NYT opinion

The author here point out that the new generation of US college grads are ill-prepared for the world that they are confronted with. And he explains it in generational terms. The theme of the Boomer era was self-discovery, freedom and expression. The theme for this new generation of graduates will be different, but it is not clear that any of their teachers are preparing them for success. The successful young adult is beginning to make sacred commitments — to a spouse, a community and calling — yet mostly hears about freedom and autonomy.

It's Not About You
by David Brooks
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/opinion/31brooks.html?_r=3

Recommendation Letters can screw you out of a medical job

If you are a woman, especially. Women are more likely to be described as "cooperative, affectionate, helpful, kind, sympathetic, nurturing, tactful or agreeable", and it turns out the last thing you want is for someone to sing those praises for you in a recommendation letter. Why? Well researchers at Rice University did a study in which they took the personal pronouns out of recommendation letters. The readers couldn't tell if the applicant was male or female. They controlled for all the concrete academic reasons that a person might be selected, or not, in a medical and academic field, meaning that the letters were sorted as to be equal in that regard. Then they asked "who would you hire"? The answer was that the people hired would be the ones described as "confident, aggressive, ambitious, dominant, forceful, independent, daring, outspoken and intellectual". And those words of course were more often applied to men. If you apply those words to a woman, you're practically calling her a bitch in our culture. So women can't win. No big news there, but the lesson is clear. We can influence our reference letter writers to use a different paradigm in speaking about us, and get hired more.

SOURCE
http://www.rice.edu/nationalmedia/news2010-11-09-letters.shtml

IV Therapy (week 10):

fascinating factoid per Dr Ambrose: scutellaria inhibits expression of IL6
( notes from lecture )

The Constitution Lobby: Give Me Liberty .Org

This org is attempting to unite everyone who'd like to induce our governing officials at all levels to respect and adhere to this founding document. It's a pretty cool idea, because they're avoiding any party affiliation, hoping to simply get more citizens involved in keeping an eye on things.