Interesting Articles: Dec 6th-12th 2005

History:
* This Season's War Cry: Commercialize Christmas, or Else (New York Times). A brief history of the commercial aspect of Christmas. Posted because the article has a smattering of interesting facts (that I didn't know).

Humor:
* Goodbye, Moon (New York Times). A cute little piece of satire. F is the best.

Law:
* Are Lawyers Being Overbilled for Their Test Preparation? (New York Times). There's something oddly circular about this whole situation...

Art:
* State of the Art (New York Times). Commentary on modern art. An article that was interesting to me only because it cited many pieces of controversial "art" that I never knew about.

Science & Nutrition:
* Lines Are Drawn for Big Suit Over Sodas and Federal Advisory Group Calls for Change in Food Marketing to Children (both New York Times). I'm not sure where I come down on this issue. Thoughts? Feel free to comment.
* Monthly cycle changes women's brains (Science News). A good study, if only for its straightforward design: "One to 5 days before their periods, the women were asked to read words with connotations that were positive (such as "safe" or "delighted"), negative (such as "fault" or "death"), or neutral (such as "bookcase" or "clarinet"). They repeated the task 8 to 12 days after their periods started. ... During the premenstrual period, part of the volunteers' orbitofrontal cortex, an area involved in regulating emotion, was more active in response to negative words than to positive or neutral words. This difference decreased after the women's periods." Original paper available: Orbitofrontal cortex activity related to emotional processing changes across the menstrual cycle (Proceedings of the National Academic of Sciences).
* Dairy fats cut colon cancer risk (Science News). Hmmm... A benefit of milk that requires the fat. Original article available: High-fat dairy food and conjugated linoleic acid intakes in relation to colorectal cancer incidence in the Swedish Mammography Cohort (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition).