Discovery That Common Mood Disorders Are Inherited Together May Reveal Genetic Underpinnings: ‘The genetic underpinnings of panic disorder and manic depressive (bipolar) illness have long eluded scientists. Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins studying the inheritance patterns of these conditions have concluded that they probably are not separate diseases at all, but different forms of a shared and complex biological condition.

“We’ve shown that panic attacks and panic disorder are related genetically to bipolar disorder and therefore likely share a common cause,” says Dean F. MacKinnon, M.D., assistant professor of psychiatry at Hopkins and lead author of a report on the study in the current issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry. “We still can’t say what specific gene or genes cause what, but this is a major step toward solving these problems,” says MacKinnon.’ PsychLinx

We already know that anxiety and mood disorders share some common neurochemical underpinnings, because antidepressants are the best anti-anxiety medications as well. There are few “textbook cases” of either pure anxiety or pure depression untinged by the other. Clinicians have suspected that anxiety disorders evolve into more chronic, depressive conditions longitudinally. But, especially if this genetic analysis leads to the identification of a common locus, this is big news. Science Daily

Todd Gitlin: Blaming America First: “Why are some

on the left, who rightly demand sympathy for

victims around the world, so quick to dismiss

American suffering?” Mother Jones

There was an old lady who swallowed a fly: ‘The universe might make more sense if it were not alone… The idea of multiple universes is a surprisingly attractive one.

Two deep problems would go away if the universe were not, in

fact, universal, but were merely one example of an infinitely

large class of such objects. These problems are the true

nature of the uncertainty principle, and the “anthropic

principle”—the coincidence that the universe seems to be set

up with precisely the right conditions for human-like life to

evolve within it. Unfortunately, the sorts of “multiverse”

proposed to resolve these two problems are different.’ The Economist

Why We Don’t Marry: James Q. Wilson considers the growth in single-parent childrearing pivotal to the decline and fall of Western civilization, and wonders why. City Journal And while we’re at it:

Singleton society: “… adults are not only finding it difficult to sustain marriage, but just about all forms of intimate relationships.” spiked!

More than 2,300 IRS computers missing. “The Internal Revenue Service, which holds taxpayers strictly liable for accurate tax returns, is working to account for more than 2,300 computers that have gone missing over the past three years.” USA Today

Fountains and Bubbles: New Cosmic Mysteries: “…(T)he meeting of the

American Astronomical Society last

week in Washington was a sounding

board for scientists with new findings

and ideas about nearly everything

from mysterious gamma ray bursts in

deep space to revealing images

penetrating the turbulent heart of the

Milky Way, Earth’s home galaxy.

Two new discoveries described at the

meeting underscored the growing and

bewildering realization that planetary

systems abound in the nearby

universe and that they come in all

shapes and sizes, bearing little

apparent resemblance to the Sun’s

family of planets.” New York Times

Justice Department Will Seek Life in Prison for Walker: “The Bush administration will charge

American Taliban John Walker Lindh with conspiracy to kill U.S.

citizens in Afghanistan and will ask for life imprisonment rather

than the death penalty, Attorney General John Ashcroft said

Tuesday.” New York Times

Britain and US discuss Cuba captives. The UK wants assurances about the welfare of three al Qaeda detainees who are subjects of the Crown, but decline to discuss with the US concerns about other detainees reportedly ill-treated en route to Cuba. BBC

Kevin Bacon: You’ve Got Mail

Can anyone in the world reach anyone else through a chain of just six friends?

In 1967, sociologist Stanley Milgram created what is known as the “small world

phenomenon,” the idea that every person in the United States is connected by a chain

of six people at most.

Milgram’s “six degrees of separation” theory has trickled down through popular

culture, inspiring renditions such as the Kevin Bacon game.

