Jerry Groopman, one of my favorite physician-writers, on persistent vegetative state and related conditions. PET and fMRI scanning of some patients shows they are still having complex cognitive functions. Unlike Terry Schiavo’s supporters’ assertions, the issue is not that we are wrong about what goes on in a vegetative state. It is that some, or even many, patients are misdiagnosed:

…you are a chocoholic because of a “complex interplay between genes, environment, diet, lifestyle, and symbiotic gut microbial activity…” (Journal of Proteome Research) via Book of Joe

It appears I am right-brain-dominant, whatever that means.

Preliminary but exciting progress towards a lab test for Alzheimer’s Disease, which to now is only diagnosed impressionistically (until post-mortem):

I heard an interview with one of the investigators today on NPR. Utterly fascinating. Irregular past tenses persist proportionally to how common the words are. Uncommon irregular past tenses, like ‘stank’, are predicted to disappear sooner. In around five hundred years, the investigators predict, we will be saying ‘it stinked’ instead. In most languages, the past tenses of the most frequently used verbs — to be, to do, to go, to take, etc. — have remained irregular and will probably continue to do so. A related phenomenon is that other common words are very resistant to change, so, for example, the word for the number ‘two’ is very similar to that in other languages descended from proto-Indo-European, while less common words diverge more. The interviewer asked the simplest but surely the most profound question, to which the investigator being interviewed conceded they indeed have no answer — why do languages change at all?

I haven’t kept track, but someone just told me it has been five years since the Do Not Call registry was introduced. Registrations expire at the five-year point, so if you were an early adopter you might want to go back and re-register.

There’s also been a rumor going around that telemarketers are about to get a database of cellphone numbers. This site claims this is not true, as federal law prohibits using automated dialers (the telemarketing industry standard) to call cell phone numbers or any other phone number where the owner is charged for receiving the call. Thus, you do not have to register your mobile number with the Do Not Call registry. You can register it if you are ultra-paranoid. However, if you are among the most ultra-paranoid, registering it might concern you, since you would be broadcasting the existence of your mobile number, I suppose, much as we have all learned not to click on the ‘remove my email address’ link in a spam mail message.

Five of the six major cellular carriers (excluding Verizon) were supposed to be establishing an opt-in wireless 411 directory (Google Search ) in 2006. (Did this happen? I have Verizon service, so I would not have heard if customers were being invited to opt in.) This may be the source of the alarm that the telemarketers would be getting your mobile number.

Who’ll win hte 2007 Nobel Prize for Literature? Current betting odds from Ladbrokes.

Seymour Hirsh writes in The New Yorker, with his usual access to inside sources, of the administration’s plans for Iran.

Now that the Bushies have redefined the war in Iraq as a strategic struggle with Iran, the position that we have to confront the Iranians has taken firm hold of the administration. Longstanding battle plans against Iran have been redrawn this summer, no longer centered on broadranging bombing attacks against suspected nuclear centers but on surgical strikes on Revolutionary Guard centers which the administration now claims have been the source of attacks against Americans in Iraq. Hersh says this reflects both the administration conclusion that they cannot get away with another WMD argument and the recognition that Iran has been the geopolitical winner of the war in Iraq.

Cheney is behind this desperate push to bring military action to Iran, disregarding the fact that Republican prospects for 2008 are crashing and burning wholesale. Hersh’s sources report an increased tampo of attack planning, largely by people without any experience with Iran, and caution that, as usual, the administration has not thought through the likely Iranian reaction. Hersh quotes the likes of Zbigniew Brzezinski as predicting that Iran will intensify its conflict with its neighbors, drawing Pakistan in and keeping the US embroiled in a decades’-long regional war.

A justification for attacking Iran based on its supplying weapons for Iraqi insurgent attacks against the US, as we heard, e.g., in Petraeus’ recent assertions, ignores several facts. The provenance of the terrorist weaponry in Iraq is far from clear. And Iranian-supplied armaments may well have been given to Iran’s Shiite allies in southern Iraq years ago when they were fighting Saddam. And despite the enormous presence of Iranians inside Iraq, direct evidence of their role in military training of Iraqis is lacking. Iraqi politicians routinely invoke outside interference to evade responsibility for their own failures. CIA sources have told Hersh that the intelligence about who is doing what “is so thin that nobody even wants his name on it.” [But lack of intelligence has never been a problem for this administration before, has it?]

