If U.S. Special Forces could only do something about Donald Trump's hair. In the meantime, we have links. Science:
How do you ID a dead Osama anyway?
Another Side of Tilapia, the Perfect Factory Fish
"Motivated reasoning," alternative medicine, and the anti-vaccine movement
Putting the science in science fiction
Other:
Is Cursive Dead? Not on your life.
A Double Dip Recession May Be Inevitable
The Economy Slows ("It has long been clear that economists do not see the world the way people experience it." Indeed)
Of Federal Research Grants and Dancing Bears
What's next?
IF CANTOR REALLY WANTS TO GO THERE.... (Republican revisionism about bin Laden has already begun)
Talk of the town: The etymology of UK places
13 Conservative Myths About Taxes -- Debunked
Ten Years On
cursive writing is moribund, and there's no reason to more than yawn. i'm training mine myself, but i have no illusions that this is more than an affectation for the sake of my personal aesthetics and vanity. i don't actually need cursive writing, or arguably any writing apart from a keyboard at all --- i'd bet most people don't, which is why everybody's handwriting stinks these days and there are no negative effects to be seen of it.
think back --- when was the last time you had to write anything that somebody else had to be able to read and make sense of, and yet chose to do it by hand? i'll bet most folks are like me, if we're writing any more than a mnemonic for ourselves we reach for a keyboard.
(seriously, signatures vulnerable to forgery? are written signatures even considered to legally authenticate anything anymore? most of the really big-money "signatures" you see these days are rubber-stamped on, or copy-pasted in photoshop. i may write mine with a fountain pen, but that's because i'm a weirdo.)
Thanks for the link, Mike!