ScienceDaily: Brain Imaging Identifies Best Memorization Strategies

ScienceDaily: Brain Imaging Identifies Best Memorization Strategies: "the following four strategies were the main strategies used by participants in this study, according to Kirchhoff, including:

1) A visual inspection strategy in which participants carefully studied the visual appearance of objects.

2) A verbal elaboration — or word-based strategy — in which individuals constructed sentences about the objects to remember them.

3) A mental imagery strategy in which participants formed interactive mental images of the objects — similar to animated cartoons.

4) A memory retrieval strategy in which they thought about the meaning of the objects and/or personal memories associated with the objects.

Visual and verbal strategies improved memory

Selection of the first two strategies described above — visual inspection and verbal elaboration — resulted in improved memory results, according to Kirchhoff."

ScienceDaily: Brain Imaging Identifies Best Memorization Strategies

ScienceDaily: Brain Imaging Identifies Best Memorization Strategies: "the following four strategies were the main strategies used by participants in this study, according to Kirchhoff, including:

1) A visual inspection strategy in which participants carefully studied the visual appearance of objects.

2) A verbal elaboration — or word-based strategy — in which individuals constructed sentences about the objects to remember them.

3) A mental imagery strategy in which participants formed interactive mental images of the objects — similar to animated cartoons.

4) A memory retrieval strategy in which they thought about the meaning of the objects and/or personal memories associated with the objects.

Visual and verbal strategies improved memory

Selection of the first two strategies described above — visual inspection and verbal elaboration — resulted in improved memory results, according to Kirchhoff."

Iron John pre-ironic manhood. By Jess Row

Iron John pre-ironic manhood. By Jess Row: "The solution—to the degree Bly proposes one—involves looking clearly at contemporary stereotypes and acknowledging the unnamed, suppressed, 'unacceptable' aspects of male identity. These include an urge toward aggression, which can never be totally or successfully repressed; a need to 'go into the garden,' to cultivate the psyche through study and the arts; and a desire to be initiated into adulthood by older men. Though he refers to the rituals of traditional cultures, he does not, as many have assumed, argue that contemporary men need to somehow return to nature, re-create tribal ceremonies, or otherwise fetishize what they have lost. Nor does he have any interest in restoring men to traditional positions of power; Bly is, in fact, an unrepentant supporter of the women's movement. Fundamentally, he argues, men and women can share authority, responsibility, and leadership—if they acknowledge that their inner lives, and needs, are different."

Crazy On Tap - Shouldn't we fight the "suicide is glorious" meme?

Crazy On Tap - Shouldn't we fight the "suicide is glorious" meme?: "I don't see why a terrorist meme is a corruption of a religion. Too many people with too much money broke the feedback loop and caused a moral hazard.

If the money and/or land is seen as a birthright, there is nothing to really care about.

With no other way to make life valuable, destroying it becomes an economically feasible option."

Pharyngula: Put the blame where it belongs: God and the Republican Party

Pharyngula: Put the blame where it belongs: God and the Republican Party: "The folks on the top of the evolution list - Icelanders - believe in elves.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/13/international/europe/13elves.html?ex=1278907200&en=5e99759b563f81fe&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

What does this indicate? Probably that every culture has - perhaps even *must* have - shared unprovable beliefs. Though this is likely an emergent property that biologists are too stuck up to explore.

It seems downright high-schoolish to make fun of someone else for their beliefs. More likely to make them more engrained, too."

The Frontal Cortex : Terrorism and Irrational Fear

The Frontal Cortex : Terrorism and Irrational Fear: "The research is interesting of course, but your attempt to connect it to sociological phenomena is misguided. Well, not mis-guided, as the intents are good enough, but not scientific.

People are afraid of terrorism because there is an actual agency behind the acts. There really is a boogey man who if given the chance to push a button and kill 10 million Americans, would do it. He has said as much.

There is no car-accident madman who would press a button to cause 10 million deaths. And there is no such button (the image of a single universal seat-belt releasing button comes to mind, but it's laughable).

Being afraid of an event with a high casualty figure (a few buttons being pushed) over thousands, no millions of *independent* and uncoordinatable events (car crashes) makes perfect sense. The chance of all those car crashes occuring together to cause 10 million deaths is so much tinier than the probability of a single group coordinating their actions toward a single goal.

Independent events occuring together are just less likely than a series of dependent events - they only have to dependent on one casaul event. The chance of billions of cells coordinating to move to another room, is trivially small. But my dog moves around the house all the time. Should you be more afraid of that dog pooping on your yard and causing a stench more than the effects of a billion bacteria doing the same?

We are a social species after all, so sexual selection and resource competition is what we ought to be afraid of, more so than things either under our control (health-related heart attacks) or completely not under our control (predispositioned heart attacks). The intentions of competitors matter. It makes sense for humans to factor them into their fear. Fear is a good, natural, healthy thing when in balance - surely FDR would not want the whole country to go into a 'no fear' manic phase?

Why argue so much with evolution - seems our brains are highly evolved to be afraid of the things which are endangering us. Sure they swing toward hysteria at times. And to complacency at others. But being afraid of people with desires and chemicals to blow up airplanes - any airplane - doesn't seem extreme to me."

The Joel on Software Discussion Group - Development Principles

The Joel on Software Discussion Group - Development Principles: "An employee needs to know that (a) there will be goals and purposes, often contradicting each other, competing for their time/money (b) that someone has to make a decision what balance of goals to follow; (c) who chooses and how to choose; (d) how to evaluate the results of the choice so that more time isn't wasted in having made a bad choice."

The Joel on Software Discussion Group - Identity Alignment, meet "Econ 101"

The Joel on Software Discussion Group - Identity Alignment, meet "Econ 101": "It's not really nationalism, but it is a form of tribalism or corporationism perhaps. Bind the group so that its members work for the benefit of the group rather than themselves. The members benefit as well - they get those nice, warm feelings of belongingness, of beyond-me-ness.

Eating together has been an old trick used to cement social units into a cohesive whole like this. I imagine though not halal or kosher, there is some dietary restrictions that would make members uncomfortable breaking bread with another company. (The way to man's heart is thru his stomach they say.)

By handing out to his developers this sense of bondedness, this sense of togetherness, thie sense of 'group is greater than the sum of its part'-ness, he is fulfilling an emotional demand that other companies supply with actual money.

Of course, developers who have their own pre-existing group loyalties - tight families, church groups, etc - will be less in the market for spiritual payoffs like these and will not be impressed about going to Joel's parties.

I do think that there is a diversification problem as well. Just as with financial investments, getting too much of your income - monetary and spiritual renumeration - from the same source is highly risky."

Dictionary of Foreign Phrases and Abbreviations, 3rd Edition

Dictionary of Foreign Phrases and Abbreviations, 3rd Edition: "Preguntando se llega a Roma
Spanish: One reaches Rome by asking questions."

Crazy On Tap - 2 realities

Crazy On Tap - 2 realities: "Self-righteousness ia a byproduct of survivor bias.

A tiger hasn't eaten my in the last five minutes. I must be doing something right."

Crazy On Tap - I loathed our weakness, I loathed being born as an Arab

Crazy On Tap - I loathed our weakness, I loathed being born as an Arab: "The ole cause/consequence dichotomy again. Which is why the Niebuhr saying is applicable - figure out where the contingency/agency boundary is. Deal with each appropriately.

I went to a dozen AA meetings with my brother before I realized why people who have been sober 20 years still went to AA.

I also think I came to differentiate between helping and enabling. Sheltering someone from the repercussions of their actions leads to loss of control, not to better control. A manic-phase moral hazard and all that.

(That's curious; I've never made the game theory/addiction therapy connection before.)"

Crazy On Tap - Quest for Knowledge - Busted.

Crazy On Tap - Quest for Knowledge - Busted.: "I think it's pretty obvious. But I would, won't I?

Power determines morality. But not as easily as 'might makes right.' They play a co-dependent game.

Since shit happens, the less powerful blame the more powerful. The problem-of-evil argument brought home: the powerful do not deserve their moral position because they were unable to prevent shit from happening or the powerful intended shit to happen. Consequantalism and virtue ethics, again.

Meanwhile one economic factor and one psychological factor collude to overthrow power.

Economic: The powerful cannot accumulate good ideas. They can accumulate wealth/status. But wealth doesn't have an above average idea ROI, and tends to dissipate (Malthusianism?). Good ideas - ie, not just technologically good, but market-ready good - are both rare and evenly dispersed throughout a population. You just don't know who the next brilliant biologist, ballerina, or businessman is going to come from.

The powerful try to increase the ROI, by hoarding power as long as possible say, thru various oligarchies, or by whatever mechanism they can find (eg, rich American parents getting their kids physician notes so that the can take the SATs untimed). They have survivor bias afterall - they believe God is on their side. Luck has skewed their statistical perceptions.

Psychological: Power corrupts. Or rather the more of it there is, the more it creates a moral hazard, a kind of mania untethered to reality. God must be on the side of the powerful, or He (the all-powerful) would have removed them (argument works for karma, Dao, and other non-Puddlist power forces, too).

Since there is no hope for a utopia, a shit will just be redefined for each new generation.

Yesterday it was slavery, today it's stem cell research and animal rights, tomorrow .. I have no idea, except that the kids will be morally enraged over something (as much as kids used to be over slavery!) and the gramps will be trying to preserve their moral code (as much as the ante bellum South, or the old Russian landlords did).

(I do recommend Alistair McIntyre's work. I'm reworking some of his ideas, if I could give myself that much credit.)"

Cities Shed Middle Class, and Are Richer and Poorer for It - New York Times

Cities Shed Middle Class, and Are Richer and Poorer for It - New York Times: "In New York, fewer than 13,000 of the 2.3 million households that pay income tax are expected to account for nearly 30 percent of city income tax paid in 2006."

Today, It’s Not Easy to Match Noblesse With Oblige - New York Times

Today, It’s Not Easy to Match Noblesse With Oblige - New York Times: "“Society had become complex; its numbers were unwieldy,” the paper wrote. “Western fortunes had produced daughters who knew how to fight to get in, and they won recognition which might not have been accorded them when the old Dutch families walked on one side of the line and the Wall Street families on the other.”"

Today, It’s Not Easy to Match Noblesse With Oblige - New York Times

Today, It’s Not Easy to Match Noblesse With Oblige - New York Times: "“If you go outside that number, you strike people who are either not at ease in a ballroom or else make other people not at ease,” he wrote. “We resolved to band together the respectable element of the city and by this union make such strength that no individual could withstand us.”"

The real reason IPOs are fleeing overseas. By Daniel Gross

The real reason IPOs are fleeing overseas. By Daniel Gross: "For years, Wall Street investment bankers have been telling their client companies that they must seek out the lowest-cost operating environments. That trend has placed great pressure on the wages and earning power of blue-collar workers in the United States. Now it looks as if the bankers may be getting a taste of their own medicine."

Crazy On Tap - Einstein goes to heaven

Crazy On Tap - Einstein goes to heaven: "Even older?

George Bush has a heart attack and dies. He goes to Hell where the Devil is waiting for him.

'I don't know what to do,' says the Devil. 'You're on my list but I have no room for you. But you definitely have to stay here, so I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I've got three people here who weren't quite as bad as you. I'll let one of them go, but you have to take their place.
I'll even let YOU decide who leaves.'

George thought that sounded pretty good so he agreed.

The devil opened the first room. In it was Richard Nixon and a large pool of water. He kept diving in and surfacing empty handed over and over and over, such was his fate in Hell.

'No!' George said. 'I don't think so. I'm not a good swimmer and I don't think I could do that all day long.'

The Devil led him to the next room. In it was Tony Blair with a sledgehammer and a room full of rocks. All he did was swing that hammer, time after time after time.

'No! I've got this problem with my shoulder. I would be in constant agony if all I could do was break rocks all day!' commented George.

The Devil opened a third door. In it, George saw Bill Clinton lying naked on the floor with his arms staked over his head and his legs staked in spread-eagle pose. Bent over him was Monica Lewinsky, doing what she does best.

Bush looked at this in disbelief for a while and finally said, 'Yeah, I can handle this.'

The Devil smiled and said, 'Monica, you're free to go!'"

He Who Cast the First Stone Probably Didn’t - New York Times

He Who Cast the First Stone Probably Didn’t - New York Times: "The results revealed an intriguing asymmetry: When volunteers were shown one of their own statements, they naturally remembered what had led them to say it. But when they were shown one of their conversation partner’s statements, they naturally remembered how they had responded to it. In other words, volunteers remembered the causes of their own statements and the consequences of their partner’s statements.

What seems like a grossly self-serving pattern of remembering is actually the product of two innocent facts. First, because our senses point outward, we can observe other people’s actions but not our own. Second, because mental life is a private affair, we can observe our own thoughts but not the thoughts of others. Together, these facts suggest that our reasons for punching will always be more salient to us than the punches themselves — but that the opposite will be true of other people’s reasons and other people’s punches."

Crazy On Tap - Inequality doesn't matter

Crazy On Tap - Inequality doesn't matter: "Goodness isn't inheritable. In a way, would should shuffle up kids when they are born like the Spartans or kibbutzim did (ans Soviets to a degree), so that wealth is equally distributed for each new generation.

But that would deny good people the just deserts of delighting in their own children's happiness (even though their kids are of average goodness themselves).

And that would desuade good people from being good. To some degree."

Crazy On Tap - Hilarious (Colbert on Wikipedia)

Crazy On Tap - Hilarious (Colbert on Wikipedia): "Most new ideas suck. At least mine do (*). For every Galileo who thinks the earth goes around the sun (it wasn't Galileo's singular contribution, but we'll let that slide), there are thousands of who think butter should not be kept in a fridge or Ally McBeal should be made into a movie or whatever novel silliness pops into their head.

Hence there is a certain amount of sense to take a poll of other people's ideas and /not/ mainstream all new ideas. Imagine the traffic jam alone if everyone's new ideas were just running around all the time! 'Why don't we drive on the left side of the street!' 'Why don't we ghost drive the whip!' Etc, etc.

Choosing Galileo's struggle with authority is a case of severe anecdotal survivor bias: 'Galileo was right, the Catholic authority was wrong, therefore all majorities are always wrong!'

Wish it was just matter of identifying the lone rebel to figure out right- from wrong-headedness.

(*) If yours are mostly good, it's because you're recycling other people's filtered ideas or not paying attention to your own internal filter.
Permalink Send private email"

Crazy On Tap - Weight Training for confidence building

Crazy On Tap - Weight Training for confidence building: "Social niche selection begins in adolescence. Is she going to be the smart one? The pretty one? The polite one? The wild one? The jockette? The nurturing one? The arty one? The socialite? etc. Each of these has its advantages and drawbacks. Yet deciding as early as possible has its advantage too - it reduces analysis paralysis and the cost of keeping your options open.

That's the plan for most people. Polymaths can delay a few extra years. Geniuses into their middle age. But most folks look around (not-consciously, of course) and see where their resources are best spent and focus and specialize (thanks, Adam Smith). Focus is everything, motivaional speakers tell us. Imagine if our brains do it without asking us for permission.

Basically just restating sharkfish's 'Body confidence and nerd confidence are very different things.'

If she get all her confidence from her body at age 12, she will depend on her body for her confidence when she's grown up, too. That can be tricky."

Crazy On Tap - I hate this

Crazy On Tap - I hate this: "I think there's a special brand of sofabed called the Adult Children's Special. It has a bar especially engineered to become uncomfortable after a few days so that they don't stay /too/ long."

Crazy On Tap - Another noble sport ruined by panty-twisters

Crazy On Tap - Another noble sport ruined by panty-twisters: "If there was nothing for people to get morally indignant about, they'd have to invent something."

Crazy On Tap - The Economy Trends Explained

Crazy On Tap - The Economy Trends Explained: "I think inflation is psychologically necessary. Employers can reduce their employees' real wages (which is an economic necessity) without the psychological pain of actually reducing their nominal wages (or firing them)."

Why some men are more aggressive than others - Men's Health - MSNBC.com

Why some men are more aggressive than others - Men's Health - MSNBC.com: "This form of the MAOA gene, referred to as “low activity,” was associated with aggressive behavior only in men who were cynical and hostile toward others and among those with poorly educated fathers. In contrast, men with the low activity MAOA gene who were not cynical or hostile or whose fathers had at least graduated from high school were no more likely to exhibit aggressive behavior than those with the high-activity form of the gene, study findings indicate.

In other findings, differences in the serotonin 2A receptor, another serotonin gene, were also associated with a higher level of aggressiveness in men. Again, increased aggression was only apparent among men whose fathers had not completed high school. The subjects’ educational level did not appear to be related to their behavior."

How to write a hit article. By Jack Shafer

How to write a hit article. By Jack Shafer: "The Shamu story establishes once and for all that men are the new women. You can now use the New York Times to write the most dehumanizing and insulting shit about them and everybody will laugh in recognition."

Paris Hilton, Anti-Hero - She finds a niche in a crowded field of divas. By Jody Rosen

Paris Hilton, Anti-Hero - She finds a niche in a crowded field of divas. By Jody Rosen: "These days, the emotional range of a male performer is radically circumscribed: Rappers are slick trash-talkers and brutes, emo rockers are sensitive and aggrieved, R&B singers are lotharios. But pop's female superstars recognize no limits, playing all these roles and a dozen others, often in the course of a single torrid love song, all the while executing tricky dance steps with bared midriffs glistening beneath whirling strobe lights."

Crazy On Tap - If the housing bubble bursts...

Crazy On Tap - If the housing bubble bursts...: "Look around the 'hood. The less diverse the work base (be it energy in Dubai, IT in Bangalore, manufacture in Tiangin, finance in London), the larger the volatility (and the larger the risk of significant decline).

Just like any other capital portfolio.
Permalink Send private email Mutually Assured Demolition
July 18th, 2006 1:04pm
I guess a libertarian would snicker that government is the only exception to the above rule - DC's market keeps rising because the government industry is artificially insulated from boom/bust cycles."

Crazy On Tap - If the housing bubble bursts...

Crazy On Tap - If the housing bubble bursts...: "Yes, most housing stock flatlines (sometimes for many, many years) rather than falls. There's a psychological barrier to sell something below the nominal price one bought it at. This is even more pronounced for investments which are perceived as 'real' rather than 'investment' vehicles (as single family homes are).

The exceptions pretty much prove the rule - they occur in towns which are over-reliant on one or two industries and their boom/bust cycles - finance in NYC and San Fran (late 80's), energy in Houston, New Orleans and Denver (60's and 80's again), and vacation homes in beach communites everywhere."

Language Log: Compounding the insults

Language Log: Compounding the insults: "The great rhetorical achievement of the right, as I argue in the book, is to have reformulated distinctions of class as bogus differences in consumer culture. So it makes sense that conservatives should seize on the object+participle construction, whose function to turn activities into attributes -- politically speaking, that is, you are what you do (or more accurately, what you drive, drink, or otherwise consume). Whereas when people on the left are of a mind to make sweeping generalizations, they tend to draw the distinction characterologically rather than culturally, which is why they favor extended bahuvrihi compounds like narrow-minded, hard-hearted, and mean-spirited."

Male Scientist Writes of Life as Female Scientist

Male Scientist Writes of Life as Female Scientist: "'Is it essential to women's progress that women be indistinguishable from men?' Pinker asked. 'It confuses the issue of fairness with sameness. Let's say the data shows sex differences. Does it become okay to discriminate against women? The moral issue of treating individuals fairly should be kept separate from the empirical issues.'"

Crazy On Tap - Is it okay to retaliate nowadays?

Crazy On Tap - Is it okay to retaliate nowadays?: "Here's the thing. The strategy both Israelis and Palestinians were playing was Tit-for-Tat: do whatever the other guy does. If the other guy kills, then you kill. If the other guy plays nice, you play nice.

This is the game every two countries (and even individuals) play.

Unfortunately the functor or callback for the Israeli-Palestinian game was 'kill the other guy.' Then the Israelis pulled out of S Lebanon and last summer out of Gaza strip.

Some may see this breaking of the Tit-for-Tat cycle, as an unnatural or spiritual or 'God-inspired' act. But I think the Israelis made an exception because they were just too tired. Killing is not good for the killer - it wears you down (something suicide bombers don't have to worry about).

But here's the key ... this was a one time change of strategy. Israel is still playing by the Tit-for-Tat game. But by doing something unilaterally 'nice' it expected Hamas and Hezbollah to CONTINUE playing Tit-for-Tat too, that is, to repeat Israel's last action, that is, to play nice.

Instead Hamas and Hezbollah didn't repeat Israel's last action - they didn't renounce violence, they didn't stop shooting rockets into Israel, they didn't play nice.

Is it because it takes more than one act to re-polarize a game? Is it because human memory isn't so easily erased, but is an exponentially weighted sum of the past (one nice act doesn't outweigh the sins of 50 years)? Is it because Palestinian passion is being stoked by Arab (and Iranian and Pakistani) leaders as an excuse for local problems? Is it that Hamas and Hezbollah are addicted to the pity and the international attention - like some wife-beating victims?

With its current military actions, Israel is showing that it's still playing the Tit-for-Tat strategy. This is a good thing!

Because the other two strategies - be unconditionally aggressive, or be unconditionally passive - are instantiations of one absolutist and highly unstable strategy. Untethered to real world conditions, it doesn't take much to switch from total passivity to total aggression."

'Black Swan Green,' by David Mitchell - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'Black Swan Green,' by David Mitchell - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "Even Mitchell, who takes greater formal and intellectual risks than most of his contemporaries, has said, 'Ideas are well and good, but without characters to hang them on, fiction falls limp.' It's true that you don't care about a book like 'Cloud Atlas' chiefly because it manages to analyze a century and a half of exploitation in societies from Europe to the South Pacific. But as a reader, I don't want to be without the verbal play and inventiveness of the generation that came before Mitchell's. There has got to be a way to write fiction that pays attention to people at the same time that it represents the breadth and complexity of the kinds of societies we live in now."

Where Have All the Strivers Gone? - New York Times

Where Have All the Strivers Gone? - New York Times: "It's that literary fiction is defined, in part, by its distance from popular fiction. And a crucial aspect of our whole high-low cultural system is that high culture mustn't be created for worldly gain. Which is an especially touchy subject when it comes to the novel."

Where Have All the Strivers Gone? - New York Times

Where Have All the Strivers Gone? - New York Times: "One conjecture I've heard is that modern literary fiction is just following a course set earlier by Romanticism in poetry. Subjectivity moves to the foreground; conflict becomes interior. You're not striving to best your rivals in the big wide world; you're struggling to come to terms with the ghosts of your past or the discord of the authentic self. According to this theory, nobody writes literary novels about worldly advancement any longer for more or less the same reason that nobody writes poetry about charging brigades, light or otherwise."

'Chances Are . . . Adventures in Probability,' by Michael Kaplan and Ellen Kaplan - The New York Times - Book Review - New York Times

'Chances Are . . . Adventures in Probability,' by Michael Kaplan and Ellen Kaplan - The New York Times - Book Review - New York Times: "In the 17th century, governments took advantage of the average citizen's inability to assess probability by selling annuities, a type of insurance policy in which the buyer, in essence, bets that he will live longer than most other people. As with all casino bets, the house held an edge. The government possessed mortality statistics, regarded as state secrets, and used them to rig the odds. It also relied on basic psychology, 'the instinctive belief that everyone dies at an average age — except me.'"

'Earthly Powers,' by Michael Burleigh - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'Earthly Powers,' by Michael Burleigh - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "While 19th-century Protestant America was searching for God by immersing itself in the Bible, experiencing one Great Awakening after another, Europe entered an age of anxiety over the prospect of living in a disenchanted cosmos. Was modern man progressively recovering the powers he once projected onto gods, building for himself a fully human world?"

'Earthly Powers,' by Michael Burleigh - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'Earthly Powers,' by Michael Burleigh - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "contemporary Europe is the closest thing to a godless civilization the world has ever known. Does this place it in the vanguard of world history? That is what many Europeans think, which is why they have been caught off guard by the challenge of radical Islam even in their own backyard. They find it hard to believe that people can still take God seriously and want to shape society according to his dictates."

BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | What if...

BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | What if...: "The philosophical puzzle is this: Why is it acceptable to sacrifice the one person in The Runaway Trolley Car but not in The Fat Man case? Can it ever be morally acceptable to kill an innocent person if that is the only way to save many? Should some actions - such as deliberately killing innocent people against their wishes - never be done?"

'High Lonesome: New & Selected Stories 1966-2006,' by Joyce Carol Oates - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'High Lonesome: New & Selected Stories 1966-2006,' by Joyce Carol Oates - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "For those of us who have stood before bookstore shelves lined with Joyce Carol Oates volumes, paralyzed with awe, wondering which of her more than 100 books we should open first, 'High Lonesome,' a new collection of 36 stories written between 1966 and 2006, is a welcome addition."

'No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality,' by Judith Rich Harris - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality,' by Judith Rich Harris - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "the evolutionary logic that makes us different from one another will gradually make us different from ourselves, context by context. Personality — behavior that is 'consistent across time and place,' as one textbook puts it — will fade."

'No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality,' by Judith Rich Harris - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality,' by Judith Rich Harris - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "From this evolutionary logic, Harris builds a theory of personality based on three systems in our brains. The socialization system absorbs language, customs and skills, making us more alike. Mommy and Grandma wear dresses; you're a girl, so you want a dress too. The relationship system distinguishes people so we can deal with each one appropriately. Crying gets milk from Mommy but not Grandma; Billy is gentle, but Bobby hits people. Even random differences are important: Anne helped you with your homework, but her twin sister owes you a dollar. You find ways to tell people apart because you have to."

Your socialization system figures out how to conform to your group. Your relationship system figures out how to get along with each person. Your status system figures out how to compete. It monitors people's reactions, gathering information about how smart, pretty, weak or talented they think you are. It looks for virtues, activities and occupations at which you're most likely to best your peers. It notices tiny differences between the way people regard you and the way they regard others in your peer group, or even your twin. By choosing pursuits based on these differences, it magnifies them. It drives you to be different.

'No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality,' by Judith Rich Harris - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality,' by Judith Rich Harris - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "When parents have an accent but most of the neighborhood doesn't, their children lose the accent. The village, not the family, prevails.

Why? Because that's what makes evolutionary sense. If your parents raise you poorly, Harris argues, you're better off diluting the damage. If they dote on you, you're better off adjusting to the tougher social world in which you'll have to find your way. Throughout most of human evolution, parents had little time for children old enough to run around. They learned from one another and from watching adults."

'No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality,' by Judith Rich Harris - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality,' by Judith Rich Harris - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "Does home environment — parenting style, marital harmony, the use or rejection of day care — shape a child's personality, making her more agreeable, less aggressive or more extroverted? Nope. Research shows that twins don't turn out more alike if they're raised together than if they're raised apart. Nor do adoptive siblings. And when you compare apples to apples — making sure that each parent-child unit in a study is as genetically related as any other — being raised in one home rather than another, on average, makes no difference."

'Reporting: Writings from The New Yorker,' by David Remnick - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'Reporting: Writings from The New Yorker,' by David Remnick - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire,"

'Fair Trade for All,' by Joseph E. Stiglitz and Andrew Charlton - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'Fair Trade for All,' by Joseph E. Stiglitz and Andrew Charlton - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "When markets in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere are opened, people often can't move easily to new industries where the nation has a comparative advantage. Transportation systems that might get them there are often primitive, housing is inadequate and job training is scarce. They're vulnerable in the meantime because safety nets are weak or nonexistent. Most people lack access to credit or insurance because financial institutions are frail, so they're unable to start their own businesses or otherwise take advantage of new opportunities that trade might bring. Many poor countries are already plagued by high unemployment, and job losses in the newly traded sector might just add to it.

Hence, the authors argue, the pace at which poorer nations open their markets to trade should coincide with the development of new institutions — roads, schools, banks and the like — that make such transitions easier and generate real opportunities. Since many poor nations can't afford the investments required to build these institutions, rich nations have a responsibility to help."

'The Possibility of an Island,' by Michel Houellebecq - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'The Possibility of an Island,' by Michel Houellebecq - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "In the English lad novel, the raffish cad learns to accept normal human limitations and eventually grows up. In the French lad novel, he not only refuses to grow up, he begets an entire anticivilization."

The Chick-Lit Pandemic - New York Times

The Chick-Lit Pandemic - New York Times: "In the new order — where both feminism and social consciousness are considered a relic of Communism — the line between independence and self-centeredness can be blurry."

'The White Man's Burden,' by William Easterly - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'The White Man's Burden,' by William Easterly - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "He contrasts the traditional 'Planner' approach of most aid projects with the 'Searcher' approach that works so well in the markets and democracies of the West. Searchers treat problem-solving as an incremental discovery process, relying on competition and feedback to figure out what works.

'A Planner thinks he already knows the answers,' Easterly writes. 'A Searcher admits he doesn't know the answers in advance; he believes that poverty is a complicated tangle of political, social, historical, institutional and technological factors.' Planners trust outside experts. Searchers emphasize homegrown solutions."

'The White Man's Burden,' by William Easterly - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'The White Man's Burden,' by William Easterly - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "The second, he says, 'is the tragedy in which the West spent $2.3 trillion on foreign aid over the last five decades and still had not managed to get 12-cent medicines to children to prevent half of all malaria deaths. The West spent $2.3 trillion and still had not managed to get $4 bed nets to poor families. The West spent $2.3 trillion and still had not managed to get $3 to each new mother to prevent five million child deaths.' The West is not stingy. It is ineffective."

'The White Man's Burden,' by William Easterly - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'The White Man's Burden,' by William Easterly - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "The program, Easterly reports, has 'increased the nationwide average of children under 5 sleeping under nets from 8 percent in 2000 to 55 percent in 2004. . . . A follow-up survey found nearly universal use of the nets by those who paid for them.' By contrast, when a Zambian program handed out free nets, '70 percent of the recipients didn't use' them. Charging for nets may sound hardhearted, but prices provide vital information about commitment."

Are We Having a Conversation Yet? An Art Form Evolves - New York Times

Are We Having a Conversation Yet? An Art Form Evolves - New York Times: "Cicero gave advice about conversation (It ought 'to be gentle and without a trace of intransigence; it should also be witty'). Montaigne hailed its pleasures ('I find the practice of it the most delightful activity in our lives'). Henry Fielding praised it ('This grand Business of our Lives, the Foundation of every Thing, either useful or pleasant'). Adam Smith prescribed it (calling it one of 'the most powerful remedies for restoring the mind to its tranquillity').

There were also those who opposed it, or at least strongly declared other preferences. Rousseau sneered at the chatter in French salons. Wordsworth preferred nature and solitude. The writers of Romanticism shifted the emphasis, preferring to share feelings and perceptions rather than honor conversation for its own sake. Conversation became confessional — which in many ways, it still is. 'Modern writers,' Mr. Miller suggests, 'tend to dwell on the emotional rewards that come from conversation.'"

story idea

Crazy On Tap - Dating lowers my self-esteem: "I just got out of a relationship where my girlfriend was constantly accusing me of cheating on her, and bring up times when we were ACTUALLY TOGETHER."

Flesh Trade - New York Times

Flesh Trade - New York Times: "Alvin Roth, a Harvard economist who studies the design of markets, has done a lot of thinking about repugnance. On some issues, he notes, repugnance will recede, as with life insurance — or, even more momentously, the practice of charging interest on loans. In other cases, the reverse happens: a once-accepted behavior like slaveholding comes to be seen as repugnant."

The Bride Price - New York Times

The Bride Price - New York Times: "Rather than a willing union between a man and woman, marriage is frequently a transaction among families, and the younger the bride, the higher the price she may fetch. Girls are valuable workers in a land where survival is scratched from the grudging soil of a half-acre parcel. In her parents' home, a girl can till fields, tend livestock and cook meals. In her husband's home, she is more useful yet. She can have sex and bear children."

On Point : Sonya Kitchell - Sonya Kitchell

On Point : Sonya Kitchell - Sonya Kitchell: "Sonya Kitchell grew up absorbing the great folk and blues artists of her parents' generation. She's already recorded a first album, and developed her own soulful style of singing and writing that belie her youth."

What Shamu Taught Me About a Happy Marriage - New York Times

What Shamu Taught Me About a Happy Marriage - New York Times: "Rather than teach the cranes to stop landing on him, the trainer taught the birds something else, a behavior that would make the undesirable behavior impossible. The birds couldn't alight on the mats and his head simultaneously.

At home, I came up with incompatible behaviors for Scott to keep him from crowding me while I cooked. To lure him away from the stove, I piled up parsley for him to chop or cheese for him to grate at the other end of the kitchen island. Or I'd set out a bowl of chips and salsa across the room. Soon I'd done it: no more Scott hovering around me while I cooked.

I followed the students to SeaWorld San Diego, where a dolphin trainer introduced me to least reinforcing syndrome (L. R. S.). When a dolphin does something wrong, the trainer doesn't respond in any way. He stands still for a few beats, careful not to look at the dolphin, and then returns to work. The idea is that any response, positive or negative, fuels a behavior. If a behavior provokes no response, it typically dies away.

In the margins of my notes I wrote, 'Try on Scott!'

It was only a matter of time before he was again tearing around the house searching for his keys, at which point I said nothing and kept at what I was doing. It took a lot of discipline to maintain my calm, but results were immediate and stunning. His temper fell far shy of its usual pitch and then waned like a fast-moving storm. I felt as if I should throw him a mackerel."

At Colleges, Women Are Leaving Men in the Dust - New York Times

At Colleges, Women Are Leaving Men in the Dust - New York Times: "From the time they are young, boys are far more likely than girls to be suspended or expelled, or have a learning disability or emotional problem diagnosed. As teenagers, they are more likely to drop out of high school, commit suicide or be incarcerated. Such difficulties can have echoes even in college men."

When the Personality Disorder Wears Camouflage - New York Times

When the Personality Disorder Wears Camouflage - New York Times: "In this environment, people who have one diagnosis in particular — antisocial personality disorder — can often masquerade as bold, effective soldiers, psychiatrists argue. Antisocial behavior is characterized by reckless irresponsibility, habitual lying and an indifference to the suffering of others. In some reports Army officials have listed such a diagnosis as the reason for Mr. Green's discharge...

This is especially likely if they have a measure of charisma, of superficial charm, a glib talent for telling lies, criminologists say. These are hallmark traits of what some experts call psychopathy, a potent blend of antisocial instincts and grandiosity.."

http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/ricardo.htm

http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/ricardo.htm: "The secret to the popularity of certain mathematical modelers, I suspect, is that they are valued precisely because they seem to absolve intellectuals from the need to understand the models that underpin orthodox views. Hardly anyone tries to understand what the Santa Fe theorists are actually saying; it is the pose of opposition to received wisdom, together with the implication that in a complicated world you can't learn anything from simple models anyway, that is valued, because it seems to say that not knowing what's in the textbooks is OK."

Salon.com Life | Why am I obsessed with celebrity gossip?

Salon.com Life | Why am I obsessed with celebrity gossip?: "I would argue that gods and goddesses are only useful to us in our lives if they are not regarded consciously as gods and goddesses -- only if they are regarded as real. I would suggest that we cannot possibly regard the gods and goddesses of another age and culture the way members of that culture themselves regarded their gods and goddesses. I figure that the ancient Greeks and Romans regarded their gods and goddesses much as we regard our film stars. The minute we become conscious of worship, the worship dies. It loses its magical power. We become self-conscious."

New Scientist News - How cocaine hijacks the craving brain

New Scientist News - How cocaine hijacks the craving brain: "When 18 cocaine addicts watched a 40-minute movie that featured people buying and preparing a substance that looked like cocaine, brain scans showed they produced more dopamine in the dorsal striatum than when they viewed a nature film. The effect was more marked in the most strongly addicted people."

idea: food-focused map tool

hmmm, a way to figure out food-groupings on the recipe blogosphere. hmmm. yummy. i wonder if anything could be done.

The Power of the Marginal

The Power of the Marginal: "When I was in college the rule seemed to be that you should study whatever you were most interested in. But in retrospect you're probably better off studying something moderately interesting with someone who's good at it than something very interesting with someone who isn't. You often hear people say that you shouldn't major in business in college, but this is actually an instance of a more general rule: don't learn things from teachers who are bad at them."

Discovery Channel :: News - Human :: Serious Study: Immaturity Levels Rising

Discovery Channel :: News - Human :: Serious Study: Immaturity Levels Rising: "Charlton explained to Discovery News that humans have an inherent attraction to physical youth, since it can be a sign of fertility, health and vitality. In the mid-20th century, however, another force kicked in, due to increasing need for individuals to change jobs, learn new skills, move to new places and make new friends.

A “child-like flexibility of attitudes, behaviors and knowledge” is probably adaptive to the increased instability of the modern world, Charlton believes. Formal education now extends well past physical maturity, leaving students with minds that are, he said, “unfinished.”"

TIM HARFORD | The Poker Machine

TIM HARFORD | The Poker Machine: "Many commentators now fear that the robots will destroy the online game that so enthused their creators in the days of IRC poker. Online poker players are thought to wager more than $250m a day - a tempting incentive to write a software program that could be let loose on unsuspecting 'fish' all over the world. A decent poker player can make thousands of dollars a month playing the online game, so what if that player was replaced by an unlimited number of copies of a fiendish computer program?"

Language Log: A man and a statue and a codex and a cadaver

Language Log: A man and a statue and a codex and a cadaver: "I mention those of the same origin which are contained in one name, but not one definition, but derive as it were from one source, e.g. when `Tullius' can be understood as a man and a statue and a codex and a cadaver. For these cannot be contained in one definition, but they have one single source, i.e. the real man himself, whose statue, books, cadaver they are."

Crazy On Tap - I'm sitting here watching American Pie and getting depressed

Crazy On Tap - I'm sitting here watching American Pie and getting depressed: "Oh, and when you are under 30, you also tend to think you can control emotions like who you fall in love with and how long the pain lasts." - sharkfish

Fraysters dissect the government's proposed reforms. Compiled by Adam Christian

Fraysters dissect the government's proposed reforms. Compiled by Adam Christian: "Tracker recaps the following four-step program laid out by 'Richard Swinburne (Cambridge Philosophy of Religion Dept Head)':

When someone has intentionally or cognizantly produced serious, unjustified harm to someone else, they must render,

1 Reparation.
2 Apology.
3 Repentence.
4 Penance.

You (1) repair as far as possible for you the damage done to the victim, (2) say you're sorry, (3) turn from the person you were as perpetrator and begin establishing habits of a life devoted to leaving that personality behind, and (4) constitute your apology as sincere by making it costly: when you apologize, offer some sort of servitude, goods, furtherance of the injured's favorite causes, etc., that could not have been required of you before you harmed that person(s)."

Reading Faulkner with Oprah. By Meghan O'Rourke

Reading Faulkner with Oprah. By Meghan O'Rourke: "For all his brilliant obscurity, Faulkner was obsessed with speaking in a language of mythic essentialism. His religious vision was an austere version of relic-worship, attached to place and to objects." In writing about the South he knew, he was trying to articulate a story of doomed consciousness, of pain, of being hyper-cognizant of the demise of not only family but of an entire culture established in bad moral faith. Out of these pressures are forged the self-made flaws of characters who collide with their families (and their culture) as violently as wrecking balls.

The war for the soul of literature - Salon

The war for the soul of literature - Salon: "The hysterical realist novel, Wood insists, is a noisy 'perpetual-motion machine' engaged in 'the pursuit of vitality at all costs.' Its authors produce 'books of great self-consciousness with no selves in them; curiously arrested books which know a thousand different things -- How to make the best Indonesian fish curry! The sonics of the trombone! The drug market of Detroit! The history of strip cartoons! -- but do not know a single human being.'

Without a doubt, some contemporary novels are overly frenetic and data-stuffed. But Wood doesn't seem to be able to distinguish between the frankly bad specimens ( Salman Rushdie's 'Fury,' a book that, contrary to Wood's predictions, was widely panned) and those that enjoyably gratify readers' curiosity about things like the drug trade in Detroit (why not?). They all strike him as inhuman because he has no interest in their struggle to describe what it feels like to live in a jittery world where authenticity has disappeared in a maze of electronic screens, and people often feel that the freedom to choose between multiple identities leaves them unsure whether any of those identities can be real. Wood is a great champion of the real in fiction, and particularly of characters who believe so entirely in their own reality that they convince the reader of it too."

The war for the soul of literature - Salon

The war for the soul of literature - Salon: "Wood labels it 'secular comedy.' Satire, he writes, is 'religious comedy,' because it doles out 'punishment for those who deserve it' as opposed to 'secular comedy,' which offers 'forgiveness to those who don't.' In Wood's secular comedy, characters are 'free to contradict themselves without being corrected by the author, are free to make mistakes without fearing authorial judgment.'"

Why I’m Happy I Evolved - OLIVIA JUDSON

-Why I’m Happy I Evolved - OLIVIA JUDSON : "No other animal that I have heard of can live so peaceably in such close quarters with so many individuals that are unrelated. No other animal routinely bothers to help the sick and the dying, or tries to save those hurt in an earthquake or flood."

The Weaker Sex - New York Times

The Weaker Sex - New York Times: "Perhaps the reason many societies offer boys nutritional, educational and vocational advantages over girls is not because of chauvinism — it's because we're trying to ensure their survival."

The rest of the article also points to this possibility .... that a sexist culture is affirmative action for men. Maybe the sexism is overdone. But then it's a question of balance not absolutes.

'American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville,' by Bernard-Henri Lévy - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville,' by Bernard-Henri Lévy - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "Any American with a big urge to write a book explaining France to the French should read this book first, to get a sense of the hazards involved. Bernard-Henri Lévy is a French writer with a spatter-paint prose style and the grandiosity of a college sophomore; he rambled around this country at the behest of The Atlantic Monthly and now has worked up his notes into a sort of book. It is the classic Freaks, Fatties, Fanatics & Faux Culture Excursion beloved of European journalists for the past 50 years, with stops at Las Vegas to visit a lap-dancing club and a brothel; Beverly Hills; Dealey Plaza in Dallas; Bourbon Street in New Orleans; Graceland; a gun show in Fort Worth; a 'partner-swapping club' in San Francisco with a drag queen with mammoth silicone breasts; the Iowa State Fair ('a festival of American kitsch'); Sun City ('gilded apartheid for the old');a stock car race; the Mall of America; Mount Rushmore; a couple of evangelical megachurches; the Mormons of Salt Lake; some Amish; the 2004 national political conventions; Alcatraz - you get the idea."

Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses

Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses: "There are nineteen rules governing literary art in domain of romantic fiction -- some say twenty-two. In 'Deerslayer,' Cooper violated eighteen of them. These eighteen require:"

The mysterious appeal of Garrison Keillor. By Sam Anderson

The mysterious appeal of Garrison Keillor. By Sam Anderson: "The 'News From Lake Wobegon' is basically an old-style Talk of the Town piece about the Midwest."

contract faq

1099 FAQ:

- hourly rate = current annual pay/1000

- don't do firm fixed price

- do have a fixed set of requirements in place before signing anything

- specify up front what hours you will answer the phone/SLA on email

- outside those hours, DO NOT ANSWER THE PHONE.

- as much as possible, do not let the client specify implementation. That's your job

- charge for documentation

- retain rights to the code you write, if you can

- specify passing through charges on unique tools (for example if you need a server pdf library)

- contract programmers work where they choose, or else they're employees

Make sure the client understands that you expect prompt payment, that
work will cease without payment and that you are prepared to sue if not
paid.



Do not hand over source until paid.



Some clients are past masters at delay. Beware the "suddenly
discovered unacceptable flaw" that hinders payment while the client
carries on using the system. You'll never be able to fix it to their
satisfaction. Sue.



Of course this presupposes that you deliver systems that work in accordance with agreed WRITTEN specs.


http://www.crazyontap.com/topic.php?TopicId=5488&Posts=27

people mellow with age

Elderly people may be better at perceiving happiness and worse at
perceiving fear, a new study suggests. The finding supports the idea
that people do mellow with age.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn9344&feedId=online-news_rss20

orexin and sleep

He believes this could explain why we naturally feel sleepy after a
meal and also why it can be difficult to sleep when we are hungry,
since the activity of the neurons would be higher when there is less
glucose in the blood.

“We
think orexin neurons make sure that we are awake and alert when hungry,
in order to ensure optimal food-seeking,” Burdakov says. He adds that
it makes evolutionary sense for animals to turn off their wakefulness
and conserve energy once they have eaten their food, since it could be
risky or wasteful to expend too much energy looking for more food.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn9272&feedId=online-news_rss20

previous link

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19025544.200&feedId=online-news_rss20

story idea

The appearance of websites detailing the recreational use of these
drugs, which even post recipes on how to heighten the hit, is the
latest twist in this trend (see "Recipe for abuse").
The traffic on some of the sites is enormous. One, which includes
around 3000 personal accounts of experiences with a wide range of legal
and illicit drugs, receives an average of 420,000 hits a day. "Some
people post their progress on beating a new formulation almost on a
daily basis. Then others respond with questions and experiences of
their own - it feeds on itself," says Cone.

low-calorie sweets throws body's calorie detection out of whack

Some researchers think artificial sweeteners may actually interfere
with our efforts to diet. A 2004 study by psychologists at Purdue
University found that when rats were fed artificially sweetened liquids
for 10 days, they lost their innate ability to gauge the calorie
content of foods containing real sugar. In nature, the sweeter
the food, the greater the calories. Humans have adapted over millions
of years to seek out food that tastes sweet, and not just for survival.

Time

locavores

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1200783,00.html

Bipolar teens see hostility in neutral faces

Teens diagnosed with the bipolar disorder are more likely to
interpret neutral facial expressions as hostile and react with fear, a
new study shows.

Brain scans also showed
that the brain centre that processes fear – the amygdala – shows more
activity in these youngsters than in those free of the disorder. The
researchers say the findings provide insight into how bipolar
individuals process emotions differently to their peers.

... says adolescents with bipolar disorder may have a suicidal reaction to
something as simple as a friend not calling them back on the phone. She
adds that patients with the disorder also show inappropriate reactions
during their manic phases: “A teacher will be yelling at them and they
might think this is the funniest thing.”

...

All participants reacted similarly to images of happy and fearful faces. But the patients with bipolar disorder were more likely to interpret
neutral facial expressions as hostile and feel more fearful of these
faces. On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being most fearful, those with the
psychiatric condition gave an average rating of 2 while others gave an
average rating of 1.4.



New Scientist

hyper-efficient showers

The shower unit is a watertight cylinder with very fine nozzles all
around. As the traveller steps inside, an optical sensor measures their
height and shape and pumps water mixed with shampoo at high pressure
through only those nozzles needed to cover the body.

New Scientist

critical social density causes differing behavior (locusts)

The experiments showed that at low densities of just 2 to 7 locusts,
the insects moved independently, while at slightly higher densities of
10 to 25 locusts they banded together, changing direction in unison,
rapidly and spontaneously.

New Scientist

locust commotion .... funny pun.

ornamental sex-selection features grow square

The study showed that sexual ornaments – such as antlers or a peacock's
feathery display – become disproportionately large as body size
increases.

They found that in virtually every case, ornament size grew by roughly the square of the overall growth rate.

New Scienist

business idea to think about

Each "bird" carries a document, which is automatically assigned a
string of numbers depending on the words it contains. Documents with a
lot of similar words have number strings of the same length and a
virtual bird will naturally fly with others carrying documents with
number strings of the same length.

When a new
article appears, software scans it for words similar to those in
existing articles and then files the document into an existing flock,
or creates a new one. The team has used the system to categorise online
news stories from CNN and the BBC. The next step will be to allow
people to click on a bird to display its document.

New Scientist

caloric-restriction diet

"Andrzej Bartke and colleagues at Southern Illinois University in
Springfield worked with normal mice and mutant mice missing the
receptor for growth hormone. Half of each type were allowed to eat at
will, and the other half were fed 30 per cent fewer calories than
usual. As expected, normal mice on fewer calories lived 20 to 30 per
cent longer. Mice without the growth hormone receptor also showed
similar increases in longevity on a normal diet.

This suggests that restricting calories has a similar effect on the
body to knocking out the growth hormone receptor. Doing both does not
make the mice live even longer: the mutant mice on low-calorie diets
had similar lifespans to those on the normal diet (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol 103, p 7901).

"The actions of growth hormone are somehow implicated in linking
caloric restriction to longer life," Bartke says. Insulin may be the
connection. Both groups of long-lived mice had a greater sensitivity to
insulin, and caloric restriction in the mutant mice failed to increase
their strong insulin sensitivity any further.

"Insulin
resistance is a risk factor for just about any problem you don't want
to get: diabetes, atherosclerosis, cancer. It's sort of intuitive that
the opposite situation would be beneficial."

"

New Scientist

kundalini

kundalini: "kun•da•li•ni

Pronunciation: (koon'dl-?'n?), [key]
—n. Hinduism.
the vital force lying dormant within one until activated by the practice of yoga, which leads one toward spiritual power and eventual salvation."

Weltschmerz

Weltschmerz: "Welt•schmerz

Pronunciation: (velt'shmerts'), [key]
—n. German.
sorrow that one feels and accepts as one's necessary portion in life; sentimental pessimism."

another gymnist thing

Slate Magazine: "Yes, I think you're taking it too seriously when you respond to (almost) every single post.

'Must defend gymism! Must defend gymnism against these hordes of Anglican heretics!'

I don't disagree there's a wonderful feeling. The wonderful feeling one gets in the middle of a workout (an endorphin high?). It's a feeling of power, of self-confidence, of connecting to something bigger than yourself (ie, having more power than one does). I love that feeling too.

But it's a very serious feeling, it's incompatible with humor. Humor deflates power. It's hard to laugh at yourself looking at the mirror in a gym and not lose that feeling (you will be mere dust soon enough). As it's hard to laugh in the middle of sex. Or when defending your religion.

The O'Neill article deflates an illusion (debunking's in the subtitle of the column afterall), too - that going to a gym is a morally virtuous act by pointing out that people we know are immoral, ie, the terrorists, went to the gym. The more intense they were the more often they went. There was nothing bringing their mania back to earth. No healthy self-parody. No balance. No ying to their yang. (I'd imagine a Daoist fanatic is a contradiction in terms.)


So many people in the modern world have no idea that their physical existence can be a source of pleasure or satisfaction.



Modern people hate physical pleaure. Goddam. Except for sex, food and violence (even if the last is vicarious), of course.

people don't go to the gym out of a sense of virtue or self-righteousness; they go because their lives are too stressful,



People go to church for the same reason - to relieve stress. They may say it's because they are being virtuous, God-fearing and so forth, but social animals feel good when engaging in social bonding. (Something about endorphin high, perhaps?) Quite a few gym-goers confuse the causality relationship of the two feelings as well (the two are probably in a virtuous/vicious cycle).

I know I go to the gym because I have told myself it's the right thing to do, in the long run. How else to explain my getting up out of my comfortable stress-free Sunday and going for a bike ride or a swim? Certainly lounging around reading the paper would also reduce stress. So would beer and chocolate cake. Or video games on the computer. To go to the gym I need to persuade myself there's a 'higher' or more long-term reason to go. I've had to package it in a moral rationale (by way of health/market competitiveness). Everyone does - even if the moral rationale is 'Doing what feels good, is the right thing to do.' That's still a moral statement.

(Goddam, all this introspection is going to make it hard to go to the gym tomorrow. I need my myths. Luckily the lifeguard is cute.)

The connection between British/WASPs and flabbiness eludes me, also. Didn't the British Victorians practically invent modern athletics? From golf, tennis, soccer, rugby, cricket, rowing, etc.

Maybe what pisses you off is that the British commit the heretic's worse offense -- being silly."

Slate Magazine

Slate Magazine: "Yes, I think you're taking it too seriously when you respond to (almost) every single post.

'Must defend gymism! Must defend gymnism against these hordes of Anglican heretics!'

I don't disagree there's a wonderful feeling. The wonderful feeling one gets in the middle of a workout (an endorphin high?). It's a feeling of power, of self-confidence, of connecting to something bigger than yourself (ie, having more power than one does). I love that feeling too.

But it's a very serious feeling, it's incompatible with humor. Humor deflates power. It's hard to laugh at yourself looking at the mirror in a gym and not lose that feeling (you will be mere dust soon enough). As it's hard to laugh in the middle of sex. Or when defending your religion.

The O'Neill article deflates an illusion (debunking's in the subtitle of the column afterall), too - that going to a gym is a morally virtuous act by pointing out that people we know are immoral, ie, the terrorists, went to the gym. The more intense they were the more often they went. There was nothing bringing their mania back to earth. No healthy self-parody. No balance. No ying to their yang. (I'd imagine a Daoist fanatic is a contradiction in terms.)


So many people in the modern world have no idea that their physical existence can be a source of pleasure or satisfaction.



Modern people hate physical pleaure. Goddam. Except for sex, food and violence (even if the last is vicarious), of course.

people don't go to the gym out of a sense of virtue or self-righteousness; they go because their lives are too stressful,



People go to church for the same reason - to relieve stress. They may say it's because they are being virtuous, God-fearing and so forth, but social animals feel good when engaging in social bonding. (Something about endorphin high, perhaps?) Quite a few gym-goers confuse the causality relationship of the two feelings as well (the two are probably in a virtuous/vicious cycle).

I know I go to the gym because I have told myself it's the right thing to do, in the long run. How else to explain my getting up out of my comfortable stress-free Sunday and going for a bike ride or a swim? Certainly lounging around reading the paper would also reduce stress. So would beer and chocolate cake. Or video games on the computer. To go to the gym I need to persuade myself there's a 'higher' or more long-term reason to go. I've had to package it in a moral rationale (by way of health/market competitiveness). Everyone does - even if the moral rationale is 'Doing what feels good, is the right thing to do.' That's still a moral statement.

(Goddam, all this introspection is going to make it hard to go to the gym tomorrow. I need my myths. Luckily the lifeguard is cute.)

The connection between British/WASPs and flabbiness eludes me, also. Didn't the British Victorians practically invent modern athletics? From golf, tennis, soccer, rugby, cricket, rowing, etc.

Maybe what pisses you off is that the British commit the heretic's worse offense -- being silly."

Slate Magazine

Slate Magazine: "I read the same article and I didn't get the gym-hating tone you're alluding to. Sure it was prickly, but it was supposed to prick some sort of CW - that gyms are morally virtuous. I guess it worked as you came out swinging in defense.

You're taking it far too seriously. As if your God/ritual/community/symbol had been insultingly drawn in a cartoon. Or made the villain of a popular book/movie starring Tom Hanks. Which proves the author's point, no?

Yes, he did call gym goers preening and narcissistic, but is it that particularly inaccurate? I started a gym regimen a few months ago, and I can definitely attest to looking in the mirror far more often (what can I say, it's a beautiful sight!) - must have done it three times today already. And preening? Well, that's what's it's called when one takes the long way around the pool when the teenage lifeguard and her friend are chatting over on the other side as I did this morning (laughs at self).

I don't think narcissistic and selfless are polar opposites anyway. People are social animals who live under the gaze of others. Abstract away the social context in one way (the agency of the others), and one gets the extreme of just gazing, ie, narcissism. Abstract away the social context in a dfferent way (their physicality), and one gets the extreme of just judging, ie, asceticism and aestheticism.

Self-idolatry and self-immolation are the Scylla and Charbdis of a certain personality type, those that are too viable to abstract social contexts. Mysticism tries to tame the excesses of the first. When it overreaches, it veers into those of second."

NPR : Summer's Here: Grills Catch Fire

NPR : Summer's Here: Grills Catch Fire: "Grilled Tuna Steaks with Summer Salsa

Serves 4

5 plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise, seeded and coarsely chopped

2 chopped scallions (all but 2 inches of the green)

1 medium clove garlic, peeled and minced

1/2 cup olive oil

3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

1 cup chopped basil leaves

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 jalapeno pepper or other hot chili, seeded and minced (or to taste)

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

4 tuna steaks, about 8 ounces each, about 1-inch thick

2 tablespoons olive oil

Coarse sea salt to taste

The Salsa:

In a bowl, combine chopped tomatoes, green onions, garlic, 1/2 cup olive oil, cilantro, basil, lemon juice and jalapeno. Season with salt and pepper. Best if refrigerated for an hour or more, then taste again.

The Tuna:

Coat the tuna steaks with 2 tablespoons olive oil and season well with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. (Remove fish from refrigerator about 10 minutes before grilling; it should not be cooked icy cold.)

Grill tuna steaks about 6 inches from the heat, about 4 to 6 minutes per side, depending on thickness. (Check by making a thin incision in a thick part of the flesh). Remove before they reach desired doneness because they will continue to cook a bit."

NPR : Summer's Here: Grills Catch Fire

NPR : Summer's Here: Grills Catch Fire: "Spice-Rubbed Flank Steak with Cajun Swamp Sauce

Hanger steak also is excellent prepared this way.

2 medium garlic cloves

1 1/2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black mustard seeds (optional)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon black pepper, or to taste

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon cayenne (optional)

1 1/2 pounds flank steak, trimmed of excess fat

With a mortar and pestle, mash the garlic and ginger into a paste. (You can use a flat meat pounder or mince very well with a large chef's knife). Add the remaining seasonings. Salt to taste.

Pat the steaks dry with paper towels. Rub the paste all over. Cover in plastic wrap and marinate steak for about 5 hours or, better, overnight.

Oil the grill grates. When the grill is hot, cook the steak for 5 to 8 minutes on each side for medium-rare (depending on thickness). Test with a meat thermometer -- 145 rare, 160 medium. Transfer steak to a cutting board and let stand 10 minutes.

With a very sharp knife slice the steak thinly with the grain and serve."

NPR : Summer's Here: Grills Catch Fire

NPR : Summer's Here: Grills Catch Fire: "I asked him to identify the three most common errors committed by amateur grill cooks.

'Number one is overcrowding the grill,' he said. 'The second is confusing burning food with cooking food -- that's where direct and indirect cooking comes in.'

Number three: 'You should not put on barbecue sauce too early, only in the last few minutes of cooking,' he advised, noting that this is particularly critical with a sauce that contains sugar. 'It'll burn right up.'

Because grilling is a dry-cooking method that extracts water from foods, marinades are beneficial for their moistening and flavoring effects. Contrary to widespread belief, a vinegar-based marinade does not tenderize a steak any more than Kool-Aid does because it barely penetrates the surface. The same is true with seafood. In fact, it generally is not a good idea to marinate fish or shellfish for more than half an hour because the acid can make the surface gray and mushy.

At this time of year, simple marinades can be assembled in minutes using fresh herbs, vinegar, olive oil, lemon, wine, even beer (it's great with shellfish)."

NPR : Summer's Here: Grills Catch Fire

NPR : Summer's Here: Grills Catch Fire: "So, assume you have a shiny new grill. How do you get the best from it? Here are a few pointers:

· Maintain your grill as you would a new car -- well, as some of you would. Keep it clean, both inside (especially the cooking grates) and out, so it doesn't discolor.

· Grilling is more than just dropping food onto a flame and joining the volleyball game for 10 minutes. Some foods benefit from the 'direct heat, indirect heat' treatment. For example, a thick steak should be placed over the hottest part of the fire until it chars and develops a nice crust, then moved to a burner on a lower setting to continue cooking without burning. Most medium to large gas grills have two adjustable burners, one left, one right. If using charcoal or wood, move the food to the perimeter of the grate where the heat is less intense. Flip the steak and repeat. Cuts of meat 3/4-inch thick and thinner do not have to be moved because they cook quickly.

· Use long tongs to grasp food and rely on a meat thermometer. Experienced cooks know how to judge the doneness of a steak or thick filet of tuna by pressing them with their fingers. Amateurs should not try to show off this way -- it's safer and more accurate to use a thermometer. Steaks are rare at 145 degrees Fahrenheit, medium at about 160 degrees. Since meat and seafood continue to cook a minute or two after they are pulled from the heat, remove them a minute or so early to assure desired level of doneness.

· Let the meat rest. Sometimes when I am grilling, shortly before the food is cooked, I find myself surrounded by a wolf pack of hungry eaters. Don't give in to the rabble-rousers. When a steak is removed from the fire, it definitely needs a few minutes of downtime for the juices to redistribute."

Slate Magazine

Slate Magazine: "If we can create 'fine tuned' manufactured foods then we could mass produce celebritys for consumption in another way. 'Give me a pound of Oprah and some Paris Hilton for desert...' If you were a particularly delicious person you could get rich on the property rights to your own flesh (though the law will no doubt ensure that big corporations get 'first bite')."