The problem with a surgical bombing strike campaign, however, is that it only makes sense if the intelligence behind it is good. If significant targets are not hit quickly, it will escalate. The Israelis, alarmed that the US is abandoning its targeting of Iranian nuclear facilities, may press for such a broadening. especially if Iran’s proxy Hezbollah responds. Israel is not impressed by evidence that Iran is years away from being able to deliver a nuclear attack. Once they have mastered the nuclear fuel cycle and have the requisite materials, the possibilities of passing materials to terrorist groups or of unleashing a dirty bomb materialize. Recent changes of leadership in our allies (and erstwhile allies) in Western Europe may also factor into the shape of the American attack.

I’m dying to see this, I guess because I’m neither a non-Dylanist or a diehard.

This site plays a neverending stream of photos being posted to Blogger weblogs. If you have alot of screen territory and bandwidth, keeping it up and running somewhere in a corner of your visual field will give you a subliminal taste of the weblogging zeitgeist in realtime. However, I think you’ll soon get bored. It is amazing how banal most of the images are.

If you do find something arresting, you can click an image to be taken directly to the blog post it was uploaded to, or click “show info” to see an overlay with the post title, a snippet of the body, and some profile information about the poster. [Google/Blogger warns us that, despite their best algorithmic efforts, an occasional image that is NSFW may slip through.]

I’m dying to see this, I guess because I’m neither a non-Dylanist or a diehard.

‘We got more information out of a German general with a game of chess or Ping-Pong than they do today, with their torture…’ (Washington Post)

Appendix may be useful after all (MSNBC)

Functional brain imaging compares physicians and matched controls and finds that the ’empathy circuitry’ of the brain is activated much less in the former when watching a video of an acupuncture procedure. The researchers take this as an indication that physicians’ training and experience has trained them to keep detachment. This is certainly true, and I have at times considered it the devil’s bargain into which I have entered to be a healer. However, I am not sure the study demonstrates this well-knwon phenomenon, as the researchers assert. First of all, I don’t think it is inflicting pain per se that leads physicians to a detached perspective. It is, more generally, being in the presence of so much pain and suffering. Secondly, the difference between physicians’ and nonphysicians’ experiences in watching an acupuncture video probably has less to do with tolerating inflicting pain and more to do with the fact that physicians know acupuncture not to be painful in the first place, unlike the lay observers.

Not Ideas About the Thing But the Thing Itself

At the earliest ending of winter,
In March, a scrawny cry from outside
Seemed like a sound in his mind.

He knew that he heard it,
A bird’s cry, at daylight or before,
In the early March wind.

The sun was rising at six,
No longer a battered panache above snow…
It would have been outside.

It was not from the vast ventriloquism
Of sleep’s faded papier-mache…
The sun was coming from the outside.

That scrawny cry–It was
A chorister whose c preceded the choir.
It was part of the colossal sun,

Surrounded by its choral rings,
Still far away. It was like
A new knowledge of reality.

— Wallace Stevens

So far, seven .mp3s of a projected 20-mp3 labor of love are posted. [via Robot Wisdom]

So far, seven .mp3s of a projected 20-mp3 labor of love are posted. [via Robot Wisdom]

(or at least sponsored…) : “Effective September 19, 2007, TimesSelect has ended. Content previously published for TimesSelect is available free to all NYTimes.com visitors.” (New York Times )

(or at least sponsored…) : “Effective September 19, 2007, TimesSelect has ended. Content previously published for TimesSelect is available free to all NYTimes.com visitors.” (New York Times )

Fifteen families from around the world posed among a week’s worth of their food, with favorite dishes and comparative cost noted in US dollars.

