Meek, mild (and white) Brooklyn resident Russell Jones encounters the Ol’ Dirty Bastard. (New Yorker)

They have also

They have also

This is circulating widely via email. I’m reposting it here in FmH’s role as a community bulletin board (or, some might say, a spam amplifier).

A collection of links to amateur videos of the tsunami, of variable quality. Since I do not watch TV news, I hadn’t experienced the visual impact until I watched some of these. There is a link at the page to donate to Red Cross disaster relief, if you haven’t already given all you can.

“Adam’s only chore in the Garden of Eden was naming the beasts and birds. The book of Genesis doesn’t tell us whether he found this task difficult or burdensome, but today the need to name and number things has become a major nuisance.” (American Scientist via abby)

Sen. Barbara Boxer explains “why she felt compelled to object to the certification of Ohio’s electoral votes.” (AlterNet)

Astronomy Picture of the Day: “A mere 6,000 light-years distant and sailing through the constellation Vela, star cluster RCW 38 is full of powerful stars. It’s no surprise that these stars, only a million years young with hot outer atmospheres, appear as point-like x-ray sources dotting this x-ray image from the orbiting Chandra Observatory. But the diffuse cloud of x-rays surrounding them is a bit mysterious… (A) source of energetic electrons, such as shockwaves from exploding stars (supernova remnants), or rotating neutron stars (pulsars), is not apparent in the Chandra data. Whatever their origins, the energetic particles could leave an imprint on planetary systems forming in young star cluster RCW 38, just as nearby energetic events seem to have affected the chemistry and isotopes found in our own solar system.”

Oh, White Noise is not from the Don DeLillo novel??

And could this — ‘surreality’; ‘celebreality’ — be the death throes of reality TV? Not to make too much of this over-the-top, unbelievable spectacle, but in a country that can elect George W. Bush president, it is no wonder they think they can get away with exploiting the American public’s credulity to this extent. Nothing can be taken as an insult to our national intelligence any longer…

An array of brain-boosting medications — some available and others in development — promise an era of better thinking through chemistry. New potential mind-enhancing drugs may bring more powerful, more targeted and more lasting improvements in mental acuity than the rudimentary cognition boosters — e.g. amphetamines — with which many are familiar from college all-nighters or long-haul drives.

The last two decades’ neuroscience discoveries about localization of brain functions and delineation of the roles of various neurotransmitters, with the ‘deep pockets’ of the US military’s vested interest in enhancement of pilots’ and soldiers’ combat functions under stress and fatigue, have created an unprecedented climate for the development of these agents. Aging baby boomers are an enormous potential market for the brain enhancing chemicals.

Modafinil, whose approved indication is to treat narcolepsy, may be the first ‘smart drug’. It is not clear by what mechanism it combats fatigue, but it appears to enhance mental functioning even in healthy nonfatigued subjects, with little in the way of complications or side effects. Research subjects who have takenmodafinil pay closer attention and use information more effectively than subjects given a placebo. Faced with conflicting demands, people on modafinil shift from task to task and alter their cognitive strategies more efficiently.

Some speculate that the use of cognition-enhancing drugs will become as commonplace as having a cup of coffee, ushering in an era of ‘cosmetic neurology’. But neuroscientists say two factors could prevent total capitulation to the allure of smart drugs. First, their performance may not live up to expectations. This is a common phenomenon in science — a statistically significant effect is not necessarily significant enough in the real world. And, second, ‘There is no free lunch.’ Again, as is often true in clinical drug development, the extent of complications from the real-world use of these drugs may not be apparent from the outset. A drug that causes users to remember too much detail could clutter the brain with irrelevancies. Sharpening attention might cause excessively intense focus, making it more difficult to shift attention with new demands. In short, someone who notices or remembers everything may end up understanding nothing.

