Dave Johns writes in Slate Magazine about the resurgence of the long-discredited ‘science’ of physiognomy, the idea that personality attributes can be inferred from facial features alone.

My attention was grabbed by this on both a professional and personal basis. It is crucial for those in the behavioral sciences today to find their own position on the resurgence of biological determinism some would say has come to dominate the field. And, personally, I have always been dogged by the fact that people’s initial reaction to me seems to have a greater-than-chance tendency to find me intimidating. (I could understand it if they waited to hear what comes out of my mouth, but I think the reaction precedes any interaction with me.) It would be fine if I were the exception that proves the rule, but I think that, as is true of most of us, I am all too capable of falling into the role that has been shaped for me by those initial preconceptions. In addition to all the other prejudices in our society, are we face-ist?

A number of studies have demonstrated that most people hold …stereotypes about what criminals look like and believe that “the face fits the crime.” This can play out in court: The psychologist Leslie Zebrowitz has shown that “mature-faced” defendants are more likely to be found guilty of certain kinds of crimes. And when baby-faced defendants are found guilty, they tend to get more lenient sentences. She calls this form of discrimination “face-ism” and argues that defendants shouldn’t be required to show their faces in court. But if it is proved that the male face does indeed reveal “honest” signals about aggressiveness, jurors might deserve access to that information. (Then, too, defense attorneys might want to adopt a novel legal strategy: the meathead defense. “My client can’t be blamed for his actions because he suffers from high testosterone. Just look at his face!”)

Many of the supposedly indicative features are shaped by testosterone, which is linked to ‘masculine’ appearance and to aggression. But if the development of our frontal lobes has supposedly conferred on humans a much greater capacity to modulate our behavior, does the persistence of masculine aggression really reinforce biological determinism or merely that we have been pitiful failures at modifying the traditional male role definitions?

[On a lighter but related (?) note, I just realized that an anagram for my name is “genial towel.” Do I seem like a genial towel to you?]

University of Texas biochemist publishing in the Journal of Zombie Science (pdf).

“Nature might be red in tooth and claw, but even a glimpse of greenery can make us behave in kinder, gentler ways…I've written before about the powerful mental benefits of communing with nature – it leads to more self-control, increased working memory, lower levels of stress and better moods – but a new study by psychologists at the University of Rochester find that being exposed to wildlife also makes us more compassionate.” — Jonah Lehrer (The Frontal Cortex)

The Irish approval of the Lisbon accord apparently paves the way for Tony Blair to be the first president of the EU.

Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the debut of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone (Wikipedia article).

“Despite his esteem in the writing community, Serling found The Twilight Zone difficult to sell. Few critics felt that science fiction could transcend empty escapism and enter the realm of adult drama. In a September 22, 1959, interview with Serling, Mike Wallace asked a question illustrative of the times: “…[Y]ou’re going to be, obviously, working so hard on The Twilight Zone that, in essence, for the time being and for the foreseeable future, you’ve given up on writing anything important for television, right?” While Serling’s appearances on the show became one of its most distinctive features, with his clipped delivery still widely imitated today, he was reportedly nervous about it and had to be persuaded to appear on camera. Serling often steps into the middle of the action and the characters remain seemingly oblivious to him, but on one notable occasion they are aware he’s there: In the episode “A World of His Own,” a writer with the power to alter his reality objects to Serling’s unflattering narration, and promptly erases Serling from the show.”

I was seven when the show first aired, although at first I was a viewer of something on a competing channel. I no longer recall what it was, perhaps Walt Disney. Within a short while, certainly before the end of the first season. I began to become aware of schoolmates talking about this new show with fascination and devotion. It was the first time I was sensitive to being out of the swing of things, and my insistence I be allowed to watch it was the first time I recall asserting myself against my parents’ preferences for me. The Twilight Zone thus not only played a pivotal role in my coming of age but, I am sure, shaped my lifelong interest in the eerie and macabre.

Here is an episode listing of the original five seasons of the show. If you are old enough, which do you recall? Which was your favorite? I would have to list “It’s a Good Life”, “Nightmare at 20,000 Ft” and, of course, “To Serve Man.”

