“Solar systems may continue to exist around stars that have reached the end of their lifetimes, flared up and collapsed. New evidence shows that asteroids and dust discs, and perhaps even planets, may circle white dwarf stars, the burned-out remnants of stars that have already undergone their all-consuming red-giant phase.” (New Scientist)

“Forensic science’s spell in the limelight has given it huge kudos. Glitzy TV shows like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation have sent students flocking to forensics courses. But while this interest is sexing up the image of scientists, is it also stopping police catching criminals and securing convictions?” (New Scientist)

“A recently concluded confererence at London’s Institute of Psychiatry has been debating the classification and boundaries of mental illness and has been challenging the traditional views of psychiatric medicine.

There have been longstanding critics of psychiatry, notably people like R.D. Laing and Thomas Szasz, who have argued that the medical concepts of mental illness are flawed, or that they are used to unjustly silence society’s outsiders.

More recently, psychiatric classification, and particularly the separation of mental disorder into diagnoses such as ‘schizophrenia’ and ‘bipolar disorder’ have been challenged by mainstream psychiatrists on the basis of scientific discoveries.

For example, an editorial in May’s British Journal of Psychiatry argued that that schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are on a continuum, based on genetic evidence that is increasingly showing that similar genes are found in people who receive either diagnosis.

Other criticisms, echoed at the recent London conference, have been based on the coherence of psychiatric definitions and how well they reflect the diverse experiences of people who live through mental distress.

The conference discussed how understanding the first-person conscious experience of mental illness (as opposed to, or in combination with, scientific measures) can make for a more accurate understanding, and hopefully, treatments for those in need.

This approach is known as phenomenology and was championed by a number of continental philosophers who argued that science will only ever give a partial explanation because objective measures always leave something of the ‘lived experience’ missing.

One increasingly popular view of psychosis, the reality-bending mental state that can involve hallucinations and delusions, suggests that it is not an all or nothing state as psychiatric diagnosis suggests, but a range of experiences that are distributed throughout the population.

Recent studies have typically reported that about 10-11% of the general population score about the average of psychotic patients in psychiatric wards, on measures of unusual thinking or perceptual distortion, despite not needing psychiatric help or becoming significantly distressed or disabled.

Link to details of the recent conference on ‘Phenomenology and Psychiatry for the 21st Century’.
Link to BBC News on the conference and the boundaries of madness.”

“Getting ready for the next disaster doesn’t seem so crazy anymore, and survivalist outfitters have advice on how to be prepared.” (New York Times )

Experts say the best protection for New Orleans would include major improvements in five areas. “New Orleans has long lived with the hurricane protection that it, and the nation, were willing to pay for. Measured against the costs of Katrina’s fury, however, better armor may suddenly seem more affordable.

With officials vowing to rebuild New Orleans, the question of how fully to defend the city against another catastrophe will be examined as never before.

Unlike San Francisco or Los Angeles, where there is no way to prevent widespread destruction from the most powerful earthquakes, New Orleans is uniquely dependent on one feature: its aging network of levees. If levees hold back the water, the city is spared. If they fail, much of the city is ruined.

…The success of levees in a restored New Orleans will depend partly on the resilience of other civil engineering, and on wetlands between the city and the Gulf of Mexico. Today, the condition of these outer defenses is poor: Barrier islands and wetlands are disappearing, and gates to protect against storm surges and waves are years away.” (New York Times )

“Do we expect too much from our movies, or do we settle for too little? I ask myself this question periodically, especially at this time of year, when the movie industry emphasis shifts, in principle anyway, from the frivolous to the serious. Behind us is another summer of large-scale commercial entertainment, sprinkled with a handful of documentaries and art films, while ahead lies another round of biopics (Capote), literary adaptations (Memoirs of a Geisha) and costume epics (The New World) intended to dominate the end-of-the-year critics’ lists and midwinter awards broadcasts.” — A.O.Scott (New York Times )

“In an age of blogging, reflexive ironizing and ceaseless celebrity worship, two small literary-intellectual magazines try to make a different kind of big noise.” (New York Times Magazine)

Defense Department Briefing on Ongoing National Guard Response to Hurricane Katrina: “…We waited until we had enough force in place to do an overwhelming force. Went in with police powers, 1,000 National Guard military policemen under the command and control of the adjutant general of the State of Louisiana, Major General Landreneau, yesterday shortly after noon stormed the convention center, for lack of a better term, and there was absolutely no opposition, complete cooperation, and we attribute that to an excellent plan, superbly executed with great military precision. It was rather complex. It was executed absolutely flawlessly in that there was no violent resistance.. .” — Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum (chief, National Guard Bureau, Defense Dept.) [via Respectful of Otters, thanks to walker]

On the Vestibular System: “Small, intricately formed and locked in the skull, the vestibular organs continuously bombard the brain with messages. The messages are quite unlike any others. They tell of accelerations, how the head is rotating and translating and its orientation in space. The messages never stop and cannot be turned off. Even when we are completely motionless, they signal the relentless pull of gravity. Perhaps because of their constant monologue, the vestibular sensation is different to the other senses. There is no overt, readily recognizable, localizable, conscious sensation from these organs. They provide a silent sense.” (ScienceWeek)

“Fe·ma (‘fE-mä)adj 1: foreboding imminent disaster 2: inadequate or unsuited to a purpose to the point of ultimate doom
Nancy’s babysitting job went from bad to fema when she accidentally put the spaghetti O’s in the litterbox and the cat in the microwave.

Fe·ma (‘fE-mä)vb Fe·ma·rized, Fe·ma·rated 1: to bungle, damage or ruin in such a way that people sing songs about your paramount ineptitude for millenia to come
Jack femarized himself by cutting his toenails with a chainsaw while sniffing gold colored spray paint.

Fe·ma (‘fE-mä)n 1: a steaming pile of feces 2: a U.S. government agency used to cause chaos in any emergency situation 3: mother of all clusterfucks
George W. Bush femarized the nation once again with his femarated decision to appoint a failed horse show manager to run FEMA. ” (Cynical-C Blog via walker)

“The first inhaled form of insulin, a product that could reduce or eliminate the daily injections needed by millions of diabetics, moved closer to federal approval yesterday.” (New York Times )

“The debate began after officials realized that Hurricane Katrina had exposed a critical flaw in the national disaster response plans created after the Sept. 11 attacks. According to the administration’s senior domestic security officials, the plan failed to recognize that local police, fire and medical personnel might be incapacitated.” (New York Times )

Storm Leaves Legal System a Shambles: “They have no paperwork indicating whether they are charged with having too much to drink or attempted murder. There is no judge to hear their cases, no courthouse designated to hear them in and no lawyer to represent them. If lawyers can be found, there is no mechanism for paying them. The prisoners have had no contact with their families for days and do not know whether they are alive or dead, if their homes do or do not exist.” (New York Times )

“In the history of humankind, there has rarely been a disaster like the New Orleans flood without a theodicy to go along with it. The word ‘theodicy,’ coined in the 18th century by the philosopher Gottfried Leibniz, derives from Greek roots invoking the ‘justice of the gods.’ A theodicy is an attempt to show that such justice exists, to prove that we really do live in what Leibniz insisted was the ‘best of all possible worlds.'” — Edward Rothstein (New York Times )

Bill McKibben: “Our rulers have insisted by both word and deed that the laws of physics and chemistry do not apply to us. That delusion will now start to vanish. Katrina marks Year One of our new calendar, the start of an age in which the physical world has flipped from sure and secure to volatile and unhinged. New Orleans doesn’t look like the America we’ve lived in. But it very much resembles the planet we will inhabit the rest of our lives.” (Tomgram)

“We are now learning that in the hours following Katrina’s landfall, FEMA — the Federal Emergency Management Agency, now a part of the Department of Homeland Security — rightly encouraged Americans to make charitable donations, but wrongly placed Pat Robertson at the top of that list.

Making matters worse is that as soon as this insult came under scrutiny, after millions of Americans had already been urged by FEMA to give to Robertson, FEMA began covering its tracks — erasing any sign of its actions from its Internet site.” (National Jewish Democratic Council [thanks, Seth])

“…Mr. Rove had told administration officials not to respond to Democratic attacks on Mr. Bush’s handling of the hurricane in the belief that the president was in a weak moment and that the administration should not appear to be seen now as being blatantly political. As with others in the party, this Republican would discuss the deliberations only on condition of anonymity because of keen White House sensitivity about how the administration and its strategy would be perceived.

In a reflection of what has long been a hallmark of Mr. Rove’s tough political style, the administration is also working to shift the blame away from the White House and toward officials of New Orleans and Louisiana who, as it happens, are Democrats.” (New York Times )

“Police Superintendent Eddie Compass announced the two suicides yesterday morning, telling WWL Radio in New Orleans that ”the world really can’t understand’ what has happened in New Orleans in recent days, and that the two suicides were tragic parts of an already horrible situation.