One skeptical psychologist commented:

“The brain was designed by evolution over the millennia to be well-adapted because of the lives we lead. Our lives are better served by being able to focus on the essential information than being able to remember every little detail. We meddle with these designs at our peril.” (LA Times)

A Neurobiological Diagnosis With Aesthetic, Cultural and Philosophic Implications (University of London, Saturday 15th, and Sunday 16th, January 2005) :

If you have any interest in this, you can scroll down the page and read the abstracts of the conference presentations. Neurologist Peter Brugger, for example, “(tries) to delineate the scope of a proper ‘phantomology’ (Stanislaw Lem) whose aim is to study the virtual reality of bodily awareness – from phantom limb to phantom body.”

Harvard psychoanalyst Arnold Modell finds the creation of the unreal phantom limb intriguingly analogous to the process of the construction of the (equally unreal) self and its agency. And neuropsychologist Chris Frith sees the phenomenon as a paradigm of the brain’s mechanisms for the active construction of reality.

Artist Andrew Patrizio asks, “Am I, like others, (ab)using the phenomenon like many other intellectual and cultural activists? Phantom limbs are typical of many flowing and contested scientific discourses around at the moment, whose very elusiveness and ambiguity seems attractive in a multi-disciplinary kind of way. Rather than studying phantom limbs per se, I am currently asking – Does the exhibition as a format deal well with such subjects of an unsolved nature? Would my interest as a curator diminish if an explanatory model were accepted? How are artists working with the mystery, symbolism and science of phantom limbs, erecting a platform for creativity without dismantling the enigma?” Patrizio propounded an artistic expression of the phantom limb phenomenon by having an exhibition which hung no art (stipulating artists from whom works would not be borrowed).

Artist Nicola Diamond considers bodily expression as a culturally specific form of language and wonders how phantom limb would be experienced cross-culturally; there is little evidence of the phenomena in cross-cultural work. Novelist Stuart Brisley relates phantom limb to body dysmorphic disorder. Photographic artist Janet Sternberg finds phantom limb a potent metaphor as well. “Each of us has the condition, someone or something no longer with us who nonetheless continues — for better and for worse — to feel part of us.”

And UCLA philosopher Eleanor Kaufman explores Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception through the apposition of phantom limb — a sensation that an absent body part is still present — and one of my professional interests, anosognosia — the sensation that a present body part is absent. (I find the neurological phenomenon of anosognosia an analogy for some aspects of my patients’ constricted awarenes of themselves and the world.)

From the New York Times science section, this article explained much about which I had been curious. It starts out with the commonplace:

But it rapidly goes to the astounding:

And:

And, although others dispute the science behind this prediction:

You know how, once you notice something, all of a sudden you see it everywhere? I just stumbled upon this fascinating weblog written by an EMT working for the London Ambulance Service, and now I notice that numerous and disparate people are linking to it.

Remember the analysis of photos showing bulges in his suit suggesting that Bush was being fed his debate lines through a wireless link? This site concludes that Bush’s equipment is actually a ‘Lifevest’ wearable defibrillator. Like his father, Bush may have atrial fibrillation, a cardiac arrhythmia that can cause syncopal episodes (fainting spells; recall the famous Bush ‘pretzel-choking’ episode in January, 2002?) as well as cerebrovascular accidents (strokes or mini-strokes), some of which might account for Bush’s apparent cognitive deficits and psychological instability. One sign of a possible stroke is a facial droop, which Bush appears to demonstrate at times and which may, it is suggested, be the reason we find him sneering. [I think however it is more likely that Bush sneers because he is simply a haughty, inadequate and contemptuous man… — FmH]

For good measure, the post throws in some speculation about hyperthyroidism (Graves’ Disease) — which is the likely cause of his father’s atrial fibrillation — and Wernicke-Korsakoff’s Syndrome — essentially cognitive deterioration from chronic alcohol abuse — that I find less compelling. The piece also invokes the scurrilous ‘psychoanalysis’ of Bush by Washington analyst Dr. Justin Frank, about which I have previously posted. I joined many others in the psychiatric community in condemning Dr Frank’s conclusions about Bush’s psychopathology as irresponsible and unethical but — hear me out here — there is a good rational for raising concerns about behavioral observations, given that the President’s actions are in the public domain. The post makes an interesting case that some of these observations could be accounted for by cerebrovascular cognitive impairments.

