Quickies
Quickies: Poop Pills, Brain Foods, and the Cool Girl
- Cure for Type 1 diabetes imminent after Harvard stem-cell breakthrough – “A cure for diabetes could be imminent after scientists discovered how to make huge quantities of insulin-producing cells, in a breakthrough hailed as significant as antibiotics.”
- This Is How Judges Humiliate Pregnant Teens Who Want Abortions – “Pregnant minors who fear their parents can turn to a judge if they want an abortion. But conservatives are turning the process into a nightmare.”
- Wisconsin’s Governor Cannot Hide His Contempt for Women and the Poor – “Since being sworn into office in 2011, Walker has singlehandedly dismantled Wisconsin’s century-old reputation as a state with some of the most progressive labor laws in the country. While his highly publicized attacks on unions will likely be the defining moment of his first term as governor, Walker — who is running for reelection this November — has also been consistently at work at something far more sinister: a blatant attack on Wisconsin’s women, non-white and poor people.”
- Frozen Poop Pills Fight Life-Threatening Infections – “Twenty people with recurrent C. diff infections took 15 pills a day, about the size of a large multivitamin, for two days. Fourteen of them were free of diarrhea almost immediately, with no recurrences. The other six tried the treatment again; that did the trick for four of them. The two people who failed to get results were in poorer health overall, the study found. But the treatment worked for people from age 11 to age 89.”
- Fish Oil, Turmeric, and Ginseng, Oh My! Are ‘Brain Foods’ B.S.? – It’s rare a week goes by without a new ‘brain food’ making headlines, promising to make us smarter and healthier. Which of these foods have science to back them up, and which are nothing but snake oil?
- The NFL’s Pink October Does Not Raise Money for Cancer Research – “This is how it works: The NFL donates proceeds from its awareness campaign, auctions, and the NFL Shop to the American Cancer Society (ACS), which in turns uses that money to increase awareness, education, and screenings for women over 40.” At the very least, it’s good to be informed about where your donations are going.
- The ‘Cool Girl’ Is Not Fiction, But a Phase – “I realized then what I had always suspected: The Cool Girl has an expiration date, and it is round about your thirties, when you either simply grow up by virtue of existing a few years more on earth, or realize it is hella tiresome to keep pretending you don’t have any feelings or long-term goals to be desirable to a certain breed of dude.”