Inexact Copies: How Generics Differ From Brand Names - Some patients are more sensitive to those differences than others, and people who experience problems with medications are advised to contact their doctors, the drug manufacturer and the FDA's MedWatch. But as an FDA report last week on generic Wellbutrin revealed, consumers who complain may not get much satisfaction. MarketWatch

 

Rules for Giving; Tax laws have changed in recent years with regard to charitable donations. Humorist Dave Barry once quipped that our tax laws constantly change "as our elected representatives seek new ways to ensure that whatever tax advice we receive is incorrect." WSJ

Vengeance Is Ours, What can tribal societies tell us about our need to get even? Among Highland clans, each killing demands a revenge killing, so that a war goes on and on, unless political considerations cause it to be settled, or unless one clan is wiped out or flees. Jared Diamond in The New Yorker

The Murky Politics of Mind-Body - This month, the House passed a bill that would require insurance companies to provide mental health insurance parity. It was the first time it has approved a proposal so substantial. The bill would ban insurance companies from setting lower limits on treatment for mental health problems than on treatment for physical problems, including doctor visits and hospital stays. It would also disallow higher co-payments. The New York Times

The Role of the Superdelegates: Could They Thwart the Choice of a Majority of Democratic Primary Voters? - It would surely be preferable if the superdelegates became superfluous because one candidate or the other gained a decisive edge among the pledged delegates. But let's assume this does not happen and the superdelegates are forced into a central role. How should they behave? Writ

Politics and Misogyny - Little attention is being paid to the toll that misogyny takes on society in general, and women and girls in particular. Bob Herbert in The New York Times

Physics in the Multiuniverse - It could well be that the whole idea of multiple universes is misleading. It could well be that the discovery of the most fundamental laws of physics will make those parallel worlds totally obsolete in a few years. It could well be that with the multiverse, science is just entering a "no through road." CERN Courier

Justices question timing of voter ID challenge - The law was in place for the congressional races in 2006, and the high court’s decision could determine whether Indiana can use it for this year’s presidential race. It could also affect similar laws in Florida, Georgia and Missouri. Stateline.org

Witness to the Mysteries of Death and the Gift of Life - [Real life model for Patricia Corwell's Kay Scapetta, the chief medical examiner character, Dr. Marcella Fierro] won't tell you, until you ask, about the literal skeleton closet she keeps of all the bones of all the people she could never identify and that haunt her to this day. Washington Post

Ten Things You Didn't Know About Conan Doyle - Six days after his death, Conan Doyle appeared at his own memorial service attended by 6,000 people in the Albert Hall — or so claimed the medium Estelle Roberts who was conducting proceedings. In keeping with his spiritualist beliefs, an empty chair had been reserved for him — and he duly obliged with his presence. Andrew Lycett in The Times

Seniors becoming old hands at Wii - Nintendo has managed to pull off that rarest of retail doubleheaders. Its Wii game console was among the hot gifts last Christmas. This year, if possible, it's even hotter. So if you're in the market for one — good luck to you, and you're going to need it, because you might have to fight your grandma to get one. NPR's Marketplace

Meditations On An Apple - In a place in the world known as Ladakh, before each meal, members of the community take a moment to close their eyes. In the quiet moment, they give thanks for the meal by picturing the face of each person who contributed to bringing the meal to the table and remembering them. Center for EcoLiteracy

Artificial Joints That Talk - Smart artificial joints are still years away. Even if Zimmer makes the device, it would have to go through many rounds of tests in patients and government approval. In the end, we might not have artificial knees that are everlasting and perfect, but they might be smart enough to indicate that they are going to fail. IEEE Spectrum

The Imperatives of Narrative: Health Interest Groups and Morality in Network News - Interest groups have developed a keen sense of what the news media sees as desirable in crafting a story and have marshaled substantial resources in order to deliver these goods. The American Journal of Bioethics

Last Words from the "Queen of Mean: Devoted pet owners often try to provide for their animals in wills, but animals are not valid will beneficiaries. A trust, then, would seem like the perfect device to provide for a pet, since the nature of a trust is that money is given to one person to care for another. The problem is, however, that an age-old rule designed to limit the duration of trusts makes such trusts invalid, too. Writ

