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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)
—Kenneth Patchen (1911-1972)
Saturday, December 31
New Year's Day History, Tradition and Custom
This is a reprise and an amplification of a New Year's Day post from FmH in years past:
Years ago, the Boston Globe ran a January 1st article compiling folkloric beliefs about what to do, what to eat, etc. on New Year's Day to bring good fortune for the year to come. I've regretted since -- I usually think of it around once a year (grin) -- not clipping out and saving the article. Especially since we've had children, I'm interested in enduring traditions that go beyond getting drunk [although some comment that this is a profound enactment of the interdigitation of chaos and order appropriate to the New Year's celebration — FmH], watching the bowl games and making resolutions.
A web search brought me this, less elaborate than what I recall from the Globe but to the same point. It is weighted toward eating traditions, which is odd because, unlike most other major holidays, the celebration of New Year's in 21st century America does not seem to be centered at all around thinking about what we eat (except in the sense of the traditional weight-loss resolutions!) and certainly not around a festive meal. But..."Traditionally, it was thought that one could affect the luck they would have throughout the coming year by what they did or ate on the first day of the year. For that reason, it has become common for folks to celebrate the first few minutes of a brand new year in the company of family and friends. Parties often last into the middle of the night after the ringing in of a new year. It was once believed that the first visitor on New Year's Day would bring either good luck or bad luck the rest of the year. It was particularly lucky if that visitor happened to be a tall dark-haired man.
"Traditional New Year foods are also thought to bring luck. Many cultures believe that anything in the shape of a ring is good luck, because it symbolizes "coming full circle," completing a year's cycle. For that reason, the Dutch believe that eating donuts on New Year's Day will bring good fortune.
"Many parts of the U.S. celebrate the new year by consuming black-eyed peas. These legumes are typically accompanied by either hog jowls or ham. Black-eyed peas and other legumes have been considered good luck in many cultures. The hog, and thus its meat, is considered lucky because it symbolizes prosperity. Cabbage is another 'good luck' vegetable that is consumed on New Year's Day by many. Cabbage leaves are also considered a sign of prosperity, being representative of paper currency. In some regions, rice is a lucky food that is eaten on New Year's Day."
The further north one travels in the British Isles, the more the year-end festivities focus on New Year's. The Scottish observance of Hogmanay has many elements of warming heart and hearth, welcoming strangers and making a good beginning:"Three cornered biscuits called hogmanays are eaten. Other special foods are: wine, ginger cordial, cheese, bread, shortbread, oatcake, carol or carl cake, currant loaf, and a pastry called scones. After sunset people collect juniper and water to purify the home. Divining rituals are done according to the directions of the winds, which are assigned their own colors. First Footing:The first person who comes to the door on midnight New Year's Eve should be a dark-haired or dark-complected man with gifts for luck. Seeing a cat, dog, woman, red-head or beggar is unlucky. The person brings a gift (handsel) of coal or whiskey to ensure prosperity in the New Year. Mummer's Plays are also performed. The actors called the White Boys of Yule are all dressed in white, except for one dressed as the devil in black. It is bad luck to engage in marriage proposals, break glass, spin flax, sweep or carry out rubbish on New Year's Eve."Here's why we clink our glasses when we drink our New Year's toasts, no matter where we are. Of course, sometimes the midnight cacophony is louder than just clinking glassware, to create a 'devil-chasing din'.In Georgia, eat black eyed peas and turnip greens on New Year's Day for luck and prosperity in the year to come, supposedly because they symbolize coppers and currency. Hoppin' John, a concoction of peas, onion, bacon and rice, is also a southern New Year's tradition, as is wearing yellow to find true love (in Peru, yellow underwear, apparently!) or carrying silver for prosperity. In some instances, a dollar bill is thrown in with the other ingredients of the New Year's meal to bring prosperity. In Greece, there is a traditional New Year's Day sweetbread with a silver coin baked into it. All guests get a slice of the bread and whoever receives the slice with the coin is destined for good fortune for the year. At Italian tables, lentils, oranges and olives are served. The lentils, looking like coins, will bring prosperity; the oranges are for love; and the olives, symbolic of the wealth of the land, represent good fortune for the year to come.
A New Year's meal in Norway also includes dried cod, "lutefisk." The Pennsylvania Dutch make sure to include sauerkraut in their holiday meal, also for prosperity.
