The new language called for a stronger and wider moratorium on some oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico than the experts thought necessary. In fact, one said Friday, the stronger moratorium might instead increase the risks slightly.

McClatchy:

A brain hormone that fosters fuzzy feelings between mothers and children may also goad soldiers to launch preemptive strikes in defense of their comrades, according to new research.

Oxytocin has received much attention for boosting social bonding and cooperation, but it also appears to trigger defensive aggression against outsiders who might threaten an individual's social group, psychologists say. That indicates the hormone has a much more complex role in social dynamics than just encouraging humans to make love and not war.

h/t Volokh

Much of our law is based around fear of surveillance by the government (Big Brother).  The Fourth Amendment is the easiest example; it is based around a fear of an overly intrusive government acting in its role as sovereign.  Statutory law like the Electronic Communications Privacy Act also seeks to protect individual privacy against the government.  And laws like the Stored Communications Act and HIPPA prohibit corporations from revealing certain information about you.

But now an equally real risk is 300 million Little Brothers.  We've moved from the Panopticon--where the guards can see everything--to a suburb of glass houses where everyone can see each other.  This is a powerful development for politics (we can now watch the watchers), but it has changed inter-personal privacy as well.  What laws (if any) should be updated to reflect this new reality?  Or should we all just get used to living in public-to quote Google CEO Eric Schmidt "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."  The power of the Internet is increasingly moving toward making sure that everybody knows what everybody does.  Is this the right direction?

Also, federal statistics for 2008 show that men 25 and older with a bachelor's degree pulled down a median salary of $65,800. That compares with a median of $39,010 for men in the same age group who had completed only high school. Earnings for women were broadly smaller, although the pay gap by education was similar in percentage terms to that of male workers.

WASHINGTON -- President Obama called Saturday for Congress to avert a planned 21 percent pay cut for doctors who see Medicare patients, saying the move was necessary to ensure the health of older Americans.

The so-called doc fix, which would cost taxpayers billions of dollars, has been stalled in the Senate. If lawmakers do not approve the spending, the cuts will take effect next week.

Mr. Obama used his weekly Internet address to warn that if Republicans block a vote on the issue, it would "undoubtedly force some doctors to stop seeing Medicare patients altogether."

The pay cut is the result of a decade-old formula set up by Congress to slow the growth of Medicare, the government-run health insurance system for older Americans. Under the formula, reimbursement rates for Medicare would have been trimmed on a yearly basis. But every year since 2003, Congress has deferred the cuts, with backing from Democrats and Republicans.

NYT