This Is Your Brain On Paint; Or Perhaps Not

Jessica Palmer writes

I’m skeptical of a recent paper by four UK scientists, resurrecting an idea nearly two decades old: that Renaissance painters planted hidden neuroanatomical imagery in their paintings.

This idea apparently originated with gynecologist Frank Meshberger. In 1990, Meshberger proposed that Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel fresco, The Creation of Adam, represents a midsaggital view of the human brain. He argued that the prominent violet oval of God’s billowing cloak outlines the cerebrum, the bump in the front is the Sylvian fissure, and the dangling angels’ legs depict the pituitary and spinal cord. The foot of the frontmost angel is strangely shaped - Meshberger calls it “bifid” - which is consistent with a bilobed pituitary.

link: bioephemera.com

Grave Censorship

A tombstone for the famed German sex-worker and advocate Domenica Niehoff has been turned down as too sexual by the cemetery where she was buried.

The 77-year-old artist Tomi Ungerer's parting gift to his friend Domenica Niehoff was to be a gravestone featuring two ample pink marble boulders in homage to her famously top-heavy figure. But those responsible for the Garden of Women cemetery, resting place of Hamburg's most famous women, turned his design down, the paper reported...

link: German cemetery nixes sexualized tombstone for sex-worker/advocate's grave - Boing Boing

Cognition: Dostoyevsky's White Bear and "Ironic Processes"

Brandon Keim writes:

It’s one of the more frustrating aspects of human nature: The harder we try not to say or do or think something, the more likely we are to slip — and often at the worst possible time. But maybe science can help.

More than a decade after the inability of a Dostoevsky protagonist to stop thinking about a white bear inspired his first experiments, Harvard University psychologist Daniel Wegner has become one of the world’s foremost experts on what are now known as ironic processes.

Using ingenious experiments to reveal the brain’s hidden machinations, Wegner and others have found that our brains expend steady, conscious effort to avoid talking about ex-girlfriends on first dates, sending putts off the green, or letting slip the real reason you were late for work.

But when our conscious minds are stressed and preoccupied — by, for example, a desire not to screw up — a subconscious process devoted to guarding against the mistake slips through. Unwanted thoughts pop into the forefront of your mind.

“Even though your conscious mind is trying to do the right thing, the unconscious mind is looking for the worst. It’s trying to protect you, but it’s actually more resistant to distraction than the conscious mind,” said Wegner. A bit of distraction “will unveil the process that’s looking for the worst that could happen.”

link: Why You Can’t Keep Your Foot Out of Your Mouth | Wired Science | Wired.com

Margaret Elphinstone on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was required reading for literature undergraduates 40 years ago, and it has stayed with me ever since, though nowadays I seldom return to the original Middle English. That's laziness, and it deprives me of some of the best alliterative poetry in English. But what translations do give is the story, which has everything necessary for a good novel: a perfectly-formed plot, a protagonist with a tormented inner life, stirring action with neatly counter-pointed violence and sex, startling metaphors and superb natural description. Gawain's winter journey and the hunting sequences in the snow-bound forest remind us that nature, in the 14th century, was not the object of nostalgic quest, but simply the world as it was: beautiful, dangerous, uncomfortable and Other. The poem also carries a trailing weight of symbolism that you can drag as far as you like into the realms of Celtic myth and pagan pantheism. Green Men, fertility rituals, nature spirits and shamanic games have enjoyed a comeback since my dusty undergraduate days.

link: Book Of A Lifetime: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - Reviews, Books - The Independent

Gamble on High Speed Rail

Aaron Smith reports:

President Obama is pouring $13 billion into an ambitious high-speed rail project. Some say it will never make money. Some say it will. And still others say profit is not even the point.

Obama's plan is "to jump-start a potential world-class passenger rail" in 10 major corridors, linking cities within the Northeast, California, Florida and other regions with "bullet trains" that exceed 110 miles per hour. State governments are in the process of applying for the federal funds.

link: Visionaries see U.S. high speed rail; critics see subsidies - Jul. 2, 2009

Supreme Court Bound: Gay Marriage

Alexandria Sage writes:

The attorney representing two same-sex couples who were denied a right to wed in California said on Thursday he expected the case to end up before the U.S. Supreme Court, which has yet to hear a case on the gay marriage issue.