“This map reflects the fact that a large number of basic values are closely correlated; they can be depicted in just major two dimensions of cross-cultural variation…”. Interestingly, the axes are (a) traditional vs. secular-rational; and (b) survival values vs. self-expression values:

“…the most remarkable [discovery] in water science in 100 years…”: Applying RF to a beaker full of salt water causes it to release hydrogen continuously, which once ignited will burn with a steady flame, according to a serendipitous discovery of an amateur inventor. The possibilities are endless, if this becomes viable outside the lab.

Ed Fitzgerald captures my frustration perfectly with observations about yesterday’s antiwar protest in Washington.

(unfutz)

Artist Grayson Perry:

Ed Fitzgerald captures my frustration perfectly with observations about yesterday’s antiwar protest in Washington.

(unfutz)

Getting ready for Halloween, perhaps?

This script takes your top 20 artists on Last.FM. For each of these artists, collect the top 5 similar artists. The resulting number of unique artists is your eclectic score. If the score is small (extreme = 5) your musical preferences are very limited, and if it is large (larger than 80, extreme = 100), then you have an eclectic musical preference. You can compute your own score at:

My eclectic score is currently:

The 77 related artists for my profile are Aimee Mann (2), Andrew Bird, Ani DiFranco, Beulah, Bleeding Hearts, Bloc Party, Bob Dylan (2), Bob Mould, Bright Eyes, Broken Social Scene, Bruce Springsteen (3), Cat Power (2), Cat Stevens, Cream (2), Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, David Bowie, Death Cab for Cutie, Elvis Costello, Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Emmylou Harris, Fiona Apple, Guided by Voices, Interpol, Iris DeMent, Iron & Wine, James Taylor, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, John Vanderslice, Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed, Lucinda Williams, Lyle Lovett, Martha Wainwright, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Modest Mouse (2), My Morning Jacket, Neil Young (3), Neutral Milk Hotel, Nick Drake, Okkervil River (2), Paul Simon, Pavement, Pete Yorn, Phish, Pink Floyd, Queen, Rachael Yamagata, Regina Spektor, Rev Hammer, Ryan Adams, Show of Hands, Simon & Garfunkel (2), Spoon, Steeleye Span, Sufjan Stevens (2), Talking Heads, Tegan and Sara, The Albion Band, The Allman Brothers Band, The Arcade Fire, The Band, The Beatles, The Byrds, The Decemberists (5), The Dismemberment Plan, The Doors (2), The Mountain Goats, The New Pornographers, The Replacements, The Rolling Stones (2), The Shins (4), The Who, Tori Amos, Van Morrison (3), Warren Zevon, Yo La Tengo.

Not only a longer-lasting presence but little move away from a primary combat role (New York Times). I cannot believe there was any suspense about what he was going to say. The White House looked long and hard for a man of his stature and supposed credibility who would be an unquestioning shill for the paranoid and megalomanic dysadministration agenda.

David Pogue, in his New York Times technology weblog, points to an amazing new image cropping and resizing algorithm. Watch the embedded video if you have any interest in picture manipulation. The commenters to Pogue’s post mention disturbing implications for truth in journalism but it seems to me we are way beyond worrying about the technologies for image manipulation in that regard. We have to worry, and have for a long time, far more about the personal integrity of the manipulators than the techniques they have at their disposal.

Apparently, the day after this was posted on YouTube, Adobe snatched up the developer. [thanks to walker]

Tourist attraction or existential statement?

Interesting merging of metaphors in a poetic evocation of Federer’s tennis play. (Velyn Klinkenborg in the New York Times )

David Pogue, in his New York Times technology weblog, points to an amazing new image cropping and resizing algorithm. Watch the embedded video if you have any interest in picture manipulation. The commenters to Pogue’s post mention disturbing implications for truth in journalism but it seems to me we are way beyond worrying about the technologies for image manipulation in that regard. We have to worry, and have for a long time, far more about the personal integrity of the manipulators than the techniques they have at their disposal.