As the poster concludes, only Bush’s doctors know for sure. As I have said before, just as the results of the President’s annual physical exam are made public, so too should a comprehensive annual ‘mental status’ evaluation bearing on his emotional and cognitive functioning. Despite doctor-patient privilege, the potential consequences of behavioral or cognitive impairment of the man in the Oval Office demand that the Presidential physicians level with the public about aspects of his health that could affect his public functions. Barring that, their responsibility demands at least that they privately steer him out of office if they find him substantially impaired. Who here has any confidence that the fact that the people around Bush have not done so indicates that he is not in fact impaired and that we can rest easy that his hand is on the trigger?

A US physicist fed up with having to revise his course schedule due dates every year proposes a 364-day year, which means every date falls on the same day of the week every year. A ‘leap-week’ unattached to any month is added every five to six years. Many months would have different lengths than they now do. To answer expected criticism from people whose birthdays are ‘stuck’ on an undesireable day of the week, he gives us all permission to celebrate our birthdays on the weekend before or after their actual date. (New Scientist)

The article is actually talking about just one crazy idea on one weblog; but, hey, The New York Times knows a trend when they see one, and don’t stand in their way! The article does laud, however, the self-correcting nature of weblogging reality, in which the accumulation of readers’ comments is (usually) precipitated by a crackpot post. Except, of course, on FmH, which operates off in its own little corner of the universe in defiance of consensus reality, unperturbed…

This is my annual reprise of an FmH New Year’s Day post from years past:

Years ago, the Boston Globe ran a January 1st article compiling folkloric beliefs about what to do, what to eat, etc. on New Year’s Day to bring good fortune for the year to come. I’ve regretted since — I usually think of it around once a year (grin) — not clipping out and saving the article; especially since we’ve had children, I’m interested in enduring traditions that go beyond getting drunk [although some comment that this is a profound enactment of the interdigitation of chaos and order appropriate to the New Year’s celebration — FmH], watching the bowl games and making resolutions. A web search brought me this, less elaborate than what I recall from the Globe but to the same point:

“Traditionally, it was thought that one could affect the luck they would have throughout the coming year by what they did or ate on the first day of the year. For that reason, it has become common for folks to celebrate the first few minutes of a brand new year in the company of family and friends. Parties often last into the middle of the night after the ringing in of a new year. It was once believed that the first visitor on New Year’s Day would bring either good luck or bad luck the rest of the year. It was particularly lucky if that visitor happened to be a tall dark-haired man.

“Traditional New Year foods are also thought to bring luck. Many cultures believe that anything in the shape of a ring is good luck, because it symbolizes “coming full circle,” completing a year’s cycle. For that reason, the Dutch believe that eating donuts on New Year’s Day will bring good fortune.

“Many parts of the U.S. celebrate the new year by consuming black-eyed peas. These legumes are typically accompanied by either hog jowls or ham. Black-eyed peas and other legumes have been considered good luck in many cultures. The hog, and thus its meat, is considered lucky because it symbolizes prosperity. Cabbage is another ‘good luck’ vegetable that is consumed on New Year’s Day by many. Cabbage leaves are also considered a sign of prosperity, being representative of paper currency. In some regions, rice is a lucky food that is eaten on New Year’s Day.”

