Why Winona Ryder will do time for O.J.’s crimes

The most common theory for Steve Cooley’s ferocious zealotry is that this is an easy way to restore the sheen to an office so tarnished by failure. Cooley’s predecessor—former District Attorney Gil Garcetti—left office in a welter of criticism over failed prosecutions ranging from Rodney King and Charles Keating to the debacle that was O.J. Simpson. Garcetti will be remembered by history as the guy who never could win the big one.

That Garcetti’s successor, Steve Cooley, thinks nailing Winona Ryder might be a “big one” is either evidence of desperation or a uniquely Hollywood lack of proportion.

There’s one other, more pernicious theory circulating for why Ryder is paying for the long string of failed prosecutions coming out of Los Angeles: According to a new study by Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway, Ryder is paying for a national gender bias against wealthy, successful women… Slate

The World Health Organization says there is no such study — and that most journalists didn’t call to check.

“We’ve certainly never conducted any research into the subject,” WHO spokeswoman Rebecca Harding said yesterday from Geneva. “It’s been impossible to find out where it came from. It just seems like it was a hoax.”

The health group traced the story to an account Thursday on a German wire service, which in turn was based on a two-year-old article in the German women’s magazine Allegra, which cited a WHO anthropologist. Harding could find no record of such a man working for the WHO. Washington Post

Another Bush v. Gore? ‘Is it conceivable that not even two years after the U.S. Supreme Court brought the presidential election to a close with its 5-4 decision in Bush v. Gore, the justices would put themselves on the line again in a state election case that this time could determine control of the Senate? “…Bush v. Gore can rear its head in lots of ways that we can’t anticipate. It’s out there for everyone to use for their different purposes.” ‘ International Herald Tribune news analysis

Judges should consider reducing the sentences of convicted offenders if scientists prove that their crimes were influenced by their genes, Britain’s most respected biological ethics group said yesterday.

As soon as there is reliable scientific evidence linking genes to aggression or violence, this should be weighed in mitigation, just as a criminal’s social or family background already can be, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics said yesterday.

While a genetic predisposition to antisocial behaviour should not be a defence, such information could “assist in determining degrees of blame”, according to a report by a panel of scientists, philosophers, ethicists and lawyers. Times of London

‘Some patients who suffer brain injuries occasionally lose the ability to talk in their native accent – but now scientists may know why.

The condition, called “foreign accent syndrome”, affects only a tiny number of patients.’ BBC

“More than 1.6 million people are killed by violence around the world each year, a major report reveals.

The World Health Organization said that millions of others are left injured as a result of attacks.

Violence is now the leading cause of death among people aged between 15 and 44….

The report shows that violence accounts for 14% of deaths in men and 7% of deaths in women.” BBC

“A year-long online search for the world’s funniest joke is over. The winning rib-tickler emerged from two million ratings of 40,000 entries, submitted by people from more than 70 countries.

The LaughLab experiment was run by psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire, UK. The data showed clear national differences in humour, Wiseman says.” New Scientist

Review: Evolving the Alien: The science of extraterrestrial life by

Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart: “…Cohen and …Stewart are scientists – a reproductive biologist and a mathematician respectively – who love science fiction, despite its frequently flawed depictions of alien biology. This lively work of popular science uses real and science-fictional examples of strange creatures to fuel speculation about life inhabiting other planets… or even suns.” New Scientist

Review: Dr Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation by

Olivia Judson: “Anthropomorphism – ascribing human thoughts and motivations to the actions of other species – used to be the dirtiest word in the animal behaviourist’s dictionary. Not any more. Dr Tatiana brings us a catalogue of vices that would bring a blush to the cheeks of even the most depraved Homo sapiens.

There is nothing in the kaleidoscope of human sexual behaviour that other creatures great and small haven’t tried out before, she says.” New Scientist

Simson Garfinkel: “We need a manifesto! Tiny wireless identification tags are soon going to start showing up throughout your daily life. If you have an E-ZPass transponder in your car or one of several Swatch watches on your wrist, you’re already carrying a wireless tag. Your house, your food and even your clothes might someday be permeated with such tags, which can be read without your permission or knowledge.” MIT Technology Review

In response to my post last week about instant runoff voting, Richard Homonoff sent me this description of numerous other proposed voting methods. I had no idea. If I get the gist, IRV still makes the most sense.