Apparently, the day after this was posted on YouTube, Adobe snatched up the developer. [thanks to walker]

Related: 

Bush’s Resumé

Here’s a wonderful illlustration of the value of the web for social networking. (Reddit)

The Cognitive Neuropsychiatry of Religious Belief and Experience — Ryan McKay [.pdf]

Related:

Psychiatrists are the least religious medical specialty overall; and the more religious a physician is, the less likely s/he is to refer a patient to a psychiatrist. (Psychiatric Services)

Professor of Law and Psychiatry Discusses Her Battle with Schizophrenia, depicted in her recent memoir, The Center Cannot Hold, with a weblogger. As FmH readers know, one of my ongoing concerns in my work as a psychiatrist is the stigma attached to mental illness and how my patients suffer for it. Saks has much to say about that. My curiosity, simply put, is whether she rises above the stigmatization because she is exceptional, or whether she is exceptional because she has somehow managed to rise above the stigmatization. Her story reinforces my impression, from years of working with schizophrenics, that one’s IQ score helps. While intellect is by no means protective against the devastation of a psychotic illness (in some cases, quite the contrary, because of greater insight into what is being lost!), those with the most rehabilitative potential are usually those with the greatest intellectual capacity either premorbidly or at least retained . In Saks’ case, as well, some questions about whether she truly had the devastating disease of schizophrenia arise.

On Being Asked To Write A Poem Against The War In Vietnam

Well I have and in fact
more than one and I’ll
tell you this too

I wrote one against
Algeria that nightmare
and another against

Korea and another
against the one
I was in

and I don’t remember
how many against
the three

when I was a boy
Abyssinia Spain and
Harlan County

and not one
breath was restored
to one

shattered throat
mans womans or childs
not one not

one
but death went on and on
never looking aside

except now and then
with a furtive half-smile
to make sure I was noticing.

When I Wrote A Little

poem in the ancient mode for you
that was musical and had old words

in it such as would never do in
the academies you loved it and you

said you did not know how to thank
me and in truth this is a problem

for who can ever be grateful enough
for poetry but i said you thank me

every day and every night wordlessly
which you really do although again

in truth it is a problem for how can
life ever be consonant with spirit

yet we are human and are naturally
hungry for gratitude yes we need it

and never have enough oh my dear i
think these problems are always with

us and in reality have no solutions
except when we wash them away on

salty tides of loving as we rock in
the dark sure sea of our existence

ADHD Drug Tested as Treatment for Crack Addiction. Atomoxitine, a nonaddictive medication used for ADHD, may be enough of a mild mimic of the pharmacological effects of cocaine in the CNS that it might substitute for it, the reasoning goes. When used in cocaine rehab, however, patients often relapse. So the efffects and dangers of mixing atomoxetine and cocaine were investigated in a study to be published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence but available online in pre-print. The verdict was that there was mild additive cardiovascular danger and no consistent blockade of the pleasurable effects of the cocaine. In other words, the combination was “safe but of questionable effectiveness”, investigators concluded.

This illustrates a longstanding fallacy in the treatment of drug addiction, IMHO. All too often, no matter what the drug is, addicts are given a medication that produces a mild version of the pharmacological effects of their drug of choice in hopes it will satisfy their cravings or block the stronger effects of the drug and make it less rewarding. Examples include another medication, the antidepressant bupropion, for cocaine; and buprenorphine for opiate addiction. Similar (but even more thoughtless) is the medically contraindicated but widespread practice of maintaining ex-alcohol abusers on tranquilizers for sleep or anxiety. I have rarely seen these work and usually see users begin using their drug of abuse again while still on the supposed treatment, with additive effects. The fallacy lies in the reductionistic pharmacological materialism that equates the reward of the drug entirely with its (poorly-characterized) physiological effects in the CNS. This ignores the psychological needs the drug and its use provide. The habitual and compulsive nature of drug abuse comes from its being a powerful reinforcer in far more ways than just its stimulation of the “pleasure center” of the CNS, as it has become fashionable to describe it. From this point of view, it is not puzzling that patients will revert to their drug of abuse instead of, or on top of, the supposed relapse-preventing medication therapy.

