LONDON, February 25 /PRNewswire/ --

LONDON, February 25 /PRNewswire/ --

- As British Airways and BBC Worldwide Fall out of the Top 10

Internet giant Google has - for the second year in a row - notched the top slot in the prestigious annual Business Superbrands survey, compiled by The Centre for Brand Analysis (TCBA) on behalf of the Superbrands organisation. To generate the rankings TCBA analysed the views of an Expert Council and over 1,500 business professionals.

If you're in the prejudice business the worst thing that can happen is to have a woman and an African-American fighting it out to be President.   A white guy has a tough time out there these days and that's a good thing for society because it means that America continues to be the least racist country in the world.

But if you're in the prejudice business the death of institutional racism and the demise of cultural racism means you'll need to look deeper;  namely to find people being prejudiced against themselves.    Then you can say it's the legacy of old prejudice and the cycle continues.

Okay, you're thinking a guy who started a site where scientists write feature articles directly to the audience must be insane to endorse big media science journalism, right?   

Not at all.  Science journalism is a different beast than what we do here but it still has more commonality than it lacks and that's why I was intrigued by a recent back and forth between Professor Larry Moran of the University of Toronto and Chris Mooney of Seed Media's Scienceblogs.com.

Moran is never one to pull punches - that's why I have him on my blogroll - but that doesn't mean I always agree with him, I just like his style.

Show Me The Science Month Day 21



Why do certain species of fruit flies prefer some fruits over others? Two biologists have looked at the genetic basis behind the evolution of fruit preference, in a paper in this month's issue of Genetics (an incredible issue which happens to contain another amazing, pioneering, paradigm-shifting, ground-breaking paper).

Many insects specialize in feeding on just one or a few types of plants. This fact isn't that surprising, since plants have all sorts of defenses for warding off insects, including the production of toxic chemical compounds, and insects that feed on plants have typically evolved ways to get around the defenses of one type of plant, but not another. This phenomenon is dramatically played out in the hundreds of species of fruit flies around the world, many of which specialize in just one or a few types of fruit. Researchers at Michigan State and UNC Chapel Hill have looked at the genetic changes that enabled one species of fruit fly to specialize in the fruit of the Morinda plant, also known as cheese fruit, a fruit that is toxic to other flies.



Morinda citrifolia, photograph by Eric Guinther

PARIS, January 24 /PRNewswire/ -- The European Commission has granted marketing authorisation for Servier's Valdoxan(R) /Thymanax(R) (agomelatine), the first melatonergic antidepressant for the treatment of adult patients with major depressive episodes.

There is still great scope for improved therapies to treat the devastating effects of depression, said Professor Goodwin from Warneford Hospital, Oxford, United Kingdom. Valdoxan is an innovative, new approach to the management of depression that compares favourably to existing treatments. It has proven, sustained efficacy across a wide range of depressed patients, including those who are most severely depressed.

ROUBAIX, France, February 24 /PRNewswire/ -- OVH, the leading French hosting service, is launching a top of the range system designed for professionals with key requirements in terms of resources, performance and also service-sharing. Covering a wide range of prices, and corresponding services, the HG range consists of the ultimate in customized servers to meet company requirements.

Meeting customers' most critical needs

In marketing its new range, OVH is innovating yet again, as the HG 2009 consists of fully-customizable servers. This means that customers can customize the configuration of their servers:

SILVER SPRING, Maryland, February 24 /PRNewswire/ --

- New support will accelerate development of new tools to help women protect themselves from HIV

The International Partnership for Microbicides (IPM) announced today that it has received a total of US $130 million in grants from the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation, reinforcing the global commitment to address the HIV epidemic in women.

Over at the Chronicle of Higher Education, Columbia University humanities professor Andrew Delbanco takes stock of recent arguments that the intellectuals are back in charge of government:

What goes on here? Was the historian Richard Hofstadter wrong in his classic Anti-Intellectualism in American Life to detect an irresistible current in our society of "resentment and suspicion of the life of the mind and of those who are considered to represent it"? Has that current weakened or been sufficiently dammed up to explain the election of a president who is reflective about history and ideas as well as about policy and practice?

BUCHAREST, February 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Lamit Company, an important satellite internet provider, launches a new solution for improving the satellite internet connections (terrestrial, wireless or bidirectional via satellite), the 2.5 STABLE version of Lamit 2Pro Advanced and Lamit 2Pro Mini Power servers. Despite the very small dimensions of the Mini Power server, it maintains all the features and characteristics of the Lamit 2Pro server's Platform. The new generation of servers includes Wireless connectivity (N type, offering an extended coverage area and maximum transfer rates) providing easier users' connection. The new servers' version also offers new encryption facilities, a better control and professional management of the users' LAN.

AUSTIN, Texas, February 24 /PRNewswire/ --

- Specifically for use with Stellaris Microcontrollers, New Software Library Provides Appliance OEMs a Fast Path to Best-in-Class Safety Compliance