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Screen Memories: Devotion to playthings and playmates, a fascination with bodily fluids and a queasy obsession with sex — these were what defined a movie hero not preoccupied with killing bad guys. Traditional romances and sex farces were supplanted by comedies of arrested male development, defensive glorifications of the right of boys to be boys, occasionally informed by the serious question of what it might mean to be a man. A.O. Scott, The New York Times
The Obama's Marriage: But the Obamas mix politics and romance in a way that no first couple quite have before. Almost 10 months ago, they swept into Washington with inauguration festivities that struck distinctly wedding-like notes: he strode down an aisle and took a vow, she wore a long white dress, the youthful-looking couple swayed to a love song in a ceremonial first dance and then settled into a new house. The New York Times
The Obama Marriage: This is the first installment in Slate's First Mates series, which will examine the marriages of the presidential candidates. Read Melinda Henneberger's introduction to the series here. In today's piece, Henneberger looks at Michelle Obama's role in the marriage. Next time, she considers Barack Obama's role, and what their partnership tells us about what kind of president he might be.
Ten Things Your Therapist Won't Tell You - Before picking a therapist, investigate the credentials of any candidate. Get referrals from your primary-care doctor, visit the websites of the American Psychological Association and the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, or check with a district branch of the American Psychiatric Association. To learn your state’s requirements or the status of individual therapists, try your state’s licensing and medical boards. SmartMoney Magazine (a publication of the WSJ)
The Patients Doctors Don’t Know - Medicare beneficiaries receive care from doctors who may not have been taught that heart attacks in octogenarians usually present without chest pain, or that confusion can be due to bladder infections, heart attacks or Benadryl. The New York Times
Six Patient Behaviors That Drive Doctors Nuts - Many doctors run into patients with bad habits, which makes diagnosing and treating them seem maddening. MedPage
Zahra Rahnavard demands apology from Iran’s President Ahmadinejad - She promised that her husband, if elected, would appoint women to Cabinet posts for the first time, and name many female deputy ministers and ambassadors. He would end discrimination and ensure that women were no longer treated as second-class citizens. TimesOnline (London)
Cum Laude in Evading Bandits - Buy a secondhand local cell phone for $20, outfit it with a local SIM card and keep it in your pocket. The New York Times (Nicolas Kristof ... well-traveled columnist)
Medicare and HMOs — The Search for Accountability: As a result of legislation enacted in 2003 by a Republican Congress enamored of private plans, HMOs and other health plans in the Medicare Advantage program are paid substantially more than Medicare would spend on similar beneficiaries under fee for service. New England Journal of Medicine
Brain Trainers; A Workout for the Mind: There is the question of whether any of these programs are as good as exercising your brain on your own — by playing chess, say, or learning to play a musical instrument. Possibly not, but they are convenient packages that integrate training from many areas. Scientific American
End the University as We Know It: The dirty secret of higher education is that without underpaid graduate students to help in laboratories and with teaching, universities couldn’t conduct research or even instruct their growing undergraduate populations. That’s one of the main reasons we still encourage people to enroll in doctoral programs. The New York Times
Perils of Ageism - Ageism is still rampant in America, and many old people themselves trade in unflattering stereotypes of the elderly, including helplessness and incompetence. Such caricatures are not only false and cruel, they are also unhealthy. Research has shown that old people who believe in negative age stereotypes tend to fulfill them. Science Daily
A To-Do List for the New FDA Commissioner - The [FDA] inspects only about 1% of imported fresh produce and seafood, and it has no authority to hold importerslegally accountable for unsafe food products. New England Journal of Medicine
QWERTY Love: Typewriters Endure In A Digital Age - Wallace Stegner felt electric typewriters and computers went too fast. He needed the mulling time of a manual, the slower ritual of rolling in the paper, poising fingers over the keys. NPR Morning Edition broadcast
The Supreme Court Decides an Important Case the Wrong Way: Why It Held that the Government Lacked the Power to Become a Trustee on Behalf of the Narragansett Tribe of Indians - This week, in deciding Carcieri v. Salazar, the Supreme Court continued its recent pattern. At issue in Carcieri was the power of the federal government to take into trust on behalf of the Narragansett Tribe of Indians a 31-acre parcel of land that the Tribe had purchased from a local developer. Writ
Regulators Delay New Rules for Testing Lead in Toys - But unless Congress acts, retailers and manufacturers still won't be allowed to sell products that don't comply with tougher lead standards that are set to take effect on Feb. 10. "Congress will need to address that issue — the CPSC cannot," Nancy Nord, acting chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, said in a statement.
The Nobel Prize and After; A Talk with Frank Wilczek - Then one day you walk into a laboratory and there are all these pipes, and liquid helium is flowing, and currents are coming in and out with complicated wiring, and somehow all this activity is supposedly corresponds to those little thoughts that you had. When this happens, it's magic
The Net Impact of Netbooks? It Depends on Who Uses Them for What — These small devices are a bright side to what analysts expect will be a slow year ahead for computer demand. Knowledge@Wharton Magazine
Trading on the Future - In the first few years of a contract, lenders are generally protected from bearing their share of the losses. And if a home appreciates over the life of an agreement, this approach could prove more costly than a conventional loan. WSJ
Medical Tourism: 2008 Survey of Health Care Consumers: Nearly 40 percent said they would travel outside the country for medical treatment, if the quality was comparable and the cost was cut in half. Deloitte
Imagine Being Old. First, Define Old. Your article discusses laudable efforts of medical schools and nursing homes to sensitize health professionals to the frequently severe limitations of the aged. But it did not mention the concept of functional age compared with chronological age. It is important to remember that a specific 85-year-old individual may be functioning like a healthy, alert 70-year-old with adequate hearing and even good vision. Letters, The New York Times
Seniors Tap Into Texting - The fastest-growing group of cellphone users, older adults are eager to train their thumbs to do more than dial. Washington Post
States move to regulate senior guardians - California this year joined six other states — Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Nevada, Texas and Washington — in regulating professional guardians appointed by courts to manage the finances and day-to-day needs of those who can no longer help themselves. Stateline.org
The "staycation" is a tiresome, overhyped vacation strategy: Every few years a cutesy new vacation term dreamed up by some marketing types starts making the rounds. There were "babymoons" (a trip just before having a baby) and "oblications" (those mandatory trips to see the relatives. This year the term I became tired of in, oh, late March is "staycation." Seattle Times
Ultrasound at center of state abortion wars - Since the 1980s, doctors have used so-called ultrasound imaging to monitor the fetus during pregnancy. The images have become so widespread that abortion foes say the technology has fundamentally changed the way people think about abortion. This year, Oklahoma legislators handily overrode Democratic Gov. Brad Henry’s veto to pass a first-in-the-nation law making the procedure mandatory at least one hour prior to all abortions. Stateline