"When it does get to the United States Supreme Court, we expect to win," Theodore Olson, who was solicitor general under former President George W. Bush, told reporters after the first hearing on federal lawsuit that was filed in May.

A high court ruling potentially could trump state laws prohibiting same-sex unions. Five out of 50 U.S. states have legalized gay marriage, which opponents view as a threat to what they view as the traditional family.

link: Gay marriage case will go to Supreme Court: attorney | U.S. | Reuters

Slum Outhouse, 1930s

LIFE: Toilet in outhouse in slum area a few bl... - Hosted by Google

Metallurgic Images

"Griffith Cannon Flash," by Dr. Frederick E. Schmidt, from the iron of a cannon used at Gettysburg.

link: Make: Online

Church Converted

One pair bought and converted Church into Home in Kyloe Northumberland | Travelet

Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Sailor

WWII posters

hat tip: Mina Estevez

Art by AssasinSane

memorabilia

Iran Mourns Its Martyrs

Thousands pay respects to “martyrs” in Tehran – According to Peyke Iran, thousands of Tehranis paid their respects to those who were killed during the recent unrest at the Behesht Zahra cemetery, reportedly filling the cemetery with flowers.

“The painful scene of mothers and fathers mourning the loss of their loved ones made others feel like they are all one family and that was everyone’s pain.”

Plainclothes police were also reportedly present at the cemetery, patrolling and carefully monitoring the people.

link: niacINsight

RIP Lyudmila Zykina, Russian Folk Singer

Lyudmila Zykina, who rose to stardom from the factory floor to become one of the Soviet Union’s best-loved folk singers, died Wednesday in Moscow. She was 80.

Her doctor, Vladimir Konstantinov, told the Itar-Tass news agency that she had died in hospital on Wednesday morning. A statement on 1tv.ru, the Web site of Channel One television in Russia, said she had had a heart attack a few days before her death.

Born in Moscow in 1929 into a family of singers, Ms. Zykina worked during World War II as a turner in a Moscow machine tool factory. Her singing career took off after she won a pan-Russian singing competition in 1947.

With her powerful, deep voice, she symbolized the Soviet style of Russian folk singing, using traditional songs but performed in an almost operatic style with orchestral backing.

link: Lyudmila Zykina, Russian Folk Singer, Dies at 80 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com

Amazing Ceilings

the senedd, cardiff

link: ceiling porn

Robert Masciave: Big Hair

link: \\\: Robert Masciave

Fort Worth Gay Panic

Dan Savage reports:

Most residents of Fort Worth have never even seen the inside of a gay bar. Fort Worth's police chief Jeff Halstead is counting on that fact—counting on the average person's ignorance about gay bars and certain stereotypes about gay men—to get a half a dozen Forth Worth police officers off the hook for conducting a violent raid on a Forth Worth gay bar, the Rainbow Lounge, late last Saturday night. Seven men were arrested during the raid, which took place on the 40th anniversary of the raid on the Stonewall Inn that kick-started the modern gay rights movement, and one of those men—Chad Gibson—remains in intensive care with a brain injury. Gibson may not survive.

The officers who raided the Rainbow Lounge claim that the men in the bar made "advances" on them—and Forth Worth's police chief is backing them up:

Monday, police chief Jeff Halstead said the officers' actions are being investigated. However, he also said that officers that entered the bar during the scheduled inspection were touched inappropriately. "You're touched and advanced in certain ways by people inside the bar, that's offensive," he said. "I'm happy with the restraint used when they were contacted like that."

Allow me to translate the chief's comments: "Them faggots in that thar bar touched mah officers and now they're complainin' about some rough stuff and one little ol' faggot with a brain injury? Those perverts should be grateful they're alive."