A related phenomenon occurs when other drugs which themselves have abuse potential are used to substitute for the supposedly more damaging street drug, as in the case of methadone for opiate addicts. I’m not arguing about the merits of legalizing addiction here, but if that is what we are doing, let us be honest about it. Not only is there a street trade in diverted methadone itself (as well as suboxone) — more to get high than to self-detox — but the methadone clinics are often vehicles to maintain or even enhance clients’ addictions, in effect diverting addicts’ payments from the drug dealers into the clinic coffers. Call me cynical, but few of the methadone clinics I have seen do what would be medically prudent: (a) carefully assess the patient’s level of tolerance and maintenance need; (b) place the patient on a dose of methadone at or slightly below that level; (c) and embark on a medically prudent and tolerable but inexorably progressive taper of the methadone.

No lie: one of the more idiotic psychotherapeutic ideas I have ever seen.

You may not see my receipt: An emphatic no-thank-you to the increasingly ubiquitous practice of receipt-checking as you leave retail stores. You may think it is just a trivial indignity you put up with without much thought. You may not even be old enough to recall when it was not that way. You may certainly think it is not worth the energy to oppose. But doing so is not only a nostalgic hearkening-back to the good old days when people were trusting and trusted; it is also an arguably spiritual practice when one stands up against these trends. Similar to the reason I still tweak the noses of the baristas by ordering my coffee “small”, “medium”, or “large” when I go into Starbuck’s.

Because Firefox allows ad blocking, a new campaign has blocked Firefox users’ access to certain websites, on the grounds that they “provide quality content in exchange for displaying ads” and that accessing the content without viewing the ads is theft. Of course, I can use a user-agent switching extension with Firefox and disguise the identity of my browser. [via the null device]

(I just hope they don’t try it on my many psychiatric patients who are delusional already about their brains/minds being controlled by external forces.)

“…[B]ecause of biology and experience, and the interaction between the two, autism may express itself differently in girls. And that may have implications for their well-being.” (New York Times Magazine)

“A new field called developmental programming maintains … that obesity, like many aspects of our physiology, can be traced to the months just before and after birth, when the brain and other organs are still fine-tuning themselves.” (New York Times Magazine)

“…[B]ecause of biology and experience, and the interaction between the two, autism may express itself differently in girls. And that may have implications for their well-being.” (New York Times Magazine)

Two lists of the “top 100” healthcare weblogs, using different ranking algorithms, are here and here.

Surrealist juxtaposes dark imagery with ironic humor:

Country Fair

for Hayden Carruth

If you didn’t see the six-legged dog,
It doesn’t matter.
We did, and he mostly lay in the corner.
As for the extra legs,

One got used to them quickly
And thought of other things.
Like, what a cold, dark night
To be out at the fair.

Then the keeper threw a stick
And the dog went after it
On four legs, the other two flapping behind,
Which made one girl shriek with laughter.

She was drunk and so was the man
Who kept kissing her neck.
The dog got the stick and looked back at us.
And that was the whole show.

Eyes Fastened With Pins

How much death works,
No one knows what a long
Day he puts in. The little
Wife always alone
Ironing death’s laundry.
The beautiful daughters
Setting death’s supper table.
The neighbors playing
Pinochle in the backyard
Or just sitting on the steps
Drinking beer. Death,
Meanwhile, in a strange
Part of town looking for
Someone with a bad cough,
But the address somehow wrong,
Even death can’t figure it out
Among all the locked doors…
And the rain beginning to fall.
Long windy night ahead.
Death with not even a newspaper
To cover his head, not even
A dime to call the one pining away,
Undressing slowly, sleepily,
And stretching naked
On death’s side of the bed.

Decisions will be anything but rational the day after a nuclear terrorist attack on the United States. (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)

If you use Excel, I am sure you will have a use for this brilliant, and dead-simple, method. The instructional video goes on too long belaboring the obvious justifications for representing numeric information visually, though. (Lifehacker)

(Strange Maps)

from Weirdomatic – Amazing Pictures [via Digg]

For some, the format is “beneath their dignity.” And, oops, there are those pesky scheduling conflicts with the timing…

From HowStuffWorks:

Also:

Severity Rating of Swear Words:

(Strange Maps)