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Breast implants and a rare cancer: Did the FDA go far enough?

Breast implants have been the subject of controversy since they were first developed in the 1960s, with the controversy reaching a head in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when thousands of women with silicone implants reported a variety of ailments, including autoimmune disease and a variety of other systemic illnesses. These reports led to a rash of lawsuits and, ultimately, the banning of silicone breast implants for general use for breast augmentation in 1992. After that, silicone breast implants were only permitted in women requiring breast reconstruction or women enrolled in clinical…

Dr. Jay Gordon: Will you please stop claiming you're not an antivaccinationist?

I knew it. I just knew it. I just knew that when I finally decided to come back from my absence from this blog that something very unpleasant and sad would be waiting for me. True, there had actually been one very nasty thing that I simply had to deal with a few days ago, but that was a particularly vile and despicable human being who, believe it or not, was not John Best. That is not the case here, although the misinformation being pushed is truly disturbing. Not surprisingly, what awaited me upon my decision to come back was posted earlier this week on that repository of antivaccine…

Cancer research and clinical trials

During the month of June on this blog, I got annoyed not once, but twice. First, I got annoyed at Sharon Begley for a truly annoying and evidence-free (other than cherry-picked anecdotes) broadside against the NIH for its "culture of caution" that, according to her, is largely responsible for the "lack of progress" against cancer over the last 38 years since President Richard Nixon declared "war on cancer." In essence, Begley blamed the need scientists have for publishing in the highest impact journals they can get their manuscripts into for "delaying" cures or, as I put it, "keeping teh…

Obesity and diet: The first law of thermodynamics doesn't entirely apply?

Remember Sandy Szwarc of Junkfood Science? It's been a long time since we've last encountered her. Indeed, it was last year when there developed a debate on whether her posts were suitable for the Skeptics' Circle. At the time, I was conflicted. In many ways, Ms. Szwarc seemed to be a skeptic--at least, when it came to most topics. However, when it comes to one topic, she is a crank, and that is the topic of the relationship between diet, obesity, and health. It's not obvious that she is a crank, and it took my reading her blog over several weeks before I came to the inescapable conclusion…

What we're up against: Aluminum as the new mercury and end of expertise

Forgive me, dear readers. I realize that I've already subjected you once to the contagious supernova of stupidity that is an Olmsted on Autism blog post. I broke my usual rule about not directly linking to the crank blog Age of Autism unless there is a compelling need. One reason is that I hate to drive traffic there, Even though I do always make sure to use a rel="nofollow" tag whenever I link to AoA or any other blog whose Google ranking I don't want to contribute to, increasing AoA's traffic risks letting its "management" (such as it is) charge higher rates for advertising for the…

Your Friday Dose of Woo: A "GEMM" of a bit of woo

If there's one thing I've learned over the last couple of years of doing this little feature, it's that there are a couple of kinds of woo. Actually, there are certainly more than a couple, but pretty much all woo can be divided into a couple of types. The first time is where the woo is based on no science at all, but rather mysticism or some other religious or "spiritual" force. This may or may not be combined with the physical or with some sort of scientific or pseudoscientific explanations to justify it, but at its very heart the woo far more religion than science. Then, there's another…

After all this time, Dr. Bob Sears finally tips his hand on vaccines, part V

Dr. Robert Sears has to be one of the most irresponsible pediatricians on the face of the earth, if not the most irresponsible. Many of you might recall that a little more than a week ago "Dr. Bob" posted a borderline unhinged rant on Facebook aimed at his own patients, who, quite reasonably, were calling him about the measles outbreak going on in southern California right now and asking him about the measles vaccine. It was entitled Measles Epidemic . . . NOT!, and his response boiled down to, in essence, "get the vaccine if you're worried, but there's no real reason to worry." He also…

Two examples of "antivaccine"

In the process of laying down a little of the ol' not-so-Respectful Insolence on the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), Barbara Loe Fisher, and Jenny McCarthy yesterday, I briefly discussed what the term "antivaccine" means. It's a topic I've discussed at length before and that Steve Novella recently wrote about. The long version is in the links, but the short version is that, unlike the "pharma shill gambit" favored by antivaccine activists and others who aren't too fond of science-based medicine (SBM), it's not just a convenient label for supporters of SBM like me to use to…

Musical Goofiness with a Mathy-Bent

Ladies and gentlemen.. For your pleasure and edification, allow me to present... The singing Tesla coils! Yes, if you're clever, and you're willing to do a whole lot of work, you can operate a Tesla coil so that the sparking from the coil produces a particular pitch. Even you're even more clever, you can vary the way that the coil is run to produce different pitches, and arrange it into a song. And if you're really remarkably clever, you can set up two singing Tesla coils, and have them play a duet.

Democrats Disappoint with FISA

(from here by way of Mimus Pauly) The Democrats rolled over on FISA legislation, giving Bush even more latitude in spying on his own citizens. As Josh Marshall put it: Bush is getting practically everything he asked for. He should have phrased that as a question because I can't figure out why they rolled over. Bush has a 25-30% percent approval rating. All the Democrats would have had to do is phrase their response as a question, "Do you trust George Bush with even more power?" and they win. Still the most hapless political party in recorded history.

This Person Needs to Pay More Taxes

(from here) While reading this NY Times article about houses in Newport, RI, I saw the above picture and thought, "That would be a really nice house to live in." Then my head exploded as I read the caption: Topsy Taylor uses her stone bungalow at a former fishing club on Gooseberry Island, R.I. as a place to entertain and take naps. Some people have a 'nap chair' or a 'nap sofa' that they like to take naps on. Some people even have a nap room. But Topsy has a fucking nap house. A house for napping. Tax her.

Teaching Your Inner Fish

Next Fall, I'll be back in the classroom teaching introductory biology again. One thing I'm planning to do is to use Shubin's Your Inner Fish for that course…and just look what the good man has done just for me: all the figures from the book have been released as powerpoint slides. OK, he probably didn't think about me at all, and he's releasing them for everyone to use, but still…it's awfully serendipitous. Grab 'em all, teachers! These are tools for getting more evolution into the biology classroom!

Another poll with easy questions made difficult

At least to me, this poll in the Baltimore Sun looks like a no-brainer. Which would imply that 59% of the people in Maryland have no brains. Think of the zombies, and do something to correct this problem! Recognizing same-sex marriage The D.C. City Council voted Tuesday to allow same-sex marriage, which means many gay couples from Maryland and elsewhere may soon travel to the District to get married. Should Maryland recognize the marriages of same-sex couple who get married out of state? Yes 39% No 59% Not sure 2%

Interesting Election Day-After Story

I was at the APHA meeting today in Boston (and I got to meet Revere from Effect Measure at the meeting!). About 14,000 people attend, including a lot of military personnel (between routine public health concerns and biosecurity, there are always a few in the crowd). At one talk that I would guess had around 1,000 people in the audience, maybe more, the speaker said, "I'm having a really good day. How about you?" The audience burst into raucous applause...and the military personnel had very, very large smiles on their faces. Interesting.

Nobody Likes Us

From Reuters: In South Korea, traditionally a U.S. ally, two-thirds of people under 30 said in a recent poll that if there were war between North Korea and the United States, they would side with North Korea. "Anti-Americanism runs deeper and is qualitatively different than in the past, when it was largely attributable to unpopular U.S. policies," Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, says in a new book on the subject, "America Against the World." The sad thing is that the Bushists don't even care...

Authoritarianism, Religion, and Evolution

Over at Orcinus, guest blogger Sara Robinson has a series of posts (I, II, & III) about the psychology of the authoritarian mindset, and how this affects communication with many religious conservatives. The posts are definitely worth a read in and of themselves, but I want to throw open for discussion what these ideas mean (if anything) for the evolution political controversy. Is there anything from these posts we can learn about how to communicate, about what should be and should not be communicated, and about who the best communicators would be?

Links 6/16/11

Links for you. Science: The outbreak strains have similar pathogencity as Ecoli EAEC strain 55989: Alignment of virulence factors from VFDB Resistance genes plus adhesin in the chromosome? (more O104:H4 goodness) E. coli outbreak and biofilms Creationism creeps into mainstream geology In Politics History Matters, Science..Not So Much Other: My Happy Abortion: One Woman's Guilt-Free Story The Green Revolution Backfires: Sweden's Lesson for Real Sustainability Rogoff: Age of Transit Systems "Spooky" The Case For Co-Ed Dorms NOTHING EVER CHANGES A library is many things The conservative war on…

