Streisand effect? I hope so.

Quackwatch (http://ping.fm/lc7Rt) has received a "cease and desist" letter from Algis Augustine (http://ping.fm/E98oJ14Legal/dd_suit.html), representing the "licensed CLIA laboratory" Doctor's Data. Doctor's Data is the lab that doctors doing chelation therapy use for determining heavy metal toxicity. The more chelation these guys do, the better, so they will find the lab that finds the highest levels of heavy metals (http://ping.fm/z1F2a01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Tests/urine_toxic.html). CLIA licensing is obviously not as stringent as I thought. Perhaps this is another example of government regulatory failure.

Quackwatch, a valuable website, could use any help you can give it. There is only one Quackwatch, but there is a need for many more.

Debreu's book Theory of Value can be downloaded at no charge here: http://bit.ly/d3O9Vx. HT:Falkenblog.

Good news! The Dow is down! The dividend yield of the Dow is now more than the T-bond yield: http://bit.ly/bZyYfO.

States starting to cut back on pensions for state employees: http://bit.ly/ao2dyj. For the auto industry, unions insisted on defined benefit plans. That may have been a mistake. I wonder if a person could auction their pension on e-bay???

Medical ghostwriting, by Grassley's committee: http://bit.ly/dsQYk4. HT: Margaret Soltan, University Diaries.

UK Vodka best in world: http://bit.ly/aXwS70. Take this with a bit of tonic. In wine ratings, the rating varies from contest to contest, randomly. If you can't tell which wine is the best, how can you tell which is the best vodka?

Just-in-time for disaster? http://bit.ly/99qVxB. The idea of JIT is to shove your warehousing costs off to the suppliers. The risk is that the suppliers won't keep sufficient supplies for disaster. This is a hidden risk.