Note to Democrats: Get a Defense Policy — “Once again the Democratic Party finds itself on the defensive on defense.” NY Times op-ed

Of course the Times would say so: ” New Jersey’s Supreme Court made the right call yesterday when it ruled that the State Democratic Party could substitute Frank Lautenberg for the discredited Robert Torricelli as its candidate in November’s election for the United States Senate. The ruling appears to clear the way for a vigorous if necessarily abbreviated campaign, thus giving New Jersey voters the choice they deserve.”

James Crabtree, of voxpolitics

and the i society, takes aim at rightwing bloggers in a New Statesman piece. Since NS doesn’t allow free access to their content, Crabtree reappropriates the intellectual rights to his content and posts it for all to see. It appears at The Work Foundation website, which describes itself in this way:

The dynamic relationship between information and communication technology (ICT) and how it affects us in the way we live and work is the single most critical social and economic issue of our time. iSociety is an independent analysis of that impact on our lives, today and in the future.

Through its projects it is a major three- to five-year examination of the inter-relationship between work, life and ICT. We are taking the first forensic, independent look at the real impact of the new technologies on the way we live and work.

Oil firms wait as Iraq crisis unfolds:

“The world’s biggest oil bonanza in recent memory may be just around the corner, giving U.S. oil companies huge profits and American consumers cheap gasoline for decades to come.

And it all may come courtesy of a war with Iraq.

While debate intensifies about the Bush administration’s policy, oil analysts and Iraqi exile leaders believe a new, pro-Western government — assuming it were to replace Saddam Hussein’s regime — would prompt U.S. and multinational petroleum giants to rush into Iraq, dramatically increasing the output of a nation whose oil reserves are second only to that of Saudi Arabia.” SF Chronicle

However, it strikes me as just as likely that a post-Saddam Iraq, while throwing the doors open to petrochemical companies to help it exploit its oil resources efficiently, would collaborate with OPEC on pricing in order to pull in urgently needed cash for reconstruction, rather than compete with OPEC as this article suggests. Unless, of course, it becomes a US territory.

Ask the pilot — “By popular demand: The full, unexpurgated story of what happens when dry ice is mixed with blue toilet acid at 33,000 feet.” Salon

Mark Fiore: Why We Must Go to War Salon

News Analysis: Playing A Weak Hand Well:

“Iraq’s decision to readmit United Nations inspectors has heightened differences between the United States and its allies and complicated the Bush administration’s task of winning Security Council approval for a tough new resolution.

Seeking to regain the initiative, President Bush announced today that he had reached an agreement with House leaders on a resolution authorizing him to use force if President Saddam Hussein refuses to abandon his efforts to develop chemical, biological and nuclear arms.

The move seemed intended to show the United Nations that the president has the support of numerous American lawmakers and is prepared to take military action on his own if the Security Council is reluctant to act.” NY Times

Also: Path to War on Iraq Gets Murkier

:

“As UN inspectors prepare to head for Baghdad in two weeks, the US seeks tougher terms, and consequences.” Christian Science Monitor

As Trees Die, Biologists Battle Back:

“Such is the power of this plant pestilence that has infiltrated much of California and jumped to Oregon, and that researchers fear could easily spread to the midwest and east. The disease has already killed tens of thousands of trees in California and spread to 17 different species, including huckleberry, big leaf maples, rhododendrons and bay trees. Scientists have found it can also infect the northern red oak and pin oak, species that are widespread in the East and Midwest. Recently, the United States Forest Service declared large regions of the East, including the southern Appalachian Mountains, whose climate would probably suit the disease, as areas of high risk.” NY Times

“They’re naive and clumsy. Is that so wrong?” Slate

“Report highlights dangers in diagnosing social traits“. Guardian UK

Robert Wright: “The more broadly you view the new national security strategy, the clearer its contradictions become…. (T)he Bush administration, with its limited regard for both international law and world opinion, is making America not just sheriff, but judge, jury and executioner. This strategy could lead to a number of outcomes, but national security isn’t among the more likely.” NY Times

“President Bush wouldn’t want to talk about the many issues which the Iraq crisis is obscuring…” Guardian UK

obscuring

‘Self-Esteem Levels Peak in Childhood, Mid-Life. “The main point is that there are two critical developmental periods when self-esteem drops–adolescence and old age,” study author Dr. Richard W. Robins of the University of California, Davis, told Reuters Health… ‘ [more]

Physicists model trading frenzy: “Two physicists have an explanation for the convulsion of the stock market just ten days ago that left traders reeling and economists scratching their heads. The market was behaving like a muffled guitar string, they suggest, thanks to short-termism and technological limitations.” Nature

An online library of articles related to psychological trauma, dissociative phenomena, and the culture of the mind

Mystery Effect in Biotech Drug Puts Its Maker on Defensive. NY Times In this dramatic and convoluted example, we see the law of the unintended consequences at work; the body appears smarter than our attempts to best it, and it is a brand name shopper to boot.

