Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: Secret of Prozac’s Success Revealed:
New research in specially bred mice has elucidated how the antidepressant Prozac works. Scientists have long known that in addition to discouraging synapses from reabsorbing the neurotransmitter serotonin, Prozac (known generically as fluoxetine) also increases the number of neurons (neurogenesis) in the adult brain.
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“Together, these results suggest that the fluoxetine-induced increase in the number of ANP precursors in the [brain] later translates into an increase in the number of new neurons,”
(Via Scientific American.)
All the President’s Books (Minding History’s Whys and Wherefores) - New York Times:
In recent months a floodlet of books has been published about President Bush, his administration and the war in Iraq.
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Yet taken together with earlier volumes, these books create a cumulative and, in many respects, surprisingly coherent portrait of the Bush White House and its management style.
Read on…
(Via The New York Times.)
‘Becoming Eichmann’ by David Cesarani - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times:
Eichmann’s ordinariness proved that normality was no protection against the commission of terrible crimes. “It would have been very comforting indeed to believe that Eichmann was a monster,” she writes; melodrama, after all, with its white hats and black hats, is a form of absolution. But she will have none of that. She points an accusing finger at us all. So does Cesarani. Under the right circumstances, normal people will commit mass murder, he says, and the circumstances of our age — with its racism, ethnic cleansing, suicide bombers and genocidal killings — are ominous. “Eichmann appears more and more like a man of our time,” are his concluding words. “Everyman as génocidaire.”
An enthralling review of ‘Becoming Eichmann’ by David Cesarani that compares this, the first full biography of Eichmann since the 1960’s, to the seminal work done by Hannah Arendt for the New Yorker and later in her book Eichmann in Jerusalem. It is a fascinating look into both the scholarly discourse surrounding this particular facet of Holocaust history, as well as the broader questions such topics raise regarding the nature of evil, (and of course, how that informs our view of Eichmann).
(Via The New York Times.)
Chinese tourists: The next big wave - Print Version - International Herald Tribune:
For the first time, large numbers of Chinese are leaving their country as tourists, resulting in an unprecedented explosion in Chinese travel. And if current projections are met, the global tourism industry will be undergoing a crash course in everything Chinese to meet the needs of what promises to be the greatest wave of international travelers ever.
(Via International Herald Tribune.)
Skype’s U.S. overture - Print Version - International Herald Tribune:
Skype, the Internet telephone company, has said it will allow consumers in the United States and Canada to make free phone calls, a promotional move that is a new blow to conventional voice calling services.
The offer, announced Monday, extends through the end of the year. It covers calls to traditional land-line phones or cellphones within the United States and Canada from computers or a new category of Internet-connected phones running Skype software.
I knew about this before, but this is as good a time as any to blog it!
Get skyping!
(Via International Herald Tribune.)
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