Sightings

Joan Cannon wrote: Empathy isn’t born into everyone, but it should be possible to be trained into those who don’t possess it to begin with. Most people are uncomfortable in the presence of what they see as authority. That’s the way most patients see their doctors. A physician who can be useful to her will know she has sustained an emotional injury before she tells him what it is. Then that doctor will have a real sense of how that must feel, not a merely intellectual knowledge of facts of average months’ duration of acute grief. more »

Picking five servings of fruits and vegetables from the 12 most-contaminated products would result in consuming an average of 14 different pesticides a day. Choosing five servings from the 15 least contaminated fruits and vegetables would result in consuming fewer than two pesticides per day. more »

In Alabama lawmakers passed an immigration crackdown that goes even further than last year’s lightning-rod measure in Arizona. Republicans required voters to show photo ID in Alabama, Kansas, South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin, with dozens of similar measures being debated around the country. more »

Questions have been raised about the social impact of widespread use of social networking sites (SNS) like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Twitter. Over half of all adult SNS users are now over the age of 35. Some 56% of SNS users now are female. more »