The further north one travels in the British Isles, the more the year-end festivities focus on New Year’s. The Scottish observance of Hogmanay has many elements of warming heart and hearth, welcoming strangers and making a good beginning:

“Three cornered biscuits called hogmanays are eaten. Other special foods are: wine, ginger cordial, cheese, bread, shortbread, oatcake, carol or carl cake, currant loaf, and a pastry called scones. After sunset people collect juniper and water to purify the home. Divining rituals are done according to the directions of the winds, which are assigned their own colors. First Footing:The first person who comes to the door on midnight New Year’s Eve should be a dark-haired or dark-complected man with gifts for luck. Seeing a cat, dog, woman, red-head or beggar is unlucky. The person brings a gift (handsel) of coal or whiskey to ensure prosperity in the New Year. Mummer’s Plays are also performed. The actors called the White Boys of Yule are all dressed in white, except for one dressed as the devil in black. It is bad luck to engage in marriage proposals, break glass, spin flax, sweep or carry out rubbish on New Year’s Eve.”

Here’s why we clink our glasses when we drink our New Year’s toasts, no matter where we are. Of course, sometimes the midnight cacophony is louder than just clinking glassware, to create a ‘devil-chasing din’.

In Georgia, eat black eyed peas and turnip greens on New Year’s Day for luck and prosperity in the year to come, supposedly because they symbolize coppers and currency. Hoppin’ John, a concoction of peas, onion, bacon and rice, is also a southern New Year’s tradition, as is wearing yellow to find true love (in Peru, yellow underwear, apparently!) or carrying silver for prosperity. In some instances, a dollar bill is thrown in with the other ingredients of the New Year’s meal to bring prosperity. A similar New Year’s meal in Norway also includes dried cod, “lutefisk.” The Pennsylvania Dutch make sure to include sauerkraut in their holiday meal, also for prosperity.

In Spain, you would cram twelve grapes in your mouth at midnight, one each time the clock chimed, for good luck for the twelve months to come. The U. S. version of this custom, for some reason, involves standing on a chair as you pop the grapes. In Denmark, jumping off a chair at the stroke of midnight signifies leaping into the New Year. In Rio, you would be plunging into the sea en masse at midnight, wearing white and bearing offerings.

In China, papercuttings of red paper are hung in the windows to scare away evil spirits who might enter the house and bring misfortune.

Elsewhere: pancakes for the New Year’s breakfast in France; banging on friends’ doors in Denmark to “smash in” the New Year; going in the front door and out the back door at midnight in Ireland; making sure the first person through your door in the New Year in Scotland is a tall dark haired visitor. Water out the window at midnight in Puerto Rico rids the home of evil spirits. Cleanse your soul in Japan at the New Year by listening to a gong tolling 108 times, one for every sin. It is Swiss good luck to let a drop of cream fall on the floor on New Year’s Day.

However you’re going to celebrate, my warmest wishes for the year to come!

Has anyone read Mary Douglas’ classic, Purity and Danger? It is a treatise on the ways in which what is considered impure or contaminated is socially determined. The boundaries between purity and impurity serve symbolic purposes to maintain social order and coherency. The uncleanliness of the corpse is one of those things. The assertion after every mass disaster about needing to bury the dead rapidly to avoid disease is so automatic and unquestioned that it has always seemed to me that the public health need it meets is more likely in the emotional realm than the infectious disease one.

One of the progenitor weblogs is back!

Google has established a page of links to agencies providing disaster relief in the wake of the tsunami. There is a link to it front and center on their search page, if you haven’t already noticed. Rumor has it they have already raised $5 million from putting up this page. In general, online giving to tsunami relief has been of an unprecedented magnitude, far outstripping donations after 9-11 for example. People need to realize that the devastated areas will have relief needs for years to come, so give much but give often.

This ingenious article from the British Medical Journal is a formal case presentation, such as we write as a matter of course in medicine, of Gollum, discussing the differential diagnosis — psychiatric or medical? — of his behavioral disturbance. As it is a collaboration by a number of medical students and a lecturer from the Department of Mental Health Sciences of the Royal Free and University College Medical School in London, you can predict where their conclusions will lie.

