Editors of the journal Science have asked the co-authors of a 2009 paper that linked chronic fatigue syndrome to a retrovirus called XMRV to voluntarily retract the paper. Science editor-in-chief Bruce Alberts and executive editor Monica Bradford cited concerns about the validity of the findings, saying other scientists hadn't been able to replicate them, among other reasons. [more inside]
posted by Horace Rumpole on May 31, 2011 - 64 comments

Compassion Fatigue. In addition to not being equipped to multitask or deal with information overload, we sometimes feel too much; sometimes by just watching the news. How to develop your empathic discernment.
posted by Brent Parker on Jun 8, 2010 - 22 comments

People who suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome may have an answer as to why Nobody knows what causes CFS and fibromyalgia, for many years doctors poo-poohed the patient and sent them home with anti-anxiety drugs, but studies now show that there is a link to this retrovirus and these disorders. It's not in your head. Some studies earlier showed a link between prostate cancer and this virus, but the jury is still out on this. It's thought to be sexually transmitted via the blood, and actually binds with human DNA.
posted by ~Sushma~ on Dec 3, 2009 - 27 comments

Twenty years ago today, Warner Brothers took a risk and paired a director-and-actor pairing known for a quirky, moderately successful supernatural comedy and turned them loose with a high budget-take on an iconic character: Batman. [more inside]
posted by ricochet biscuit on Jun 22, 2009 - 139 comments

Sleep Deprivated Nation "Sleep is the new sex, as the experts in sleep disorders like to say. Men think about it every seven seconds or so. Women romanticize it. Teenagers yearn for the weekends, when they might get a little of it." Even worse, we may sleep less than we think
posted by TurkeyWalk on Jul 12, 2006 - 60 comments

Do us all a favor and shut up. You're for the war? Wrote an essay about it? Good, good. Good for you. Guess what? Shut up about it. Thanks. Oh, you're against the war? Fantastic. Wrote a poem about it? Find the nearest closet and tell it to the coats. Yea, that's right. Shut it.
posted by raaka on Feb 19, 2003 - 88 comments