Of manga mania, Wikipedia and Hitler associations

MercatorNet, launched only in May of last year, has come up with a remarkable range of reading fare (and I'm not even referring to the section containing features from other sites yet).

The editors released a list of a dozen of readers' favorites from 2005, and to show you the variety of articles to pick from, here are titles of some of those that made it to the list --


It's a Wiki world
A defamatory entry in the on-line encyclopaedia Wikipedia has put one of the internet’s great success stories under the spotlight.

The incredible reappearing family dinner
Don't sell the dinner table — family meals are making a comeback. There is even a book about their surprising power.

Is intelligent design really science?
Is intelligent design really science? Or is it a kind of disguised creationism? MercatorNet interviews Santiago Collado, a philosopher who has been tracking the debate.

Manga mania
The Japanese have invented a unique genre of comic books for all ages and tastes -- and they are flying off the shelves even in the US.

The Myth of Hitler’s Pope
A fresh look at the evidence has convinced a Jewish rabbi that the controversial Pius XII should be honoured as a “righteous Gentile”


MercatorNet's pick of 2005

Smile for the patients, Doctor!

A smile makes up for doctors' lack of dress sense, a New Zealand study has found. Most patients prefer smiling doctors in semi-formal attire to po-faced doctors in the same garb. The next most popular options are white coat, formal suit, jeans and casual dress. Patients tended to be more comfortable, researchers found, with relatively conservative styles, such as long sleeves, covered shoes and dress trousers and skirts. Facial piercings, short tops and men wearing earrings are not popular.

As for forms of address, the New Zealand study found that most patients prefer to be addressed by their first name -- although New Zealanders are not known for their formality in any case. But they do want doctors to introduce themselves by their title and first and last names. The breast pocket was the most favoured location for a name badge.

From BioEdge newsletter

Men in white who are 'freebie-free'

Those are Boston University medical students Chen Kenyon (right) and Dustin Petersen in the photo, who are among the thousands who oppose accepting personal gifts from pharmaceutical companies. And their movement is quietly touching off discussions on ethics in the industry and making other medical professionals think.

Kenyon and Petersen are among a growing band of stethoscope-wearing students who believe the medical profession needs more detachment from big pharmaceutical firms.

Consequently, they're turning down everything from free catered meals to notepads, provoking debates among fellow students and quizzical looks from doctors.

"People will often ask, 'why didn't you take the pen? Or, why didn't you eat the lunch?'," says Kenyon, a Boston University medical student who packs a sandwich, apple, and granola bar almost every day so he won't have to eat meals sponsored by drugmakers.

Behind the modest rebellion is the belief that taking gifts from drug companies creates a conflict of interest for doctors. The argument: To accept handouts is to feel indebted, and doctors indebted to drug firms may not be prescribing medicines based solely on what's best for their patients. The 60,000-member American Medical Student Association (AMSA) urges students and doctors alike to just say "no" to all personal gifts from drugmakers.

Against this backdrop, students are still convinced their cause is worth fighting, even if it means giving up a hot meal every day. "I don't think patients can trust us anymore," says Kristin Rising, a medical student at the University of California, San Francisco. "By accepting gifts, we're taking in biases that are going to affect patient care."

A pill they won't swallow
By G. Jeffrey MacDonald | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

Hodgepodge post

You know how it is to come across so many good reads and then you bookmark them and don't want to delete them later even though the loooong list of bookmarked sites is getting you confused already everytime you try to locate something? That's been my dilemma for the past couple of weeks. I've been postponing putting them here on account of the Christmas season (I wanted to do my part in putting the focus on the significance of the season). But even though Christmas officially ends in a few days yet (Feast of the Epiphany which is always on the 2nd Sunday of January and which, this year, falls on Jan. 8th), I think now is a good time to post these thought-provoking pieces on the blog.

But first, believe me when I tell you that all of the following are worthwhile reading fare, no matter what persuasions guide you. You may yawn at the thought of watching Peter Jackson's take on King Kong, but this review from frontpage.com hardly dwells on special effects and movie trivia. Actually, it evaluates the film while exploring the "feminine virtue and masculine heroism" dimension that Kong and Naomi Watts' character bring to the fore.

And then here's a piece by Gaby Friedman titled "Deconstructing Dowd" which I like reading every once in a while. A chunk of it:

When a woman behaves modestly, she finds it much easier to find the good guys—the ones who aren't interested in bimbos, the ones who won't discard them for younger models after a few years of marriage. These are the kind of men who value a woman for their intelligence, who will be looking for a real relationship, not a flash-in-the-pan good time.

Another of those entertaining reads that I stumbled on last year (and which got me thinking more deeply about masculinity and femininity) is a piece titled Confessions of a Former Hoochi Mama. This article, if I remember correctly, is the one that had me checking back at the site again and again for other interesting and "counter-culture" pieces.

More not-your-usual reads lurked in the Web, to my delight! Now the "Marx" being referred to in My grandma would trash this Marxist rubbish is not by any means the German fellow whose analysis of society revolved around class struggle. It springs from a book authored by Eve Marx and discusses the topic of romantic relationships, albeit humorously.

Finally, are you one to think of prostitution as the world's oldest profession? Or, do you rabidly oppose the mere notion of women making a living out of selling their bodies? Do you hardly give the matter altogether any thought? Well, Prostitution is Not a Profession would be worth checking out wherever your principles lie. It could open your eyes about a thing or two.

An attraction of the problematic kind

Imagine living in a house full of women.

If you're a woman, no big deal.

If you're a man, that makes all the difference.

You're a man, and your female housemates trust you completely, feel perfectly at home with you.

You're a man, and some of your female housemates pour their heart out to you and ask for advice. Would it be a shock if someone (either you or among them) developed feelings of attachment or intimacy toward another?

Imagine being a man, surrounded by women -- many of them attractive inside and out and striving to remain so -- sharing a home with them. Would that not be a struggle?

There would not be much of a struggle if the man were homosexual. Now imagine if the man experiencing same-sex attraction (or who has had deep-seated struggles with homosexuality) were surrounded by men -- many of them attractive inside and out and striving to remain so and shared a home with them.

This is the situation that any seminarian or priest with homosexual tendencies deals with.

Though Pope Benedict XVI has formally released a document containing guidelines on the matter of homosexuality and the priesthood, some still seem to insist on what they want rather than face the problem squarely, try to understand the principles explained, and heed the indications given.

Why I thank God I couldn't be a priest is not the document released by the Vatican, but it sure tackles the matter head-on -- and quite clearly, too.