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Is dark matter mystery about to be solved?

2008-03-08T05:18:00.000-05:00

"As far as most of the universe is concerned, you're inconsequential. The everyday stuff that constitutes you and everything you care about makes up just 4 per cent of the cosmos; the rest we call dark matter and dark energy. What they actually are, though, is anyone's guess. Now we may be on the verge of enlightenment. In this article, we report how experiments are getting ready to identify dark matter, while on page 32 we consider why dark energy may be an illusion created by our place in space. Be prepared for a new cosmic order..." (New Scientist)

R.I.P. Buddy Miles

2008-03-03T22:46:00.000-05:00

Hendrix Drummer Dies at 60. I still go back to the Band of Gypsys' 'Machine Gun' for an energy lift. But, even apart from his work with Hendrix,I also cherish the late lamented Electric Flag, of which he was a founder. Jon Pareles eulogizes Miles in The New York Times.

How Kids Learn to Lie

2008-03-03T22:35:00.000-05:00

"Kids lie early, often, and for all sorts of reasons—to avoid punishment, to bond with friends, to gain a sense of control. But now there’s a singular theory for one way this habit develops: They are just copying their parents." (New York Magazine)

Anyone seen fido lately?

2008-03-03T22:13:00.000-05:00

"The giant Burmese python has established itself in Southern Florida, after people released their pet reptiles, which had taken to squashing things larger than rats, before sucking them face first into their heads. They can grow up to 20 feet long, and can survive over huge tracts of the US." (Barista)

Yellow License Plates for DUI Offenders?

2008-03-01T17:22:00.002-05:00

The furry Freakonomics brothers report on a Washington State proposal to mandate fluorescent yellow license plates for a year for those convicted of DUI offenses. (Ohio, readers report, already has such a system in place.) The argument is that it would alert traffic enforcement officials to the need for closer scrutiny and warn other drivers. The preponderance of responding readers think it is a bad idea. Some object to "scarlet letter" public shaming as an ineffective deterrent, others argue that family members driving the tagged vehicle should not be inconvenienced or humiliated, or that the offender can just refrain from registering a vehicle in her/his name. What about vehicles the offender rents or drives at work? License plates do not go with individuals, they go with vehicles, so why not tattoo the offender instead? Or, as one reader facetiously (I hope) suggests, put them to death or keep them preventively detained? Readers bridle at continuing to exact a penalty from an offender who has already "paid their debt to society", to put it in clichéd terms. Parallels in this regard are drawn to the sex offender registry system, which some readers feel also exacts continued punishment, humiliation or at least inconvenience after a penal sentence has been served.

I must say that I am mixed on this issue. We are obviously headed down a very slippery slope here — one we are already way down. But, as threats to public safety go, driving under the influence and sexual offenses against minors are viewed as some of the most dramatic ways to harm or kill innocents in our society. They are, in particular, seen as moral failures, abnegations of personal responsibility and the social contract. To varying extents, these behaviors are targets of public frustration over the "I-can't-help-myself" application of a disease model to behavior. Related to this is the compulsive quality of both behaviors. It is considered likely that, once having offended, one is likely to re-offend, which fans the flames of demand for preventive measures after punitive ones have ended. If these behaviors arise from medical conditions rather than moral failings, frustration arises at the evident failure of treatment or rehab approaches.

I am certainty discouraged about the minimal success rate and dramatic recidivism I see as someone who frequently treats alcohol dependence and abuse (although rarely sexual predation) in my hospital practice. It is an area of practice in which I have the greatest degree of difficulty with the disease model, especially with offenses committed under the influence of alcohol. FmH readers know of my objections to the medicalization of behavior, especially as it pertains to legal defenses in criminal cases. But in mental health practice it is also a struggle to keep moralistic judgments out of our work with our patients.

Because treatment works so rarely and because the public safety implications are so great, I think prevention must be the main goal of our interventions, and I do think the state is the proper instrument for this. Any objections I have about the yellow license plate approach are practical, not moralistic.

What do readers think?

Who is a failure?

2008-02-29T16:59:00.000-05:00

Google Search top results, if you cannot guess...

And the New Six-Word Motto for the U.S. Is...

2008-02-28T23:55:00.000-05:00

The winner of the Freakonomics contest is: "Our Worst Critics Prefer to Stay." All of the leading entries cling to such a naive faith in an ideal of democracy which, to my way of thinking, is little more .than a fairy tale. And, yet, yes, most of the time I prefer to stay.