This Scientific American piece reviews research challenging the commonsense notion that self-esteem is good for you and that low self-esteem is the root of many problems in functioning. Quite the converse may be true; I have previously written about the insidious effects of our society’s encouragement of narcissism, and the skeptical research findings here support a revisionist approach. This has many implications for us who are mental health practitioners. I have followed thinking on the evolutionary value of depression, for example; under certain circumstances, a pessimistic, unambitious stance may be adaptive, self-protective… and more realistic. Should it necessarily be abolished with treatment in all instances?

Video game skills make surgeons more precise, and sophisticated game technology may be entering both the surgical curriculum and the operating room itself. (Wired)

I suggested in my earlier piece on Yuschenko’s poisoning that the assertion that those who perpetrated the dioxin poisoning were seeking to kill him rapidly is a red herring issue. That dioxin does not induce death throes rapidly does not mean it is not an incredibly toxic and, untimately deadly, chemical. The hidden agenda in this specious argument against its ‘politicization’ is an ignorant attempt to undermine public policy meant to address environmental toxins.

“Why should animals help out stricken humans – does it prove that altruism is a natural instinct?” (Guardian.UK)

“The Polymeal: a more natural, safer, and probably tastier (than the Polypill) strategy to reduce cardiovascular disease by more than 75%.” (British Medical Journal)

Explanations invoke the often-noticed ability of animals to sense danger. At first blush, you don’t need to invoke a ‘sixth sense’ here; it is easy to imagine animals’ alarm when the earth moves beneath their feet in an earthquake. But what would lead them to expect a tidal wave and move to higher ground? Certainly it could not be accounted for on the basis of natural selection, as such a disaster does not happen frequently enough to exert selective pressure. There are more things in heaven and earth…

“Emergence of society may have spurred growth. The sophistication of the human brain is not simply the result of steady evolution, according to new research. Instead, humans are truly privileged animals with brains that have developed in a type of extraordinarily fast evolution that is unique to the species.” (Guardian.UK)

“What does the fashion for books about the state of the English language tell us? People care about their language because it forms part of their identity, and part of the resistance to changes in English is a resistance to change itself. But correct usage is not an elite affectation; it is a badge of competence,” says Richard Jenkyns (Prospect).

Because of changes in the logical directory structure at my webserver, you will get unpredictable results if you use the older form of the URL for FmH, of the form “http://world.std.com/[some subdirectories here]/followme.html”.

Please check your bookmarks, blogrolls, etc., and make sure you are using either of the following two (equivalent) URLs instead:

• http://gelwan.com/followme.html
• http://theworld.com/~emg/followme.html

I would prefer it if you would use the “…gelwan.com” version, as that will still work if I change hosts at some point in the future, rather than requiring a redirect.

Urge Bush to Increase Aid for Tsunami Victims:

Death Toll Climbs to 63,000 (Yahoo!)

A Third of the Dead in Undersea Quake Are Said to Be Children: “Survivors arranged for mass burials and searched for tens of thousands of the missing in countries thousands of miles apart.” (New York Times )

[I cribbed most of these from another site where the author had the temerity to copyright the list. More concerned about getting a feather in their cap for righteousness than disseminating the information broadly and sharing it freely, I guess…]

The year’s best jazz recordings, per Fred Kaplan. Slate

Former CIA analyst “Ray McGovern picks up the story that American papers have been slow to grasp: China and Russia have agreed to conduct joint military activities, in China, in 2005.” (Tom Paine)

“Thirty movers and shakers in British culture look back on an eventful year” in the arts. (Guardian.UK)

Guard Reports Serious Drop in Enlistment: “In the latest signs of strains on the military from the war in Iraq, the Army National Guard announced on Thursday that it had fallen 30 percent below its recruiting goals in the last two months and would offer new incentives, including enlistment bonuses of up to $15,000.” (New York Times ) Unfortunately, enlistment bonuses or not, all this is going to lead to is acceleration of the stop-loss program and pressure for a draft…

