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"I am the world crier, & this is my dangerous career... I am the one to call your bluff, & this is my climate."

—Kenneth Patchen (1911-1972)

Saturday, March 18

Sterling laments state of world 

“At a South by Southwest interactive conference that many said was too big and too crazy, one thing everyone was seemingly happy to see hadn't changed was that science fiction writer Bruce Sterling gave the closing speech.

During the roughly 45 minutes Sterling talked, he touched on any number of issues, from the wonders of Web 2.0 technologies, to the way America and Americans are viewed abroad, to politics and daily life in Belgrade, Serbia-Montenegro, where he currently lives.
"Our people in Washington are drinking their own bath water. They have forgotten how to build anything...it looks like the Soviet Union." ”
(CNET News.com)
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Friday, March 17

UN:: Sacred sites key to protecting species 

"From skull caves in southern Kenya to Mexico's searing Chihuahuan desert, preserving sacred sites is key to slowing the loss of animal and plant species, environmentalists said on Saturday.

Experts have pinpointed a string of religious sites across the globe as pilot ecosystems where local customs have helped safeguard troves of biological richness." (Yahoo! News)

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Hey, Big Spender 

Should We Have Known that President Bush would bust the budget?: “This week's column is a question, a brief one addressed with honest curiosity to Republicans. It is: When George W. Bush first came on the scene in 2000, did you understand him to be a liberal in terms of spending?” — Peggy Noonan (WSJ OpinionJournal thanks to walker)
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spam trap page 

Place a link to this page full of nonexistent email addresses somewhere on your web page and help defeat spambots.

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Lawyers Say Coaching Was to Aid 9/11 Airlines 

"Lawyers for two airlines being sued by 9/11 victims prompted a federal attorney to coach witnesses in the Zacarias Moussaoui death penalty trial so the government's case against the al-Qaida conspirator would not undercut their defense, victims' lawyers allege." (Free Republic)

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Bush Disapproval Map 

"Watch in amazement as this GIF that Russ prepared shows Bush's approval ratings plunge lower and lower month by month. " (Daily Kos)

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Jamie Raskin on the Difference Between the Bible and the Constitution 

Urban Legends Reference Pages: "On Wednesday, March 1, 2006, at a hearing on the proposed Constitutional Amendment to prohibit gay marriage, Jamie Raskin, professor of law at AU, was requested to testify.

At the end of his testimony, Republican Senator Nancy Jacobs said: 'Mr. Raskin, my Bible says marriage is only between a man and a woman. What do you have to say about that?'

Raskin replied: 'Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You did not place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible.'

The room erupted into applause."

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Evidence for Universe Expansion Found 

“Physicists announced Thursday that they now have the smoking gun that shows the universe went through extremely rapid expansion in the moments after the big bang, growing from the size of a marble to a volume larger than all of observable space in less than a trillion-trillionth of a second.

The discovery — which involves an analysis of variations in the brightness of microwave radiation — is the first direct evidence to support the two-decade-old theory that the universe went through what is called inflation.” (Yahoo! News)
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Wednesday, March 15

ITunes Tricks to Keep Your Music Listening Interesting 

Andy Budd's ingenious implementation of iTunes' smart playlists:
"One of the problems ... is keeping your music collection interesting. You’ll want to hear newer songs more often than older ones, yet at the same time you’ll want to make sure that the old music doesn’t get lost. You want to hear your favourite songs slightly more often than everything else, but you don’t want to keep listening to the same old tracks over and over again. As such you need to make sure your playlists have a good degree of variety as well as and a high churn rate. The way to achieve this is by utilising smart playlists, however it can be quite difficult getting the right balance."

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Accidental Stereo 

"It is now 20 years or so since Californian record collectors Brad Kay and Steven Lasker came up with the intriguing theory that some old mono recordings were accidentally made in stereo, long before LP stereo was launched in 1958.

