Slate’s “Explainer”: Could a New President Ban RU-486?
Monthly Archives: October 2000
Will globalization make you happy? Foreign Policy
Men of Steel Feel Like 97-Pound Weaklings.
Why are men so much
more concerned
about their bodies today
than they were 50 years ago?This was the question
Harrison G. Pope Jr., a
professor of psychiatry at
Harvard Medical School, and
two colleagues asked
themselves after noticing a
sharp increase in male gym
memberships, anabolic
steroid use and especially
body image disorders,
including muscle dysmorphia
(sometimes called
bigorexia), an illness
characterized by compulsive
exercising and the sufferer’s
irrational conviction that he
is weak and puny even
though he may be bulging
with muscle.
New York Times
UN Experts Say Ozone Depletion at Record Level. For the first time, the ozone hole has extended so far that populated areas of southern Chile and Argentina were uprotected from high ultraviolet radiation levels. Watch for crop failures in the coming growing season from irradiation of the emerging seedlings, and increased skin cancer in decades to come in the affected areas. Reuters
Thnigs Bite Back: Deadly touch: ‘Hospital superbugs thrive on sweat, say Danish researchers. They have found that some antibiotics “leak” out of the
body in sweat, and believe that bacteria on patients’ skin become resistant through unrelenting exposure to the
seeping drugs. Simple physical contact would then be enough to pass on the bugs.’ New Scientist
Things Bite Back (cont’d.): Sinister side of sunscreens. “The widespread use of sunscreens has been increasingly questioned by experts who say that it may not provide
protection against skin cancer because it encourages people to sunbathe for longer. Now there is evidence that a
substance called octyl methoxycinnamate (OMC), used as a UVB filter in 90 per cent of sunscreens worldwide, may
itself be toxic,” especially in reaction with sunlight. New Scientist
Alexander Cockburn on the Yanomami scandal: “Will Tierney’s book provoke the uproar that Turner and Sponsel predict? Will anthropology be
placed in the dock? I doubt it. For years native groups across the world have recounted their
stories of the depredations of anthropologists, and have been eager to tell them to anyone
interested. If Tierney’s claims are true, Chagnon may end up in some judicial venue, facing
charges of crimes against humanity. But I doubt that, too. The can of worms is way too full.” NY Press [via Robot Wisdom]
Review of Antonio Damasio’s The Feeling of What Happens by Aldo Mosca. An accessible summary of an important neurobiologist’s thinking on how emotions and feelings rooted in the body contribute to consciousness. Psyche 6(8)
The only “post-game analysis” of the The First Presidential Debate that makes any sense, by Washington Post columnist Joel Achenbach. Was Dubya the winner merely because he didn’t mangle the English language too badly this time or claim that Poland is in Africa? Is Gore’s fallback position, if not elected, to demonstrate his readiness to be Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget?
Did Gore invent the Internet? Deceptive title there, Salon: not really about whether he invented it, but about whether he ever said he did. In other words, not really about Gore’s lies, but those of his detractors. Points us to Phil Agre’s excellent dissection of this “most successful of flat-out lies” by Gore-bashers.
“Students got an unusual assignment from their English teacher: Pick
out a victim, come up with a recipe for assassination and devise a successful getaway
formula.
The Covina High School teacher no longer works for the school district.” Sacramento Bee
Piercing led to woman’s death. ‘A coroner gave warning yesterday of the
“considerable risks” of bodypiercing after
recording a verdict of misadventure on a woman
who died after her 118th piercing.
The inquest on Lesley Hovvells, 39, in her home
town of Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, heard that
she collapsed last New Year’s Eve, and died of
septicaemia in January. Miss Hovvells had 28 ear
studs, 13 ear rings, 11 belly bars through her
navel, 18 other bars, six lip rings, 36 body rings
all over her body and six nose studs. She is
believed to have had over 40 piercings in the
year before her death.’ The Times of London
Doctor: Toe-finger transplants progressing .
“My wife always use to say that my toes were so long that I
could wave with them. I guess she was right.”
