Saturday, March 10, 2007

Don't mention polar bears, Bush tells US scientists 

"The Bush Administration has been accused once again of gagging US government scientists by getting them to agree not to talk about polar bears, sea ice and climate change during official overseas trips.

A leaked memorandum issued by a regional director of the US Department of the Interior states that officials within the US Fish and Wildlife Service will limit their discussions when travelling in countries bordering the Arctic region because of sensitivities about climate change." (Independent.UK)

Labels: Bush, censorship, climate change

3/10/2007 06:34:00 PM   •  

Feline Reactions to Bearded Men 

I have assiduously resisted the weblogging trend of posting cute cat photos, even on Fridays (yes, my family keeps cats as well as dogs), but I could not resist this research paper by Catherine Maloney, Fairfield University, Fairfield, Connecticut; Sarah J. Lichtblau, University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois; Nadya Karpook, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida; Carolyn Chou, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Anthony Arena-DeRosa, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts:

"Abstract

Cats were exposed to photographs of bearded men. The beards were of various sizes, shapes, and styles. The cats' responses were recorded and analyzed." (Scientist, Interrupted )

Scroll down the paper for the study's findings. (And, yes, some of us in my family have beards...)

3/10/2007 02:46:00 PM   •  

Friday, March 9, 2007

Housekeeping 

My webhost mistakenly took my site down for a few days there, prompting panicked emails to me from all both of my faithful readers. As you see, FmH is back up now. Sorry...

3/09/2007 12:01:00 AM   •  

Thursday, March 8, 2007

Situationist International Anthology 

"In 1957 a few European avant-garde groups came together to form the Situationist International. Picking up where the dadaists and surrealists had left off, the situationists challenged people’s passive conditioning with carefully calculated scandals and the playful tactic of détournement. Seeking a more extreme social revolution than was dreamed of by most leftists, they developed an incisive critique of the global spectacle-commodity system and of its “Communist” pseudo-opposition, and their new methods of agitation helped trigger the May 1968 revolt in France. Since then — although the SI itself was dissolved in 1972 — situationist theories and tactics have continued to inspire radical currents all over the world.

The Situationist International Anthology, generally recognized as the most comprehensive and accurately translated collection of situationist writings in English, presents a rich variety of articles, leaflets, graffiti and internal documents, ranging from early experiments in “psychogeography” to lucid analyses of the Watts riot, the Vietnam War, the Prague Spring, the Chinese Cultural Revolution and other crises and upheavals of the sixties.

Situationist International Anthology
Revised and Expanded Edition
Edited and translated from the French by Ken Knabb
Bureau of Public Secrets, 2006
ISBN 978-0-939682-04-1
532 pages. $20.00"

3/08/2007 10:40:00 PM   •  

3-D impossible structure 

(OmniBrain)

3/08/2007 12:02:00 AM   •  

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

R.I.P. Captain America 

Iconic superhero shot dead -- maybe (Washington Post)

Labels: comics, obit, superhero

3/07/2007 06:22:00 PM   •  

R.I.P. Jean Baudrillard, 77 

All of our values are simulated. "One of his better known theories postulates that we live in a world where simulated feelings and experiences have replaced the real thing. This seductive “hyperreality,” where shopping malls, amusement parks and mass-produced images from the news, television shows and films dominate, is drained of authenticity and meaning. Since illusion reigns, he counseled people to give up the search for reality." New York Times

Labels: intellectual, obit, postmodern

3/07/2007 09:48:00 AM   •  

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Why Not to Eat Soursop 

3/06/2007 08:45:00 PM   •  

The Etiology and Treatment of Childhood 

"Childhood is a syndrome which has only recently begun to receive serious attention from clinicians. The syndrome itself, however, is not at all recent. As early as the 8th century, the Persian historian Kidnom made references to 'short, noisy creatures,' who may well have been what we now call 'children.' The treatment of children, however, was unknown until this century, when so-called 'child psychologists' and 'child psychiatrists' became common. Despite this history of clinical neglect, it has been estimated that well over half of all Americans alive today have experienced childhood directly (Suess, 1983). In fact, the actual numbers are probably much higher, since these data are based on self-reports which may be subject to social desirability biases and retrospective distortion. The growing acceptance of childhood as a distinct phenomenon is reflected in the proposed inclusion of the syndrome in the upcoming Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition, or DSM-IV, of the American Psychiatric Association (1990). Clinicians are still in disagreement about the significant clinical features of childhood, but the proposed DSM-IV will almost certainly include the following core features:

1. Congenital onset
2. Dwarfism
3. Emotional lability and immaturity
4. Knowledge deficits
5. Legume anorexia"

3/06/2007 08:43:00 PM   •  

NASA long ago devised mental breakdown plan 

But that was for a psychological crisis in space, not back on Earth: "Long before NASA was confronted with an off-duty astronaut's bizarre behavior and arrest in Florida earlier this month, the agency had developed procedures to deal with a mental breakdown in space.

The guidelines were developed to respond to an attempted suicide or severe anxiety, paranoia or hysteria aboard the international space station. Astronauts are instructed to bind the stricken flier's wrists and ankles with duct tape, restrain the torso with bungee cords and administer strong tranquilizers.

The procedures have been in effect for at least six years, but the space agency did not develop any protocols for dealing with astronauts who become unstable while on the ground." (Houston Chronicle)

Also:

"Welcome to Human Interactions in Space, a research program dedicated to identifying and characterizing the psychosocial issues that affect the health and well-being of space crewmembers and the mission control personnel that support them. The program goal is to develop countermeasures that will enhance the safety and success of people involved with long-duration space missions."

Labels: psych, space

3/06/2007 08:40:00 PM   •  

Monday, March 5, 2007

The Obama Myth 

Factual Discrepancies to the Selma Claim: "Sunday's march in Selma, Ala., may have been a sacred commemoration of the 'Bloody Sunday' civil rights march of 1965, but beneath it all lurked raw politics, with Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., competing fiercely for black voters.

While local churches were packed with parishioners, just a few hundred yards apart on Martin Luther King Jr. Street, the rival Democratic presidential candidates made their pitches, both praising civil rights leaders for paving their way.

'Don't tell me I'm not coming home when I come to Selma, Ala. I'm here because somebody marched for our freedom. I'm here because y'all sacrificed for me,' Obama told a crowd." (KTRE)

Did anyone hear the soundbites from Obama's Selma speech? He certainly has developed a down-home accent recently. I hope this won't be a harbinger of a wholesale attempt to reinvent himself similar to blue-blood New England preppie Dubya's vote-trolling transformation into a drawlin' Texas shucks-jes'-folks common man.

Labels: 2008, Democrats, Obama, presidential campaign

3/05/2007 06:22:00 PM   •  

Nader says he may run in 2008... 

...especially if Hillary gets the nomination (San Francisco Chronicle). He says he's going to wait and see what the Democrats come up with. Many hold Nader responsible for bringing us Bush and Co. I am all for an idealist gadfly who can push the Democrats toward more progressive stances but his intransigence and egotism appear boundless. However, he is not the problem but only a symptom of a system which does not have room for idealism and a segment of the liberal voting public too myopic to realize that (amongst all the other versions of voter myopia that plague the American electorate...) If he runs, I hope that those who voted for him in the past have learned their lesson and will not play their small but perhaps decisive part in handing the election to the Republicans again.

3/05/2007 06:15:00 PM   •