Sunny but unseasonably cold. Time for some links. Science:
A new understanding of the evolutionary path of modern humans: Researchers find evidence of interbreeding between Neandertals and modern humans
Climate Change and the Integrity of Science
E. coli forces lettuce recall; 19 ill in 3 states
Germs, germs, everywhere (but what is one to think?)
Other:
Surveillance Over the Federal Reserve: On the Sanders Amendment to the Dodd Senate Financial Regulation Bill
Nearly 40 Million Now on Food Stamps
Why Is Business Writing So Awful?
Auto-Semiotic Asphyxiation
They Were Just Kidding
Groundhog Day for Oil
Whom Does the State Represent?
What is Money?
More like this
Here's some sheer awesomeness in the form of an explanation of germ theory denialism:
Nature study has taken a turn from the macroscopic to the microscopic.
People believe a lot of wacky things. Some of these things are merely amusingly wacky, while others are dangerously wacky. Among the most dangerously wacky of things that a large number of people believe in is the idea that germ theory is invalid.
The longer I'm in this whole skepticism thing, the more I realize that no form of science is immune to woo. For example, even though I lament just how many people do not accept evolution, for example, I can somewhat understand it.