A reader sent me this very different take on Yuschenko’s disfiguring ailment by Justin Raimundo. He claims we should not accept uncritically the universal conclusion from the press that Yuschenko was poisoned, especially because it comes from the administrative director of the Viennese clinic where he was evaluated, not the medical director, who resigned during the furor after reportedly having his life threatened for disputing the conclusions his boss had announced. Raimundo has little besides this circumstantial evidence, his instincts that something was funny about the ‘poisoned-by-the-bad-guys’ scenario, his mistrust of the mainstream media, and the assumptions he cites of several others to the effect that the story is anti-Russian propaganda spread by reactionary elements in the U.S. Just because a story fits the worldview of the powers-that-be doesn’t a priori mean it is false, it seems to me, although it makes it far more likely [grin]…

A similar assumption that the mainstream media version is either “misinformation or disiinformation” appears here, although his piece is colored by the weblog’s a priori agenda of showing that the US press does not understand Europe.

Then there is this medical weblog which argues against the dioxin-poisoning assertions on two grounds. First, the weblogger does not think dioxin makes a good murder weapon because it takes so long to kill. This assumes the aim of the poisoner was assassination, which is not at all a given. Things in Slavic politics are inevitably more Byzantine and complex than we would assume them to be; perhaps grotesque disfigurement, making a mockery of visibility and popularity, and a slow gruesome death better serve someone’s needs…

Second is the medical dictum that ‘an uncommon presentation of a common disease is more likely than a common presentation of an uncommon disease’. The weblogger suggests that Yuschenko’s presentation is much more consistent with alcoholic pancreatitis and an alcohol-induced eruption of the skin disease rosacea than with the characteristic chloracne rash of dioxin poisoning. But like all good medical rules of thumb, this one must be evaluated thoughtfully. I think the explosive onset of Yuschenko’s disfigurement (if we are to take it as true that the ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos are only two years apart) would be such a stratospherically uncommon presentation of a common disease that the chloracne hypothesis is actually indeed more likely (although, I emphasize as a psychiatrist, it is a long time since I studied any toxicology). Now I do not know much about Viktor Yuschenko’s private life, but I hope that the assumption that medical complications of alcohol are a likely scenario for him reflects more than just a stereotypical prejudice about the likelihood that a Slavic male is a problem drinker…

Finally, let us be reminded that those who accuse others of being credulous leave themselves open to the same charge of credulity. Despite Raimundo’s take on it, it was not only the Austrian clinic that has concluded Yuschenko was dioxin-toxic. An independent analysis by a Dutch toxicologist found massive levels of dioxin in his tissue samples — “the second-highest level of dioxin poisoning ever recorded in a human – more than 6,000 times the normal concentration” (Guardian.UK), if the Guardian‘s reporting is not suspect.

Somewhere in my whirlwind tour through this issue, I saw a reader comment contrasting the mainstream’s readiness to embrace the poisoning theory in Yuschenko’s case with the scorn heaped on suggestions that Arafat was poisoned by the enemies of the Palestinians. I agree that the truth of a matter can be as easily obscured as elucidated by the reportage (and the weblogging) it receives; I would be interested in your comments on either or both of these issues.

Tibetan Buddhist Internet Radio

“…One of the most breathtaking ever built” says one architectural critic. (BBC)

McCain is clearly positioning himself to pick up the pieces of Bush’s failure in 2008. I read the “…have the team that he wants around him…” comment as being about letting him have enough rope. Unfortunately, whether it is McCain or a Democrat who will inherit the mess, as the Bush administration fails, so goes the country and the world in the meanwhile.