This is a classic example of the Gay Panic Defense. In the very recent past all a straight man who brutally murdered a gay man had to say was, "He made a pass at me!", and the jury would ignore the evidence and let the murderer off. The Gay Panic Defense doesn't fly in many courts of law these days but it still has currency in the court of public opinion. And the chief of police in Forth Worth, a major U.S. city, is attempting to use the Gay Panic Defense to convince the citizens of Fort Worth to ignore the evidence—to ignore photographic evidence and credible eyewitness accounts—and let his officers off.

link: Fort Worth Police Chief: That Faggot Had It Coming | Slog | The Stranger

Amish Affected by the Economic Downturn

Douglas Belkin writes:

In Amish country, a bank run is about as familiar as a Hummer or a flat-screen TV. For decades, the more than 200,000 Amish in the U.S. have largely lived apart from the mainstream, emphasizing humility, simplicity and thrift. Known as "the plain people," they travel by horse-drawn buggy, wear homemade clothing and live with very little electricity.

But the Amish in northern Indiana edged into the conventional economy, lured by the high wages of the recreational-vehicle and modular-homes industries. And they wound up experiencing the same economic whiplash millions of other Americans did.

There has been some fraying of the ties that bind the Amish, many in the community say.

"When you have plenty of money, you have a tendency to slowly drift away," says Steve Raber, 37, an Amish owner of a furniture-manufacturing business in Shipshewana, near Topeka. "I think people begin to forget who's really in control."

link: A Bank Run Teaches the 'Plain People' About the Risks of Modernity - WSJ.com

Will California Sink Before It Has A Chance To Break Off?

Gary Kamiya writes:

The immediate source of California's financial problems is a lethal combination of ideology and rules. It is deeply politically divided, and its governmental mechanisms are completely broken. Bay Area leftists stare at Orange County conservatives across an unbridgeable abyss; a large and potent group of anti-government libertarians faces off against an equally powerful group of pro-tax, proactive government liberals. If California, like most states, required only a simple majority to pass its budget, the disagreements between these camps could be worked out; after all, the Democrats control the Legislature. But California requires a two-thirds majority, which gives the GOP, now dominated by anti-government, anti-tax ideologues, veto power over the process. The result is deadlock.

Compounding this problem is California's notorious initiative process, which allows voters to bypass the Legislature and place initiatives directly on the ballot simply by gathering enough signatures. The initiative process was originally passed by voters in 1911 to circumvent the power of the oligarchic railroad trusts by restoring direct democracy. And it still offers citizens a chance to take control of important issues. But it has gone out of control, abused by powerful interests who hire people to collect signatures and ram through bills that no ordinary citizen can be expected to comprehend. By sidelining elected officials, it achieves the worst of both worlds: It gives ordinary citizens, who lack requisite expertise, institutional memory and accountability, too much power, and then forces legislators to clean up their mess -- except that because of ideological gridlock and the supermajority requirement, they can't.

link: Californians are sinking themselves | Salon

Al Franken and the Senate

Trish Deitch writes:

The Senate was originally envisioned as a chamber of notables. Its members were supposed to be persons of accomplishment, capable of independent thought, often bringing with them national reputations and national—or, at least, not hopelessly parochial—outlooks. Al Franken, unlike the overwhelming majority of his new colleagues, is such a person. I don’t doubt that he will assiduously look after the interests of Minnesota, but he has spent many years thinking and writing about weightier questions than the need for lake subsidies and cheese price supports. His books, despite their diverting titles (“Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot” and the like), are substantial works of research and analysis. The fact that they, like he, are also funny should be counted in their, and his, favor. American popular culture is stronger, not weaker, because Stuart Smalley is part of it.

link: News Desk: Online Only: The New Yorker

Clown Coco

link: ClownCoco.jpg (image)

Pigs Die Willingly For Our Sins

Retro Comedy: The 15 Creepiest Vintage Ads Of All Time

Photos: Michael Light

but does it float

Photos: Madame Peripetie

\\\: Madame Peripetie

Phallocentric Wedding Dress Underscores the Patriarchal Nature of the Institusion

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

TYWKIWDBI: I should apologize to the fashion industry

Book Dissections

accidental mysteries: Brian Dettmer: Book Dissections

White House Office on Social Innovation and Civic Participation

President Obama's new White House Office on Social Innovation and Civic Participation represents more than just another bureaucratic office. If leveraged effectively, this Office could transform how we solve our nation's most pressing domestic problems -- and ultimately move the needle on critical challenges in education, health care, poverty, joblessness, the environment, and more.

link: Clayton M. Christensen: The White House Office on Social Innovation: A New Paradigm for Solving Social Problems

The Art of the Chisel: Computers Identify Ancient Artisans

You might call it "CSI Ancient Greece". A computer technique can tell the difference between ancient inscriptions created by different artisans, a feat that ordinarily consumes years of human scholarship.