Mission Accomplished Dept (cont'd)

2008-02-28T23:50:00.000-05:00

Kabul government controls just a third of Afghanistan (Wired Dispatch)

Obama and The Wire

2008-02-28T23:30:00.002-05:00

"In a recent story in The Nation, Chris Hayes used 2,200-plus words to argue why progressives should back Sen. Barack Obama. I’ll use only seven: Obama’s favorite TV show is The Wire. It’s certainly true, as Hayes noted, that Obama, like every presidential candidate, won’t be saying one word about the prison-industrial complex or the disastrous consequences of the 'war on drugs.' But it’s heartening to think that at least he’s tuning in to one of the few public forums that fiercely drags such issues into our consciousness." — Brian Cook (In These Times)

"One thing I've demonstrated often in 16 years is you can do this job without asking a single question..."

2008-02-28T23:08:00.002-05:00

Thomas silent as Supreme Court talks on and on: "Two years and 142 cases have passed since Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas last spoke up at oral arguments. It is a period of unbroken silence that contrasts with the rest of the court's unceasing inquiries." (CNN)

I have long thought that Clarence Thomas is one of the most monumental embarrassments of our judicial system, and I certainly hope his demeanor is not mistaken for that of an impressive silent deliberator.

Mortgage Note Issues Help Debtors Avoid Foreclosure

2008-02-28T19:20:00.001-05:00

Want to keep your home? How about stopping paying your mortgage? If, as is increasingly common, your mortgage has been sold many times since you took the loan, it is possible, as this homeowner found, that the current noteholder can't actually find the documentation of your debt. If that's the case they may not be able to foreclose on you. [via boing boing]

Susan Blackmore

2008-02-28T19:12:00.000-05:00

Mark Frauenfelder's summary of what Blackmore, the author of The Meme Machine, said at TED 2008:

"History of life is a history of replicators.

Language is a parasite we've adapted to. It may have started out being harmful, but we've developed a symbiotic relationship with it.

First replicators were genes. Then memes. We now have temes (tech memes) are a third repliciator on our planet.

Don't think of intelligence, thinnk of replicators.

New Drake equation. Start with number of planets -- what fraction of those get a first replicator, a 2nd replicator, a 3rd?

Getting a new replicator is dangerous. We need to pull through each time. The 2nd replicator (memes) was dangerous -= big brains are painful: kills a lot of mothers and babies. Brains uses 20% of body energy for 2% of body weight; it may have nearly killed us off.

temes are just information -- they use humans to suck up planet's resources. Don't think we created the internet to benefit us; we are being being used by temes. It convenient for temes to piggyback on us because we replicate. But when temes can replicate without us, they will carry on without us." [via boing boing]

WorldWideTelescope

2008-02-28T18:55:00.002-05:00

"...a rich visualization environment that functions as a virtual telescope, bringing together imagery from the best ground and space telescopes in the world for a seamless, guided exploration of the universe.

WorldWide Telescope, created with Microsoft's high-performance Visual Experience Engine™, enables seamless panning and zooming across the night sky blending terabytes of images, data, and stories from multiple sources over the Internet into a media-rich, immersive experience." (Microsoft Research)

Coming this spring. [Lest you think this sounds like an ad for Micro$oft, it is just that this seems charming.]

20th Debate: Reality Show or a Spinoff?

2008-02-27T22:15:00.001-05:00

"Everybody wanted to know which Hillary Rodham Clinton would show up to the Cleveland debate on Tuesday night. It turned out to be the Amy Poehler version." (New York Times )

Iraq vs.Afghanistan

2008-02-26T21:01:00.000-05:00

A long thoughtful piece in one of my new favorite foreign policy analysis weblogs, Just World News, contrasts the position of McCain and other Republican ideologues on the simultaneous winnability of the Iraq and Afghani wars with the Democratic candidates' tradeoff model.

The Myth of the Surge

2008-02-26T18:42:00.000-05:00

'Mission Accomplished' Dept. (cont'd.): "'We are essentially supporting a quasi-feudal devolution of authority to armed enclaves, which exist at the expense of central government authority,' says Chas Freeman, who served as ambassador to Saudi Arabia under the first President Bush. 'Those we are arming and training are arming and training themselves not to facilitate our objectives but to pursue their own objectives vis-a-vis other Iraqis. It means that the sectarian and ethnic conflicts that are now suppressed are likely to burst out with even greater ferocity in the future.'" (Rolling Stone)

Welcome to the World

2008-02-24T20:15:00.001-05:00

ACM, fellow weblogger, FmH reader, and web friend, celebrates an addition to the family. My heartiest wishes. All happiness to you and yours.