Links 5/28/11

Links for you. Science: Why are all my children getting measles, ask Homeopathy fans (snarky) Paying a Painful 75% Secrecy Tax Groups sue FDA to stop Big Ag antibiotic abuse--and it just might work Does NIH funding = higher prices at Massachusetts hospitals? Jennifer Gardy on genomic epidemiology of a TB outbreak (video) Other: Hotels and Their Pervs, Revisited Insects Totally Caused Ultimate Frisbee Out, but not up: Homelessness in the age of Bloomberg Blogging is stupid Study Sees Way to Win Spam Fight Payback to Patrick McHenry from Friends of Elizabeth Warren

Links 4/26/11

Links for you. Science: Atta texana Bacteria Divide People Into 3 Types, Scientists Say John Gillespie, "the evil scientist from America" Could You Be the Worst Labmate in the World? Other: The Anniversary How Donald Trump's ego killed a pro sports league How You Can Have a Billion-Dollar Income in America and Pay No Taxes Nervous Nellies: Girls don't start out more anxious than boys, but they usually end up that way. Climategate: What Really Happened? What's Good Enough for GE Is Good Enough for the United States Best Way to Raise Campaign Money? Investigate Banks

Links 4/21/11

Links for you. Science: Truckloads of hard disks Multi-Drug Resistant Staph in 1 in 4 Meat Samples It Works: Taking Cars Out of Times Square Really Improved the Air Other: A View From the Shore - My Jewish Secret (yes, there are poor Jews, regardless of what idiot anti-Semites claim) An Idea I Can Get Behind (Dolph Lundgren vs. Chuck Norris) Brooks Bemoans the Lack of a Free Lunch for Representative Ryan 'Pantheist' Lincoln would be unelectable today What It Takes To Get An Abortion In South Dakota We're Not Greece, But We Could Be the Next U.K.

Da Vinci & DNA - Jesus with the XX male syndrome?

Since I'm on a Dumb Vinci Code kick today, check out this amusing article about the genetics of Jesus! Check it: In humans, females package some of their DNA in two matched X chromosomes, males in a single X and Y. So if you're a male, there's only one way you could have gotten your Y chromosome, and that's from your biological father. Where would Jesus have gotten his Y? Where indeed. Perhaps Jesus Christ was an XX male? In other words, he was a clone of Mary that was miraculously possessed of an SRY.

Are agnostics pu**ies?

A friend of mine, a biology graduate student, emailed me the following: i did recently get in an argument with a fellow student (and friend) because he said he thought he was verging on being a militant agnostic eugenicist, but i said being a militant agnostic was idiotic because agnostics are just pussies. That got a big response from a few people around me. I laughed for a while at that. Sometimes I feel decisively ambivalent. Postscript: Just a note to those who find the use of the term "pussies" offensive and sexist, my correspondent is female. And one bad-ass-bitch at that.

New Zealanders! Defend your honor in this poll!

Those silly, harmless bus signs were the subject of the Sunday Sacrilege this week. But now New Zealanders have rejected the bus ads — and we've got a poll to see if that is fair. And we all know that polls are the perfect way to resolve ethical issues. Was NZ Bus right to reject ads from an atheist group? Yes, the ads are in bad taste and would distress people 23.3% No, this is unfair and discriminatory 67.0% The extra publicity is good for the atheist campaign anyway 9.7%

I'm a sucker for romance

There's this contest, see, where a fabulous free wedding is given away. And one of the contestants wrote to me with their plans for a godless affair at the Boston Museum of Science, and from their description both are geeky nerds, and they're trying to get this wedding arranged fast since the bride's grandfather is dying of cancer, so how could I resist? I voted for them. That's all you have to do to give them a shot at winning. Dammit. I keep trying to overcome this teddy bear image, and everyone knows I'm a soft touch.

"One of the two"

John Hawks says: UPDATE (11/8/2006): My colleague, Greg Cochran, has a post at GNXP discussing introgression and microcephalin further: If this pans out the way we think it will, introgression from Neanderthals (and maybe with other archaics) may have been one of the two fundamental patterns underlying recent human evolution. One of the two. [my emphasis -Razib] What could John Hawks mean??? 1) Look at the category I placed this post under 2) Oh yes...a new round of teasing starts. But you won't have to wait that long this time....

10 Questions for Bruce Lahn

Check, 10 questions for Bruce "Gene Thug" Lahn. Check this player's ambitions out: 10. Looking back, would you make any changes in your educational path? If so, what? Looking back, I might have chosen economics instead of biology, as it might have allowed my work to have a broader impact. But it's a tossup, and my feeling may well have stemmed from my constant impatience with lack of progress in my own work and therefore the perception that grass is greener on the other guy's pasture Get it? The key is to crank up the body count!

