HILLARY CLINTON, USMC?

MORE THOUGHTS ON BLOGGING ETIQUETTE from Cory Doctorow.

UPLOAD YOUR MIND: A look at brain-implant chips:

Srinivasan explains that the chip is sending electric pulses through the needle into the brain slice, which is passing them on to the screen we’re watching. “The difference in the waves’ modulation reflects the signals sent out by the brain slice,” he says. “And they’re almost identical in frequency and pattern to the pulses sent by the chip.” Put more simply, this iron-gray wafer about a millimeter square is talking to living brain cells as though it were an actual body part.

Ted Berger, Srinivasan’s boss and the mastermind behind the tangle of coils and electrodes, has arranged this demonstration to provide a small but profound glimpse into the future of brain science. The chip’s ability to converse with live cells is a dramatic first step, he believes, toward an implantable machine that fluently speaks the language of the brain—a machine that could restore memories in people with brain damage or help them make new ones.

Remedying Alzheimer’s disease would, if Berger’s grand vision plays out, be as simple as upgrading a bit of hardware. No more complicated drug regimens with their frustrating side effects. A surgeon simply implants a few computerized brain cells, and the problem is solved.

This would be cool, though not without its downsides. I’ve had some thoughts on this stuff here, here, and here.

THOUGHTS ON PICKING BIOTECH STOCKS, from Derek Lowe.

OUCH.

AN ANTHRAX SCARE right here in Knoxville. Just a prank, apparently.

OMAR FADHIL HAS another report from Baghdad.

IT’S NOT JUST THE ARAL SEA: Rand Simberg points out another wetland restoration project that somehow hasn’t gotten as much attention.

IS FEDERAL CAMPAIGN FUNDING dying on the vine? Dave Weigel thinks so. And he’s okay with that.

FRANK J. OFFERS a comment policy for a better blogosphere.

POPULAR MECHANICS tests and rates compact fluorescent bulbs. Interestingly, the GE bulbs that I like are only middle-of-the-pack, which I regard as good news rather than bad. I’ll try to get hold of a few of the top scorers and see how they look to me.

A WEAK TURNOUT FOR SADR IN NAJAF: Plus, a more laudable protest in Kabul.

FREEMAN DYSON: “The western academic world is very much like Weimar Germany . . . . It is amusing to see China and India take on today the role that America took in the nineteen-thirties, still believing in technology as the key to a better life for everyone.”

IN THE MAIL: A signed copy of John Scalzi’s The Sagan Diary. But it came addressed to Helen, because she recorded one of the chapters in the audiobook version. Oh, well — it’s still a free Scalzi book!

I KNOW BUDDY EBSEN as Jed Clampett or (worse) Barnaby Jones. I know he was a dancer originally, but seeing his fluid movements in this sequence was still kind of a shock.

LAPTOPS IN THE CLASSROOM: A discussion post over at Above the Law.

I’m not convinced that they do much to advance learning — every once in a while a student will look something up that furthers class discussion, but it’s hardly a daily occurrence. Often the other students will IM answers to whoever I call on, which is fine with me as it means that more people are thinking about the answer than just whoever’s in the hot seat. But generally I think it’s a waste of time. I don’t object much, though, as they’ll just have to deal with similar distractions once they’ve graduated. This is practice, and the grades will reflect who’s better at it.

LOTS OF DISCUSSION OF WHAT AN EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT WOULD DO, over at the Volokh Conspiracy. Ilya Somin comments: “If enacted today, the ERA would have a number of effects that many political liberals will deplore, including abolishing affirmative action for women and cutting back on key aspects of Title IX. It might also have some results that they would approve of, such as potentially undercutting bans on same-sex marriage. To my mind, the effects that liberals dislike are more likely to arise – at least in the short term – than those they will applaud. Affirmative action for women and Title IX gender balancing have considerably weaker political support than the restriction of marriage to opposite sex couples, and are therefore more likely to be struck down by politically savvy judges interpreting the ERA.”

Follow the links at the bottom of Somin’s discussion to see the other Volokh posts on the subject. I support the E.R.A. and I’ll be interested to see how its political evolution occurs in light of this kind of consideration.

CONGRESS’S APPROVAL RATE: Still lower than Bush’s. And disapproval is higher.

I think there’s an overall loss of faith in America’s political class, which seems to me to be largely warranted.

UPDATE: Don Surber looks on the bright side: “But Congress is doing better than a year ago when the spread was 27-65. At this rate, Congress will go from hated to just disliked by 2009.” Yay, team!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Dems will be touting this AP poll, which shows Congress at a sky-high forty percent approval! But I don’t think that undercuts my thesis. When approval is well below 50% — and, as Surber notes, disapproval is 57% — we’re talking about a slightly lower level of public contempt, not actual approval.