"This is the first time anything like this had been done on a computer," says Stephen Tracy, a Greek scholar and epigrapher at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, who challenged a team of computer scientists to attribute 24 ancient Greek inscriptions to their rightful maker. "They knew nothing about inscriptions," he says.

link: Computer reveals stone tablet 'handwriting' in a flash - tech - 02 July 2009 - New Scientist

Early Work by Edward Gorey

Cabinet of Wonders: Gorey Ways to Be Deflowered

War On Terror Becomes War On Otherness

Countries on the front line in the "war on terror" are using the battle against extremists as a smokescreen to crack down on minority groups, an international human rights group said on Thursday.

For the fourth straight year, Somalia, Iraq, Sudan and Afghanistan topped an annual index compiled by Minority Rights Group International (MRG) of countries where minorities are most at risk of genocide, mass killings or violent repression.

"You see governments who have faced a genuine threat, but the point is the actions they have taken against the wider civilian population, including minority civilians, has been justified as part of the 'war on terror,'" MRG director Mark Lattimer told Reuters.

"It has included disappearances, torture and extrajudicial executions."

link: War on terror used to target minorities: report | International | Reuters

Lunar Probe Begins Sending Images

The image shows cratered regions near the Moon's Mare Nubium region, as photographed by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's LROC instrument. (Image: Nasa/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University)

link: BBC News | Enlarged Image

Warm Weather Shrinks Sheep; Wool Too?

Climate change is causing a breed of wild sheep in Scotland to shrink, according to research.

Scientists say milder winters help smaller sheep to survive, resulting in this "paradoxical decrease in size".

Classic evolutionary theory would predict that wild sheep gradually get bigger, as the stronger, larger animals survive into adulthood and reproduce.

link: BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Climate change is shrinking sheep

Tableaux by Slinkachu

link: Coilhouse

School Built on Graveyard in Spain

“Nobody knows the importance of Spain’s Jewish heritage better than we in Toledo,” she said by telephone. “But we can’t put 1,000 pupils on the street.”

link: Toledo Journal - School Built on Cemetery Provides Lesson in History - NYTimes.com

Singin', but not Slayin', in the Precip: Fewer Murders When It Rains

On Aug. 26, 2006, something unusual happened in New York City.

It was a Saturday in the heart of summer, the kind of day that averages more than two homicides. Yet the police reported no killings.

One other thing happened that day: it rained. In fact, an analysis by The New York Times of rainfall and homicides for the last six years shows that when it rains substantially in the summertime, there are fewer homicides.

link: Fewer Murders in New York City on Rainy Days, Analysis Shows - NYTimes.com

Red Light Camera Scam: Cheating to Catch Cheaters

It's been shown repeatedly that redlight cameras don't appear to make intersections any safer, but they do act as a nice revenue generator for cities. In fact, at times it's such a tempting revenue generator that city officials cannot resist the urge to tamper with the timing of the lights to get more people running "red" lights that really should have been yellow. The latest such case, as pointed out by Jeff Nolan, happened in Arizona. According to regulations, the yellow light at a certain intersection was required to last 4.3 seconds: 4 seconds for the road being 40 mph and another 0.3 seconds due to the way the road curves. Yet, over 1,000 motorists were ticketed, in part because the traffic light had been adjusted so that the yellow light only lasted 3 seconds, 70% of the required length. Thanks to some enterprising motorists who timed the light and complained, those who were caught are getting back their money and having the citations removed from their record.

link: Another City Caught Lowering Yellow Light Times To Catch More Red Light Runners | Techdirt

Map of High Hazard Coal Dumps

Brian Merchant writes:

A little while back, news spread that the Deptartment of Homeland Security was refusing to reveal the locations of 44 coal ash dump sites--on the grounds that it was a matter of national security.

