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What is the obsession with "bright skin"? I'm not in a position to assert if pharmaceutical companies have pushed the limits but it seems like they have. Capitalizing on a misguided desire amongst many youngsters to "possess" fairer skin has turned them away from the reasons they first reached out to the creams to consuming machines sensitive only to a synthetic public image and the advertisements that fuel it. The Indian subcontinent experiences quasi-tropical climate all year long - with some regions of greater aridity inland - and the pigmentation in the skin adapts to those sunlight intensities that favour Vitamin D production and reduced ultraviolet light damage to the folic acid. And here, of all the places, the people aspire to Celtic skin tones!
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The importance of stupidity in scientific research | JCS
Productive stupidity means being ignorant by choice. Focusing on important questions puts us in the awkward position of being ignorant. One of the beautiful things about science is that it allows us to bumble along, getting it wrong time after time, and feel perfectly fine as long as we learn something each time. No doubt, this can be difficult for students who are accustomed to getting the answers right. No doubt, reasonable levels of confidence and emotional resilience help, but I think scientific education might do more to ease what is a very big transition: from learning what other people once discovered to making your own discoveries. The more comfortable we become with being stupid, the deeper we will wade into the unknown and the more likely we are to make big discoveries.
Peter Roebuck: Sangakkara's challenge to cricket | Opinion | Cricinfo Magazine | ESPN Cricinfo
Sangakkara has once again served Sri Lankan cricket with distinction. Only those with empires to protect will resent his words. Only those blighted with the curse of nationalism will deny him his voice. He spoke as a patriot, a higher calling altogether.
Russia's Evolving Leadership | STRATFOR
Neither leader is one or the other, however: Both have had their times of being aggressive and accommodating in their domestic and foreign policies. Which face they show does not depend upon personalities but rather upon the status of Russia’s strength.
(On Putin and Medvedev)
One Mexican's death row case spills far beyond borders of Texas - CNN.com
As it stands now, there is nothing in force that imposes a consequence for failure to satisfy the Vienna Convention. The crafted legislation is seen as a narrow solution to only the most critical cases, such as Leal's. Currently, people can file a motion with the federal court, but courts have ruled in line with habeas relief law that if consular access was not raised at the preliminary trail then the defendant is barred from bringing it up.
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I think we've successfully added a chapter of great importance to the textbooks of political history: Rahul Gandhi's journey on foot across Uttar Pradesh. Luckily for him - and I mean this with the utmost sensitivity toward the people victimized in the state - Mayawati has goofed up what could've been an opportunity to cement her political position by mismanaging the local land acquisition laws and holing out to support originating without the state, the kind of support she should've known would find a hundred ways to disappear at the first sign of trouble, the kind of support that alienated her own people from her administratium. Now, look what's happened: an aspiring young politician has found his lack of political vision to be suddenly impertinent in establishing both an alternate leadership as well as a necessary opposition. Rahul Gandhi may be on his way to securing his first public victory, but in my opinion, he's not yet minister material. Tougher tests remain.
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