaster - top words included refugee, contempt, pandemic, tsunami, levee and inept (cough, FEMA, cough). The top word of '05 was integrity. Interesting.

I like how these top 10 lists are a a retrospective of their years...

Wonder what 2008 will bring - I'll bet on a few:

• recession
• depression
• downturn
• economy
• hope
• change
• joe six pack
  
• main street

I wonder when we'll ever get a nice, happy year again. There hasn't been one for a while... but I like hope and change. They would have sounded so lame and Pollyanna a few years ago, but by now we're all so sick of this we're ready for some optimism. Anyone else? Guesses for 2008?

I love words, but sometimes the best descriptor is not disgusted or fatigued or even desperate. Sometimes a simple meh best describes how over the state of everything we are. And a word like w00t describes how ready we are for something new.

Wanna work for Obama?

Better not have a blog, have ever written in a diary, have any questionable material on your Facebook account, have a spouse or significant other who lobbies or works for Fannie, Freddie, AIG or any company involved in the recent bailout...

While the first bit is common practice throughout the entire work world now, something makes me think President-Elect Obama's vetting process might be a tad more scrutinous.

Check out this NYT article outlining the changes Obama has made to the Presidential hiring process. (login required).

My personal favorite?

Under “Domestic Help,” the questionnaire asks the immigration status of applicants’ housekeepers, nannies, chauffeurs and yard-workers, and whether applicants have paid the required taxes for household employees.

Welcome to the new age of politics. I'm so glad that my help is all documented and accounted for.

Ouch...

Poor, poor Sarah. Might I also mention that this NYT Politics Blog post had one of the funnier headlines I've read all year -

Comment On Dit, "Prank Call"?

By Julie Bosman

OCALA, Fla. – Gov. Sarah Palin has been punk’d.

A pair of Canadian comedians, notorious for pranking politicians and heads of state, reached Ms. Palin on Saturday and pretended to be French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

According to an audio recording, a press aide handed the phone to Ms. Palin, who enthusiastically greeted the fake Sarkozy, “It’s so good to hear you, thank you for calling us.” She added, “We have such great respect for you, John McCain and I. We love you!”

Speaking in an exaggerated French accent, the fake Sarkozy asked Ms. Palin about the state of the race, dropped names of nonexistent Canadian officials, frequently interrupted her mid-sentence and told her he saw her as president one day.

“Maybe in eight years,” Ms. Palin said.

The duo, Sebastien Trudel and Marc-Antoine Audette, have pulled similar pranks on Mick Jagger, Bill Gates and French president Jacques Chirac.

At one point, he said that he shared her interest in hunting.

“Oh, very good, we should go hunting together,” Ms. Palin said.

He replied: “I just love killing those animals. Taking away life, that is so fun!”

She laughed politely.

He added: “As long as we don’t bring Vice President Cheney.”

More laughter from Ms. Palin. “No, I’ll be a careful shot,” she promised.

The call ended after about six minutes, when the host informed Ms. Palin that she had been pranked.

“Oh, have we been pranked?” Ms. Palin said. “What radio station is this?”

Tracey Schmitt, Ms. Palin’s spokeswoman, said in a statement: “Governor Palin received a phone call on Saturday from a French Canadian talk show host claiming to be French President Nicholas Sarkozy. Governor Palin was mildly amused to learn that she had joined the ranks of heads of state, including President Sarkozy, and other celebrities in being targeted by these pranksters. C’est la vie.”

At least it wasn't just her - they pranked Sarkozy, too. And points for the "mildly amused" and "C'est la vie" comments. Someone in her camp must be pretty witty...

Listen to the full audio here

'Eternal Sunshine' - but really. In mice.

I have been all over the Southeast this weekend touring with family, so I haven't yet had a chance to post this. I've been thinking about it ever since I heard the report on NPR last Wednesday.

From the BBC: (which, while this study took place in the US, is who NPR cited in their story...)

Scientists in the US say they have developed the ability to selectively wipe out uncomfortable memories.

In experiments with mice, researchers from the Medical College of Georgia were able to eliminate memories without any damage to the rodents' brains.

They suggested that the technique which works on a particular protein in the brain could, one day, be used to help humans overcome traumatic events.

However, the chief scientist said this was "years or even decades away".

Memories, even painful ones, are an important part of the learning process but for some people recalling traumatic events can be extremely damaging to their lives.

Scientists at the Medical College of Georgia say they have found a molecular mechanism that can rapidly remove specific memories.

The rest of the article goes into the scientific process of erasing the memories, at which point I switched off and started thinking about Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and how erasing memories couldn't possibly be as neat and tidy as swallowing a little pill and forgetting everything.

With the POSSIBLE extreme exception of, oh, I don't know, witnessing a violent crime or being at war - I can't imagine what good could come out of erasing painful memories.

Isn't that how we learn?