Now, the EPA has revealed the locations of the sites that have a 'high hazard rating'--ash dumps sites where, if a spill were to occur, would likely lead to the deaths of nearby residents. And the list's revealing came none too soon--many found the DOH's argument that the knowledge of ash dump locations could be a threat to security was flimsy at best and downright suspicious at worst. But though the report lists the locations of the potentially life-threatening sites, it still leaves plenty of pertinent information out. Like, for instance, whether or not the structural integrity of the dams currently holding the toxic ash is sound or not.

And there are still questions regarding the accuracy and thoroughness of the list, too: From the NY Times: "T.V.A. ranked its own dams, and it didn’t rank any of its dams ‘high hazard,’ ” said Lisa Evans, a lawyer for Earthjustice.

A spokeswoman for the authority, Barbara Martocci, said she did not know who had classified the sites on the list.

link: EPA Reveals Locations of 44 Potentially Deadly Coal Ash Dumps : TreeHugger

Smartphones Grow On Farms: Farmers Twitter from the Front Lines of Agriculture

The growth of smartphones on farms is important because many people don't think about where their food comes from, much less associate a specific farmer with that process, said Andy Kleinschmidt, a farmer and agricultural extension educator at Ohio State University.

"When you can put a name or personality with someone who's actually raising corn and soybeans or actually milking cows, that's the most important thing that's come about in my opinion," he said.

A host of blogs and Twitter feeds have popped up around the subjects of technology and life on the farm. On Tuesdays from 8 to 10 p.m. ET, farmers meet on Twitter for a live chat about all things agricultural. You can watch that conversation by searching for agchat on the site.

link: Twittering from the tractor: smartphones sprout on the farm - CNN.com

Your One Hour of Uncomfortable Fame: But Is It Art?

A housewife from Sleaford in Lincolnshire will be the first of thousands of people to stand for one hour on top of a plinth in London's Trafalgar Square as part of a 100-day "live sculpture" exercise.

"One & Other" is a work devised by sculptor Antony Gormley for the square's empty plinth, now a platform for temporary works of art.

The first of 2,400 people to feature in Gormley's work is Rachel Wardell, a 35-year-old housewife and mother-of-two. Participants are chosen at random, and 14,500 people have applied so far.

Applications are still open and can be made on the website www.oneandother.co.uk.

link: Housewife first up for 100-day live sculpture | Lifestyle | Reuters

Mystery: Col. Mustard in the Parlor with a Mung Bean

The British military is mystified after what was first announced as a major haul of opium poppy seeds amounted to nothing more than a hill of beans.

British troops came across a bag of seeds -- weighing 1.3 tons -- during a major operation near the provincial capital of southern Helmand last week, said a British military spokesman.

The find was originally trumpeted as a big haul of opium poppy seeds. Afghanistan produces about 90 percent of the world's opium.

The fight against opium production is a major element of the battle against the insurgency in Afghanistan because opium is the major source of funding for the Taliban.

However tests on the seeds by the United Nations appeared to show they were in fact mung beans, a perfectly legal if much less profitable crop.

Asked if the suspect kernels were in fact mung beans, Tekeste Tekie, U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization spokesman in Kabul, said: "There is no question, yes."

The British military spokesman would not confirm the mung bean mystery, saying the true nature of the suspect seeds had not yet been determined.

link: Mung bean mystery stumps British military | Lifestyle | Reuters

A Door Between Dimensions Opened, and He Used it to Embezzle

Facing real world debts, a trusted figure in a popular online game stole money from the virtual bank he ran and exchanged it for cash through the black market.

It happened in EVE Online, where more than 300,000 subscribers pay $15 a month to play. They gain wealth through hard work, manipulating the market, or killing rivals in a distant future where humans have colonized the stars in an online game similar to World of Warcraft and Second Life.

EBank, EVE's largest player-run financial institution which has thousands of depositors, is at the center of the scandal.