“Camouflage series by Beijing-based artist Liu Bolin. Covered entirely in paint to blend into their surroundings, each installation can take up to 10 hours of painstaking work…

via wide open spaces.

“Airbrushed photographs could be given government health warnings in France to protect women from 'false' images of female beauty.” (Telegraph UK)

(Mt. Holly Mayor’s Office)

“I had no idea so many people make a hobby of traveling beneath the sea in homemade junkers they call submarines. Here's a few of these DIY subs…” (Tinselman)

Cryopreservation Unit, by Taryn Simon

London Telegraph article by Salman Rushdie profiling “The Hidden and Familiar”, new collection of photographs by Taryn Simon of some of the world’s most hidden places.

And:

• Photographing secret sites: Taryn Simon on TED.com (ted.com)

“You could probably figure out the topic despite the medicalese in the title: “Positive Serum Ethanol Level and Mortality in Moderate to Severe Traumatic Brain Injury.” The study is a retrospective one, based on identifying a set of patients in trauma centers who had been diagnosed with severe brain injuries. Not surprisingly, a number of them had been drinking. The surprise was that the folks with alcohol in the bloodstream had a better survival rate than those who hadn't had a drink, even after correcting for some potential confounding factors. As always, further studies are suggested before we start dispensing vodka shots in the ER.” (Ars Technica)

“There are over 13,000 McDonald’s restaurants in the US, or about 1 for every 23,000 Americans. But even market penetration this advanced doesn’t mean that McDonald’s is everywhere. Somewhere in South Dakota is the McFarthest Spot, the place in the US geographically most removed from the nearest McD’s (*). If you started out from this location, a few miles north of State Highway 20 (which runs latitudinally between Highways 73 in the west and 65 in the east), you’d have to drive 145 miles to get your Big Mac…” (Strange Maps)

I would like to see an overlay of several maps of this sort, one for each of the major fast food places, one for Walmarts, etc. The cumulative effect, I suspect, would correlate quite well with the quality of life to be expected in various locales.

(The Awl)

Cory Doctorow: “British Airways has broken new exciting new ground in the race to make flying as awful as possible: they have announced a fee (ranging from £10-60 per passenger) for advance seat selection, explaining that this will be the only way that families and other groups travelling together can be assured that they’ll be sitting next to each other. I wonder what happens if you don’t pay it while flying with a two-year-old in her own seat; do they seat her at the other end of the plane from you and explain to the strangers on either side of her that they’re responsible for her well-being for the duration? …” (Boing Boing)

ethereal Sydney scene

“A storm which blew in from the Australian outback blanketed Sydney in a layer of orange dust. Here, residents describe the bizarre and frightening scene.” (BBC

During my psychiatric career, I have worked at several of these now abandoned or demolished-and-redeveloped sites, including Metropolitan State Hospital, Boston State Hospital and Worcester State Hospital. I routinely pass the sites of MSH and BSH. I can’t say that I have ever been back inside in an ‘unofficial’ capacity since their closures, although I am tempted.

'Ghost fleet' near Singapore.

“The world's ship owners and government economists would prefer you not to see this symbol of the depths of the plague still crippling the world's economies…” ( Daily Mail )

“The power of the imagination is well-known: it’s no surprise that scary music is scarier with your eyes closed. But now neuroscientist and psychiatrist Prof. Talma Hendler of Tel Aviv University’s Functional Brain Center says that this phenomenon may open the door to a new way of treating people with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neurological diseases.” (Science Daily)

He said,”It was the greatest shot I ever hit in my life”. (kottke).

“Fancy a three-day weekend – not just once in a while but week in week out? You may think your bosses would never agree to it, but the evidence suggests that employers, employees and the environment all benefit.” (New Scientist).

“Electromagnetic pulses — high-altitude bursts of radiation that could disable power grids and cripple modern life over wide areas — are a security concern. But right and left disagree on how plausible, or far-fetched, the threat is.” Idea of the Day Blog – NYTimes.com.