In the 1920s and 1930s there was no tape, so studios cut recordings directly onto wax discs. Because a lot could go wrong, they played safe by simultaneously cutting two discs. Sometimes they played extra safe by using two microphones, one for each disc. The result was a matched pair of recordings, each with a different sound perspective.

Brad Kay hunted down matched pairs of old discs and tried playing one as the left channel and the other as the right. Some engineers who heard his 'accidental stereo' recreations thought it was just an illusion created by slight playback differences between two identical recordings. Others thought the stereo sounded too real to be written off." (New Scientist)
A new CD release of Edward Elgar's music conducted by the composer includes a 1933 overture in "accidental stereo".

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Republicans Happier than Democrats 

"Overall happiness among U.S. residents has not changed much over the years, according to the latest survey by the Pew Research Center that finds 34 percent of adults are very happy. Among 3,014 telephone respondents, half reported being pretty happy, and 15 percent said they are not too happy. The survey, released this week, points out several disparities based on lifestyle, beliefs and political persuasion:

  • Republicans are happier than Democrats.

  • People who worship frequently are happier than those who don't.

  • The rich are happier than the poor.

  • Whites and Hispanics are happier than blacks.

  • Married people are happier than the unmarried.

  • Dog owners and cat owners rate the same.

  • Sunbelt residents are happier than everyone else." (Yahoo! News)
(Some of these findings, of course, support the old assertion that ignorance is bliss. Given that the study deems around one third of the American public truly happy, what does that say about the American ignorance quotient??)

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High Caffeine Pop from 'Energy Drinks' Revealed 

"Most so-called energy drinks are loaded with caffeine far above the FDA limit set for carbonated colas such as Pepsi or Coke, researchers here reported... Energy drinks -- with brand names such as Red Bull and SoBe No Fear -- are not included in the FDA regulation that limits caffeine in colas or sodas... Because caffeine content is not disclosed on the label, these products may pose a health threat to unsuspecting consumers who should limit their caffeine intake, such as those with hypertension, pregnant women, or those who suffer from anxiety attacks..." (Medpage Today)

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Single Protein Compound May Start Memory Decline 

Does rodent brain study point to a candidate model for 'cause' of Alzheimer's disease? The derivative of amyloid-beta precursor protein (APP), which is linked to the "plaques" and "neurofibrillary tangles" that are characteristic of the Alzheimer's brain, is well on the way to meeting Koch's postulates, the formal requirements that allow us to say that a substance has a causal role in a disease. First, it is found regularly in the brains of animals affected with a form of memory loss that is considered an animal model of Alzheimer's. It is not found in the brains of unaffected animals. When extracted from affected brains and given to healthy animals, they develop signs of memory loss. And the same protein appears in human brains. The mild cognitive deficits which precede the development of fullblown Alzheimer's dementia could be caused by this protein demonstrated to cause transient memory deficits in rodents. It might be the first step in the cascade of changes to brain proteins that underlie the degenerative process in Alzheimer's. If this finding is borne out, it holds out the promise of early detection of the Alzheimer's disease process before dramatic cognitive deficits develop. Identification of the protein could also lead to the development of medications which block its actions or vaccines to immunize patients against the development of Alzheimer's. (MedPage Today)

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The Feingold Resolution and the Sound of Silence 

"Democratic senators, filing in for their weekly caucus lunch yesterday, looked as if they'd seen a ghost." — Dana Millbank (Washington Post)

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Silent Struggle 

A controversial new theory depicts pregnancy not as a harmonious relationship between the pregnant mother and the fetus she is carryng but as a struggle over the nutrients she will provide.
"Dr. Haig's theory has been gaining support in recent years, as scientists examine the various ways pregnancy can go wrong.