The expert's advantage - Chess isn't the only game in town. Another more preliminary finding published in the June Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied (Vol. 13, No. 2) finds that Scrabble experts may also age more gracefully on some cognitive tasks. Monitor on Psychology

The names we use for people over 50 - That's the question facing journalists who write about retirement and aging. But the issue goes beyond the language those in the media use. The words we all choose to describe people in midlife and beyond – ourselves and others – help to define and shape attitudes about the later years, both positive and negative. Christian Science Monitor

Bibliotherapy: Reading Your Way To Mental Health - Now, mental-health professionals in the UK, the US and elsewhere are determined to distinguish the most proven offerings. The aim is to recommend books that have been shown to be successful in published trials conducted by reputable, independent researchers. WSJ

First Armed Robots on Patrol in Iraq - After years of development, three "special weapons observation remote reconnaissance direct action system" (SWORDS) robots have deployed to Iraq, armed with M249 machine guns. Wired

Will Parental Age-Verification Keep Teens Safe on Networking Sites? Why the Answer is No - MySpace and other networking sites claim they are exempt from COPPA [Children's Online Privacy Protection Act] because they restrict membership to teens 14 years and older. But if they are in error about their membership, they may pay a heavy price. Writ

Raging, Aging Sisters Prove It's Good to Be a Woman - Some of us were also the first members in our families to break social conventions: to live with a man without being married, to claim a lesbian life. We got divorced in significant numbers. The drive for equality and "self-actualization" put pressure on relationships. Washington Post

From a 2003 New Yorker article, You're Getting Married: For every vow exchanged there is, it is hoped, a sweeping gown of satin and tulle to be sold; for every aisle walked, a trailing cloud of veil. Every kiss bestowed at the altar, under the huppah, or before the justice of the peace is, potentially, an occasion for the use of a silver-plated wedding-cake knife or a leather-bound guest book or a frilly lace garter threaded with blue ribbon.

2007 World’s Most Ethical Companies - In assembling the 2007 rankings of the World’s Most Ethical Companies, the researchers and editors of Ethisphere examined more than 5,000 companies across 30 separate industries looking for true ethical leadership. Ethisphere

Is it a Crime to Prescribe Medication in Cyberspace? Congress is currently considering new legislation that would crack down on online pharmacies that provide prescription medications without patients having to visit a physician. Writ

How do you tell when a firm is really green? Is the greening of US business real – or just a fad? A panel discussion with two experts who research companies that claim to be Earth-friendly. CSM

A touch of the oh-la-las: Why do French women always look so chic? While I was researching my book on French women, one lady did admit that looking good can be a full-time job. “By the time you've got down to your toes, it’s time to start at the top again,” she said. “Sometimes, it all becomes a bit much, but it’s not part of our genetic make-up to just let ourselves go.”

Drug Safety Reform at the FDA — Pendulum Swing or Systematic Improvement? The FDA needs more resources, and the only feasible way to provide them this year is a combination of greater user fees and the maximum possible increases in federal appropriations. New England Journal of Medicine

Va. Tech tragedy revives gun controversy - All but two states — Illinois and Wisconsin — allow permit holders to carry concealed weapons. Stateline.org

Whistle blowing heroes are also willing to lift the veil of secrecy that usually conceals the truth, greed and illegal practices.  In response to pressures to be a team player, to get with the program, to see the situation in ways others frame it, these heroes are willing to resist those social and career pressures and see the situation not the way it is,” but rather in the way it should be. Heroic Imagination; A Talk with Philip Zimbardo In Edge

The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Undercuts Sexual Harassment Victims' Rights: Why didn't Baldwin complain right away? Her goal, she testified, was to "just go along to get along." Research shows that this is the typical reaction of victims in her situation, who face many deterrents to complaining about harassment, such as retaliation, ostracization by co-workers, and being labeled a "complainer" to name just a few. Johanna Grossman for FindLaw's Writ

Boomer Boon: 'Crazy Aunts and Uncles' Spend $1.7 Trillion - The ad business is woefully out of touch with baby-boomer buying power. Advertising Age

Mind-Set Matters - Housekeepers might not perceive their job as exercise, but if their mind-set is shifted so that they become aware of the exercise they get, then health improvements would be expected to follow. Association for Psychological Science

