This interactive animation will you leave feeling calm and refreshed. It’s quite entertaining and worth spending five or so minutes on.

Remember my missive on my summer of drugs and concern that I had damaged my brain. Part of that concern was based on research that is now being retracted thanks to foul-ups at the lab where research was done.

It turned out that the $1.3 million study, led by Dr. George A. Ricaurte of Johns Hopkins University, had not used Ecstasy at all. … It was not the first time Dr. Ricaurte’s lab was accused of using flawed studies to suggest that recreational drugs are highly dangerous. In previous years he was accused of publicizing doubtful results without checking them, and was criticized for research that contributed to a government campaign suggesting that Ecstasy made “holes in the brain.”

Dr. Ricaurte, a 50-year-old neurologist at Hopkins since 1988, is probably the best-known Ecstasy expert in the war on drugs.

Some expert, there. I still think research needs to be done on the effects of “recreational” pharamaceuticals on the brain, but it should be funded by “sin taxes” imposed on drug sales. (Yes, I believe in sin taxes.) The government shouldn’t be paying for this kind of biased research, and putzes like this guy shouldn’t be doing the work.

Every now and then, my favorite advice columnist in the entire world (Cary Tennis on Salon), answers a question with such insight that I’m totally blown away.

Today, a young woman asked if she should go ahead and make a move on her co-worker, who she gets along great with, tons of chemistry, and all that. Problem is, he mentioned that he likes skinny chicks (which she’s not).

An excerpt of his response:

NSFW – Rick, this means you.

This website shows a patented device for women to use that makes urination more convenient. There’s even an animation showing how to use it. If I were the more motivated type, I might steal this animation and make her write her name in snow.

You remember the Change the Climate ad I posted about so long ago, right? Well, apparently the ad’s placement pissed of some Oklahoma congressman. Now he wants to cut DC Metro’s funding by approx $92,000, or twice what the ad cost. As a warning to other metro systems.

Never mind that Metro initially refused the ad and only accepted it after CTC threatened a lawsuit. Never mind that Boston is still (three years later) fighting such a lawsuit. So Metro will be punished for showing good judgement.

Let’s all send this guy an email (istook@mail.house.gov) and tell him to get a life, shall we?

Thanks again to the NY Times Most-Emailed articles for leading me to this article about the newest form of inflation – in addition to charging extra “fees” rather than raising rates, are companies making “mistakes” that result in overcharging customers?

Doesn’t seem far-fetched to me at all. He makes a good point – if it were totally benign, these mistakes would go both ways. But in my experience, that is not the case.