His theory also explains a baffling feature of developing fetuses: the copies of some genes are shut down, depending on which parent they come from. Dr. Haig has also argued that the same evolutionary conflicts can linger on after birth and even influence the adult brain. New research has offered support to this idea as well. By understanding these hidden struggles, scientists may be able to better understand psychological disorders like depression and autism." (New York Times )
Haig argues that evolutionary selection should favor fetuses the invasiveness of whose sprouting placental blood vessels is more effective in wresting nutrients from their hosts, while mothers who restrain the incursion to have several successful pregnancies to spread their genes would similarly have an advantage. This theory appealingly explains the baffling condition of late-pregnancy high blood pressure called pre-eclampsia, which affects around 6% of pregnancies, as an extreme version of this struggle in which the fetus causes maternal hypertension to pump more blood in through the relatively low-pressure placenta. But be sure to read to the end of the article for the even more intriguing discussion of how this maternal-fetal conflict, played out in the arena of control of fetal gene expression, may shape the offspring's behavior and social functioning postnatally.

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Tuesday, March 14

Happy π Day (3/14) 

Will 'round things out' with a moment of observance a little after 1:59 this afternoon. And it is also Einstein's birthday.

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Monday, March 13

The Freakonomics Freaks Respond to Gladwell 

"...[T]he theory put forth in Freakonomics examined why crime had fallen all over the country, not just in New York, and one of the many arguments against “broken windows” as a major cause was the fact that such innovative policing wasn’t being practiced elsewhere—and yet crime was falling in those places as well. A smaller point to also consider: Gladwell left out one other major reason that, according to Levitt’s research, crime did begin to fall in the 1990’s: the waning of the violent crack trade."

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The Neurocritic 

"Deconstructing the most sensationalistic recent findings in Human Brain Imaging, Cognitive Neuroscience, and Psychopharmacology". Recent discussions about the fMRI lie detection hullabaloo and the neurological correlates of empathy, among others.

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Saving Nazi Church for Posterity 

"A group of German priests and parishioners have begun a politically sensitive fundraising campaign to save the country’s last Nazi-era church. The Martin Luther Memorial Church in Berlin has embarrassed the authorities for six decades.

The image of a Nazi storm trooper side by side with Jesus Christ has been carved into the pulpit, the entrance is lit by a chandelier in the shape of an iron cross and the organ was used to stir the spirits at a torch-lit Nuremberg rally. Throughout the church, consecrated in 1933, there are bare patches where swastikas, illegal since the end of the war, have been ripped out.

“There was a bust of Adolf Hitler in the nave,” Isolde Boehm, dean of the church, said. “A carved face of Hitler has been replaced by one of Martin Luther. There is even a rumour that the church was supposed to be called the Adolf Hitler Church.”" (Times of London thanks to walker)

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Moussaoui Death Penalty Case May Be Tossed 

According to US District Judge Leonie Brinkema, it may be "very difficult for this case to go forward" after prosecution lawyers admitted they had coached prospective witnesses in direct defiance of her order that they be shielded from any advance exposure to trial proceedings. She said she had "never seen such an egregious violation of a rule on witnesses" and considered, at the least, excluding the seven witnesses involved, who prosecutors say are "half of the government case." She could also bar the government from seeking the death penalty, which would automatically end the trial and impose a sentence of life without parole on Moussaoui (given his guilty plea), pending a likely government appeal. The judge also indicated that she might reconsider a defense motion for a mistrial on an unrelated issue. Brinkema has been courageously independent-minded from the first in the face of US attempts to trample on his defendent rights. Brinkema also put the Church of Scientology in its place in a momentous 1996 decision.

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The Skin You're In 

Think the web is colorblind? Think again [via Bill Hooker]

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Sunday, March 12

Genes decide if coffee hurts or helps your heart 

"Coffee can raise or reduce your chances of suffering a heart attack – it all depends on your genes, researchers suggest.

People with a genetic makeup that causes them to metabolise caffeine more slowly have a 36% greater risk of heart attack if they drink two to three cups of coffee a day than people with the same gene who drink one cup or less a day, according to a new study. And if they drink more than four cups, this risk rises to 64%.

“Our data suggest that the longer caffeine is lingering in the system, the more harm it can do,” says Ahmed El-Sohemy at the University of Toronto, Canada, who led the study.

