Author: admin

“Libraries raised me. I don’t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries, because most students don’t have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.”
via Despite Ray Bradbury’s Efforts, A California Library Closes – NYTimes.com.

AS long as laptops and ebook reader and other ways to consume books/information are not free or near free government has to step in and fill the gap. We must reform education in such a way as to accommodate people who learn outside of the school system.  I wonder where they are going to send those books? maybe they could donate it to Philippine Municipal Libraries, just a thought.

There are other explanations for the widespread unease with Islam: its frequent association with jihad and terrorism; the demands by Muslims for special considerations that go against the European norm, such as segregation by gender at public swimming pools; practices like polygamy, which is illegal in many Western countries; and a sense that some Muslims do not value, or even repudiate, values that are at the core of European civilization, such as free speech and the separation of church and state.
None of these issues has anything to do with minarets, which are generally built alongside Europe’s large urban mosques, where the imams are usually moderate establishment figures. Those imams who preach jihad don’t do it from minarets. Indeed, extreme imams are more typically found in storefront mosques.
Europe’s ability to integrate its Muslim citizens is one of the continent’s major social challenges. Stigmatizing religions is not a helpful starting point. Most experts, the police and even those who took part agree that the riots in France’s suburban ghettoes in 2005 had more to do with the failure of social policies, rather than a resurgent Islam.
Issues like minarets or the burqa — the head-to-toe garment worn by a small number of Muslim women that is being targeted by President Sarkozy — are beside the point of that bigger social challenge.
via Letter from Europe – Minarets and Slender Arguments – NYTimes.com.

Just like Prozac?
A previous study showed that the antidepressant fluoxetine (Prozac) also increases new cell growth, and the results indicated that it was this cell growth that caused Prozac's anti-anxiety effect. Zhang wondered whether this was also the case for the cannabinoid, and so he tested the rats for behavioural changes.
When the rats who had received the cannabinoid were placed under stress, they showed fewer signs of anxiety and depression than rats who had not had the treatment. When neurogenesis was halted in these rats using X-rays, this effect disappeared, indicating that the new cell growth might be responsible for the behavioural changes.
via Marijuana might cause new cell growth in the brain – health – 13 October 2005 – New Scientist.