Interesting Articles: Nov 8th-14th 2005

Politics:
* The End of Pensions (New York Times). An easy to read overview of the state of the pension system, both government and private, and how it got the way it is.
* Oil and Grilling Don't Mix (Washington Post). A neat article, if only for the method by which it references senators.

Technology:
* Got 2 Extra Hours for Your E-Mail? (New York Times). Right on.

Science:
* Early Stress in Rats Bites Memory Later On: Inadequate care to young animals delivers delayed hit to the brain (Science News). In short, rats abused when kids look fine psychologically as young adults but show memory and other cognitive issues in middle age. If you can't read the Science News article, check the original source: Mechanisms of Late-Onset Cognitive Decline after Early-Life Stress (Journal of Neuroscience).
* Cool Birds: How can emperor penguins live like that? (Science News). While not deep or surprising in any way, the article is an entertaining and very well written overview of penguin life.
* High Times for Brain Growth: Marijuana-like drug multiplies neurons (Science News). I wonder if this research could have been done in the U.S.?

Miscellaneous:
* An Organic Cash Cow (New York Times). An overview of the organic milk industry. Posted due to its relevance to my milk taste test. Actually, that probably makes the New York Times' companion article (its taste test), Bottle of White, more fitting than the article linked above.
* The Literary Darwinists (New York Times). Literary Darwinism is the study of behavior in humans as displayed through literature and how such behavior could be seen as adaptive (or non-adaptive) in the Darwinism sense. It sounds like a backwater field. Frankly, I'd hoped based upon the phrase that it was a study of how the popularity of various types of literature evolve over time.