Out on the web this week…

• There has been a lot of response to Andrea Mitchell’s announcement of her breast cancer. Tara Parker Pope sums things up nicely here. 
• The BBC reports that new technology may allow microwaving food waste to produce bio fuel.
• The season approaches… Katherine Harmon at Observations (a blog from Scientific American) with 6 Common Misconceptions about the Flu-and Flu Shots (via @JessieGruman)
• The lawsuit by the Authors Guild, Inc. against Hathi Trust is generating a lot of commentary out there. Here is the Library Copyright Alliance’s statement on the case, and this post from Kevin Smith (Duke’s Scholarly Communications Officer) offers an interesting opinion on the Guild’s motives and provides links to other discussions of the case.
• GE has some neat examples of data visualization like this disease network on their blog

Catching my eye lately on the internet:

• Jonathan Eisen calls for authors, bloggers and reporters to help aggregate discussions of scientific papers in the media and blogs by commenting with links on journal sites. He also provides links to various discussions of the issue in his post.
• Laika’s MedLibLog has an important post on why, how, and when limiting to free full text is not always a good idea. She discusses studies of how many articles are missed because of pay walls, and the impact of FUTON (full text online) and NAA (no abstract available) bias.
• Recent headlines about a mammography study did not reflect the results according to the ACS’s Dr. Len and Gary Schwitzer
• Research Information reports that The British Library and the International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical (STM) publishers have agreed on a framework license for non-commercial document delivery users (and their libraries) outside Britain.
• NatureNews reports that the US Senate has passed a patent reform bill with implications for the science and health communities.
• Confessions of a Science Librarian blogged about a recent study finding 704 brain injuries in the Asterix books!

Out on the internet this past week…

• Australian researchers say they have bred mosquitoes with a bacteria that blocks transmission of deadly Dengue fever.
• Wired Campus, a blog from the Chronicle of Higher Education, reported that several major libraries have joined a project to publish “orphaned works”.
• What Student’s Don’t Know has been making a big splash. Krafty Librarian has two thoughtful posts—the first discusses the lack of research knowledge among medical students and other users  (and librarians’ and professors’ failure to recognize it). The second asks if library education should be formalized and begun earlier.
• Readers submitted photos related to Hurricane Irene to this NY Times interactive gallery.