![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.conversiondiary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/7_quick_takes_sm1.jpg\" "\\"7_quick_takes_sm\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u2014 1 \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n If you\u2019re only going to read one link I put in the Quick Takes, make it this one on the way an over-reliance on mice may be screwing up our understanding of human disease<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mark Mattson knows a lot about mice and rats. He\u2019s fed them; he\u2019s bred them; he\u2019s cut their heads open with a scalpel\u2026 Still, he never quite noticed how fat they were\u2014how bloated and sedentary and sickly\u2014until a Tuesday afternoon in February 2007. That\u2019s the day it occurred to him, while giving a lecture at Emory University in Atlanta, that his animals were nothing less (and nothing more) than lazy little butterballs. His animals and everyone else\u2019s, too.<\/p>\n Mattson was lecturing on a research program that he\u2019d been conducting since 1995, on whether a strict diet can help ward off brain damage and disease\u2026 How would these findings apply to humans, asked someone in the audience. Should people skip meals, too?<\/p>\n But Mattson wasn\u2019t so quick to prescribe his stern feeding schedule to the crowd in Atlanta. He had faith in his research on diet and the brain but was beginning to realize that it suffered from a major complication. It might well be the case that a mouse can be starved into good health\u2014that a deprived and skinny brain is more robust than one that\u2019s well-fed. But there was another way to look at the data. Maybe it\u2019s not that limiting a mouse\u2019s food intake makes it healthy, he thought; it could be that not limiting a mouse\u2019s food makes it sick. Mattson\u2019s control animals\u2014the rodents that were supposed to yield a normal response to stroke and Parkinson\u2019s\u2014might have been overweight, and that would mean his baseline data were skewed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/a>\u2014 2 \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n And if you\u2019re only going to read one caveat to a Quick Take I post, make it this one: the over-reliance on mice is a serious problem that may have tainted a lot of research, but it\u2019s not a reason to throw over science. \u00a0It\u2019s the scientific method and the rationalist approach that lets us spot these errors in the first place. \u00a0So unless you can articulate your methodological\u00a0objection\u00a0and explain how to test it, you\u2019re probably best off operating according to the current scientific consensus.<\/p>\n <\/a>\u2014 3 \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n And, now, if I can possibly prevail on you to read another long feature article, you should really check out this piece from the Awl on Sherlock Holmes fanatics<\/a>. \u00a0There are too many<\/em> awesome quotes to spotlight, but I\u2019ll limit myself to one:<\/p>\n In 1943, Edgar Smith, then head of BSI, mandated that the annual dinner\u2019s first \u201cConanical\u201d toast be dedicated to \u201cthe<\/em> woman,\u201d and a living exemplar of Irene Adler honored. The first recipient of the \u201cthe<\/em> woman\u201d toast was Gypsy Rose Lee. Even as the guest of honor, Lee was only allowed to attend the pre-dinner cocktail party at which the toast was administered, before being retired for the evening.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/a>\u2014 4 \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n Oh, and if you\u2019re already obsessed with the BBC\u2019s new modern-day\u00a0Sherlock<\/a> <\/em>series, you\u2019ll be as thrilled as I am to know that season 2 debuts on PBS on May 6th. \u00a0If you haven\u2019t been watching, the entire first season is available on Netflix instant streaming and is fantastic.<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=m4foH4HCzKA<\/a>\n The second season was delayed for what feels like forever because of the new Hobbit<\/em> movie. \u00a0Dr. Watson is playing Bilbo and Sherlock is the voice of Smaug, and, as bad as I feel as a Tolkein fan, I was totally begrudging Middle Earth their use. \u00a0But now that the date of their return is set,\u00a0I plan to welcome the characters back with an all-tweed party.<\/p>\n <\/a>\u2014 5 \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n io9 came up with a list of new scifi plot devices<\/a> they\u2019d like to see deployed, and my favorite was number 9:<\/p>\n Ghosts don\u2019t always haunt places. Sometimes they haunt ideas. That\u2019s why there are spirits flickering to (un)life among the protesters at Occupy Wall Street encampments.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Except I\u2019m pretty sure I\u2019ve seen it used before, but now I can\u2019t think where.<\/p>\n <\/a>\u2014 6 \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n National Novel Writing Month is in full swing, and, though I flaked out on my plans, I\u2019ve been following the @FakeNNWMTips<\/a> twitter page with great amusement. \u00a0The most germane:<\/p>\n The bible is in the public domain. Simply do a search and replace for \u201cHittites\u201d with \u201cZombies\u201d and you are 70% done. #nanowrimo<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/a>\u2014 7 \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n Finally, if you liked yesterday\u2019s post about Sweeney Todd<\/em> and morality<\/a> (and the accompanying paper), enjoy this clip of \u201cA Little Priest\u201d from the Broadway production:<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=J7LhNCK2axY<\/a>\n