MORE: Bob Krumm looks at another poll and comments: “When two of the top three vote getters in a presidential poll are undeclared candidates who have both been out of politics for half a decade, I’d say he’s right.”

STILL MORE: The Influence Peddler notes: “approval ratings under 50% are absolutely the norm, and under 40% aren’t especially unusual.”

Yes, as I say there’s a long-running problem with America’s political class, that’s being obscured by today’s partisan bitchfest.

FINALLY: More fun with polls from Tom Elia. And Jay Reding observes: “Attributing this to a general loss of faith in America’s political class is right. The President is isolated and has become almost a Nixonian figure. Nancy Pelosi is trying to pretend that she’s the President and Rep. Tom Lantos is arguing that the Democrats have their own foreign policy, the Constitution be damned. The basic problems that affect most Americans — the economy, health care, education, all of them go without any real solutions from Washington.”

MORE ON MUGABE, from James Kirchick:

But the past two weeks have seen a further deterioration in the situation. Reports are scarce because of a ban on foreign press entering Zimbabwe. Suspected opponents of Mugabe have been abducted and tortured, and a cameraman suspected of smuggling out video of the violent crackdowns has been murdered. This state-sanctioned violence has been only a piece of a new defiance emerging from the Mugabe regime; last week the state-controlled newspaper, the Herald, warned the British political attaché in Zimbabwe, Gillian Dare, that she risked “going home in a body bag.”

It has become de riguer among the press to call on South Africa, the regional power and, at present, Zimbabwe’s lifeline, to act. Newspapers ranging from the Los Angeles Times to the Wall Street Journal have reprimanded South Africa for its silence and complicity in Mr. Mugabe’s crimes. These remonstrations are necessary and right, but no matter how much international outrage there is over the horrors of Zimbabwe, there is little hope that South Africa will ever do anything close to what the West wants it to do.

I’m afraid that’s right. The Zimbabwe situation is just another example of the impotence, and corruption. of the “international community.”

PATRICK LASSWELL SHOPS THE SOUK IN SULIAMANIYA, IRAQ and posts a report with photos and video.

DO NEWSPAPERS HAVE A “SWEEPS WEEK?” Because this week’s New York Times Science section is all about sex.

But don’t miss John Tierney’s column on Seinfeldian flaw-finding in the dating market.

IT’S NOT ALL BEER MALBEC AND SKITTLES CONVERSATIONS ABOUT ANGELA DAVIS: So I got home from the happy hour, and barely had time to put up the post below before I had to go to the hospital and pick up the Insta-Mother-in-Law. She’s been battling a postoperative infection since she broke her leg and they nailed it back together again, and has a gadget to suck the pus out and another to inject steady quantities of top-shelf antibiotics. The latter broke, and she had to go have it reinstalled. I took her home to the “independent living” center, where the door refused to open with her key and there was no one around to let us in, necessitating that I stage a daring penetration of their airtight security. That took about five minutes — I’m no “Slippery Jim” DiGriz, but their security isn’t designed to stop his likes, either — and I got her wheeled into her apartment. No more blogging for me tonight. See you tomorrow.

SO WE HAD THIS MONTH’S FACULTY HAPPY HOUR at the Sapphire Bar downtown. I like the Downtown Grill & Brewery but Sapphire is kind of cool — lots of chill music (Thievery Corporation, Zero 7, etc.) and smoke free, plus an excellent wine selection. And the various bizarro martinis for those who like that kind of thing.

It was fun, as always. We ought to hang out more often than we do, but I suppose we do pretty well considering that pretty much everyone has family, kids, etc.

A lot of people seem to think that faculty folks hang out in the faculty lounge sipping sherry. Alas, it’s not true. But maybe we should.

So am I turning into Ann Althouse with all these pictures? I blame the camera!

DAVID BERNSTEIN: “I am somewhat overwhelmed by the absurdity of someone apologizing to Al Sharpton for making a bigoted remark, and then Sharpton not accepting the apology. Talk about glass houses! Imus should certainly have apologized for his remark, but not to someone with Sharpton’s history.”

THIS SEEMS TROUBLING:

Prices for farm produces are soaring, driven in part by demand for carbohydrates to manufacture ethanol fuel. This is good news for farmers in places like Latin America, who have seen their incomes grow in recent years thanks ot a global commodity boom, but bad news for consumers who are facing inflationary pressure–and hunger in some poor areas.

Biofuel made of food seems iffy to me. Make it out of waste, of course, and it’s a different story, but that appears to be a lot harder. More on alternative fuels here.