Erythropoeitin (EPO) is given to medically ill, severely anemic patients (e.g. patients in renal failure) to stimulate their failing capacity to make adequate red cells, but in some cases, with a particular brand of genetically engineered EPO, the body recognizes it as a foreign protein and raises an immune response against the drug that does not stop there, but actually destroys the marrow’s remaining innate red-cell producing capacities. (Once that happens, patients need to rely on transfusions to survive, or undergo renal transplantation.)

Interestingly, the version of EPO Johnson & Johnson sells in the US market, which is made for it by a competitor, Amgen, which developed the drug and from whom it licenses the product, does not cause this complication, but the version it manufactures itself in a Puerto Rican plant for non-US markets appears to be the culprit (and the problems seemed to start after the Puerto Rican plant changed its manufacturing process at the request of European authorities who wanted a constituent removed from its formula to protect against another potential health risk, “mad cow disease”.) Amgen also markets EPO under a competing brand name and is trying to exploit Johnson & Johnson’s vulnerability on this issue; J & J has resisted calls to pull the offending product off the market but denies this is a financially motivated decision. It is trying to shift attention to complications from treatment with competitors’ EPO and hang on to its lucrative European market share.

Suspects Sought in Beating Death by Youth Mob in Milwaukee

…U.N. Ought to Hold Up Iraq Inspections. NY Times US disingenuousness is clear. Bush made a show of addressing the UN to seek a consensus but thwarts prospects for multilaterality at the first turn.

‘Israeli forces took up positions in buildings near Yasir Arafat’s compound in Ramallah today, two days after they complied with American demands and lifted a 10-day siege.

Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said that the new arrangement was intended to enable Israel to “put its hands on all those inside who are suspects if they try to come out.”

Palestinian officials said that the Israelis had not truly abandoned the siege, put in place after a suicide bomber killed six Israelis in Tel Aviv on Sept. 19. Nabil Aburdeineh, an adviser to Mr. Arafat, said that it remained dangerous for the Palestinian leader and others to leave or enter the compound. “They are deceiving the Americans,” he said of the Israelis.’ NY Times

A Russian Lama’s Body, and His Faith, Defy Time: “A miracle has occurred here in Siberia. Or it may be a hoax. Others believe science can explain it. It is a question, it seems, of faith.” NY Times

“Bush has many enemies. But he didn’t expect them to include Nancy Reagan; Alzheimer’s grief drives former first lady’s stealth campaign” to get Bush to reverse oppositon ot stem cell research. Guardian UK

Patients to get chemically “sterilised” blood . New Scientist

“Could singing fish novelties be hooked by a proposed law requiring anti-copying technology in digital devices?

Princeton professor Ed Felten thinks so.

The computer scientist has launched a site, called Fritz’s Hit List, that points out devices that could be forced to carry anti-copying technology if Sen. Fritz Hollings’, D-S.C., Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA) passes. The bill, which is designed to thwart piracy, would restrict digital products that don’t carry government-approved security technology.

So far, Fritz’s Hit List features a catalog of unlikely devices Felten said would be regulated under the law. They include common objects such as baby monitors and automobile navigation systems as well as seemingly innocuous toys such as the Shop With Me Barbie toy cash register, the Sony Aibo robot dog and Big Mouth Billy Bass.” CNET News

Jay Bookman — Bush’s real goal in Iraq:

This war, should it come, is intended to mark the official emergence of the United States as a full-fledged global empire, seizing sole responsibility and authority as planetary policeman. It would be the culmination of a plan 10 years or more in the making, carried out by those who believe the United States must seize the opportunity for global domination, even if it means becoming the “American imperialists” that our enemies always claimed we were. Atlanta Journal-Constitution [via rc3]

Nice to see we’re going about winning hearts and minds in Central Asia about like we did in Southeast Asia… MSNBC

No-fly blacklist snares political activists: ‘A federal “No Fly” list, intended to keep terrorists from boarding planes, is snaring peace activists at San Francisco International and other U. S. airports, triggering complaints that civil liberties are being trampled.

…Federal law enforcement officials deny targeting dissidents. They suggested that the activists were stopped not because their names are on the list, but because their names resemble those of suspected criminals or terrorists.’ SF Chronicle