Masculine side of HPV: Human papillomavirus is common in men too. Studies are underway to determine if a male vaccine is needed. Los Angeles Times (pre-registration is needed)

Subliminal advertising leaves its mark on the brain - Dr Bahador Bahrami, of the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and the UCL Department of Psychology, said: “ These findings point to the sort of impact that subliminal advertising may have on the brain. What our study doesn’t address is whether this would then influence you to go out and buy a product. I believe that it’s likely that subliminal advertising may affect our decisions – but that is just speculation at this point.” University College London

Dresselhaus Wins L'Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science Prize - Now, nearly 50 years after earning her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, Dresselhaus is one of MIT's 12 active Institute Professors, the highest honor the university bestows on faculty. (Dresselhaus was the first woman to be receive the title.) Seed Magazine

Preserving Ideas - Suppose there's a James Thurber, Mark Twain or Truman Capote or George Harrison among us, wouldn't that person likely be creating on the web, and shouldn't their work last longer than their own lives? Dave Winer

The Doctor Won't See You Now - In a survey released on Jan. 9 by PricewaterhouseCoopers, 94% of physicians, hospital execs, and other health-care stakeholders said they think drug companies spend too much money promoting their products. And 94% of consumers said these companies can be too aggressive in promoting unapproved, "off-label" uses of their products--an illegal tactic.BusinessWeek Online

Unhappy Meals - Sooner or later, everything solid you thought you knew about the links between diet and health gets blown away in the gust of the latest study. (Previous registration required at The New York Times)

Scientific Fraud - In June, European investigators reported that the bulk of papers by Jon Sudbø, formerly a cancer researcher at the Norwegian Radium Hospital in Oslo, contained bogus data. Those included two articles in The New England Journal of Medicine that described a new way of identifying people at high risk of oral cancer, a strategy that many clinicians were keen to apply to patients. Science Magazine

To make amends for emissions, businesses try offsets - Does building a wind-power plant in Brazil make up for pumping out greenhouse gases in the United States? That's the premise of offsets — the business of buying compensation for emissions that companies can't or won't eliminate. Christian Science Monitor

Short Mental Workouts May Slow Decline of Aging Minds, Study Finds - Ten sessions of exercises to boost reasoning skills, memory and mental processing speed staved off mental decline in middle-aged and elderly people in the first definitive study to show that honing intellectual skills can bolster the mind in the same way that physical exercise protects and strengthens the body. Washington Post

Pray for Coal; The 10 most dangerous play things of all time - It shouldn't be surprising, then, that an accident involving a wayward spear and the semi-permeable head of a seven-year-old resulted in the toys' being banned from the market in 1988. Sadly, today's underage boys will never know the primal excitement of a summer's evening spent impaling friends before suppertime. Radar

Polonium Human-Injection Experiments - In 1944, in response to concerns for the risk associated with occupational exposures to polonium, the Army Medical Corps authorized Rochester to undertake a study of the biological behavior of that element. The program was started in August 1944 with animals, and by November, studies with humans had begun. Eventually, tracer amounts of radioactive polonium-210 were injected into four hospitalized humans and ingested by a fifth. Federation of American Scientists

America the charitable: a few surprises - The philanthropy of the wealthy may not hinge on tax incentives to the degree many believe. In one new survey, a majority of wealthy givers say they would contribute the same amount if the estate tax were abolished. CSM

One look says it all; Women beat men at the task of being attuned to a familiar face - There must be some more complex social aspects that train people to be more responsive to known people than strangers, and make women (in this university department, at least) better at it than men. Nature

A Parting Shot From George Allen - The argument behind the bill is that national park regulations unfairly strip many Americans of a right they may enjoy outside the parks. The bill has passed to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, where we hope it will die the miserable death it deserves. New York Times (requires registration)

Robert Gates on Openness, Oversight - "I sat in the Situation Room in secret meetings for nearly twenty years under five Presidents, and all I can say is that some awfully crazy schemes might well have been approved had everyone present not known and expected hard questions, debate, and criticism from the Hill," he wrote in his 1996 memoir From the Shadows (p. 559). Steven Aftergood in Secrecy News Blog