Christian martyr complex on a hair-trigger

One of those lunatic religious right sites compiled a list of the top ten "anti-christian attacks" of 2009…and the pathetic thing about it is how feeble and largely imaginary the attacks are. They range from a rantin' anti-choice pastor getting arrested for harassing women at a clinic to the existence of those uppity gays who complain when Christians lie about homosexuality. There isn't one crucifixion or involuntary lion-feeding on the whole list. Read this dissection of the compilation — those poor guys are really desperate for some notable oppression.

Comment problems?

I just got hit by a major wave of comment spam, and it took me while to puzzle out all the tools available in this MT system to purge them. I'm tinkering a little bit with comment settings to try and prevent it from happening again (tip: don't put lots of links in comments, because they will get held up for my approval before posting), and I've clicked a few checkboxes in the settings on. If things get freaky and it doesn't let you comment, send me an email and I'll try to fix it.

Meet the Proto-Meal Organizer: You're Gonna Need a Really Big App for That

It's a little bigger than an iPhone. A while back, I came across this Wall Street Journal article about the Computer Museum. I found this handy-dandy computer to help housewives cook a delicious meal! It's very practical: (from here) Sure, it takes up half the kitchen, but look at what the Neiman-Marcus catalog of 1969 says about it: "The mini-computer was specially programmed to select meals fit for royalty. It appeared in the Neiman-Marcus Christmas catalog in 1969." Fit for royality! See how useful it is: It does put smart phones in perspective....

Links 1/29/11

More snow. Maybe. Links, however, are certain. Science: "Pink Meanie" Pictures: New Jellyfish Attacks Other Jellies The Antimicrobial Index Iran's endangered cheetahs are a unique subspecies Are Dangly Things an Evolutionary Development to Limit Rape? Hidden Women, Hidden Writers Other: Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, Head of 50 State Investigation, Retreats From "Tough With Banks" Stance Why Affordable Housing Matters Back to Full Employment Policies for Today's World We Ignore 'The Economist' (funny article about Ph.D.s) Evan Bayh walks through the revolving door (and there's also…

Republican Ex-Congressman Dick Armey Supports Medicare-for-All

Republican Dick Armey supports an option to enroll in Medicare. Which isn't socialism. Or something.Hunh? Dick Armey in an interview with The Economist: If you in fact freely choose to enroll in Medicare that's a wonderful gift, it's a charity, it's something I applaud. But when they force you in, that's tyranny. That's what the strongest version of the public option--Medicare for All--would entail. You have a choice between private plans and a public one. [jaw hits floor] The incoherence from the right is staggering, although still effective. I CAN HAS FREEDOM NOW?

Wednesday Links

More stuff I'll never be able to blog about. Science: Let God sort them out The Three Necessary and Sufficient Conditions of Natural Selection Noncaloric sweeteners might not be the solution either Viruses are going to save our butts. Missouri bans wrong plastic from rivers Other: A Short Post on Capitalism and Healthcare Dying for affordable healthcare -- the uninsured speak We're Incompetent and Here's How We'll Win Keeping the Powder Dry The 5 Most Embarrassing Failures in the History of Terrorism My Two Dollar Newspaper Sucks 1 Million Strong Against our SOCIALIST Fire Departments

Sunday Links

Here are some links for you while you're recovering from the 4th. Science first: "Contrary to their expectations?" Really? Personal experience in science communication The Scacco/Beber analysis of the Iranian election is bogus Prehistoric bloodsucker in Thames Evidence of fraud in the Iranian election - a reanalysis It's a good thing people in Brookline have something to eat beside potatoes Other: Shelter, or burden? The social benefits of home ownership look more modest than they did and the economic costs much higher Smells like deflation The Blogosphere 2.0

Friday Links

Happy Friday! Some links for you. Science: Bizarre Anaerobic Ecosystems Discovered In Lake Huron Let's shut down gender essentialism with something that's called "science." Study Finds Unexpected Bacterial Diversity on Human Skin Withdrawal study: Ur doin' it wrong The bacterial zoo living on your skin Other: Speaking in Tongues Don't pin the recession on AIG's Joe Cassano New York Times Crashed-and-Burned-and-Smoking Watch (Ombudsman Clark Hoyt Edition) What Could DC Learn From London? Conservative Identity Politics The Cost Conundrum: What a Texas town can teach us about health care.

