Berlin, Obesity, Gender and an Accelerating Universe

I would like to visit Berlin - I already knew that, as there are a lot of pieces that I have read about the living art in Berlin, from film to sculpture and found art, and performance art - it all seemed to going on. . . then today I read this piece in the Tyee and now I really want to go to Berlin! It says in part:

Sometimes Berlin seems like a huge open-air gallery, or a big art school project by precociously talented students. Street art is everywhere and a lot of it is very good. There's stuff hidden away in dank alleys that would probably be featured on gallery tours back home. Clothing stores and odd shops are almost always worth exploring. There are more cool t-shirts for sale here than anywhere in Europe. And decent restaurants with prices Paris probably hasn't seen since Napoleon.

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On a more depressing note. . . I think I first heard about the issue of gender balance (that is lack of it) in medical studies, at the Vancouver Women's Health Collective and in Women's Studies at Simon Fraser University in the 70's. Now today an Editorial, in Nature, has me, if not confused, at least startled that in 40 years we have not made much progress. The subhead to the editorial titled Putting Gender on the Agenda is: Biomedical research continues to use many more male subjects than females in both animal studies and human clinical trials. The unintended effect is to short-change women's health care. harumph. . . no wonder I try and avoid conventional medicine and prefer alternatives. . .

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Also of interest today - review of a new book called Obesity The Biography.

















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And last, but not least, an interesting article in New Scientist about the accelerating expansion of the universe. . . why does this cause me some anxiety? No idea -- worried about everything ending in 2012 perhaps!
Check out:

Did a 'sleeper' field awake to expand the universe?