Science-y rec - "What is cancer?"

livredor is a doctoral student in Sweden, and was able to attend a talk given by Bob Weinberg on recent developments in understanding/treating cancer.

Have a read of the whole post here; it is fascinating and well worth a look.

Words fail me.

Twin bombings kill 64 in Baghdad

This is one of the most despicable acts I've yet to encounter in this whole sorry mess. Not only were the bombs detonated in a marketplace - a marketplace, for crying out loud, where parents take their children and buy food for the week - but the bombs were strapped to two mentally disabled women and detonated remotely.

That's right. A bunch of armed men got together and decided that the way forward would be booby-trap the mentally disabled. What next? Grenades in nurseries?

I have a lot of time for people who want to argue that the Allied presence in Iraq is doing more harm than good. I have a lot of time for people who want to argue that suicide bombers are born of desperation, and we should do something about the growing levels of desperation around the world. I have a lot of time for people who argue that the politics of Iraq and its slow disintegration can't be explained away with 'heroes' and 'bad guys'.

I have no time whatsoever for people who strap bombs to the mentally disabled. That's not a suicide bomb. That's another victim.

Any legitimate grievances these bombers may have had are now so completely irrelevant in my head. I don't care. OK? I know I should, I know that the best way to settle conflicts is to stop assigning blame, but in this instance I don't care.