BREVITAS

OBAMALAND

Those who think the Review was too tough on Obama - giving him 30 out of 100 points for his first 100 days - might want to check out the Black Agenda Report. They gave him 25.

PIG FLU

From an interview by Science Insider with Virologist Ruben Donis, chief of the molecular virology and vaccines branch at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Q: What do you know about this swine flu virus?

R.D.: We know it's quite similar to viruses that were circulating in the United States and are still circulating in the United States and that are self-limiting, and they usually only are found in Midwestern states where there is swine farming

STUPID SCHOOL SYSTEM TRICKS

Marin Independent Journal, CA - When a few of the English learners in Jack Lieberman's class asked him for translations of some off-color English phrases, the Tamalpais Adult School teacher didn't think much of it. After all, Lieberman said, his students were all adults - and needed to know the meaning of certain words in order to avoid making embarrassing mistakes on the job or with friends. "These were bad words the students didn't want to mix up with other words, like 'sheet' or 'beach,'" said Lieberman, a six-year veteran of the adult school, which is operated by the Tamalpais Union High School District. "It's not in the curriculum, but we had about 10 minutes left before a break, and the students had made the request. I tried to do it as tastefully as possible." . . . So Lieberman was shocked last month when school Director Deidre Shannon asked him to come to her office the next morning. Three days later, Lieberman was out of a job.

HEALTH & SCIENCE

Bio Ethics - The Scientist has reported that Merck cooked up a phony, but real sounding, peer reviewed journal and published favorably looking data for its products in them. Merck paid Elsevier to publish such a tome