Johnson & Johnson Teams With Mass General On Cancer Blood Test — A blood test for metastatic cancer at the individual cellular level is going into trials. Availability of a teat like this would be huge for me personally. (Thanks to DF!)
We won't go the way of the dinosaurs — Meteorites feature in plenty of disaster films, but they are unlikely to obliterate us – and may even have helped enrich Earth's ecology. (Via io9.com.)
Deep Space and Human Motivations — Another interesting essay from Centauri Dreams.
Is it ever OK to use the term "Missing Link"? — Hmmm. (Via Dispatches from the Culture Wars.)
The meaning of meaning: Fish v. Scalia — Language Log on originalism.
Why Is Stanley Kurtz Calling Obama a Socialist? — I like this essay, but I think the answer is simpler. In the rhetoric of conservative America, "socialist" has become divorced of either its political or philosophical meaning and simply come to signify "person whose views are more liberal than mine (and therefore dangerous to me personally and to the Republic)". Another masterpiece of right wing framing that obviates any need for compromise or debate. Or, frankly, self-reflection on the part of the utterer.
Religious Divorce Dispute Leads to Secular Protest — A curious story about a dispute in the Orthodox Jewish community. The last line, however, strikes me as bizarre.
?otD: What's that watermelon doing here?
1/4/2011
Writing time yesterday: 1.25 hours (1,600 words on book one of Sunspin)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 6.25 hours (solid)
Weight: 249.4
Currently reading: Salamanca by Dean Francis Alfar