But Milgram’s theory has gone largely unproven for more than 30 years and hasn’t

yet been repeated with any success. Now, two separate research projects are using

electronic communication to test the small world phenomenon. Wired

By Royal Appointment, therapeutic counsellors to the House of Windsor: ‘The Prince of Wales has been praised for doing “what any responsible father would do” by making the wayward Prince Harry visit a drugs rehabilitation clinic to see the effects of addiction. In truth, if every middle-class parent whose child had drunk some cider and smoked a little cannabis did the same as Prince Charles, there would be little room left in rehab for the recovering heroin addicts at whom the Hooray Harrys and Harriets are supposed to gawp.’ The Times of London

. linkdup . . . . world wide web stimulus . . . . : “Design, content and technology are coming of age on the web and this maturation continues at a pace. It can be difficult to know where to look to see the best sites, so we collect and categorise them for you and save you the time and effort… WHATS THE CATCH? None. linkdup is non-commercial so there’s no nasty revenue-models to oblige us to do anything other than bring you the best, impartially.”

The Asylum on the Hill: ‘Alex Beam, the author of Gracefully Insane, probes the rich past of a mental hospital renowned for ministering to prominent, creative, and aristocratic patients…’ (McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass., where I worked early in my career and about whose literary and artistic denizens, among whom figure Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Ray Charles and James Taylor, I’ve previously written here). The Atlantic [thanks, Abby]

Amour Online: Darwin Wouldn’t Have Been Surprised: ‘Is online dating a bleak reflection of an overworked, increasingly alienated, rootless and commodity-oriented society? Or is it the greatest technological love panacea ever created?’ AlterNet

‘Yeah, Right’ Dept: Pretzelgate: What Really Happened? “Last weekend President Bush was reported to have choked on a pretzel, passed out and suffered a bruise on his cheek after hitting the floor. Given this highly unusual chain of events, speculation has been rampant as to what really caused the contusion on the presidential facade.” AlterNet

Geov Parrish: White America Misuses MLK Day

In many ways, Ronald Reagan did the worst possible thing for the memory of Dr. King by acceding — reluctantly — to the national holiday that bears King’s name. Because the holiday has become a feel-good lie.

King, the man, is, along with Mohandas Gandhi, one of the two most internationally revered symbols of nonviolence in the 20th century. He spent his too-brief adult life defying authority and convention, citing a higher moral authority, and gave hope and inspiration for the liberation of people of color on six continents. MLK Day, the holiday, has only made new generations of white people mislearn King’s story.

King is not a legend because he believed in diversity trainings and civic ceremonies, or because he had a nice dream. He is remembered because he took serious risks and, as the Quakers say, spoke truth to power. He is also remembered because, among a number of brave and committed civil rights leaders and activists, he had a flair for self-promotion, a style that also appealed to white liberals, and the extraordinary social strength of the black southern churches behind him. And because he died before he had a chance to be ridiculed as a relic or buffoon. Workingforchange

Arianna Huffington: America’s Other War Heats Up: “A day after getting 14 Black Hawk combat choppers from the

U.S. — supposedly to fight the Drug War — Colombia’s president

broke off peace talks with FARC rebels, pushing his country to

the brink of war.”

Hero Inflation

The victims of the terrorist attacks deserve tremendous sympathy. They died tragically and often horrifically. But not all died in a way that people have previously described as heroic. And even the heroism attributed to the rescue workers stems as much from the country’s needs in responding to the disaster as from what actually happened in the collapsing buildings.

It is long overdue that Americans appreciate their public servants. It is also necessary to honor those who died simply for being in America. But changing the definition of hero to accommodate tragic victims may actually weaken us by diminishing the idea of role models who perform truly extraordinary acts. Boston Globe [thanks, Gary]

What? Now We Have to Make a Profit and Be Ethical?

So you’re wondering, Will things ever get back to normal? They already have. For most businesses, the new normal means bolstering backup and contingency plans, ratcheting up security, and preparing for the worst. That’s easy. Now comes the tough part: meeting the public’s escalating ethical expectations of corporations.

Conventional wisdom long held that only two basic strategies earn a company its competitive advantage: selling goods or services at a lower cost, and making sure those products are superior in quality to those of competitors. But the world is finally making room for a third path. Consumers are showing that they will reward companies that prove they are social, not just corporate, leaders — and that they will punish those they perceive as bad citizens. Business 2.0