“When a building collapses or a train wrecks, specialized rescue teams can extricate trapped people often in a matter of minutes, working with techniques and technology developed over the past two centuries.” (American Heritage)

“A cornucopia of drugs will soon be on sale to improve everything from our memories to our trust in others.” (Prospect)

Drugmakers Are Desperate to Find Out.. I became a web friend of Wired writer Steve Silberman because of the uncanny parallelism in our interests, and I usually post blinks to his thoughtful and important pieces. Here, he describes the difficulty drug manufacturers are having in distinguishing the efficacy of medications they are testing from that of the placebos to which they are compared. Perhaps surprisingly, the rates of placebo response seem to be growing, so that the claims for pharmacological effectiveness of their products are harder and harder to make. Big Pharma desperately wants to know why, both to succeed again in establishing the efficacy of the products they are developing and to capitalize on the placebo effect if they can find a way to bring it to market itself.

As Silberman describes, comparison with placebo has long been the gold standard in evaluation of drug efficacy. This has largely made the placebo effect a troublesome enemy of allopathic medicine. This is a weakness of those with a concrete, limited conception of how healing works. In fact, our understanding should be stood on its head. Instead of being a nuisance, the placebo effect may be the basis of most therapeutic effects, both in particular of the ‘magic pills’ we physicians give our patients and, more generally, of the healing relationship per se. I have long found it pitiful that most physicians do not see that much of what they are doing is mobilizing their patients’ intrinsic healing responses through enlisting them in a shared belief system. Of course, those healing responses have a physiological basis themselves. It is only the incredibly naive, for the past thirty or fifty years at least, who still must distinguish ‘mind’ from ‘body’ as if they are separate.

The placebo response may be getting stronger, if indeed it is, because it is more and more difficult to find subjects who are not in the grip of the Big Pharma Big Lie, in this era of TV advertising for prescription drugs and of physicians in the pockets of the manufacturers of the medications they prescribe.

The other reason it may be harder to distinguish pharmacological from palcebo effects is that drug development in the last decade or more has been largely a story of trying to squeeze larger and larger profits out of smaller and smaller distinctions in drug efficacy. There have been relatively few ‘breakthrough’ discoveries in pharmacology that have not been swamped by a rush of competing products consisting of slightly altered molecules claiming to be improvements but in reality serving only to establish or extend patent rights.

This is especially true in my own field of psychiatry. While there are certainly in some cases differences in individual patients’ responses to different medicines in the same class (say, for example, serotonin-reuptake-inhibiting antidepressants or dopamine-blocking antipsychotics). Prescribers, pitifully, trot out one after another drug in the same or similar class when a patient does not do well with an initial choice of medication, subjecting the patient to a futile and prolonged cycle of sequential expectation and disappointment. Even patients who are doing well on a medicatioon are often switched to far more expensive newer analogues which hit the market claiming to be improvements. And these claims are largely written by the ad copyists and marketing specialists rather than the scientists, who by and large cannot demonstrate advantages of their products in head-to-head comparisons with older, tried-and-true gold standard medications.

Finally, although I am not talking merely about the mental health domain when I argue for a broadened conception of how healing works, it is surely true that neurobiological and mental disorders have been one of the last frontiers in pharmaceutical development, and (along with a shift of emphasis to chronic diseases from the acute diseases with which medicine has had its greatest successes) a major focus in drug development in the last two decades or so. The placebo effect is probably at its strongest in the realm of behavioral disorders.

Click on ‘the film’ (Neurosonics Audiomedical Laboratories)

After seeing more than 60 zombie films, Johnathon Williams explains: “If civilization is ever overrun by zombies — which for the purposes of this essay shall be defined as reanimated corpses who feed on the living until they’re dispatched by a gunshot to the head — I know exactly what I will do. I will gather my family and I will take them to Wal-Mart.” (The Morning News)

“After a successful birth, opting not to breast-feed may trigger evolved mourning behaviors.” (Scientific American)

“It succors and drowns human life. And for the last eight years, oil — and the people and places that make it — was my obsession.” (Foreign Policy)

Robert Krulwich: “Here’s a surprise: Wild crows can recognize individual people. They can pick a person out of a crowd, follow them, and remember them — apparently for years. But people — even people who love crows — usually can’t tell them apart. So what we have for you are two experiments that tell this story.” via NPR (listen).

Related:

• Ira, Jad, and Robert (snarkmarket.com)

The Straight Dope via Lifehacker.