Surfin’ and sippin’ at Starbucks. “Starbucks has been quietly testing whether customers will click
with wireless Internet access in its stores.” Seattle Post-Intelligencer
“I think that people need to be held responsible for the actions they take in life. I think that’s part of
the need for a cultural change. We need to say that each of us needs to be responsible for what we
do.” – George W. Bush in the first Presidential debate, October 3, 2000.
The Smoking Jet. Thanks to Chuck Taggart at Looka! for pointing to this expose of serious discrepancies between Dubya’s claims about his military service and facts revealed by an independent investigation by a former Air National Guard veteran and aviation consultant. Of course, it is posted at “democrats.com,” which creates at least the appearance of partisanship.
From the beginning of his Presidential campaign, George W. Bush has forcefully and repeatedly
insisted that he faithfully fulfilled all his military obligations by serving his time as a member of the
Texas Air National Guard.But the first independent investigation of Bush’s military record by a former Air National Guard pilot
has revealed the following:1. Pilot George W. Bush did not simply “give up flying” with two years left to fly, as has been
reported. Instead, Bush was suspended and grounded, very possibly as a direct or indirect
result of substance abuse.2. The crucial evidence – a Flight Inquiry Board – that would reveal the true reasons for Bush’s
suspension, as well as the punishment that was recommended, is missing from the records
released so far. If no such Board was convened, this raises further questions of extraordinary
favoritism.3. Contrary to Bush’s emphatic statements and several published reports, Bush never actually
reported in person for the last two years of his service – in direct violation of two separate
written orders. Moreover, the lack of punishment for this misconduct represents the crowning
achievement of a military career distinguished only by favoritism.
”I did the duty necessary … That’s why I was honorably discharged” – George W. Bush, May 23,
2000
“I hate a song that makes you think that you are not any good. I hate a
song that makes you think that you are just born to lose. Bound to lose.
No good to nobody. No good for nothing. Because you are too old or too
young or too fat or too slim or too ugly or too this or too that. Songs
that run you down or poke fun at you on account of your bad luck or hard
travelling.I am out to fight those songs to my very last breath of air & my last
drop of blood…”
—Woody Guthrie, who succumbed to Huntington’s Disease in New York on this date in 1967, at age 55.
“Cause sometimes you hear’em when the night times comes creeping
& you fear that they might catch you a-sleeping
& you jump from yer bed, from yer last chapter of dreamin’
& you can’t remember for the best of yer thinking
If that was you in the dream that was screaming
& you know that it’s something special you’re needin’
& you know that there’s no drug that’ll do for the healin’
& no liquor in the land to stop yer brain from bleeding…
—Bob Dylan, “Last Thoughts On Woody Guthrie”
Where Is Your Junk Mail From? “Why do these things arrive? It’s not quite random,
and figuring out why you’re on the owl lovers’ mailing list is part of the fun.”
US Funds Yugoslav Politicians; Why Not Do the Same Here? The shock waves from the charges of Chinese influence-buying in the 1996 US presidential campaign have yet to settle, but such action pales in comparison with the millions of dollars we are funnelling into supporting foes of Milosevic’s Serbian regime. “What if other nations adopted a similar approach to help level the playing field for
candidates here in the United States? After all, the terrain for campaigns is
severely skewed by access to big money and mass media.” But of course we want the rest of the world to do as we say, not as we do. Do we lose the moral authority to decry wrongs done us when our actions are not unimpeachable?
Fall Television Preview 2000: ‘Ed’ and ‘Bette,’ Standing Out in a Surly Crowd . I’m including this not ‘cuz of any particular interest in the new TV season, but for the continuing pleasure I take in Washington Post critic Tom Shales’ entertaining, caustic wit. One reader wrote to differ with me, saying Shales loses credibility by skewering absolutely everything and appreciating nothing, so I’ll point out that he actually does like a couple of the shows he’s previewing, as the headline indicates. Me? I don’t think I’ll be watching much if any TV this fall, with Homicide long gone, the X-Files tiresome and irreparable, and nothing but nothing on the horizon looking enticing. Saves an enormous timesink!