In Spain, you would cram twelve grapes in your mouth at midnight, one each time the clock chimed, for good luck for the twelve months to come. The U. S. version of this custom, for some reason, involves standing on a chair as you pop the grapes. In Denmark, jumping off a chair at the stroke of midnight signifies leaping into the New Year. In Rio, you would be plunging into the sea en masse at midnight, wearing white and bearing offerings.
In China, papercuttings of red paper are hung in the windows to scare away evil spirits who might enter the house and bring misfortune. In Thailand, one pours fragrant water over the hands of elders on New Year's Day to show them respect.
Elsewhere: pancakes for the New Year's breakfast in France; banging on friends' doors in Denmark to "smash in" the New Year; going in the front door and out the back door at midnight in Ireland; making sure the first person through your door in the New Year in Scotland is a tall dark haired visitor. Water out the window at midnight in Puerto Rico rids the home of evil spirits. Cleanse your soul in Japan at the New Year by listening to a gong tolling 108 times, one for every sin. It is Swiss good luck to let a drop of cream fall on the floor on New Year's Day.
Some history; documentation of observance of the new year dates back at least 4000 years to the Babylonians, who also made the first new year's resolutions (reportedly voews to return borrowed farm equipment were very popular), although their holiday was observed at the vernal equinox. The Babylonian festivities lasted eleven days, each day with its own particular mode of celebration. The traditional Persian Norouz festival of spring continues to be considered the advent of the new year among Persians, Kurds and other peoples throughout Central Asia, and dates back at least 3000 years, deeply rooted in Zooastrian traditions.Modern Bahá'í's celebrate Norouz ("Naw Ruz") as the end of a Nineteen Day Fast. Rosh Hashanah ("head of the year"), the Jewish New Year, the first day of the lunar month of Tishri, falls between September and early October. Muslim New Year is the first day of Muharram, and Chinese New Year falls between Jan. 10th and Feb. 19th of the Gregorian calendar.
The classical Roman New Year's celebration was also in the spring although the calendar went out of synchrony with the sun. January 1st became the first day of the year by proclamation of the Roman Senate in 153 BC, reinforced even more strongly when Julius Caesar established what came to be known as the Julian calendar in 46 BC. The early Christian Church condemned new year's festivities as pagan but created parallel festivities concurrently. New Year's Day is still observed as the Feast of Christ's Circumcision in some denominations. Church opposition to a new year's observance reasserted itself during the Middle Ages, and Western nations have only celebrated January 1 as a holidy for about the last 400 years. The custom of New Year's gift exchange among Druidic pagans in 7th century Flanders was deplored by Saint Eligius, who warned them, "[Do not] make vetulas, [little figures of the Old Woman], little deer or iotticos or set tables [for the house-elf] at night or exchange New Year gifts or supply superfluous drinks [another Yule custom]." (Wikipedia)
The tradition of the New Year's Baby signifying the new year began with the Greek tradition of parading a baby in a basket during the Dionysian rites celebrating the annual rebirth of that god as a symbol of fertility. The baby was also a symbol of rebirth among early Egyptians. Again, the Church was forced to modify its denunciation of the practice as pagan because of the popularity of the rebirth symbolism, finally allowing its members to cellebrate the new year with a baby although assimilating it to a celebration of the birth of the baby Jesus. The addition of Father Time (the "Old Year") wearing a sash across his chest withthe previous year on it, and the banner carried or worn by the New Year's Baby, immigrated from Germany. Interestingly, January 1st is not a legal holiday in Israel, officially because of its historic origins as a Christian feast day.
Auld Lang Syne (literally 'old long ago' in the Scottish dialect) is sung or played at the stroke of midnight throughout the English-speaking world (although I prefer George Harrison's "Ring Out the Old"). Versions of the song have been part of the New Year's festivities since the 17th century but Robert Burns was inspired to compose a modern rendition, which was published after his death in 1796.Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
And here's a hand, my trusty friend
And gie's a hand o' thine
We'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne
However you're going to celebrate, my warmest wishes for the year to come... and eat hearty! [thanks to Bruce Umbaugh for research assistance]
Friday, December 30
"Calling all bloggers"
These documents need publishing: "The UK government has been quick to deny that we practice, or tolerate the practice of torture. So it is perhaps not suprising that they are determined that you should not see the following documents..." (Blairwatch)
I'm feeling silly
Christmas fun with 250 lbs. of Silly Putty in-house at Google.
'Ear bud' headphones can cause hearing loss, experts warn
“We're seeing the kind of hearing loss in younger people that's typically found in aging adults...” (Star Tribune )
What We Believe But Cannot Prove
I have already long since blinked to this collection of essays from modern thinkers convened by John Brockman at The Edge website. It serves as an antidote to blind dogma in that the essays thoughtfully dissect the ways in which belief is different than certainty and the implications of sustaining it under conditions of uncertainty. Thank you, John Brockman, for that. Now it is a book.
Distorted Tunes Test
Ever wondered if you are tone-deaf? The Distorted Tunes Test can help you ascertain, by seeing if you can distinguish tunes that are played off-key from those rendered correctly. (National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders)
Murdercide
Unravelling the Myths of the Suicide Bomber, according to inveterate skeptic Michael Shermer:“Police have an expression for people who put themselves into circumstances that force officers to shoot them: "suicide by cop." Following this lingo, suicide bombers commit "suicide by murder," so I propose we call such acts "murdercide": the killing of a human or humans with malice aforethought by means of self-murder.
The reason we need semantic precision is that suicide has drawn the attention of scientists, who understand it to be the product of two conditions quite unrelated to murdercide: ineffectiveness and disconnectedness. According to Florida State University psychologist Thomas Joiner, in his remarkably revealing scientific treatise Why People Die by Suicide (Harvard University Press, 2006): "People desire death when two fundamental needs are frustrated to the point of extinction; namely, the need to belong with or connect to others, and the need to feel effective with or to influence others."” (Scientific American )
Language affects 'half of vision'
“University of California researchers tested the hypothesis that language plays a role in perception by carrying out a series of colour tests.This is construed as an empirical test of the controversial and, in its strongest form, discredited Whorf hypothesis, which suggests that the structure and lexicon of a peroson's native language shapes the perception and understanding of the world. It is more reasonable that linguistic underpinnings make certain concepts or percepts more or less easily grasped. And divergent worldviews and models occur far more readily from influences other than linguistic differences, between people reared with nominally the same native tongue.
They found that people were able to identify colours faster in their right visual field than in their left.
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study said it was because the right field is processed in the brain area responsible for language.” (BBC)
It strikes me that this research has some bearing on the 'fringy' psychological technic called neurolinguistic programming (Wikipedia ) proposed in the '70's by Richard Bandler and John Grinder, which attempts to match communication to the perceptual style, cerebral dominance characteristics, etc. of listeners for maximum receptivity. Although it was heavily colored by New Age pap about 'unlimited potential' and the like and billed as a set of strategies for 'therapeutic magic'. Eventually deprecated as a serious psychotherapeutic tool, it has continued to intrigue (and draw customers) in fields like business management, sales, coaching and seduction (!). NLP claims have been roundly criticized for being unsupported by empirical evidence, yet apart from the pop-science trappings and the reductionist popularization, I have always suspected that Bandler and Grinder had touched on more than a grain of truth.
Funny, what the Wikipedia article does not touch upon is the debt that NLP owed to 'Ericksonian hypnosis,' a far more psychologically credible but obscure set of therapeutic techniques developed by psychologist Milton Erickson (1901-80). He operationalized the belief, which I share, that the psychotherapy session is a sort of entry into a joint trance state. Usually, the therapist is not aware of that aspect of the psychotherapy encounter, but Erickson said it could be recognized and explicitly, although subliminally, used in therapeutically powerful ways.
Happy Birthday, Paul Bowles (1910-1999)
“... we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.”
Celebratory gun firing
Good idea or not? “I must live in a relatively shielded environment because I thought firing guns up the air to celebrate something wasn’t really a common practice outside of, say, Baghdad or Beirut. Turns out I was wrong. There is apparently a long standing tradition among some regarding what the police call “celebratory firing.”
How dangerous is the practice of celebratory firing?” (Notes from the Technology Underground via boing boing)
the 2005 'Dubious Data' Awards
“America’s so-called methamphetamine epidemic was the worst example of media stressing shock over substance in 2005 science journalism, according to the annual “Dubious Data Awards,” issued by the Statistical Assessment Service (STATS) at George Mason University.
STATS is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to improving public understanding of science and statistics . Each December STATS issues a list of scientific studies that were mishandled by the media during the preceding year. This year’s “Dubious Data Awards” detailing the worst examples of shoddy science reporting go to... [more]”
New Scientist's top 10 news stories of 2005
"These stories were the ones you clicked on the most – a stimulating mix of mystery, brain work, climate change, weaponry and sex.
1. 13 things that do not make sense
2. Pentagon reveals rejected chemical weapons
3. 11 steps to a better brain
4. US military sets laser PHASRs to stun
5. Details of US microwave-weapon tests revealed
6. Failing ocean current raises fears of mini ice age
7. Antarctic ice sheet is an 'awakened giant’
8. Bionic suit offers wearers super-strength
9. Out-of-this-world sex could jeopardise missions
10. Centrifugal weapon could deliver stealth firepower"
Top Ten Myths about Iraq in 2005
Juan Cole: “Iraq has unfortunately become a football in the rough and ready, two-party American political arena, generating large numbers of sound bites and so much spin you could clothe all of China in the resulting threads.
Here are what I think are the top ten myths about Iraq, that one sees in print or on television in the United States.” (Informed Comment )
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
“It's navel gazing time again, that stretch of the year when many of us turn our attention inward and think about how we can improve the way we live our lives. But as we embark on this annual ritual of introspection, we would do well to ask ourselves a simple question: Does it really do any good?” (New York Times )
Top Online Journalism Stories of 2005
“Here is CyberJournalist.net's annual list of the top online journalism stories of the year, based on the most popular entries on CyberJournalist.net in 2005.
The number one story might seem surprising, in a year in which Hurricane Katrina struck and the aftermath of the Asian tsunami was felt. But CyberJournalist.net's readers have spoken.&rdquo
Psychotherapy, On the Road to...Where?
“As psychotherapy struggles to define itself for an age of podcasts and terror alerts, it will need ideas, thinkers, leaders. Yet the luminaries here, many of whom rose to prominence three decades ago, were making their way off the stage. And it was not clear who, or what, would take their place.&rdquo (New York Times )
What is science? First, magnetise your wine...
The 'Bad Science' column at The Guardian does the obvious. "We take a claim, and we pull it apart to extract a clear scientific hypothesis, like "homeopathy makes people better faster than placebo" or "the Chemsol lab correctly identifies MRSA"; then we examine the experimental evidence for that hypothesis..." Not shockingly, it finds there is no evidence for claims that magnetizing your wine "'ages' it in only 45 minutes!"
Wealth From Worship?
Is going to church more than its own reward? "Jonathan Gruber, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, claims that regular religious participation leads to better education, higher income and a lower chance of divorce. His results (based on data covering non-Hispanic white Americans of several Christian denominations, other faiths and none) imply that doubling church attendance raises someone's income by almost 10%."(The Economist )The researcher, one of the first to investigate quantitatively the relationship between religion and income, claims he has addressed the obvious fallacy of disentangling causation from correlation; I am not convinced. His argument relies on sociological data on the ethnic mix of neighborhoods and congregations and hinges on excluding "ethnic density" (ghettoization, in other words), since the ghetto has a negative impact on your income, to measure the supposedly independent effect of the density of "co-religionists". defined as "the proportion of the population that shares your religion but not your race." He finds that living near different ethnic groups of the same religion correlates with higher income and — here's where his argument doesn't hold water — that the result cannot be mediated through any other civic activity than the influence it has on churchgoing. But the finagling he has done means precisely that churchgoing is not the independent variable he makes it out to be. Living closer to ethnically diverse co-religionists correlates with socioeconomic differences for a host of reasons apart from frequency of attending church.
How the read/write web was lost
"Tim Berners-Lee (TBL), in his first blog post, reminds us of a very important bit of web history. He writes: 'The first browser was actually a browser/editor, which allowed one to edit any page, and save it back to the web...' TBL might also have noted that the Enquire program that he wrote in 1980 (10 years before the WWW) supported an edit mode.
The idea of a read/write web had been motivating the work of many hypertext developers like TBL long before the web was born. But, the last 10 years experience with the largely 'read-only' web has caused many people to forget that the original idea was to create a writeable, creative space -- not just a network of things to be read. Fortunately, the growth of blogging is finally causing the renaissance of the read/write web. What we don't understand, I think, is how the original idea of the read/write web could have been 'lost'" — Bob Wyman (As I May Think...)
The Hidden State Steps Forward
Jonathan Schell writes in The Nation: "Bush's choice marks a watershed in the evolution of his Administration. Previously when it was caught engaging in disgraceful, illegal or merely mistaken or incompetent behavior, he would simply deny it. 'We have found the weapons of mass destruction!' 'We do not torture!' However, further developments in the torture matter revealed a shift. Even as he denied the existence of torture, he and his officials began to defend his right to order it. His Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, refused at his confirmation hearings to state that the torture called waterboarding, in which someone is brought to the edge of drowning, was prohibited. Then when Senator John McCain sponsored a bill prohibiting cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners, Bush threatened to veto the legislation to which it was attached. It was only in the face of majority votes in both houses against such treatment that he retreated from his claim.(Emphasis added — FmH)
But in the wiretapping matter, he has so far exhibited no such vacillation. Secret law-breaking has been supplanted by brazen law-breaking. The difference is critical. If abuses of power are kept secret, there is still the possibility that, when exposed, they will be stopped. But if they are exposed and still permitted to continue, then every remedy has failed, and the abuse is permanently ratified. In this case, what will be ratified is a presidency that has risen above the law."
Related:Checks and No Balances
Sydney Schanberg writes in the Village Voice: "Some Bush supporters have attacked the Times for running the piece. On the other hand, some journalists have attacked theTimes for holding it for a year. From where I stand (I'm a Times alumnus), the paper should get credit for digging it out and publishing it. But whatever one's journalistic point of view, the Times' decision-making is not the central story here. The president's secret directive is."
BAGnewsNotes
Getting between the point and the view: "a progressive blog dedicated to the discussion and analysis of news images." [via Just Between Strangers]
Thursday, December 29
Aurora Mega-Galleries
I have been an aurora nut ever since an eerie and magical experience in the dead of one winter night driving across upper Michigan some years ago. Here Spaceweather.com collects the entirety of their aurora photography in one central gallery.
Vets get in races to fight GOP
Veterans for a Secure America fields Congressional candidates nationwide: "More than 30 Iraq and Persian Gulf War veterans have entered congressional races across the country as Democrats, hoping to capitalize on their military experience to topple the incumbent Republican majority." (Denver Post)
Let's Bid Them Adieu
"Random, arbitrary and inevitable, the deaths in any year mean what we find in them. We can't resist hunting for the pattern in a carpet that doesn't have one. Or does it?" (SF Chronicle)
Wednesday, December 28
Agatha Christie’s grey cells mystery
"The mystery behind Agatha Christie’s enduring popularity may have been solved by three leading universities collaborating on a study of more than 80 of her crime novels.
Despite her worldwide sales of two billion, critics such as the crime writer P D James pan her writing style and “cardboard cut-out” characters. But the study by neuro-linguists at the universities of London, Birmingham and Warwick shows that she peppered her prose with phrases that act as a trigger to raise levels of serotonin and endorphins, the chemical messengers in the brain that induce pleasure and satisfaction." - (Sunday Times of London)
The Top Ten News Photos of 2005
National Geographic News Photo Gallery
City May Require Transvestite Bathrooms
"For most, it's a choice of the men's room or the women's. A Brazilian city is trying to give an option to those who don't fit easily into either category." (ABC News)
Muslims and Jews Need Not Apply
French row over charity pork soup: "A charity run by an extreme-right group in the south of France has caused anger by serving the homeless only pork soup, which Jews and Muslims do not eat." (BBC)
Impeachment isn’t just a good idea; it’s the law
"Many people are asking why the administration chose to break the law in an arena where following it has been made very easy. The secret court administering government activities undertaken in compliance with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is extraordinarily obliging: according to the annual FISA reports filed by the Justice Department, the court received 18,749 requests for authorization of physical searches, electronic surveillance or some combination of the two between January of 1979, when the law took effect, and December 31 of 2004, the end of the most recent reporting period (the 2005 report will be available in March or April of next year). Of those, the court has rejected a total of four requests, or roughly .o2%; in at least one instance, the court actually authorized activities the government hadn’t requested.
...One has to wonder what was in those four applications that were denied, and in several others that were withdrawn from consideration before the court could rule on them. Regardless, the four slaps in the Bush administration’s collective face amounted to about .07% of the more than 5,600 applications submitted between 2001-2004; not a bad success rate although not, apparently, good enough to satisfy this collection of steroidal scofflaws. But why?
Three possible explanations come to mind, singly or in combination. One is that the surveillance is on a scale that makes applying for court approval impractical... The second is that the administration are allergic to oversight of even the mildest sort... The third is that the administration is a collection of thugs who are using the NSA’s eavesdropping capacity for political purposes, spying on people no court in the universe would sanction as targets... " (BTC News)
Bees can recognize human faces, study finds
"Honeybees may look pretty much all alike to us. But it seems we may not look all alike to them. A study has found that they can learn to recognize human faces in photos, and remember them for at least two days." (World-Science) Someone mentioned the folklore belief that the hivemates of a bee you killed would remember you for further harassment. Now it seems they may not have been so far off.
Guerrilla Marketing Campaign
"What I’m proposing is this: Go into your word processors right now, and type out the word “IMPEACH.” Go ahead, use caps. Center it. Bold it. Make it 72 point. Turn the page to landscape if you like, and make it bigger.
You’ve got a sign. Print it out. Xerox it. Put it up on a lamp post. On a supermarket bulletin board. Inside a newspaper vending machine. Anywhere.
You’ve joined the movement.
How does it feel? Want more? Would you be willing to spend a little money on it?
Pick up a pack of Avery labels down at the office supply store. Print out a page worth of stickers that say the same thing. IMPEACH.
Not impeach Bush. Not impeach Cheney. Not Chimpeach. Just IMPEACH." (Liberal Street Fighter via Medley)
The Top Cryptozoology Stories of 2005
From Cryptomundo.com, famed cryptozoologist Loren Coleman's weblog.
Upcoming
Upcoming.org is "a collaborative event calendar, completely driven by people like you. Enter in the events you're attending, comment on events entered by others, and syndicate event listings to your own weblog.Created by Waxy, Upcoming is now a part of Yahoo!
As Upcoming.org learns more about the events you enjoy, it will suggest new events you never would have heard about."
Hollywood In Deep Existential Crisis...
"Even a much-hyped giant gorilla, a geisha and a schoolboy magician have not been able to create a happy ending at the US box office, as Hollywood ends its most disappointing year in nearly two decades." (HuffPo)
Bush was denied wiretaps, bypassed them
"U.S. President George Bush decided to skip seeking warrants for international wiretaps because the court was challenging him at an unprecedented rate.
A review of Justice Department reports to Congress by Hearst newspapers shows the 26-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court modified more wiretap requests from the Bush administration than the four previous presidential administrations combined." (Science Daily)
Munich mastermind spurns Spielberg's peace appeal
"The Palestinian mastermind of the Munich Olympics attack in which 11 Israeli athletes died said on Tuesday he had no regrets and that
Steven Spielberg's new film about the incident would not deliver reconciliation.
The Hollywood director has called Munich, which dramatises the 1972 raid and Israel's reprisals against members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), his 'prayer for peace.'
Mohammed Daoud planned the Munich attack on behalf of PLO splinter group Black September, but did not take part and does not feature in the film. He voiced outrage at not being consulted for the thriller and accused Spielberg of pandering to the Jewish state." (Yahoo! News)
Antidepressants May Spur Brain Cell Growth: Study
"'It appears that SSRI antidepressants rewire areas of the brain that are important for thinking and feeling, as well as operating the autonomic nervous system..." — study leader and neuropathologist Dr. Vassilis E. Koliatsos (Yahoo News!). This finding supports new thinking over the last few years, backed by imaging studies, that major depressive disorder is not just a "chemical imbalance" disease (i.e. the classical theory of neurotransmitter imbalance in brain serotonin and/or norepinephrine, the original notion of what it is that antidepressant medications correct). We now think that persistent depression may actually involve neurodegenerative brain changes — and that prompt treatment and sustained remission is neuroprotective.
Testing Einstein's Strangest Theory
No, they were not sprawled along a sunny windowsill. To a physicist, a 'cat state' is the condition of being two diametrically opposed conditions at once, like black and white, up and down, or dead and alive.
These atoms were each spinning clockwise and counterclockwise at the same time. Moreover, like miniature Rockettes they were all doing whatever it was they were doing together, in perfect synchrony. Should one of them realize, like the cartoon character who runs off a cliff and doesn't fall until he looks down, that it is in a metaphysically untenable situation and decide to spin only one way, the rest would instantly fall in line, whether they were across a test tube or across the galaxy.
The idea that measuring the properties of one particle could instantaneously change the properties of another one (or a whole bunch) far away is strange to say the least - almost as strange as the notion of particles spinning in two directions at once. The team that pulled off the beryllium feat, led by Dietrich Leibfried at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, in Boulder, Colo., hailed it as another step toward computers that would use quantum magic to perform calculations.
But it also served as another demonstration of how weird the world really is according to the rules, known as quantum mechanics.
The joke is on Albert Einstein, who, back in 1935, dreamed up this trick of synchronized atoms - "spooky action at a distance," as he called it - as an example of the absurdity of quantum mechanics.
"No reasonable definition of reality could be expected to permit this," he, Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen wrote in a paper in 1935." (New York Times )
![[Image 'http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/12/26/science/27eins.jpg' cannot be displayed]](http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/12/26/science/27eins.jpg "Here, kitty, kitty...there, kitty, kitty...")
Tuesday, December 27
Jessa Crispin Explains...
...What Your End-of-the-Year List Says About You (The Book Standard)
Old Harvard Sq. Faces Brand-Name Onslaught
Next entry in the FmH Dept. of Solastalgia [thanks to Seth]."Maybe it was the last greasy burger served at the Tasty Diner, or the final copy of Allen Ginsberg's 'Howl' sold at Wordsworth books, or the last Hohner harmonica discovered amid the dusty bins of sheet music at Briggs and Briggs.The occasion for the article is the imminent demise of the Brattle Theatre, one of the last independent movie houses in the area (another, semingly doing better financially, is the Coolidge Corner Theatre in my neighborhood in adjacent Brookline). As the quotation above notes, the article also mentions the passing of the Briggs and Briggs music store, the Wursthaus German deli, the Tasty lunch counter and Wordsworth Books, which closed earlier this year and whose site now houses a beauty supply shop. As beloved as it was to me for decades, I am actually surprised to hear Wordsworth referred to as one of the departed bastions of the 'old' Square, since I was there at its opening as well as its closing. (Anyone else remember George's Folly, which occupied the site prior to Wordsworth?). A more complete catalogue of lamentation would also include the Patisserie Francaise, where I was to be found many a morning during my undergraduate years and long afterward with a newspaper, a croissant and a French coffee in front of me, long long before there was such a thing as Starbuck's; Elsie's Lunch, of course; the Orson Welles Cinema; the old Coop; Club Passim, which exists only in a dim incarnation of its illustrious past today; and any number of departed local eateries. (As an aside, why in the world has Harvard Square of all places not been able to sustain having a natural food restaurant for any length of time??)
Ask longtime denizens of Harvard Square and they will be able to lament the exact moment the old square seemed to lose its bohemian charm, when a favored haunt or hole-in-the-wall vanished, often giving way to a national chain." (Yahoo! News)
Among longtime local institutions which remain and must be cherished are Wordsworth's competitor across the Square, the Harvard Bookstore; Bob Slate Stationers; the Grolier, as mentioned; Herrell's Ice Cream; Out-of-Town News; and the Pamplona café. While some people would grimace at the thought, I still love the Hong Kong and the Yenching, where I have indulged my passion for Chinese food for decades. My barbershop is still there, the apothecary, and, if I smoked, the tobacconist's. But the article is correct, the old Square withers away. For many years after I moved across the river in 1985, I marvelled at the fact that Harvard Square remained my automatic destination of choice for funky shopping, basic services, and places to meet friends for a meal or a drink. But I hardly ever go there anymore, even though I have an office in Cambridge. And although people complain about the parking situation, that is not what dissuades me, because I have retained a habitual route through the Square that takes me past many longstanding secret parking spots (which I shall not share with you here!). I used to think that I could not live anywhere that did not have the bohemian, intellectual, independent character of a Cambridge. In fact, I still feel that way, but increasingly such places are not to be found in physical space, and one looks for the equivalents in cyberspace.
Here is a link to a webcam view of the Square, courtesy of Cardullo's gourmet food shop.
What are your reminiscences of the departed Harvard Square or your psychogeographic equivalents?
Monday, December 26
Fear destroys what bin Laden could not
Robert Steinback: "One wonders if Osama bin Laden didn't win after all. He ruined the America that existed on 9/11. But he had help.
If, back in 2001, anyone had told me that four years after bin Laden's attack our president would admit that he broke U.S. law against domestic spying and ignored the Constitution -- and then expect the American people to congratulate him for it -- I would have presumed the girders of our very Republic had crumbled.
Had anyone said our president would invade a country and kill 30,000 of its people claiming a threat that never, in fact, existed, then admit he would have invaded even if he had known there was no threat -- and expect America to be pleased by this -- I would have thought our nation's sensibilities and honor had been eviscerated.
If I had been informed that our nation's leaders would embrace torture as a legitimate tool of warfare, hold prisoners for years without charges and operate secret prisons overseas -- and call such procedures necessary for the nation's security -- I would have laughed at the folly of protecting human rights by destroying them.
If someone had predicted the president's staff would out a CIA agent as revenge against a critic, defy a law against domestic propaganda by bankrolling supposedly independent journalists and commentators, and ridicule a 37-year Marie Corps veteran for questioning U.S. military policy -- and that the populace would be more interested in whether Angelina is about to make Brad a daddy -- I would have called the prediction an absurd fantasy." (Miami Herald op-ed)
Wait a sec — for leap into 2006
"Get ready for a minute with 61 seconds. Scientists are delaying the start of 2006 by the first 'leap second' in seven years, a timing tweak meant to make up for changes in the Earth's rotation.
The adjustment will be carried out by sticking an extra second into atomic clocks worldwide at the stroke of midnight Coordinated Universal Time, the widely adopted international standard, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology said this week.
'Enjoy New Year's Eve a second longer,' the institute said in an explanatory notice. 'You can toot your horn an extra second this year.'
Coordinated Universal Time coincides with winter time in London. On the U.S. East Coast, the extra second occurs just before 7 p.m. on New Year's Eve. Atomic clocks at that moment will read 23:59:60 before rolling over to all zeros.
...Although it is possible to have a negative leap second -- that is, a second deducted from Coordinated Universal Time -- so far all have been add-ons, reflecting the Earth's general slowing trend due to tidal breaking.
Deciding when to introduce a leap second is the responsibility of the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, a standards-setting body. Under an international pact, the preference for leap seconds is December 31 or June 30." (CNN)
Is homeopathy a clinically valuable approach?
Edzard Ernst (abstract): "Homeopathy is a popular but implausible form of medicine. Contrary to many claims by homeopaths, there is no conclusive evidence that highly dilute homeopathic remedies are different from placebos. The benefits that many patients experience after homeopathic treatment are therefore most probably due to nonspecific treatment effects. Contrary to widespread belief, homeopathy is not entirely devoid of risk. Thus, the proven benefits of highly dilute homeopathic remedies, beyond the beneficial effects of placebos, do not outweigh the potential for harm that this approach can cause." Ernst is with the Dept. of Complementary Medicine at the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, UK. (ScienceDirect)
Cognitive ornithology: the evolution of avian intelligence
Nathan Emery (abstract): "Comparative psychologists interested in the evolution of intelligence have focused their attention on social primates, whereas birds tend to be used as models of associative learning. However, corvids and parrots, which have forebrains relatively the same size as apes, live in complex social groups and have a long developmental period before becoming independent, have demonstrated ape-like intelligence. Although, ornithologists have documented thousands of hours observing birds in their natural habitat, they have focused their attention on avian behaviour and ecology, rather than intelligence. This review discusses recent studies of avian cognition contrasting two different approaches; the anthropocentric approach and the adaptive specialization approach. It is argued that the most productive method is to combine the two approaches. This is discussed with respects to recent investigations of two supposedly unique aspects of human cognition; episodic memory and theory of mind. In reviewing the evidence for avian intelligence, corvids and parrots appear to be cognitively superior to other birds and in many cases even apes. This suggests that complex cognition has evolved in species with very different brains through a process of convergent evolution rather than shared ancestry, although the notion that birds and mammals may share common neural connectivity patterns is discussed." (The Royal Society)