And:

Ms. Medley is expecting too, in June. All the best!

Yesterday was the tenth anniversary of my daughter's arrival on the planet. How soon the two of you will be looking back on ten years! Carpe diem.

Nader to Run Again

2008-02-24T19:39:00.000-05:00

"He ruled out the possibility that he would prevent a Democratic victory in 2008. 'Not a chance,' he said. 'If the Democrats can’t landslide the Republicans this year, they ought to just wrap up, close down, and emerge in a different form.'" (New York Times ) Misguided, pitiful, arrogant man...

Women Who Kill Their Children

2008-02-24T18:33:00.000-05:00

Confronting the confronting: "Cases of filicide and infanticide confront us to our core -- but what leads women to kill their own children? And, from cognitive therapy to chemical castration -- most treatments for sexual offenders target men. Do women offenders require a different approach? Three female forensic specialists join Natasha Mitchell with a rare glimpse into a world riddled with taboo and revulsion." ABC-Australia All in the Mind podcast)

Also:

Maternal Infanticide Associated With Mental Illness: Prevention and the Promise of Saved Lives

Psychiatrist Margaret Spinelli's 2004 academic review of the topic from the American Journal of Psychiatry (full text available freely).

The miracle of melancholia

2008-02-22T22:49:00.000-05:00

"...does the American addiction to happiness make any sense, especially in light of the poverty, ecological disaster and war that now haunt the globe, daily annihilating hundreds if not thousands? Isn't it, in fact, a recipe for delusion?

And aren't we merely trying to slice away what is most probably an essential part of our hearts, that part that can reconcile us to facts, no matter how harsh, and that also can inspire us to imagine new and more creative ways to engage with the world?" (LA Times)

Is There Anything Else to Say?

2008-02-22T17:26:00.002-05:00

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She refuses to buy into the Obama hype...

2008-02-22T08:57:00.000-05:00

"...the 'empty rhetoric' v. 'history of accomplishments' arguments have prompted me to check it out on my own, not relying on any candidate's website, book, or worst of all supporters' diaries...

I went to the Library of Congress Website. The FACTS of what each did in the Senate last year sure surprised me. I'm sure they will surprise you, too. Whether you love or hate Hillary, you will be surprised. Whether you think Obama is the second coming of JFK or an inexperienced lightweight, you will surprised. Go check out the Library of Congress Website. After spending some time there, it will be clear that there is really only one candidate would is ready to be the next president..." (Daily Kos)

No the surge is not a success

2008-02-21T21:09:00.000-05:00

Defining Victory Downward: "It is now widely considered beyond dispute that Bush has won his gamble. The surge is a terrific success. Choose your metric: attacks on American soldiers, car bombs, civilian deaths, potholes. They're all down, down, down. Lattes sold by street vendors are up. Performances of Shakespeare by local repertory companies have tripled. Skepticism seems like sour grapes. If you opposed the surge, you have two choices. One is to admit that you were wrong, wrong, wrong. The other is to sound as if you resent all the good news and remain eager for disaster. Too many opponents of the war have chosen option No. 2.

But we needn't quarrel about all this, or deny the reality of the good news, to say that the surge has not worked yet. The test is simple, and built into the concept of a surge: Has it allowed us to reduce troop levels to below where they were when it started? The answer is no." — Michael Kinsley (Slate)

US Rules of Engagement for Iraq

2008-02-20T00:49:00.000-05:00

Secret document leaked and posted to Wikileaks

What Life Says to Us

2008-02-17T22:47:00.001-05:00

Stephen Burt on Robert Creeley: "Few poets have had their reception more affected by the wind of the times, which at one point seemed to blow right in Creeley’s direction. Yet we read not a zeitgeist but a book of poems, and behind the poems a man: shy at the core, aggressive in the beginning, melancholy at the end. Few writers have done more with fewer words." (London Review of Books)

Start with the well-known Creeley poem, 'I Know a Man':

As I sd to my
friend, because I am
always talking, – John, I

sd, which was not his
name, the darkness sur-
rounds us, what

can we do against
it, or else, shall we &
why not, buy a goddamn big car,

drive, he sd, for
christ’s sake, look
out where yr going.