Peter's Blog

Tepco 東京電力 and the Toad 蟾蜍 : Neuroethological Reflections on the Failure of A Human Enterprise

2011-12-30T01:00:00.262-06:00

function googleTranslateElementInit() { new google.translate.TranslateElement({ pageLanguage: 'en', includedLanguages: 'ja', layout: google.translate.TranslateElement.InlineLayout.HORIZONTAL }, 'google_translate_element'); } Looking back on 2011, the year reminded us ever more strongly of our limited power of comprehending risk. “During the week from March 11, I thought several

Professor Ewert's Toad

2011-12-21T11:34:00.004-06:00

About 35 years ago, I was privileged to attend Professor Dr. Jörg-Peter Ewert's seminar at the Institute of Zoology, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe University, in Frankfurt am Main. I was a student at the time. Prof. Ewert paid a visit to tell us about research underway in his laboratory at the University of Kassel on the nerve cell basis of behavior in the common toad Bufo bufo (Ewert, 1992 and 1997

A Great Mind is No More

2011-10-05T19:37:00.002-05:00

Steve Jobs passed away. Reuters broke the news 7:56 EST with a post entitled "Apple co-founder Steve Jobs dead at 56". Steve’s advice for us was to live every day as if it was our last. Time is our most precious commodity. He used it well. The United States lost one of her finest innovators and a great human being. His biography by Walter Isaacson to be published later this month will be

Morat-Fribourg, 2011

2011-10-02T16:38:00.004-05:00

While I grappled for my old booklets of 25 years ago to reminisce, I discovered to my shame that my edition count was one off in my past posts. I corrected the miscount retroactively. The 78th&edition of the race was held today. Caroline Chepkwony, Kenya (59.09,5), and Stéphane Joly, Switzerland (53.07,3), won. Congratulations! More results and video clips are available here. Related

Whiskers, Manatees & The Mind

2011-10-01T13:14:00.005-05:00

Harbor seal (Phoca vitulina), courtesy L. Heafner. Unlike the follicles of common hair, the follicles of whiskers, also known as tactile vibrissae or sinus hairs, are complex sensory organs in which the hair is surrounded by a cushioning blood sinus and which are invested with thousands of innervated touch receptors of different type. Vincent (1913) described in great detail the intricate

A Marker to Remember

2011-07-04T23:28:00.005-05:00

Villagers in the Alps must not fear tsunamis like the inhabitants of the east coast of Japan. But they must confront snow avalanches which may be highly destructive to home and life as well. Unlike tsunamis in Japan, avalanches in the Alps occur with great regularity every year. Indeed, some avalanches fall with seemingly clockwork-like precision. Over the centuries, the inhabitants of exposed

Fukushima: Failure by Design

2011-07-03T10:24:00.021-05:00

function googleTranslateElementInit() { new google.translate.TranslateElement({ pageLanguage: 'en', includedLanguages: 'ja', layout: google.translate.TranslateElement.InlineLayout.HORIZONTAL }, 'google_translate_element'); } This post will conclude my quatrology of essays touching on peculiarities of the reactor accidents at the Fukushima I (Daiichi) nuclear power station on the

A Fukushima Mother's Letter

2011-05-27T22:08:00.010-05:00

Steven L. Herman, Voice of America (VOA) Bureau Chief/Correspondent in Seoul, relayed this message. I could not help, but repost it: When Tomoko-san, a mother of two in Fukushima City, heard from an NGO worker that I was going to be in Fukushima to report on a story about radiation levels at local schools, she was kind enough to volunteer her time to speak to me – and handed me this letter. I

The Enigma of 1 Fukushima 4 号機

2011-05-21T22:58:00.013-05:00

function googleTranslateElementInit() { new google.translate.TranslateElement({ pageLanguage: 'en', includedLanguages: 'ja', layout: google.translate.TranslateElement.InlineLayout.HORIZONTAL }, 'google_translate_element'); } Reactor #4 of the Fukushima Dai-chi nuclear power plant on the coast roughly 150 miles north of Tokyo was shut down for service past November, and according

Fukushima: Failure of the Mind

2011-05-17T12:51:00.069-05:00

function googleTranslateElementInit() { new google.translate.TranslateElement({ pageLanguage: 'en', includedLanguages: 'ja', layout: google.translate.TranslateElement.InlineLayout.HORIZONTAL }, 'google_translate_element'); } For the third time in the history of the commercial use of nuclear power, operating a reactor during an emergency proved beyond human abilities, leading to

Free Will Music

2011-05-11T05:10:00.075-05:00

“The people who are trying to make this world worse aren’t taking a day off. How can I?” Bob Marley, 1976, in response to why he gave a concert on behest of Micheal Manley two days after he, his wife and his manager were wounded by gunshot in an assassination attempt at his home. Today thirty years ago Nesta Robert Marley passed way. He was born Feb. 6, 1945, in Nine Mile, Jamaica. The cause of

Cell Phones & Brain Metabolism

2011-04-01T04:36:00.001-05:00

Roughly a month ago a study was published in The Journal of the American Medical Association that reported an association between cell phone radiation and enhanced local brain glucose metabolism. Nerve cells consume glucose for their work. The study was carried carried out with great methodological expertise. The change is small and at odds the findings of other studies, including research I was