An Acquired Taste Via The Spike Report: ‘Despite his image as a charisma-impaired policy wonk, Al Gore is “America’s
most lethally effective practitioner of high-stakes political debate,” says
James Fallows. Fallows examines
Gore’s performance in debates dating back to 1987, tracing a Michael
Corleone-style transformation from naive idealist to cold-blooded pragmatist.
After steadily improving his skills throughout the 90s, says Fallows, Gore
has become “the political combatant most likely to leave his victims feeling
not just defeated but battered…We can’t be sure about what will be best
about Al Gore if he becomes President,” writes Fallows. “But what will be
worst is probably closely connected to the way he has learned to destroy
opponents in debates.” ‘ The Atlantic Monthly
Baby Born As Donor Raises Ethical Debate. “To any stranger, Adam appears to be just another healthy baby
boy. But he is not just any baby.
Unlike most infants, Adam was selected from among six embryos during in vitro fertilization… The embryo that would become Adam was chosen specifically to ensure that a rare genetic
disease called Fanconi anemia would not be inherited. But the embryo was also chosen to be
a good transplant match for Adam’s 6-year-old sister, who does have the disease.” Reuters
Can gorillas and dolphins communicate? Koko the gorilla “talks” with humans. Several Atlantic bottlenose dolphins do as well. Now they’re all moving to Maui to see if the two species can communicate with each other via sign language over video links. CNN
More Germans switch their mobile phones off at the movie theater than during sex, a poll shows.
Supreme Court Declines to Review ‘Cheers’ Case
“The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday allowed the actors who played Norm and Cliff
on the hit television series “Cheers” to sue over the use of two
robots that the actors claim commercially exploited their
identities.” In this fascinating case, the legal principle of the “right to publicity” (in which celebrities retain the right to profit from their recognizeability) clashes with the copyright on the likenesses of the characters the actors played. Reuters
A Rule of Thumb That Unscrambles the Brain. ‘A new breed of animal,
dubbed the “sand
mouse,” has been added to
the annals of biological
science, and it has become
the subject of a scientific
challenge.
Last week Dr. John J.
Hopfield, a Princeton
professor known for seminal
discoveries in computer
science, biology and physics,
posed an unusual test to his
fellow scientists.
Dr. Hopfield challenged
them to discover a simple,
new computational principle
— a general rule of thumb —
for how the brain of this
creature works, using only
the power of deductive
reasoning and a set of facts
about the animal that Dr.
Hopfield and a former
student, Dr. Carlos Brody,
have posted on a Web site.’ New York Times
Women with Male Chromosomes Say Life is Good
Girls born with male
chromosomes can still grow up to be women with normal sex lives, according to new
research.Women with the rare gene mutation known as Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome
(CAIS) contradict a basic difference between men and women: That men have xy
chromosomes and women have xx chromosomes.Women with CAIS, however, have xy chromosomes and started out as boys while still
embryos, say medical scientists at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, which
pioneered research into the syndrome. But because of the gene mutation, their bodies don’t
recognize or use androgens, which are male hormones, like testosterone, that cause the
development of male characteristics. HealthScout
CueCat Bar Code Reader Privacy Advisory. The CueCat is a pen-like barcode scanner peripheral for your computer that is being given out for free through Radio Shack, Wired, Forbes magazine, etc. Promoted as an easy way to visit websites by scanning barcodes included in catalogues, magazine articles and advertisements, each pen has a unique digital ID and the accompanying software appears to transmit a history of your surfing behavior back to the parent company, Digital:Convergence in Dallas. Even if, as the company insists, no tracking of individual data is done, The Privacy Foundation is concerned at the ease with which this might eventually occur. If you have concerns about being tracked in this manner, you should probably pass on the free CueCat and (gasp!) type in your URLs when you surf.
