Antibiotic Resistance Revitalizes Century-Old Virus Therapy

Sara Reardon and Nature magazine Scientific American
Denied access to some of the best antibiotics developed in the West the Soviet Union invested heavily in the use of bacteriophages — viruses that kill bacteria — to treat infections. Now, faced with the looming spectre of antibiotic resistance, Western researchers and governments are giving phages a serious look. Pharmaceutical companies remain reluctant to get on board because phage therapy, nearly a century old, would be difficult claim intellectual property.

Pregnant in Prison

Lauren Kirchner Pacific Standard Magazine
Will Orange Is the New Black show the complicated reality?

Spot-on, After All These Years

Michael Hirsch Democratic Socialists of America
A hundred years after publication, the central message of this British classic still rings true . . . These fictional but very representative working people are under the thumb of papers such as the Daily Obscurer and the Weekly Chloroform; attend the Church of the Whited Sepulchre; work for bosses named Sweater, Makehaste, and Slogg; elect a town council comprising "The Forty Thieves"; and have daughters who work as maids for the likes of Mrs. Starvum and Lady Slumrent.

Leaving Homeless Person On The Streets: $31,065. Giving Them Housing: $10,051

Scott Keys ThinkProgress
A study found that it would cost taxpayers just $10,051 per homeless person to give them a permanent place to live and services like job training and health care. That figure is 68 percent less than the public currently spends by allowing homeless people to remain on the streets. If central Florida took the permanent supportive housing approach, it could save $350 million over the next decade.

Why is Capital So Much Stronger than Labor?

Jared Bernstein Jared Bernstein blog
“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about answers.” Progressives have all kinds of ideas to shape a more equitable primary distribution. But those ideas will never get much oxygen if we remain voluntary trapped in the cramped debate of a short-sighted economics.

How Hassan Yussuff won the CLC presidency

Larry Savage Rabble (Canada)
Hassan Yussuff was elected Canadian Labour Congress president, marking the first time an incumbent was defeated. Yussuff did not offer a shift in ideology, but rather a shift in approach. He promised a more open and inclusive CLC that would balance lobbying and advertising campaigns with the type of grassroots mobilization and direct political action that so many rank-and-file members were demanding.

Documentary: Citizen Koch

In this searing exposé on the state of democracy in America and the fracturing of the Republican Party, Academy Award®-nominated directors Carl Deal and Tia Lessin (Trouble the Water; co-producers of Fahrenheit 9/11 & Bowling for Columbine) follow the money behind the rise of the Tea Party. CITIZEN KOCH investigates the impact of unlimited, anonymous spending by corporations and billionaires on the electoral process, featuring stories of life-long Republicans whose loyalty is tested when their families become collateral damage in the GOP fight to take organized labor out at the knees. Alternately terrifying and funny, CITIZEN KOCH is an essential and powerful portrait of our political times.

E. O. Wilson vs. Math

Jeremy Fox Dynamic Ecology
I certainly agree that theoreticians often find it hard to find empiricists who will make use of their equations. But whose fault is that? Seems to me that the fault often lies with empiricists who stick with their intuitions come hell or high water, and who actively resist the discipline that mathematics imposes on their groundless daydreaming. Intuition is great–as long as it’s only a starting point, and as long as you’re prepared to give it up when it’s proven wrong,

Food Politics Creates Rift in Panel on Labeling

Stephanie Strom The New York Times
A dietitian working on a panel charged with setting policy on genetically modified foods for the academy contends she was removed for pointing out that two of its members had ties to Monsanto, one of the biggest makers of genetically modified seeds. The incident arises at a time of growing consumer awareness and debate over genetically modified foods — with more than 30 states considering labeling laws — and rising pressure on companies to reduce their use of GMOs.

Let's Stop Treating the Constitution Like the Da Vinci Code

Garrett Epps The Atlantic
The Congressional Research Service points out two things that are missing in Canning: precedent and practicality. A quick glance at a dictionary written more than a quarter-century before the Framing, in another country, was enough to sweep away any counterarguments -- most particularly the argument that, whatever words the Framers may have chosen, they were designing a government that would work, not one that would fall apart whenever 40 senators felt grumpy.