Ionizing Radiation & The Mind

2011-03-18T16:58:00.086-05:00

function googleTranslateElementInit() { new google.translate.TranslateElement({ pageLanguage: 'en', includedLanguages: 'ja', layout: google.translate.TranslateElement.InlineLayout.HORIZONTAL }, 'google_translate_element'); } On this day last week, northeastern Japan was hit by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, the strongest recorded in history, triggering a tsunami with waves topping

Representative Sampling & The Mind

2011-02-21T11:07:00.003-06:00

Every empirical scientist must be concerned with the representativeness of her/his observations. The elections for U.S. presidency in 1948 provide a striking example for the fundamental importance of this issue. The Chicago Tribune declared Harry Truman's Republican opponent Thomas E. Dewey the winner. A historic photograph shows a beaming Truman holding up the newspaper's front page exclaiming

The Pleasures of Ownership: Super Bowl XLV

2011-02-06T21:29:00.004-06:00

I love community-owned sports teams. Everybody feels like they own a small piece of the team and a big piece of the action. The community-owned team won Super Bowl XLV! Green Bay Packers: 31Pittsburgh Steelers: 25 Shop Amazon Sports - Gear Up for the Super Bowl

One Sad Day for Mankind

2011-01-28T08:36:00.011-06:00

Today 25 years ago the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded high in the sky shortly after liftoff, taking the lives of seven astronauts on board, including a school teacher. In a congressional hearing on the causes of the tragic accident, the eminent physicist Richard Feynman would later elegantly demonstrate to the public that the O-ring seals in the booster rockets lost elasticity at freezing

Brain Plasticity & The Mind

2011-01-07T11:57:00.004-06:00

Brain plasticity has become a major buzz word when we talk about our brain today. A week ago on New Year's Eve, the neurologist and popular writer Oliver Sacks enthusiastically championed in his OP-ED contribution to The New York Times with the title "This Year, Change Your Mind" our brain's striking ability of learning new skills even at advanced age and of adjusting to new, unprecedented

A Theory of Mind III: Emotions

2010-12-20T12:29:00.013-06:00

Introduction In laying out the essential ingredients for a theory of mind, I previously elaborated on the crucial roles of language and memory with illustrative examples. A befitting saying proclaims that a stool needs three legs to stand. Emotions represent another important ingredient of our mind. They seem to narrow our choices by focusing or diverting our attention, thus limiting our choices

Epilepsy, Ketogenic Diet & The Mind

2010-11-20T12:30:00.012-06:00

In this informative essay entitled "Epilepsy's Big, Fat Miracle" published online in The New York Times Nov. 17, 2010, Fred Vogelstein tells us how a ketogenic diet helped drastically diminish petit-mal seizures in his eight-year old son Sam who suffers from epilepsy. Medication is still needed. But Sam had suffered up to 130 seizures a day, producing short, at times frightening, pauses of

Sensory Renewal: Goldfish Eyes & Hair Cells

2010-10-17T20:25:00.008-05:00

The U.S. Census Bureau reports in its results from the 2006 American Community Survey that 7 million Americans older than five years possess a severe sensory disability. According to the National Eye Institute, 1.75 million Americans are losing vision, owing to age-related macular degeneration. In the year 2020, their ranks will swell to roughly 3 million. Gallaudet University suggests in

Morat-Fribourg, 2010

2010-10-03T09:28:00.013-05:00

Today, the historic run from Morat to Fribourg in Switzerland was held for the 77th time (erratum: My count was one off, when I posted first). The run over a distance of slightly more than 16 miles (17.170 km) commemorates a decisive battle the Suisse Confederation won against the Burgundians in 1476. The Suisse retained their independence. Today's race winners are: Jane Muia (1:03:33.0),

Music & The Mind

2010-09-18T21:57:00.020-05:00

Courtesy jcordj66 Today, forty years ago, the legendary Rock & Blues guitarist Jimi Hendrix passed away at the age of 27. He led the genre to unprecedented heights. Countless tried to follow his path. I missed him on the Isle of Fehmarn. We did not make it. Our mothers did not let us on the train. Three decades later, I had another chance. We entered a bar on the 600 block of Bourbon Street

Prologue to A Theory of Mind

2010-09-18T21:29:00.009-05:00

Psychologists commonly use theory of mind, or TOM for short, to designate our ability to empathize with others and put ourselves in their position, realizing that their insights can be different. By contrast in my series of mini-monographs, I use theory of mind to examine the fundamental ingredients of our mind and how they bestow us thought and consciousness. Some may have preferred to call

Cave Art: The Dawn of Spirituality

2010-09-17T09:48:00.007-05:00

History is of profound importance to us. Without knowing our history, we would not know who we are. Neolithic people shared history in pictures. The paintings discovered in caves of France and Spain awaken experiences, both imagined and real, of wildlife as the pivotal force that could threaten survival in as much as it provided the eternal source of sustenance and comfort. The encounters could

Mary The Elephant & The Mind

2010-09-13T05:13:00.012-05:00

Today we commemorate the grizzly death of Mary the elephant. Mary was a member of Sparks Bro. Circus, paying a visit to East Tennessee in 1916, when she attacked and killed her handler. Justice was dealt swiftly. Mary was sentenced to death in Erwin, Tennessee. However, the sentence proved difficult to execute. Gun shots were ineffective. Mary was paraded to the rail yard. In the presence of