How People See Themselves - Nowadays anyone who wants to draw attention to themselves can. The Internet enables us to become multi-media media producers. Since it started up a year ago, over 50 million people have already uploaded personal short videos onto the video platform YouTube.com. Hubert Burda in The Edge

No Heart Risk for Women Who Favor Protein Over Carbs - MaryAnn McLaughlin, M.D., M.P.H., medical director of the cardiac health program at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, said the study by Dr. Halton and colleagues was "an important addition to the ongoing debate as to what type of diet is best." MedPage Today

Republican Mudslinging On An Industrial Scale - The Republican ads variously accuse Democratic candidates of such things as charging an "adult fantasy" phone call to taxpayers, of being a "hypocrite," of being a "greedy trial lawyer," of being a "millionaire know-it-all," or of failing to pay local business taxes on time. One ad describes a Democrat's "ethical judgments" as "bad to bizarre" and claims he favored use of 50,000-volt Taser weapons on seven-year-olds. FactCheck.org

Porsche. Red. Finally. She waited years to get her dream car - I have two boys and a daughter. They'd love to have this car. I'm not selfish with anything, but I don't share the Porsche with anyone. SF Chronicle

Patients Unfamiliar with Stroke Symptoms and Urgency - Investigators at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said that a majority of highly educated and medically sophisticated patients were largely unaware they were having an acute ischemic stroke and urgently needed care. MedpageToday

Judgment Call; How top editors decide whether to publish national security stories based on classified information — [Editors] have chosen to answer passionate — often virulent — denunciations by explaining the painstaking path that national security stories travel to publication. American Journalism Review

If We Must Ration Vaccines for a Flu, Who Calls the Shots? The elderly are more likely to die if they catch the flu. But they also have fewer years left to live and don't get out enough to easily spread or catch the disease. The kids are more likely to act like little Typhoid Marys, sneezing virus over anyone they encounter, and have almost their whole life ahead of them. But they're also less likely to die if they get sick. Whom do you vaccinate? Wall Street Journal (free content)

How 9-11 Changed the Evening News - The number of minutes devoted to coverage of foreign policy was up 102%, according to ADT's data. Coverage of armed conflict rose 69%. Coverage of terrorism rose 135%. At the same time, there has been a serious decline in reporting about domestic issues. Coverage of crime and law enforcement dropped by half (47%). Science and technology coverage fell by half (50%). Coverage of issues involving alcohol, tobacco and drugs dropped 66%. Project for Excellence in Journalism

I'm Gonna Keep That Gray - Most days, I feel confident and hip in my silver hair. I've earned it after going through the death of my father, divorce and remarriage, my mom's two major surgeries, and the long illness and death of a best friend. But more important, I like it — the way it looks and what it says about my independence and rebelliousness. Slate

Fighting back against the PR presidency ... this is the time for reporters and editors, whether from the mainstream media or blogosphere, to pause before responding to the latest bulletin, prepared event, or the most recent statement or backgrounder, whether from the White House or the Democratic or Republican leadership on Capitol Hill. Walter Pincus in Neiman Reports

Back to the Future - These creations didn't necessarily match real-life developments in housing, but they stand as an often-entertaining, always-interesting testimony to their creators' intellect and imagination. Residential Architect

Who's Ruining Our National Parks?[Paul Hoffman's] attempts to radically alter the National Park Service mission, however, have provoked a public outcry among the parks' true stewards, including one man, in Death Valley, who's standing his ground. Vanity Fair

It isn't just Seattle that's sleepless - Wealthy white women get a better night's sleep, on average, than other population groups, a recent study by researchers at the University of Chicago found. But no one gets as much sleep as they believe. MedPageToday

Theoretical Blueprint for Invisibility Cloak Reported - Once devised, the cloak could have numerous uses, from defense applications to wireless communications, the researchers said. Such a cloak could hide any object so well that observers would be totally unaware of its presence, according to the researchers.