I’ve been sending this Mad TV Bob Newhart Skit with Mo Collins around to all my friends in the psychiatric field. (If it is not what we actually do in dealing with some patients, perhaps it is what we ought to do??). You might find it amusing. It runs around 6 minutes. (YouTube )

“A fortuitous orbit of the International Space Station allowed the astronauts this striking view of Sarychev Volcano Kuril Islands, northeast of Japan in an early stage of eruption on June 12, 2009. Sarychev Peak is one of the most active volcanoes in the Kuril Island chain, and it is located on the northwestern end of Matua Island. Prior to June 12, the last explosive eruption occurred in 1989, with eruptions in 1986, 1976, 1954, and 1946 also producing lava flows. Ash from the multi-day eruption has been detected 2,407 kilometers east-southeast and 926 kilometers west-northwest of the volcano, and commercial airline flights are being diverted away from the region to minimize the danger of engine failures from ash intake.This detailed astronaut photograph is exciting to volcanologists because it captures several phenomena that occur during the earliest stages of an explosive volcanic eruption.” (NASA)

“This brief survey demonstrates why Israel’s military option against Iran’s nuclear program is so unattractive, but also why failing to act is even worse. All these scenarios become infinitely more dangerous once Iran has deliverable nuclear weapons. So does daily life in Israel, elsewhere in the region and globally.” (WSJ.com)

Related:

• Why Netanyahu should part company with Obama on Iran (powerlineblog.com)
• Obama’s Iran Election Ineptitude Worsens Nuclear Threat (usnews.com)
• Report: Iran could have enough material for nuke in months (cnn.com)
• UN says new uranium traces found in Syria (ctv.ca)
• US: Iran could have nuclear bomb in one year (telegraph.co.uk)

via Super Tight Stuff.

No1. The feeling of a good idea. by John Rhys Newman

If you text “swat” to 20222 you will send $5 to the United Nations High Commission for Swat refugees in Pakistan. Join me in doing it! And propagate the meme.

Related:

• Sotomayor’s real record and America’s real issues (dailykos.com)
• Sotomayor and the Baseball Strike (outsidethebeltway.com)
• Sotomayor with Solid Public Support (dailykos.com)
• Obama comes out swinging for his justice (dailykos.com)
• Obama: Congress And Conservatives Should Stop Game Playing On Sotomayor (themoderatevoice.com)

Using Google Earth and Google Maps in the emergency relief and humaintarian sectors (Google.org Blog).

What’s on your mind? How’s life? Enter a comment, start a conversation…

Does anyone who’s seen it know if the season 1, episode 2 Breaking Bad scene involving hydrofluoric acid and a bathtub is chemically accurate? Not that I am planning to employ a similar technique, but a friend just recommended this series and I have started to download episodes. (thanks, abby) Thanks in advance for any insights.

“Ultrasound imaging now possible with a smartphone. Computer engineers at Washington University in St. Louis are bringing the minimalist approach to medical care and computing by coupling USB-based ultrasound probe technology with a smartphone, enabling a compact, mobile computational platform and a medical imaging device that fits in the palm of a hand.” (Science Blog).

Related:

• Mobile Clinical Imaging On a Smart Phone (medgadget.com)

“Bicycle Built For 2,000 is comprised [sic] of 2,088 voice recordings collected via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk web service. Workers were prompted to listen to a short sound clip, then record themselves imitating what they heard.”

They were given no further information about the purpose of their recording, and were paid 0.06 USD each. The voices, originating in 71 countries, were assembled to create a portrait of humanity singing Daisy Bell (“Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do…”).

Related:

• Mattel’s Mind Flex Toy (shoppingblog.com)
• Mattel’s Mind Flex teaches kids fake telepathy (engadget.com)
• Neurosky Mindset Hands-on: Brainwave Gameplay! [Gdc 2009] (i.gizmodo.com)
• NeuroSky Takes Pre-Orders For Its BrainWave Controller (ubergizmo.com)

Robert Krulwich and Jad Abumrad, of NPR’s Radiolab (addictive podcast, by the way) interview neurologist V.S. Ramachandran about his ingenious and effective solution to the vexing and mysterious phenomenon of phantom limb pain. Via NPR.

