Slaughter in the Name of God: Salman Rushdie contemplates the Hindu-Muslim violence rending the Indian subcontinent: “India’s problem turns out to be the world’s problem. What happened in India has happened in God’s name. The problem’s name is God.” Washington Post

Why We Need ‘Nightline’ Washington Post [via Spike]

Review of A General Theory of Love by Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini, and Richard Lannon: ‘…The authors, in their discussion of the limbic system, the center of the emotions, and the unconscious mind make clear that they are not referring to the Freudian unconscious, that maladaptive “cauldron” of aggressive and sexual impulses. Nor do they give credence to the Freudian theory of personality development, psychopathology or psychotherapy. Instead they are speaking of the highly adaptive and prosocial cognitive unconscious, including both the cortex and limbic system, both of which are interacting in therapy and all other intense human relationships, and most centrally in mothers and children.’ Human Nature Review

“Memories are made of this…” “Elegant research released today from Nobelist Eric Kandel’s laboratory reveals that the cAMP response element binding protein (CREB), long implicated in memory consolidation, primes brain cells to retain long-term memories. Regulated expression of CREB, during or shortly before a memory task, might allow single-trial learning, and eventually lead to development of memory-enhancing drugs, Kandel says.” BioMedNet [requires free registration]

America’s shady ally against terror: ‘Uzbekistan is drifting toward an anti-American stance, if one understands “American” as implying democracy, human rights and the struggle against state-sponsored terror.’ NY Times

“There is a deep degree of uncertainty. It has to do, in part, with a sense that safety was taken for granted and then ripped away with a suddenness.” Even 6 Months Later, ‘Get Over It’ Just Isn’t an Option. “Mental health professionals across the country say the psychological fallout from Sept. 11 — affecting people with chronic psychiatric and addiction problems and people who had never experienced anything like the wrenching angst they are battling now — is strikingly pervasive

… Many therapists, psychiatrists and drug and alcohol counselors say that they are seeing more serious problems now — and more evidence of a widespread anxiety — than they did in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, attributing it to a delayed reaction after the shock of the attacks wore off. In most cases, these mental health professionals are treating patients who did not lose a relative or close friend, participate in the rescue effort or directly witness the attack but were nevertheless deeply affected.” NY Times

Privacy Watch: Guess who’s tracking you by cell phone?

“The nation’s cell phone service providers will soon know exactly where every one of their customers is, at all times, and privacy rights groups are asking what they plan to do with the information.

All U.S. carriers are under Federal Communications Commission orders to make it possible for police to locate cell phones calling 911, something police can’t do now. Carriers plan to use the same systems to sell services like helping stranded motorists even if they don’t know their location, or finding the closest restaurant.

Because people with cell phone generally always carry their phone with them, the FCC regulations give the thriving market for personal information something its never had a chance to get: the exact locations at all times of more than 140 million people.” ZDNet

In response to my thoughts about inline images and leeching bandwidth, Kareem writes to disagree with my impression that musical sampling is considered fair use. “Musical sampling is not generally not

protected under fair use according to the courts if it

is taken for commericial use. Or at least since 1991

anyway:

http://www.alankorn.com/articles/sampling.html.” And several people wrote to support the idea that no one should have to pay for the bandwidth viewers of other sites eat up when those sites link to their images. I agree with one thing, on reflection; it is impossible to draw a line based on the number of hits. After the first hit, one is on a slippery slope.

Nuclear Arms for Deterrence or Fighting? Responding to the furor over the leaked nuclear posture review, Pentagon spokespeople have begun, quite confusedly, to suggest that their talk of first use of tactical nuclear weapons against subnuclear “situations” is deterrence talk, obscuring the fundamental line they’ve crossed to the acceptability of certain uses of these weapons. At the same time, they maintain the importance of not ruling out any options for targets “able to withstand nonnuclear attack.” This New York Times news analysis points out another administration attempt to obfuscate by positing a distinction between a “policy review” and an “operational plan.” I’ve heard and read credulous journalists considering the implications of the Pentagon analysis take this bait already. But, as the essay points out, “The Pentagon review, however, clearly points to important changes by touting the need for new variable- yield or reduced-yield nuclear weapons, and improved targeting systems so they could be rapidly used in war.” An added, worrisome point is that this change in American posture sends a message to third world countries that there can be acceptable defense policy reasons to develop and consider using nuclear weapons; in so doing, it undermines nonproliferation.

Andy Borowitz: Condit blows job interview with Blockbuster video; declares most questions ‘off limits.’ JWR