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A new study suggests that cell phone use probably doesn’t have any link to brain cancer:

But the leaders of the project acknowledged that the study had flaws. They said one source of possible inaccuracies was the fact that participants were asked to remember how much and on which ear they used their mobiles over the past decade.

This reminds me of something. In movies, characters are endlessly picking up a phone, putting it to their right ear, and then hastily switching it to their left ear so they can pick up a pad to write a note. I never do this. I always use my left ear. Always. My right ear works fine in general, but I can’t talk on the phone with it any more than I can use my left hand to write. Which is to say, I can do it, but it feels clumsy and I have a hard time following the conversation.

Is this unusual? Or is ambi-aurality (or whatever) just a movie affectation and most people prefer one ear over the other just like I do? What sayeth the hive mind?

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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