A new weblog — Mind Hacks: “Neuroscience and psychology tricks to find out what’s going on inside your brain. Mind Hacks is a book by Tom Stafford and Matt Webb.“

From the Sunday Times of London:

“I’m not particularly proud of being visceral, but I am admitting it. My attacks on George Bush have nothing to do with science or the scientific method. I just can’t stand the man’s style, the way he swaggers and struts and smirks and the way he looks sly and deceitful and the way Americans can’t see it. I’m irritated by the way they think he’s just a regular guy you can have a drink with.” [thanks, abby]

Spoiler alert: If you are a fan of The Wire and have last night’s episode on TiVo and haven’t watched it yet, don’t read any further, and certainly don’t read the New York Times story to which the blink points. Not only does HBO seem to have no compunctions about killing off major characters in many of its dramatic series, but the actors seem to find out only when they get the scripts for the episode in which they meet their end. [As to the details, I actually thought Stringer Bell wwas going to get whacked by crony Avon Barksdale, not Omar.]

The article discusses the ‘insanity defense’, which has been based on 19th century science bearing on individual responsibility for one’s actions.

The insanity defense has fallen into disfavor because of the public perception that it is abused, especially since the acquittal of John Hinckley in his attempt to assassinate Ronald Reagan. But, as a neuroscience-grounded psychiatrist (it is forensic psychiatrists who evaluate and testify on the criminal responsibility of criminal suspects), I grapple with questions of whether my patients have the ability to conform themselves to standards of right and wrong all the time. I support a modern, scientifically-informed insanity defense as much as I decry its abuse as a slick defense tactic. Those who are legitimately not responsible for their actions are entitled to the defense and ought not to be penalized because others will misuse the insanity plea. On first blush, there is nothing special about the insanity plea in this regard. The burden of providing opportunities for justice inevitably leaves loopholes in many areas. The answer is to close the loopholes rather than throwing out the baby with the bathwater. But there is something special about a plea of insanity, which is the public’s lack of understanding of the nature of mental illness (and, for that matter, of free will). In general, psychiatric disturbance is stigmatized and its bearer is seen as ‘bad rather than mad’. Much as there is a special burden on the court system not to err against suspects of color because of the historical reality of racism in our society, there ought to be a parallel burden not to err against mentally ill suspects.

Related:

How the Justice System Criminalizes Mental Illness — Brent Staples (New York Times op-ed)

And:

In a timely coincidence comes this story in which it is suggested that bizarre and dangerous behavior not otherwise easily understood (although not in this case direct violence towards others) may relate to the relapse of a disease process. (Yahoo! News)

You know about Google Suggest by now, right? It is a page with a Google searchbox which drops down a list of autocompletions, based on popularity, of the search term you are starting to type into the box. Here is the Suggested Google Alphabet (he means the Google Suggest Alphabet, more properly):

And Jerry Kindall suggests an ego-ranking based on Google Suggest. Every term gets a score x.y in which x is the number of letters you have to type in to get your name on the drop-down list, and y is the position of your name in the list when it shows up. Gelwan is 8.4 and Follow Me Here is 11.1, for example. Keep in mind, however, that those rankings change with the relative popularity of the search.

This I don’t understand. With food supplies dwindling at the Space Station, NASA says that if there is more than around a two-week delay in the scheduled Christmas Day Russian resupply mission, they will have to evacuate the astronauts. But if they can mount a mission to evacuate at that point, why can’t they mount a mission to merely deliver some more food??

I am surprised at The Times [or should I be?]. It is obvious that it was an appointment that was bound to run into confirmation difficulties from the inception, and not because of any domestic help issues. I imagine the Democrats signalled that his recent questionable performance in training security forces for our WoT®, which role Bush did not even mention in announcing the appointment, was not going to be passed over in the confirmation hearings. Then there are questions about shady financial dealings and rumors that high level Homeland Security staff were panic-stricken about the appointment. Hasty choice indeed.

It has been pointed out that the real loser in the Kerik debacle may be Rudy Giuliani. Kerik was his protegé and he was pushing for the nomination. What price will he pay for embarrassing the imperious Bush, who can never take responsibility for his own mistakes?