…”He lost everything he owned. ‘He just could not find a way to wrap his mind around what had happened. There was despair in his eyes and sorrow. All I can say is it is more than he could handle.'” (Boston Globe)

A Times-Picayune open letter to Bush: “Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.

In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn’t known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, ‘We’ve provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they’ve gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day.’

Lies don’t get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.

Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, ‘You’re doing a heck of a job.'”

Halliburton subsidiary gets Katrina repair contracts: “A Halliburton subsidiary has a Navy contract to do emergency repairs at Hurricane Katrina-damaged Gulf Coast military sites.

Kellogg, Brown and Root Services was awarded the competitive bid contract last July to provide debris removal and other emergency work after natural disasters.

It’s a 500 (M) million dollar contract for the unit of Houston-based Halliburton.” (KLTV 7 Tyler-Longview-Jacksonville, TX)

Maureen Dowd: “Why does this self-styled ‘can do’ president always lapse into such lame ‘who could have known?’ excuses.

Who on earth could have known that Osama bin Laden wanted to attack us by flying planes into buildings? Any official who bothered to read the trellis of pre-9/11 intelligence briefs.

Who on earth could have known that an American invasion of Iraq would spawn a brutal insurgency, terrorist recruiting boom and possible civil war? Any official who bothered to read the C.I.A.’s prewar reports.

Who on earth could have known that New Orleans’s sinking levees were at risk from a strong hurricane? Anybody who bothered to read the endless warnings over the years about the Big Easy’s uneasy fishbowl.” (New York Times op-ed)

“The following is a ‘healthy food hot list’ consisting of the 29 food that will give you the biggest nutritional bang for you caloric buck, as well as decrease your risk for deadly illnesses like cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Along with each description is a suggestion as to how to incorporate these power-foods into your diet. ” [via robot wisdom]

“The U.S. Air Force’s senior officer, Gen. John Jumper, stated U.S. warplanes would remain in Iraq to fight resistance forces and protect the American-installed regime ‘more or less indefinitely.’ Jumper’s bombshell went largely unnoticed due to Hurricane Katrina.

Gen. Jumper let the cat out of the bag. While President George Bush hints at eventual troop withdrawals, the Pentagon is busy building four major, permanent air bases in Iraq that will require heavy infantry protection.

Jumper’s revelation confirms what this column has long said: The Pentagon plans to copy Imperial Britain’s method of ruling oil-rich Iraq. In the 1920s, the British cobbled together Iraq from three disparate Ottoman provinces to control newly-found oil fields in Kurdistan and along the Iranian border.” — Eric Margolis (Toronto Sun via Common Dreams)

Anne Rice: “What do people really know about New Orleans?

Do they take away with them an awareness that it has always been not only a great white metropolis but also a great black city, a city where African-Americans have come together again and again to form the strongest African-American culture in the land?” (New York Times op-ed)

David Brooks: “It’s already clear this will be known as the grueling decade, the Hobbesian decade. Americans have had to acknowledge dark realities that it is not in our nature to readily acknowledge: the thin veneer of civilization, the elemental violence in human nature, the lurking ferocity of the environment, the limitations on what we can plan and know, the cumbersome reactions of bureaucracies, the uncertain progress good makes over evil.

As a result, it is beginning to feel a bit like the 1970’s, another decade in which people lost faith in their institutions and lost a sense of confidence about the future.

…Reaganite conservatism was the response to the pessimism and feebleness of the 1970’s. Maybe this time there will be a progressive resurgence. Maybe we are entering an age of hardheaded law and order. (Rudy Giuliani, an unlikely G.O.P. nominee a few months ago, could now win in a walk.) Maybe there will be call for McCainist patriotism and nonpartisan independence. All we can be sure of is that the political culture is about to undergo some big change.” (New York Times op-ed)

Maureen Dowd: “Why does this self-styled ‘can do’ president always lapse into such lame ‘who could have known?’ excuses.

Who on earth could have known that Osama bin Laden wanted to attack us by flying planes into buildings? Any official who bothered to read the trellis of pre-9/11 intelligence briefs.

Who on earth could have known that an American invasion of Iraq would spawn a brutal insurgency, terrorist recruiting boom and possible civil war? Any official who bothered to read the C.I.A.’s prewar reports.

Who on earth could have known that New Orleans’s sinking levees were at risk from a strong hurricane? Anybody who bothered to read the endless warnings over the years about the Big Easy’s uneasy fishbowl.” (New York Times op-ed)