Rob Brezsny’s Pronoia here for a while. I haven’t read the book yet, but he had some great stuff to say in his appearance on the R.U. Sirius show (episodes here and here). On it he talks at length about the need for good news outlets. I think Rob would dig this [...]

Scientists mimicked the effect of a traumatic brain injury by severing the optical nerve tract in hamsters, causing the animals to lose vision.
After injecting the hamsters with a solution containing nanoparticles, the nerves re-grew and sight returned.
Full Story: BBC.
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The Bush administration has often been accused of a purely symbolic commitment to clean energy. But even its supporters might not reject that description of its latest announcement: the torch on the Statue of Liberty, perhaps the single most famous symbol of the United States, is to be lit exclusively by wind power.
Full Story: Mail [...]

The ingredient which makes jalapeno peppers hot also makes prostate cancer cells commit suicide, a study suggests.
Tests showed that capsaicin triggered 80% of the cells to start the process leading to cell death.
Full Story: BBC.
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Politics:
Public becoming weary of governmental privacy intrusions.
Bush’s approval ranking sinking with Republicans.
Education:
Zambian children learn by radio.
Health:
Blood test for brain diseases.
Red wine touted as good for gum health.
Other:
UN to launch new emergency fund.
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It might stain your teeth purple. But it could also help save them from falling out.
Red wine — which has been touted over recent years as a balm for so many ills — is now being toasted as a potential treatment for gum disease.
According to a study presented yesterday by researchers from Quebec City’s Laval [...]

More and more people, particularly Republicans, disapprove of
President Bush’s performance, question his character and no longer consider him a strong leader against terrorism, according to an AP-Ipsos poll documenting one of the bleakest points of his presidency.
Full Story: AP .
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The UN is launching an emergency fund designed to speed up the handout of money for humanitarian disasters.
The initiative, put forward by the UK, is being launched by Secretary General Kofi Annan in New York.
Mr Annan wants cash from the fund to immediately help millions in the Horn of Africa threatened with starvation.
Full Story: BBC.
These [...]

The children have trekked through mud and overgrown grass to sit under a guava tree and be taught by a radio.
A cool breeze lifts their spirits as a brilliant blue, solar-powered radio perched on a tree branch crackles with basic lessons in arithmetic or biology, tutoring Zambia’s future doctors, accountants, lawyers or business leaders.
Full Story: [...]

A Canadian neuroscientist claimed on Monday to have developed the world’s first simple blood test to detect brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and says it may be available within two to five years.
The test, which looks for clumps of “misfolded” proteins that underlie such diseases, will enable a “definitive diagnosis” of [...]