Self-loathing Americans occasionally get concerned about evolution acceptance in America - like with Republicans who accept climate change but not global warming, the issue is more one of nuance and some don't like any nuance at all.    Leaving the possibility open that some divine entity may have created the spark of life and man evolved from there gets people lumped in as 'creationists' with the kookier 'young earth creationism' minority by angry atheists, so people shut down when a hot button question like evolution is asked - they are looking for the linguistic catch.

I understand we are not the mass market but is there any piece of technology you're going to get educated on by walking into a brick and mortar retail store?   

If you look on the Internet to get questions answered first, like which you might prefer in a television, DLP or LED or Plasma, you probably also looked at prices.   And that is why Best Buy is in a tough position even though its top competitor, Circuit City, went out of business.  

There's no market niche they hold, no technology cutting-edge enough it requires expertise (3-D television is a non-starter and HD-DVD is long dead) which means Best Buy has terrific people (I was there on Saturday - they really are terrific, even if I don't need them) and a cost that corresponds to that.

During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when some parts of America applauded heavy-handed government actions like banning cars (except for important people) to curb pollution, Chinese communist officials made some concessions in other ways - namely allowing journalists (from other countries, that is) to operate with some freedom.  

In newspaper cartoon serials 100 years ago and in real life for millenia, babies have said "goo goo" and "gaga" - but one recently famous pop music star, who lifted her moniker from Queen's "Radio Gaga", somehow thinks she owns it now.

When I was a young Army officer with ridiculously low body fat, I once lost our unit's physical fitness 'Iron Man' competition (not an Iron Man race, but rather the top aggregate score in the military's three fitness tests) to an overweight woman in her mid-30s despite being dominant in each event.

Army Physical Fitness tests, being so heavily weighted by age and gender, need a makeover, I remember laughing at the time.  And she was embarrassed by the silliness of it all as well.

Why would a researcher spend long nights for little money in search of the hopelessly obscure?   

It seems to make sense that if you have what they call 'football instincts' and an ability to memorize plays you can be successful in the NFL regardless of IQ.

That doesn't mean general managers, who are risking a lot of money and so have to make the safest choices they can make, agree - if a player is too smart.

 Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy scored twice the average of NFL quarterbacks on the Wonderlic test the NFL uses.  And it may cost him positioning in the draft.

Is Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy too smart for the NFL? - ScienceAndSupermodels.com

Biologists are, at long last, beginning to understand the molecular processes responsible for aging in complex (multicellular) organisms – and to investigate ways to counteract these processes.

There is now research that shows in a  special case, telomerase reactivation reverses tissue degeneration in aged telomerase-deficient mice.

Charles Daney at scienceandreason.blogspot.com has the best overview of this study you will read today.

Standardized tests are important - every child in America takes them.   But what about scoring essays?   

Though the efficacy of standardized testing has been hotly debated for decades, one thing has become crystal clear: It's big business.   The companies that create and score tests saw profits skyrocket. In 2009, K-12 testing was estimated to be a $2.7 billion industry.

Jessica Lussenhop at CityPages uncovers some of the seedier side of essay scoring in standardized tests; under-qualified people filling a quota, making them rushed for time, and more.