Hospitals move to cut dangerous lab errors - Experts note that many mistakes are caught by doctors, nurses or other staffers in time to avoid patient harm. But often such mistakes slip through the cracks -- and even the best-trained pathologists may misread a slide because the specimen isn't good enough or they just don't see the cancer cells. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reprint of a WSJ article

News Media Reporting of Medical Research Is Criticized - 34% of studies did not mention study size; 18% did not mention study design (more than a third of these were so ambiguous that the reviewers had to guess the design); 40% did not quantify the main result; 94% of reports about animal studies failed to mention that the results might not be applicable in humans; 90% of stories about uncontrolled studies failed to point out that the it was impossible to conclude that the result was associated to treatment; 12 news stories mentioned that the study was also reported in a medical journal; only two of the news articles about the 175 unpublished studies noted that the findings were not published, might not have been peer reviewed, and could change prior to publication. MedPageToday

Dark Material - Scientists have had a bad literary press: Dr Frankenstein, Dr Moreau, and especially Dr Strangelove. This lecture commemorates a man who was the utter antithesis of Strangelove. Jo Rotblat was a nuclear scientist. He helped to make the first atomic bomb. But for decades thereafter, he campaigned to control the powers he'd helped unleash. Martin Rees delivering the Rotblat Memorial Lecture

Behind the Times- I’m heartened by the fact that the only bells and whistles to be found in any of these reissues are the ones supplied by the imaginations of the readers. I can only hope that a few of today’s overprogrammed babies will be allowed to experience the magic of interacting with something as low-tech as a book. Horn Book

New Generation Of Granddads Is Helping Raise the Kids - At 70 years old, Chicago attorney George McAndrews has five children and 17 grandchildren — all living within a mile of his house. He baby-sits and helps with homework. One weekend last month, eight of his grandchildren had baseball games, and two had soccer matches. He made it to six of their sporting events, plus the flute/violin recital of four granddaughters. "There's a playpen in my office," he says. "That's my symbol that children are always welcome there." WSJ

Rocky Mountain News special report, Final Salute - In the past 12 months, he has seen inside the caskets, learned each Marine’s name and nickname, touched the toys they grew up with and read the letters they wrote home. He has held grieving mothers in long embraces, absorbing their muffled cries into the dark blue shoulderof his uniform.

The Science of Happiness - People often bristle at the suggestion that human behavior is merely an attempt to attain happiness. They offer two objections. First (they say), people care about many things other than happiness — for example, truth, justice, and the American way — and thus there is more to life than happiness. Second (they add), there are different kinds of happiness — for example, the deep, moral happiness I feel when I save starving orphans isn't the cheap, bovine happiness I feel when I save money. Both objections are wrong. Daniel Gilbert interviewed for The Edge

MIT poet develops 'seeing machine' — Elizabeth Goldring developed the machine over the last 10 years, in collaboration with more than 30 MIT students and some of her personal eye doctors. MIT News

A Gibson Girl in New Guinea - Two Seattle women have retraced the intrepid travels of model and portrait artist Caroline Mytinger, who journeyed to the South Sea islands in the 1920s to capture “vanishing primitives” on canvas. Smithsonian Magazine

From Camp to Community: Liberia study on exploitation of children - Respondents estimated that a high proportion of girls, in both the camps and returnee communities, are involved. The girls reportedly ranged in age from eight to eighteen years, with girls of 12 years and upwards identified as being regularly involved in ‘selling sex’. Save the Children (UK)

License to Harm - Dozens of [sexual misconduct] cases were opened for the first time through legal challenges filed by the newspaper. In ruling for The Times, the Washington Attorney General's Office said that state health officials had been improperly withholding public information for more than a decade. The Seattle Times

Avoiding the Volunteer Trap - There also are more opportunities to choose from. The steady increase in two-worker families means that nonprofit groups have lost much of their volunteer base and, thus, are scrambling to recruit help. WSJ

Quoth the Raven: I Bake Cookies, Too - Surely Germany, cradle of the kindergarten and home to some of the world's most generous maternity-leave policies, would do everything it could to make life easier for mothers who work, right? Well, no. The New York Times (requires first time registration)

Secret EPA Rule Would Allow More Carcinogens in Air - The draft rule would seriously erode existing standards under the Clean Air Act by permitting thousands of oil refineries, hazardous waste incinerators, chemical plants and steel mills to increase their emissions by as much as 50,000 pounds a year. Natural Resources Defense Council