"Basically this character was one of the people that been running EBank for a while. He took a bunch of (virtual) money out of the bank, and traded it away for real money," said Ned Coker, of the Icelandic company CCP, which developed the game.

link: Gamer steals from virtual world to pay real debts | Technology | Reuters

Dept. of Elephants Never Forget: Vatican Remembers Galileo

The Catholic Church should not fear scientific progress and possibly repeat the mistake it made when it condemned astronomer Galileo in the 17th century, a Vatican official said on Thursday in a rare self-criticism.

link: Vatican should learn from Galileo mess, prelate says | Science | Reuters

Iran: Crackdown on Opposition Leaders Urged

Iranian hardliners pressed on Thursday for legal action against moderate leaders accused of inciting post-election turmoil that has dimmed Western hopes of engaging Tehran on its disputed nuclear program.

"Those who hold illegal rallies and gatherings should be legally pursued," parliament member Mohammad Taghi Rahbar was quoted as saying by the hardline Javan newspaper.

It said he was among several lawmakers preparing to write to the judiciary complaining about defeated candidate Mirhossein Mousavi's activities after the disputed June 12 election.

link: Iran hardliners urge legal action against Mousavi | International | Reuters

Human Diversity #Epicfail: New Report on Aboriginal Trends in Australia

A national report on Aboriginal social and economic trends in Australia has shown their condition has deteriorated. In particular it showed that the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous citizens has grown wider in areas like child abuse and domestic violence. It revealed that Aboriginal children are six times as likely to be abused as non-indigenous children. The Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said it was a devastating report on an unacceptable situation.

link: BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Gap dividing Aborigines growing

Biodiversity #Epicfail: Amur Tigers

The world's largest cat, the Amur tiger, is down to an effective wild population of fewer than 35 individuals, new research has found.

Although up to 500 of the big cats actually survive in the wild, the effective population is a measure of their genetic diversity. That in turn is a good predictor of the Amur tiger's chances of survival.

The results come from the most complete genetic survey yet of wild Amur tigers, the rarest subspecies of tiger.

link: BBC - Earth News - Amur tigers on 'genetic brink'

"The Magic of a Nation's Passion": Indian Court Decriminalizes Gay Sex

In a strongly worded statement, New Delhi's High Court ruled that the 150-year statute prohibiting homosexual acts was discriminatory and therefore a "violation of fundamental rights."

"It cannot be forgotten that discrimination is antithesis of equality and that it is the recognition of equality which will foster dignity of every individual," the court said in a 105-page judgment.

Quoting India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, Justice A.P. Shah said: "Words are magic things often enough, even the magic of words sometimes cannot convey magic of human spirit and of a nation's passion."

link: Indian Court Decriminalizes Consensual Gay Sex - washingtonpost.com

Iran: "Brazen Clumsiness"

Roger Cohen writes:

Two weeks after Iran’s ballot-box putsch, mysteries still envelop it. Why have a pre-electoral freedom-fest, bring hundreds of journalists to Tehran to witness it, then put on a horror show, throwing them into jail or out of the country? Everything I saw — the sheer brazen clumsiness of the vote theft and its hysterical, club-wielding aftermath — suggest a last-minute decision.

I think there were two determining factors — one internal and the other external — behind this violent gamble, this historic error.

Nobody predicted the Moussavi surge in the last two weeks of the campaign. Even in mid-May, he was dead in the water. Then his why-spurn-the-world message connected, delivering millions of young Iranians from apathy to activism, and sparking the green wave that had “Velvet Revolution” alarms flashing in every Ahmadinejad acolyte’s zealous little mind.

You can hear the militia and Revolutionary Guard commanders conspiring: “We let this Moussavi guy win, or we go to a run-off, and this thing could get away from us.” For “this thing” read, our revolution and our ideology and our piles of cash (not necessarily in that order.)

link: Op-Ed Columnist - Let the Usurpers Writhe - NYTimes.com

Novelty Photography

Anonymous Works: Art of the Novelty Photograph

O Arizona: But Who Will Watch the Watchers Who're Watching the Whistle Blowers?