On the other hand, individuals who metabolised caffeine quickly and consumed two to three cups of coffee a day had a 22% reduction in the risk of heart attack compared with those with the same genetic makeup who consumed just one cup or less each day." (New Scientist)
If you knew your hereditary makeup predisposed you to increased cardiac risk from your caffeine consumption, would you cut back?

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Immunological Jiu Jitsu 

Vaccine could stop MS in its tracks: “THE immune cells that attack the brains and nerves of people with multiple sclerosis could be turned into a weapon against the disease.

This month sees the beginning of a trial of a personalised vaccine for MS, designed to rein in and destroy the renegade white blood cells that attack myelin cells lining the brain and nerves of patients.” (New Scientist)
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Three cosmic enigmas, one audacious answer 

"Dark energy and dark matter, two of the greatest mysteries confronting physicists, may be two sides of the same coin. A new and as yet undiscovered kind of star could explain both phenomena and, in turn, remove black holes from the lexicon of cosmology... [California physicists suggest ] that the objects that till now have been thought of as black holes could in fact be dead stars that form as a result of an obscure quantum phenomenon. These stars could explain both dark energy and dark matter." (New Scientist)

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Key to Strong Memory in Old Age: Just Believe 

"If you don't believe you'll have a good memory when you get older, then you might as well forget about this article." (Yahoo! News)

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Human quadrupeds discovered in Turkey 

"The discovery of a Turkish family that walks on all fours could aid research into the evolution of humans.

Researchers believe the five brothers and sisters, who can walk naturally only on all fours, may provide new information on how humans evolved from four-legged hominids to walk upright." (Yahoo! News)
I am not sure about the relevance to evolutionary research. The family has a hereditary cerebellar ataxia which makes normal balance impossible. In effect, they represent not where humans are coming from but, with the right mutations impairing brain function, where we'are going to...

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Boy Called Reincarnated Buddha Missing 

"A 15-year-old boy whose followers believe he is the reincarnation of Buddha has disappeared after 10 months of meditation in the Nepalese jungle , officials said Saturday.

Followers of Ram Bahadur Banjan reported his disappearance and search parties on Sunday split up in the jungles of Bara, about 100 miles south of ...Katmandu, to investigate... [E]yewitnesses reported seeing the teen heading south before dawn on Saturday. His clothes were found near the spot where he had been meditating." (Yahoo! News)
Not clear if he disappeared to an earthly destination or otherwise...

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Take Your Pills, All Your Pills 

Drug companies, as opposed to healthcare agencies, are starting to offer case management to patients (New York Times ), since it is so much in their financial interests that patients continue on their medications as long as possible.

Just as it is so much the function of pharmaceutical company drug representatives to spin the advantages of their products to susceptible doctors, will these case managers begin spinning clinical updates on their patients to their attending physicians in the service of getting the patients on higher doses or longer durations of their companies' prescriptions?

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History Now Will Be Milosevic's Judge 

Lamentation that Milosevic cheats history (CNN ) by dying with no verdict in his $200-million, five-year war crimes trial. Nuremburg was concluded in less than a year. Critics have been frustrated that the prosecutors lumped together the atrocity charges against Milosevic from Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, and that he was allowed to be his own defense attorney and use the trial as his bully pulpit.

Milosevic's was the second death in recent days of a Serbian in custody in the Hague, and questions abound about whether he suicided (Yahoo! News) and about his longstanding fears (BBC )his food was being poisoned. His post-mortem (with a Serbian pathologist in attendance) takes place today.

Not that the conclusion of the trial would have prevented this, but dying without a verdict against him facilitates his celebration as a hero by ultra-nationalist Serbian elements, even while many Serbians are relieved at his passing. Milosevic has always justified his barbarity as a defense against the victimization of Serbia; if there is widespread sympathy in Serbia for the notion that his death had something to do with maltreatment by the authorities in the Hague, it will become less likely that Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic will ever be extradited for their war crimes.

Nevertheless, most of the world will not grieve the passing of a genocidal monster who blackened the pages of 20th century European history (New York Times ).

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