The illustration to the left is the famous “sensory homunculus” described by Penrose, the representation of the body mapped onto the sensory cortex. This is, of course, the root of the problem of phantom limbs, because although the limb is gone, the representation persists, maing it hard to convince the sensory cortex otherwise. Thank heaven for Ramachandran’s tricky take on neural plasticity.

Do not use if you have ever had an allergic reaction to this product or any of its ingredients.

Failure to follow all instructions and warnings can result in serious injury.

Please leave as clean on departing as you would like to find on entering.

Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

Place all seat backs and tray tables in fully upright position.

Post office will not deliver without proper postage affixed.

Do not operate heavy machinery while reading this weblog.

Caution: Dates on calendar are closer than they appear.

Please note locations of emergency exits upon arrival.

No animals were harmed in the production of this page.

May be used as flotation device in case of emergency.

No ideas were harmed in the making of this weblog.

Anything you say can and will be used against you.

Satisfaction guaranteed; return for full refund.

Names have been changed to protect the innocent.

All questions answered, all answers questioned.

Objects on screen are closer than they appear.

If condition persists, consult your physician.

Detach and include upper portion with payment.

Nutritional need is not established in humans.

Caution: do not swallow. May cause irritation.

Do not use if safety seal is torn or missing.

Please inform author if you cannot read this.

Product is sold by weight and not by volume.

In emergency, break glass, pull down handle.

Caution! The edge is closer than you think.

Contents may have settled during shipment.

Do not fold, staple, spindle or mutilate.

Prices subject to change without notice.

Freshest if used before date specified.

Valid only at participating locations.

If swallowed, do not induce vomiting.

You have the right to remain silent.

Do not remove under penalty of law.

This page intentionally left blank.

Use only in well-ventilated areas.

Do not exceed recommended dosage.

No user-serviceable parts inside.

Warning, contents are flammable.

No shirt, no shoes, no service.

You break it, you've bought it.

You need not be present to win.

Keep out of reach of children.

Part of a daily balanced diet.

First pull up, then pull down.

Void where prohibited by law.

Apply only to affected areas.

Other restrictions may apply.

Close cover before striking.

Do not think of an elephant.

Viewer discretion advised.

You must be present to win.

Caution, low-flying ideas.

Honk if you can read this.

No purchase is necessary.

More taste, less filling.

Internet access required.

Not a low-calorie food.

Don't try this at home.

Wash hands after using.

Consume in moderation.

Store in a cool place.

For external use only.

Mix well before using.

Your mileage may vary.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Use only as directed.

Ignore this notice.

Slippery when wet.

Unplug after use.

Same-day service.

No preservatives.

No trespassing.

No exit.

R.I.P. Virgin Megastores (Yahoo!)

Twins suspected in a spectacular multimillion-euro jewel heist in Berlin have been released. Despite DNA evidence from the crime scene, their genetic indistinguishability thwarted the requirement of German law that a suspect be linked exclusively. The twins, both of whom have criminal records and who may have committed the crime together, have steadfastly refused to comment, except to send a message that they were “proud of the German constitutional state and gave it their thanks.” via Der Spiegel [thanks to kottke].

One of the perils of modern crimefighting’s reliance on genetic evidence?

“All you have to do is insert a coin, and a piece of China will Slowly move forwards and fall into the bottom of the machine, breaking, and leaving you happy and relieved of anger.” Monoscope via walker.

Where can I access one of these?

“Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh’s bombshell earlier this week that Vice President Dick Cheney controlled an “executive assassination ring” [on which I reported here — FmH] continues to reverberate throughout Washington, with Nixon aide John Dean going so far as to accuse the former VP of murder if the charges are true.” via The Raw Story.

Related:

• It’s The Story Of A Lifetime. Or Maybe Not. (themoderatevoice.com)
• Countdown: Seymour Hersh’s Claim of Cheney Covert Assassination Ring (videocafe.crooksandliars.com)

New York bicyclist:

“The nature of the hate has changed. Once, they hated us because we were a rarity, like a rat in the kitchen, a pest. Now, they hate us because we are ubiquitous.” via New York Times Magazine.

The situation once called for civility from outraged nonbikers; now it is the bicyclists who must take the high road, he says.