Banned Sect Stages Protest in Beijing on Holiday. Waves of Falun Gong protesters thwarted violent efforts of Chinese security forces to subdue their protests, embarrassing the Chinese regime by forcing Tiananmen Square to be cordoned off on Chinese National Day. New York Times
Banned Sect Stages Protest in Beijing on Holiday. Waves of Falun Gong protesters thwarted violent efforts of Chinese security forces to subdue their protests, embarrassing the Chinese regime by forcing Tiananmen Square to be cordoned off on Chinese National Day. New York Times
Banned Sect Stages Protest in Beijing on Holiday. Waves of Falun Gong protesters thwarted violent efforts of Chinese security forces to subdue their protests, embarrassing the Chinese regime by forcing Tiananmen Square to be cordoned off on Chinese National Day. New York Times
Youngsters infect themselves with head lice. Students in Sofia Bulgaria have begun buying and selling them to one another in matchboxes after learning that they would automatically get three days off from school if found to be infected. ‘A Bulgarian education spokesman told the Daily Trud
newspaper: “This regulation, that was aimed at
stopping head lice spreading, appears to have worked
against us, especially now when there are a lot of
exams.” ‘ Things bite back… Ananova
Sleepwalking in Seattle. A post-operative brain surgery patient wandered out of the hospital. Efforts to find him were fruitless until he was recognized by a group of street people queried by his family. His picture had been all over the media. He has no recollection of how he acquired the black hooded sweatshirt that covered his most prominent identifying details, a shaven head and surgical scar.
As soon as an online music-trading service gets big enough to be useful, it’s doomed: The Gnutella paradox. Online music traders waiting to hear if Napster will be shut down repeat, ‘There’s always Gnutella.’ “Is there, though? …Gnutella is hardly ready for prime
time — and is facing dilemmas almost as worrisome as the
Napster lawsuit. Over the last month, users of the system
have noticed a dramatic slowdown in responsiveness, and a
number of reports have revealed serious instabilities in the
Gnutella network. The open-source software developers
who nabbed the program after America Online forced its
programmers to abandon it are still striving to learn how to
work together. And Gnutella’s legal status is also murky:
The RIAA is already hinting that it may be preparing a
strategy to attack Gnutella.” Wired
Crowd panic simulated: “Mob stampedes have killed thousands of people in recent years, but they are usually explained in terms of psychology. Now, European
scientists say they can predict and prevent crowd panic by computer simulations using the laws of physics.
The new computer model relies on distances, sizes and velocities instead of emotional states but produces results similar to actual panics,
the researchers said in today’s issue of the journal Nature.” Lawrence Journal-World
Human Pheromone Link May Have Been Found: “In animals, researchers have documented the complex
neurological paths pheromones trace to stimulate parts of
the brain that are deeply rooted in instinct. Researchers
have long believed that humans also communicate through
pheromones, but until now had been unable to identify any
of the biological equipment needed to detect these potent
molecules.
Now, in experiments at Rockefeller and Yale Universities,
neurogeneticists have isolated a human gene, called V1RL1,
that they believe encodes for a pheromone receptor in the
mucous lining of the nose.” New York Times
Prions may play crucial role in evolution. “Prions, abnormally folded proteins associated with several bizarre human diseases, may hold the
key to a major mystery in evolution: how survival skills that require multiple genetic changes
arise all at once when each genetic change by itself would be unsuccessful and even harmful.”
Basic Differences in Rival Proposals on Drug Coverage
It is very difficult for the average
Medicare beneficiary to sit down with
the Bush and Gore plans and compare
how much she would pay in premiums
and co-payments and how much she
would receive in benefits. That is
because the approaches of the two
candidates are so different, and there
are so many unknowns about Gov.
George W. Bush’s plan.Given what is known, many analysts and consumer advocates
consider Vice President Al Gore’s plan to be more generous;
he would devote much more money to it, they note, and he
promises a higher federal subsidy for premiums. Mr. Bush’s
health care advisers counter that his plan offers more
flexibility and more choices for older Americans. New York Times
Banned Sect Stages Protest in Beijing on Holiday. Waves of Falun Gong protesters thwarted violent efforts of Chinese security forces to subdue their protests, embarrassing the Chinese regime by forcing Tiananmen Square to be cordoned off on Chinese National Day. New York Times