Two valley men spoke out against Phoenix’s top cops. Then, both were slapped with simultaneous search warrants. One of them, Officer Dave Barnes, is a 13-year veteran of the police department. Barnes had been critical of the city’s crime lab.

The other, Jeff Pataky, is part of a Web site, BadPhoenixCops.com, which is critical of Phoenix’s public safety manager Jack Harris and many of the department’s top brass.

Court records made public on Wednesday reveal when police searched the homes of Barnes and Pataky in March, they were looking for computers, e-mails between Barnes and Pataky and even a military-grade thumb drive.

"It's a joke. It's a couple hundred thousand dollars in city resources on a complete witch hunt," said Jeff Pataky.

link: Police Raid Homes Of Department Critics - Phoenix News Story - KPHO Phoenix

Edward Burne-Jones: Chant d'Amour

File:Chant d'Amour 1868-73 Edward Burne-Jones.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

Genetic Link Between Schizophrenia and Manic Depression

Scientists have discovered a remarkable similarity between the genetic faults behind both schizophrenia and manic depression in a breakthrough that is expected to open the way to new treatments for two of the most common mental illnesses, affecting millions of people.

Previously doctors had assumed that the two conditions were quite separate. But new research shows for the first time that both have a common genetic basis that leads people to develop one or other of the two illnesses.

link: Unlocked: the secrets of schizophrenia - Science, News - The Independent

Not Guilty? Can You Or Can't You Tell if your Dog has Shifty Eyes?

Rob Stein writes:

Many dog owners have had this experience: Arriving home, they discover their pooch looking sheepish, with its head down, ears pulled back, tail tucked between the legs, maybe slinking behind the sofa. Puzzled, they soon discover the reason: a favorite pair of shoes chewed to pieces, or perhaps the kitchen garbage can upended.

But is their canine companion really acting guilty? Or is this an example of people projecting a human emotion onto their four-legged friend?

A new study concludes that it is more likely the latter -- that the behavior people interpret as dog guilt really is more likely just a reaction to subtle cues from their owners.

"I'm not denying that people have had that experience -- I have had it myself," said Alexandra Horowitz, an assistant professor of psychology at Barnard College in New York who conducted the study published in the July issue of the journal Behavioural Processes. "But I don't think we can say it's because the dogs are showing guilt. I don't think it maps to some inner emotion in the way we think it does."

Horowitz conducted the research as part of a broader interest in understanding anthropomorphisms -- the tendency people have to ascribe human emotions to animals.

link: Dog 'Guilt' Probably Just Reaction to Owners' Cues, Study Finds - washingtonpost.com

Global Warming Deniers Dominated by Reptile Brain? Or Is It Bird Brain?

Nicholas D. Kristof reports:

If you come across a garter snake, nearly all of your brain will light up with activity as you process the “threat.” Yet if somebody tells you that carbon emissions will eventually destroy Earth as we know it, only the small part of the brain that focuses on the future — a portion of the prefrontal cortex — will glimmer.

“We humans do strange things, perhaps because vestiges of our ancient brain still guide us in the modern world,” notes Paul Slovic, a psychology professor at the University of Oregon and author of a book on how our minds assess risks.

link: Op-Ed Columnist - When Our Brains Short-Circuit - NYTimes.com

Fastest Tweeter in the West: John Henry v. the Steam Drill Had Nothing on This Lady

Paul Boutin writes:

Bonnie Smalley has Internet bragging rights: She has been blocked by Twitter for hand-typing too many tweets in an hour. They thought she was a computer program made to spew spam.

Ms. Smalley, it turns out, is a 100 percent human customer service representative for Comcast. She is one of 10 representatives who reach out to customers through social networks, rather than waiting for them to find Comcast’s support site.

Known on Twitter as comcast bonnie, Ms. Smalley reads at least 400 customer tweets on a slow day at her desk in Philadelphia. Amazingly, she replies to all of them, and an additional hundred or more e-mail messages and a few more messages on Facebook, MySpace, Second Life and LinkedIn. On days when Comcast makes an announcement, the volume of everything triples.

link: Tips for Sorting Through the Social Networks - NYTimes.com