“Conservatives have never had, and never should have, a problem with elitism. Why have we allowed carny barkers to run away with the Right?” — National Review editor John Derbyshire via The American Conservative

Related:

• “Happy Meal Conservatism” (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)
• The Right And Abu Ghraib, Ctd (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)
• Right on (blogs.law.harvard.edu)

Are we having fun yet?

“Nintendo's Wii has been maiming careless gamers since the day it was launched, but an inexplicable uptick in Britain has professionals scratching their heads. According to Dr. Dev Mukerjee of Broomfield Hospital: “There has been a 100 percent increase in patients complaining of Wii-itis.” Turns out, Wii-itis is their word for playing so much Wii that you injure yourself. Astonishingly, up to ten people per week are being “hospitalized with injuries caused by playing Nintendo Wii games,” which has forced medical personnel to “issue warnings of the dangers associated with the video game system.” Some of the most common injuries are Wii-knee (seriously) and tendon stretching / tearing, both of which could likely be avoided if gamers would bother to stretch before breaking a sweat.”

via Engadget.

Solstice at Newgrange

“Tomorrow’s solstice marks the southernmost point of the Sun’s annual motion through planet Earth’s sky and the astronomical beginning of winter in the north. In celebration of the northern winter solstice and the International Year of Astronomy 2009, you can watch a live webcast of the the solstice sunrise from the megalithic tomb of Newgrange, in County Meath, Ireland. Newgrange dates to 5,000 years ago, much older than Stonehenge, but also with accurate alignments to the solstice Sun. In this view from within the burial mound’s inner chamber, the first rays of the solstice sunrise are passing through a box constructed above the entrance and shine down an 18 meter long tunnel to illuminate the floor at the foot of a decorated stone. The actual stone itself would have been directly illuminated by the solstice Sun 5,000 years ago. The long time exposure also captures the ghostly figure of a more modern astronomer in motion. To watch the live webcast follow the indicated link below. The webcast is planned to go live at 0830 coordinated Universal Time (for example, at 3:30am Eastern Time in the US) tomorrow, Sunday, the 21st.”

via APOD: 2008 December 20.

FInally did it...

Escape key finally did it. Via MakeUseOf.com .

William Saletan via Slate Magazine.

Related:

• Face transplant patient could not speak or eat before operation
• Woman gets near-total face transplant in Cleveland
• Behind a Face Transplant Breakthrough
• Woman gets ‘new face to face the world,’ surgeon says
• America’s First Face Transplant Completed at Cleveland Clinic
• Doctor: Face transplant patient ‘very happy’ with procedure

via The Big Picture – Boston.com.

Not only that, it’s so-o-o-o patriotic to spend as much as you can to sustain the economy as well.

Films of children’s faces as they play video games.

via Telegraph.UK

2 arrested in alleged torture of teen, who escaped (Yahoo)

via New Scientist

I don’t watch television but, if I had any doubts about that, this description of the shows, cancelled or not, that capture a TV critic’s attention seals the deal. Just get past the clever and superfluous analogy to the auto-bailout controversy.

via Heather Havrilesky on TV | Salon Arts & Entertainment

via Natural News

via Slate

Neanderthal

“A researcher at Pennsylvania State University, Stephan Schuster, said in the journal Nature last week that he might be able to regenerate a mammoth from ancient DNA for just $10 million. Given that Chicago’s Field Museum, with the help of McDonald’s and Walt Disney, recently paid $8.36 million for an especially fine Tyrannosaurus rex fossil, Dr. Schuster should be able to sell a pack of live mammoths to zoo managers around the world.

For making the past come alive, a mammoth is a good start, but it’s just a hairy elephant. What other extinct species would be good to have around again? Herein, a wish list.

via NY Times

…and the end-of-year best-of lists are starting to appear. I won’t even try to point to individual lists because in this weblogging era so many come tumbling out every day. The best aggregators are Largehearted Boy, for music, and Fimoculous, for everything. If you like that sort of thing, bookmark them and check back with them frequently, as they do obsessional running updates from now into early next year.

A new dermatological treatment pulls the cells from newborns’ foreskins and injects them, Botox-style, into aging faces

via Popular Science

Trader shoots himself on stock exchange floor (BrisbaneTimes)