Links 6/16/10

Have a wild and wacky Wednesday. Links fahr ya. Science: Fences, guards, and information gaps: On the beach in Grand Isle, Louisiana The return on peer review Using iPads to bridge communication gap with dolphins Other: The Government's Elite and Regulatory Capture Two State Dissonance. Even apart from the Gaza flotilla attack, Jews can't reconcile the real Israel with some of their deepest assumptions. One-Man Government: The Clock Ticks On Prescription drugs and its copycats contribute to health waste "We Don't Need This on Camera": BP's Crappy Cleanup Job

Saturday Links

In case it's not sunny where you are, here are some links. Science: Clever New Caledonian crows can use three tools Several Different Species of Killer Whales Likely Borneo's biological treasures Disposable Genomes: When Reading DNA Becomes Cheaper Than Storing the Data Killer fungus seen in Pacific Northwest Other: Prison Rape: Assault Shouldn't Be a Part of the Sentence NPF: RATING JACKASSES AN OPEN LETTER FROM THE BOOMERS TO THEIR CHILDREN When Flying Was Fun Tax Tricks - Do Corporations Pass Taxes On To Customers? The Financial Crisis as Crime Story A Banana Republic With No Bananas

Links 6/30/10

I think we're about to get overrun by zombies. Last chance for links. Science: From vibrator sales to troubles with monogamy, evidence aboundsthat Homo sapiens is an exceedingly sexual species. Science historian cracks the 'Plato code' "A state of institutional denialism" A Neuroscientist Uncovers A Dark Secret Other: Eastern Bank Corporation Announces Agreement to Acquire Wainwright Bank & Trust Company Libraries Have a Novel Idea. Lenders Join Forces to Let Patrons Check Out Digital Scans of Shelved Book Collections Do arrogant, condescending, and dismissive attitudes contribute to…

Links 6/28/10

Merry Monday. Links for you. Science: Bones from a Cheddar Gorge cave show that cannibalism helped Britain's earliest settlers survive the ice age Hyperlinks support the type of reading scientists have always done Web genomics exposes ethics gaps. While connecting SNPs to playful traits such as curly hair and optimism, 23andMe reveals loopholes in the regulation of genomics research Other: The Unsentimental Warrior Making Yourself Dispensable Offenses Big And Small Germany's Bad Folk History Endless war, a recipe for four-star arrogance Senate Millionaires Declare Class War On The Rest Of…

Links 11/8/10

I'm at a meeting today, but no reason not to give you some links: No Half Steps, No Equivocation "Protest works. Just look at the proof" Nov. 2: The Death Knell of Corporate Liberalism Here We Go Again Shirts vs. skins (I, too, have wondered why people think Sestak is so much better than Specter: Specter actually pandered to Democrats, which is more than Sestak, who went back on his campaign promises, ever did) Nobody Cares About Process Skeptical at the spectacle: moderate American liberalism jumps the shark Another Mathom From The Time Closet *

Links 11/6/10

It's Friday Saturday. Celebrate with some links. Science: Alarm over "pig MRSA" -- but not in the US Heritability - what you get from your folks What Do We Want? Other: Boston schools at a crossroads (Harmon is right, but he needs to convince parents) How the Banks Put the Economy Underwater Flashback: How Donald Luskin Earned His Title (of World's Stupidest Person) Coming Boomer pension cuts: what impact on economy? Rattner's Overhaul The Battle of Harris County: A firsthand look at early voting in Houston and allegations of voter intimidation

Links 11/2/10

Links for you. Science: Lessons from a Recovering Postdoc A Caterpillar to Avoid Stories vs. Statistics Other: Municipal bans on smoking in restaurants and bars are highly controversial, but history shows they can also be highly effective. But are all smoking bans equally successful? Fascist America: Is This Election the Next Turn? It's not fascism yet; but if the Tea Party manages to get its hands on the levers of power, it will be. Misrepresenting the Moynihan Report--Will It Ever Stop? (No) Getting out their old Red Shirts... Automation Insurance: Robots Are Replacing Middle Class Jobs

Bailey the SnowDog

tags: Bailey the SnowDog, funny, humor, pets, dogs, streaming video This amusing little video features Bailey the snowdog and "Rudolph the Reindeer" by Harry Connick Jr. [2:36] The cinematographer writes; I shot this video on VHS-C in my backyard, near Ward, Colorado (8,700' elevation) during a blizzard in the late 1990's; a local weatherman said it was the most measureable snow (if memory serves, it was 54" in 48 hours) from the least amount of moisture ever. Cheers to dogs, and to all those that love them! Please be well and Happy Holidays!!!

Mystery Bird: American Avocet, Recurvirostra americana

tags: blue shank, American Avocet, Recurvirostra americana, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] American Avocet, also known as the blue shank, Recurvirostra americana, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours] Image: Richard Ditch, 25 February 2010 [larger view]. You are encouraged to purchase photographs from this photographer. I am happy to email his contact information to you. Exposure Time: 1/400 F-Number: 8.00 ISO: 200 Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. Review all mystery birds to date.

Mystery Birds: Lesser Yellowlegs, Tringa flavipes, and Least Sandpiper, Calidris minutilla

tags: Lesser Yellowlegs, Tringa flavipes, Least Sandpiper, Calidris minutilla, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery birds] Lesser Yellowlegs, Tringa flavipes (L), and Least Sandpiper, Calidris minutilla (R), photographed at the Lake Thompson in Kingsbury County, South Dakota. [I will identify these birds for you in 48 hours] Image: Terry Sohl, 2 September 2007 [larger view]. You are encouraged to purchase photographs from this photographer. I am happy to email his contact information to you. Canon 20D, 400 5.6L. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification…

Scientology: Inside the Cult

tags: scientology, religion, cults, mind control, Thetan, silly, offbeat, beliefs, Xenu, L Ron Hubbard, television, BBC, streaming video Speaking of Mormonism and other cults .. erm, religions .. I thought I'd give you a peek at Scientology. In this television report, hidden cameras go inside the London Scientology Organization to expose their inner workings. It seems that even the Mormons could learn a few mind-control techniques from the Scientologists. I find it really depressing to think that one Scientology survivor exchanged one form of mind control for another: after he escaped…

Birds on a Wire: Music by Birds

tags: Jarbas Agnelli, Paulo Pinto, birds on a wire, NPR, Public Radio, music, streaming video This video is the result of a creative musician, Jarbas Agnelli, who noticed that a flock of birds on wires resembled musical notes. He took a photograph of these birds, by Paulo Pinto, and set them to music. The result of this interesting observation is below the jump; Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli. [Original story], many thanks to a reader, Robin, who sent this video link to me. Of course, I have to ask you; can you identify the species?

Frankfurter Sonnenaufgang

tags: Frankfurter Sonnenaufgang, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Expat Life, Frankfurt through my eye, photography, image of the day Frankfurter Sonnenaufgang (Frankfurt sunrise). Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Image: GrrlScientist, 18 December 2009 [larger view]. Are you getting bored of looking at photographs of Frankfurt yet? Well, if so, you would have appreciated this morning's image because the snowclouds were so thick that the city had completely disappeared. I tried to get a picture of that for you, but realized that you would not be able to distinguish that photograph from one taken of…

The Fake Trick-or-Treater (Hallowe'en Prank)

tags: halloween prank, fake trick-or-treater, humor, funny, prank, scaring the neighbors, streaming video This is a funny video of a series of pranks committed on the videographers' neighbors. Truly inpsired! This is the original in high definition. For this Halloween Prank, the videographers (and pranksters) fixed up a life size dummy to look like a trick-or-treater, complete with bag of candy and hidden microphone. Then they went door to door with their fake "Timmy" to see what kind of reactions they would get. More videos from this videographer.

Happy Birthday to Yoouuuuuuu!

Today is 10 September, which happens to be the birthday of the Trophy Wife (I won't tell you the birth year because she will give me the evil eye, but I will say that she is much, much younger than I am, as a Trophy Wife must be). It would be very nice if she got home from work tonight and, as she usually does, sits down and checks out the blog to see what horrors and outrages I have perpetrated today, and discovers that a few of you had written her birthday best wishes, instead.

TEDTalks: Dan Gilbert Asks Why are we happy? Why aren't we happy?

tags: Dan Gilbert, happiness, TEDTalks, cultural observation, streaming video Dan Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness, challenges the idea that we'll be miserable if we don't get what we want. Our "psychological immune system" lets us feel truly happy even when things don't go as planned. I am not convinced -- are you? [22:02] TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers are invited to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes.