Archive for March 3rd, 2009
Memory loss as depicted in movies
Interesting post at Mind Hacks:
Neurophilosophy has a great post about how amnesia is represented in cinema, concluding that there’s only three movies that accurately represent memory loss.
The post is based on an article from the British Medical Journal by clinical neuropsychologist Sallie Baxendale who has written a number of excellent articles on topics such as epilepsy in music, at movies, and in the saints.
The three films mentioned as accurate depictions of amnesia are the masterpiece Memento, Spanish language film Sé Quién Eres, and, surprisingly, the Disney animated feature Finding Nemo.
The Neurophilosophy article is also illustrated with video clips so you can see some of the films under discussion.
‘Undesirable’ evolution can be reversed in fish
Good news, complementing the earlier story on how catching the largest fish has caused species to evolve to faster maturity, smaller size:
"Undesirable" evolution in fish – which makes their bodies grow smaller and fishery catches dwindle — can actually be reversed in a few decades’ time by changing our "take-the-biggest-fish" approach to commercial fishing, according to groundbreaking new research published today by Stony Brook University scientists in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Intensive harvesting of the largest fish over many decades, while leaving the small fish behind, may have unintentionally genetically reprogrammed many species to grow smaller, said lead author Dr. David O. Conover, Professor and Dean of the Stony Brook University School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences in Long Island, New York. Although Charles Darwin showed 150 years ago that evolution equips life forms to be better adapted to prosper in their environment, unnatural evolution caused by man’s size-selective fishing is causing fish to be smaller, less fertile, and competitively disadvantaged. This has also been a loss for commercial fishers who seek big fish for their livelihoods, recreational anglers in pursuit of trophy fish, and seafood consumers who desire large portions on their plates.
This study demonstrates for the first time ever that detrimental evolution in fish can be reversed, and pokes a gaping hole in theoretical models suggesting that genetic changes are impossible to "undo." It is the result of 10 years of research largely supported by a generous grant from the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University.
"This is good news for fisheries, but it also shows that reversal is a slow process," Dr. Conover said. "Over time, fish can return back to their normal size but the reversal process occurs much more slowly than the changes caused by fishing. So the best strategy is still to avoid harmful evolutionary changes in the first place".
Robots at war
In the current issue of the Wilson Quarterly:
ROBOTS AT WAR
By P. W. Singer | A new way of war is on the horizon. Already, robots and drones are replacing human pilots and foot soldiers in some roles, and in the future they will take over many more. The benefits of removing human soldiers from harm’s way are obvious. But there’s a price to pay when a society can wage war by remote control.
Unfortunately, the article’s not on-line, but if you’re interested in the topic, you might want to stop by a good newsstand for a copy.
Banks and their foreclosed houses
Mary Kane in the Washington Independent:
Banks that received government bailout money are taking heat for spending billions of dollars on bonuses, executive pay, and lavish outings. But there’s another outrage that Washington seems to be missing: The growing number of bank-owned properties in foreclosure scarring neighborhoods across the country.
The volume of bank-owned foreclosed homes – known as REOs, or real-estate owned properties – is growing at an alarming rate, compounding the foreclosure crisis by sticking hard-hit neighborhoods with vacant and often trashed homes that drive down property values even more. REOs are foreclosed homes that lenders take back after they don’t sell at foreclosure auctions or sheriff’s sales. They keep the homes in inventory until they can be sold again.
The foreclosure crisis, however, is changing the REO process, with some banks holding off on following though with foreclosures or letting empty houses sit in limbo – where they deteriorate further – instead of selling them. Some banks can’t keep up with the sheer volume of foreclosures. But others are waiting for a better deal from the government for their toxic mortgage assets, avoiding booking losses so they can qualify for more bailout funds, or neglecting homes with little value, some charge – leaving the properties vacant and vandalized. And neighborhoods pay the price for it.
Some 1.5 million foreclosed homes are expected to wind up as REOs this year, according to RealtyTrac , an online foreclosure database. Prior to the foreclosure crisis, bank REO volume totaled only about 160,000 in a normal year. In January, RealtyTrac already had 68,000 new REOs listed in its database, and the firm expects overall volume to double from last year, said RealtyTrac senior vice president Rick Sharga. REO inventory peaked last year at 900,000 properties in November. “The system is just overwhelmed,” Sharga said.
There’s more pain to come…
Looking at the Bush OLC and what was going on
Some very good posts sifting through the released documents:
The newly released secret laws of the Bush administration
DOJ Releases OLC Memos: Why Hide Bradbury’s Legal Smackdown?
Who watched the torture tapes?
All of those posts are worth reading. Information is starting to come out, and it looks like things were even worse than we imagined.
Starving kids vs. Wealthy farmers
In one of the few Tom Vilsack maneuvers that doesn’t warrant snark, our fave Ag Secretary is now directly reffing the debate about ending bloated subsidy payments to high-income crop growers as Starving Kids vs. Stuffed Farmers. It’s a brilliant political maneuver that makes the Big Ag Lobby look like jackasses if they try to protest. It pulls on America’s collective heartstrings. After speaking with hunger activists yesterday about the Obama administration’s plan to redirect subsidy payments for large farmers into nutrition programs as a way to help end hunger by 2015, Vilsack told Reuters:
"We will do our best to frame this discussion..so that people understand: 30 million children, 90,000 farmers…It is a tough choice, but it’s a choice that folks are going to have to make."
Farm groups and Capitol Hill pork enthusiasts are already protesting ending subsidy payments; Barack’s plan to trim the budget deficit includes phasing out direct payments to farmers with sales of more than $500,000 a year, to save $9.8 billion over 10 years, or roughly one-fifth of the $5.2 billion spent annually on the payments. About 31 million people a month receive help to buy groceries from the U.S. Agriculture Department through the SNAP program (foodstamps), and about 32 million kids eat lunch each day through the school lunch program. Still, the program is regarded as underfunded by those who work on child nutrition and hunger issues…
Our dying oceans
Barack’s affection for eating fish–and particularly sushi–is well documented. Guest blogger Casson Trenor, a marine stewardship expert and author of "Sustainable Sushi," gives advice to The Eater in Chief–and all American eaters–on the best approach to consuming fish responsibly as a big step toward saving the oceans. Rather than grass-roots change, it’s sea-weed change that can happen immediately….
After eight long years of biting our tongues and shaking our fists in the general direction of the White House, there’s finally someone in charge who seems to genuinely desire to heal the planet, and we cannot afford to waste this opportunity. Personally, I want to talk about our ailing oceans, and more specifically, what our insane lust for sushi is doing to them.
The sushi industry is a real problem. We’re slurping up the very life force of the ocean far too quickly, devouring its soul in our quest for the ultimate meal. With scientists across the globe clamoring about depleted fish stocks, disease-ridden fish farms, and merciless fish restaurants, we can’t afford to ignore it anymore. The oceans are dying. There are countless challenges awaiting us in the next four years, but below are a few that we can tackle without ever having to leave the kitchen; it will turn this whole thing around and save not just the oceans, but the sushi industry as well.
Step One: …
Madoff wants to keep "his" money
Mary Kane in the Washington Independent:
Well, if this doesn’t take some nerve: After ripping off billions of dollars of other people’s money, disgraced Ponzi-schemer Bernard Madoff wants to hang on to his $7 million penthouse and his $62 million in cash, New York’s CBS affiliate says:
Court papers filed on Monday state that Madoff and his lawyer say the Manhattan penthouse and the millions held in accounts of Madoff’s wife, Ruth, are not subject to seizure. The court papers say Madoff claims the apartment and the money are unrelated to a $50 billion fraud Madoff has been accused of carrying out.
Wait until Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who lashed out at AIG today, hears about this one.
More on the F-22
Spencer Ackerman writes in the Washington Independent:
If you want to read a scathing attack on the F-22 fighter jet, make sure to check out this piece at DODBuzz, co-written by retired Air Force Col. Robert Dilger and Pierre Sprey, the only legendary defense reformer ever to be sampled by Kanye West. Perhaps there’s an argument for the F-22 outside of its (dubious) jobs-production engine, but Dilger and Sprey have bombed it into submission. They want:
* A super-maneuverable new air-to-air dogfighter with all–passive electronics, far smaller with far higher maneuvering performance than the best of the F-16s and thus able to outfight the F-22 or any other advanced fighter in the world. (Emitting no radio/radar signals whatsoever, this new fighter will obsolete the F-22’s electronics, defeat any enemy fighter’s passive warning/identification-friend-or-foe system, and render useless the enemy’s radar-homing missiles which rely on seeking our fighter radars.)
Coleman-Franken lurches on
Phoenix Woman blogs at The Campaign Silo:
Once again, the Election Contest Court’s desire to keep from giving Team Coleman any sort of justification to appeal this to the Federal level has trumped the need to spank them for their egregious misconduct. Instead of tossing the double-counting gambit or even Pamela Howell’s tainted testimony from the case, the ECC will allow it — but at the same time, Coleman lawyer Tony Trimble’s firm will be required to pay Franken’s attorneys’ costs related to the delay caused by Team Coleman’s failure to provide the Howell information to the court as well as to the Franken legal team.
Speaking of Howell, Eric Kleefeld of TPM thinks that she may have actually been telling the truth about alleged ballot problems in her precinct. But (and a big hat tip to WineRev for spotting this) a Minneapolis StarTribune reader familiar with local election procedures strongly suspects not:
Where is Howell’s Incident Report?
What stinks the most about Howell’s testimony is that it directly contradicts the paperwork filed on the day she claims it happened. IF there was an election irregularity such as inadvertently counting ballots that should not have been counted, state law REQUIRES an Incident Report be filed by Howell. None was.
Instead Howell came up with this story only AFTER the double-counting accusation was made by Coleman. Even then, instead of going back and filing an Incident Report, or going to the SOS, she went directly to Coleman and reported it just to Coleman. At that time, the recount was still active, and she was still obligated to file an Incident Report. She did not. She has violated the law regarding reporting at the least. At the worst, she is committing perjury.
I went and checked …
Lobbyists love global warming
Source: Center for Public Integrity, February 25, 2009
A review of U.S. lobbying disclosure records has revealed that global warming has proved to be a boon to lobbyists. The Center for Public Integrity. a non-profit journalism group, estimates that "more than 770 companies and interest groups hired an estimated 2,340 lobbyists to influence federal policy on climate change in the past year." The Center calculates that the climate change-driven boom has resulted in "an increase of more than 300 percent in the number of lobbyists on climate change in just five years, and means that Washington can now boast more than four climate lobbyists for every member of Congress." Amongst the lobbyists benefiting from the boom are Wayne L. Berman, a former Bush administration official who now heads Ogilvy Government Relations; John Breaux, who founded the Breaux Lott Leadership Group with former Senator Trent Lott; and Kirk Blalock, a tobacco industry lobbyist turned Bush administration official who is now a partner at Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock.
Modern-day gunrunners
This week, an Arizona gun shop goes on trial in state court in what law-enforcement officials are calling a landmark case against gun dealers who sell weapons that end up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels, fueling horrific violence south of the border that killed more than 6,000 people last year.
X-Caliber Guns LLC, is accused of knowingly selling hundreds of weapons, mostly AK-47s, to buyers who were posing as fronts for Mexican drug gangs. The gun store’s owner, 47-year-old George Iknadosian, has maintained his innocence in court filings.
While the U.S. has long pressed Mexico to stop the flow of illegal drugs such as cocaine from crossing the border heading north, Mexico has complained that the U.S. doesn’t stop the flow of guns heading south. Mexican and U.S. officials estimate that more than 90% of the weapons used by Mexican drug cartels come from the U.S.
Consider what happened last year in the Mexican border city of Nogales…
Joe Klein on Obama as moderate
Interesting column by Klein:
David Brooks writes today as a moderate-conservative anguished by Barack Obama’s budget. I’ve known David for almost twenty years now. We’ve had many wonderful conversations, publicly and privately, over those years, and I value the quality of his mind, his decency, his essential sanity. We both consider ourselves moderates, though of different sorts.
But I disagree with him profoundly about the Obama budget–and so, I would venture, do most moderate-liberals. The budget has to be seen in context. We are at the end of a 30-year period of radical conservatism, a period so right-wing that many of those now considered "liberals"–like, say, Barack Obama–would be seen as moderate pantywaists in the great sweep of modern political history. The past 30 years have been such a violent departure from the norm, such a profound destruction of the basic functions of government, that a major rectification is called for now–in rebalancing the system of taxation toward progressivity, in rebuilding the infrastructure of the country, not just physically, but also socially and intellectually.
So it’s not surprising that the President would feel the need to move on all fronts, rather than prioritizing, as Brooks would want. And it should be remembered that not all these initiatives will be acted upon at once. This is a ten-year budget. Some of the more dramatic changes, like the cap-and-trade plan to limit carbon emissions, will be insinuated slowly and not for several years.
In almost every case, Obama has chosen …
Farm subsidy fight begins
Wealthy farmers want their handouts. Read this report:
Barack’s promise to "end direct payments to large agribusinesses that don’t need them" as part of trimming trillions of dollars from the US budget deficit has caused an outpouring of wrath among farmers and farm policy politcos. Keep in mind that Bam is referring to stopping the government cash-dump to farmers who enjoy more than $500,000 in sales annually. In sales. We’re not talking about financial holdings that include land or equipment or livestock or seeds or or or…we’re talking half a mil in sales. Yes, correct, high-income earning farmers have been getting "free" government money for years. Why? Well, because their elected representatives got elected specifically to ensure that the porky cash keeps on flowin’.
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is one of these government-cash-happy elected reps, and he recently defended the subsidies when talking with reporter Phil Brasher of The Des Moines Register: …
Fully suppressed revolver
I had always thought that putting a suppressor (silencer) on a revolver was a mug’s game. Not so, if you do it right.
This seemed funny to me
From John Cole’s Balloon Juice in this post.
Bad times ahead for Eugene, OR
Effects of climate change projected this century for Oregon’s Upper Willamette River Basin, including Eugene-Springfield, will threaten water supplies, buildings, transportation systems, human health, forests, and fish and wildlife, according to a report produced by the University of Oregon’s Climate Leadership Initiative and the National Center for Conservation Science & Policy. The authors say that extensive efforts should begin now to prepare for these threats.
The 2.1 million-acre upper basin stretches from the headwaters of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers to where they join as one flowing north to the Columbia. The basin is home to $32 billion in taxable property, with 94 percent of it in Lane County’s two side-by-side cities, which together make up the state’s second-largest urban area. More than 33,000 acres of the 47,600 acres of taxable lots in the basin are located in floodplains, as are many buildings, roads and other infrastructure. Intense weather events, such as flooding, will put these properties at elevated risks for losses.
How gifted children shape their personalities
Gifted youths already know what they want to be when they grow up. They usually choose to study applied sciences, but when they are asked why they made their choices, they are not able to explain. "Society identifies the gifted child with high intelligence and is often hasty to identify this intelligence with specific subjects, especially exact or prestigious sciences. The maturing children are quick to adopt this identity, renouncing the process of building self-identity," said Dr. Inbal Shani of the University of Haifa, who carried out this study under the supervision of Prof. Moshe Zeidner.
The study surveyed 800 gifted and non-gifted high-school students and examined the differences in self-concept and other psychological variables between the two groups. The study also observed the ways in which maturing gifted students form their identity. The results showed that while gifted youths have higher self-esteem in their educational achievements, they have lower self-esteem in social and physical aspects.
The researchers pointed out that as soon as students are defined as gifted, they are entered into special educational programs. This process causes them to feel that they excel in the academic field and therefore they strive to meet the expectations set for them in the programs built specially for them. This is particularly prominent in those classes that participate in intensive daily programs fostering gifted children.
"Maturing gifted students know from a very young age what their life’s course will be – usually in the applied sciences. Most of them demonstrate neither deliberation nor interest in other fields, and they speak of studying in academic or military-academic tracks . . . which is of much significance in the process of self-exploration," Dr. Shani noted.
She added that it is likely that applied science tracks are adjusted for the maturing gifted, and it could be that many of these youths would have chosen them regardless of the social labeling; but the problem is that they do primarily tend to choose their professional identity based on the social expectations. "It is a paradox: It is the gifted – who are often multi-talented – who tend to limit the realization of those very talents into specific fields. Instead of selecting from many options open to them, they limit themselves to applied or prestigious subjects," she said.
Dr. Shani added that gifted youths frequently report social difficulties and the feeling that other children keep distant from them because of the gifted label, and therefore it is important to enable them – in the process of forming an identity – to relate to emotional and social characteristics, such as motivation, self-concept, and external pressures, and not only to those characteristics related to cognitive aptitude.
Source: University of Haifa
Are octopuses smart?
On Thursday morning, workers filing into the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium in California were surprised to find 750 liters (200 gallons) of seawater soaking into their spanking new, ecologically sensitive flooring. It turns out that a curious two-spotted octopus had disassembled a water recycling valve and directed a tube to spew out of the tank for about 10 hours, according to the Los Angeles Times.
"It found something loose and just pulled on it," the aquarium’s education manager Tara Treiber told the Times. "They are very smart creatures."
Octopuses, some 300 species of which inhabit tropical waters around the world, can change colors, squirt out poison, and exert a force greater than their own body weight. But calling the eight-armed cousin of your garden snail "smart" seems a bit of a stretch. In fact, the animals are part of an elite group of slimy mollusks known as cephalopods that range from giant squid to the shelled nautilus and all have remarkably large "brains"—at least for creatures sans backbones.
Scientists have found that octopuses can navigate their way through mazes, solve problems quickly and remember those solutions, at least for the short term.
To find out more about octopus intelligence, we spoke to Jennifer Mather, a comparative psychologist at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. Mather has been studying octopuses for 35 years in an effort to gain insight into the evolution of intelligence. While most scientists hold octopuses in high regard, it’s worth noting that not everyone shares Mather’s lofty assessment of their intellectual abilities and personalities.
[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]
Are octopuses smart? …
Humans primed to believe?
Religion might not be the only reason people buy into creationism and intelligent design, psychological experiments suggest.
No matter what their religious beliefs, college-educated adults frequently agree with purpose-seeking yet false explanations of natural phenomena – finches diversified in order to survive, for instance.
"The very fact of belief in purpose itself might lead you to favour intelligent design," says Deborah Kelemen, a psychologist at Boston University, who led the study
Kelemen has documented the same kind of erroneous thinking – called promiscuous teleology – in young children. Seven and eight-year olds agree with teleological statements such as "Rocks are jagged so animals can scratch themselves" and "Birds exist to make nice music". These mistakes diminish as kids take more science classes and learn causal explanations for natural events.
To see whether education erases teleological tendencies or whether they instead represent our brain’s default mode, Kelemen and colleague Evelyn Rosset presented 230 university students with various teleological statements, such as:
