Review of Louis Breger’s new life of Freud. “Outside the psychoanalytic community, there is widespread indifference to

Freud among psychiatrists and therapists in general. His dream theories

have unravelled, his views on women have decayed, his Oedipus theory is

seen as fantasy, his long-drawn-out psychotherapy has had its day. What

can be salvaged and recycled? Can a satisfactory new Freud arise from the

ashes of the old?” Spectator

Hitting the Wall.

“Nobody likes to think that they have gone past their peak. It’s a very unpleasant feeling…None of my fragile childhood dreams, my parents’ ambitious encouragement, my education

at all the best schools, prepared me for this

early seniority, this stiffening at 35.” Feed

ACLU organizes opposition to Congressional restrictions on prescribing of RU-486. “…(A)nti-choice extremists in Congress…have introduced legislation that would impose

severe and unwarranted restrictions on the use of this

drug. Sponsored by Rep. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Sen.

Tim Hutchinson (R-AR), S. 3157/H.R. 5385 would

impose a variety of limitations on mifepristone,

including restricting the physicians who can prescribe

the drug to the limited number who are trained to

perform surgical abortions. These restrictions would

severely limit access to mifepristone and place it out

of reach for many American women.” With just two clicks, you can send a message to your legislators, adding your voice to those who believe that Congress should not substitute its partisan views for those of the medical experts of the FDA (if you agree…).

The Free Nader Vote: “Why is voting for Nader without risk possible? Because of the Electoral

College, it makes no difference if Gore or Bush win a particular state by one

vote or by a million. The president is not elected by the popular vote, but by a

majority (270) of the 538 electoral votes. These electoral votes are cast by

state, and it’s winner-take-all within each state. Thus, a Nader vote has no

chance of “spoiling” the outcome for Al Gore unless it potentially changes the

outcome within each state. And for 90 percent of the states (including the

biggest ones), that’s not going to happen.” AlterNet

Alarm as cult announces plan to clone humans. “US scientists said yesterday that little could be done to stop a

UFO-worshipping cult from pursuing a plan to clone a human

being, after the group said it had both the money and the

medical knowledge to carry out the act.

A former French sports journalist, who calls himself Rael, and

his followers claim to be on the verge of cloning an embryo from

cells grafted from a 10-month-old girl who died as a result of a

medical mistake.

The girl’s parents, whom the group have not named, are

reportedly paying $500,000 (£357,000) for the procedure. It is

not clear whether the Raelians have begun their attempted

cloning.” Guardian

Three IT Pioneers Share Nobel. The physics prize credits the developers of semiconductors and the integrated circuit. Wired

From the Malcolm Gladwell archives: The Art of Failure: “Why some people choke and others panic”. The distinction is interesting and important.

Men: another reason to ‘get your juices flowing’. BBC

From 1999 Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders; MSF): “The Bracelet of Life looks like nothing more than a colorful strip of paper, but it’s

actually a real tool used by Doctors Without Borders volunteers around the globe to

test whether a child is suffering from malnutrition. Believe it or not, more children

in the world die from hunger every day than from any other illness! Learn more about the Bracelet of Life campaign and world hunger; see how other kids are using the Bracelet

of Life to raise awareness about malnutrition and hunger; or get your own bracelet.”

Living among the headlines. “I cringed at the photo of the Palestinian man protecting his

son from Israeli bullets. Then I realized he used to work for

me.” By Helen Schary Motro. Salon

Most galaxies have a single nucleus, but the fascinating object in today’s APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day) appears to have four. In fact, astronomers have concluded that the nucleus of the galaxy is not at all visible in this extraordinary photo of the Einstein Cross gravitational lens. The central cloverleaf is light emitted from a quasar directly behind the galaxy in our line of sight. The gravitational field of the foreground galaxy bends the light from the quasar into four distinct images.

“Britain and the United

States are developing a fungus that attacks

opium poppies, but the project aimed at

withering the heroin trade could end up

producing a dangerous biological weapon,

the BBC reported today.” ABC News

Dig-dug, think-thunk. Alot’s at stake in studying the past tense, as this review by a Yale linguist of Steven Pinker’s Words and Rules: the ingredients of language asserts. London Review of Books

Twenty of the last twenty years’ greatest scientific blunders. Few surprises here, but it’s inspiring to see them all together on the same page. Discovery

Bioethics comes of age. Arthur Caplan, prominent University of Pennsylvania bioethicist, was named along with several Penn doctors and hospitals in a lawsuit brought by the family of an 18 year-old who died last year during treatment for his inborm metabolic disorder. The suit charges that Caplan’s advice to enroll only consenting adults in the research protocol — the gene therapy researchers had originally designed a study to treat infants — led to the recruitment of their son, and eventually to his death. Some say that while Caplan’s advice satisfies the letter of ethical standards of informed consent, it defies the common sense that would inhere in treating critically ill infants instead of adults who have their illness under control and who might end up worse off than if they hadn’t undergone the intervention. A twist: bioethicists like Caplan are joining the boards of biotechnology firms which fund the research into their controversial potential products; the university researchers are often stockholders in the firms backing their research. Salon

A labor of love: a collection of references to the Parable of the Monkeys (you know, the one about how they’d eventually type all of Shakespeare’s works if they had enough time banging away at random) through the decades, since its first appearance in 1913.

Don’t give cash to street beggars, the English public is urged in a major pre-Christmas government advertising campaign. Guardian

From Sam Smith’s Undernews, Ralph Nader’s version of what happened at UMass. I can’t believe this outrageous violation isn’t being flogged with more concern and outrage in the media.

[From a letter written by Ralph Nader to the Commission on Presidential Debates]

RALPH NADER: On Tuesday night October 3, 2000, I attempted to view the first presidential debate

hosted by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) at the University of Massachusetts. Though I

have been excluded from participating in the debates by the arbitrary and unfair standards set by your

private, bi-partisan company, I was given a transferable ticket by a university student to observe the

debates in a separate auditorium reserved apart from the corporate-sponsored audience in attendance for

the two-party show. I planned to view the debates so that I could appear as a guest to comment on the

debates later that evening on a live broadcast by Fox News Channel from a trailer occupied by them, at

the debate site, with the full permission of the CPD.

En route to the event, ticket in hand, and members of the press present and recording everything at my

side, I was met by a security consultant, Mr. John Vezeris, who was flanked by three uniformed state

troopers. The security consultant, while declining to present any credentials, told me that he was

“instructed by the Commission” to advise me that “it’s already been decided that, whether or not you

have a ticket, you are not invited.” One of the police officers told me that I would face arrest if I continued

to remain on the premises. The security consultant repeatedly refused to divulge who from the CPD

ordered this action and subsequent attempts by my campaign to establish who ordered this coercive

expulsion with the aid of police officers have not resulted in any names.

I was stopped a second time by the same police when I attempted to visit the news trailer for a broadcast

I was formally invited to do by Fox News Chief Executive Roger Ailes and which had been arranged from

the premises. According to today’s media reports, Mr. Kirk claims I was excluded as a “point man for the

protests,” when I took no part in those protests and when demonstrations by pro-Gore supporters did not

result in similar exclusionary treatment for Vice-President Gore. As the Green Party candidate for the

office of President, I am not used to being barred by police officers from attending public events for which

I hold a ticket. Nor am I accustomed to being physically prevented from attending approved on-site

newscasts and reaching national audiences from venues where I am invited to appear. Indeed, the

Commission’s decision to deploy public officers at a public university to bar me from viewing the

presidential debates and participating at a subsequent onsite newscast because of my political

viewpoints and affiliation with the Green Party violates both Massachusetts State and federal civil rights

laws.

Science Proves It: Restraining Your Emotions Is Not Very Smart. “Keeping a stiff upper lip during stressful situations can take an unexpected toll: It appears to interfere with the ability to think clearly during the event and to recall the details afterward.” Washington Post

Phil Agre, in Red Rock Eater Digest, takes another stab at describing the lunacy of the Presidential campaign and, in particular, Dubya’s one-trick pony approach: ‘The US presidential election campaign has descended into lunacy.

George W. Bush lacks the mental capacity to explain his own policies,

which is just as well, given that he is on the losing side of just

about every major issue. Instead, he, his staff, and most of the

media are engaged in a campaign of character assassination. That’s

the only word for it. They’ve decided that their strategy is “Al

Gore’s tendency to exaggerate”, and they are mass-producing factoids

that fit the pattern, accompanied by frequent, pointed suggestions

that Gore is mentally ill. The trouble is, the vast majority of

these factoids are false, exaggerated, or trivial. They are bunk.’

Appended to the essay is a forwarded message from Vinton Cerf who, if anyone, can comment definitively on what credit, if any, Vice President Gore should take for the development of the Internet.

I am taking the liberty of sending to you both a brief summary of

Al Gore’s Internet involvement, prepared by Bob Kahn and me. As you

know, there have been a seemingly unending series of jokes chiding

the vice president for his assertion that he “took the initiative in

creating the Internet”.

Bob and I believe that the vice president deserves significant credit

for his early recognition of the importance of what has become the

Internet.

And while we’re at it, you might want to look at First Monday, a peer-reviewed monthly journal on internet issues. The current issue, to which this link points, has another article on the Al-Gore-and-the-internet issue by Richard Wiggins, as well as a number of other interesting examinations of the sociology of the cyberspace world.

Some of the least-understood and least-well-treated phenomena in psychiatry and neurology are the varieties of dissociative phenomena. Autoscopic or doppelganger experiences, in which a person believes he has seen himself, are among the most bizarre. Here’s a description of one case and a discussion of a possible explanation. Tell me if this interests you lay readers…Psychiatric Times

Conservation by Cloning: Cow Carries Endangered Ox Species, Study Reports. Scientists expect the cow will be able to carry the implanted embryo of the endangered Asian gaur to term in late November. The embryo was grown from skin cells of a deceased gaur fused to an extracted cow egg. The procedure is a prelude to growing clones of frankly extinct species; the team plans to clone a species of Spanish mountain goat that became extinct nine months ago. They temper their self-congratulation with the caveat that biotechnological maneuvers are no substitute for protecting species in their natural habitats in the first place.

Quietly, Booksellers Are Putting an End to the Discount Era: “…the discount era in the bookstore business has

virtually come to an end. With none of the fanfare

surrounding new markdowns, the dominant bookstore chains,

Barnes & Noble and Borders, have quietly raised their prices.

So have the online stores Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com,

and Borders.com, just a year after their discounts of up to 50

percent on best-selling books escalated the price wars to a

new height.” Online book purchases are no bargain anymore given added shipping charges; so head back to your local independent bookseller! New York Times

Clinton Plans to Issue Rules Expanding Patients’ Rights. Again, the timing is crafty. ”

White House officials said they saw the new rules as a way

to get around an impasse in Congress on patients’ rights

legislation. Publication of the rules could also yield political

dividends for Vice President Al Gore, allowing him to boast

that the administration is moving to protect patients while

the Republican- controlled Congress fails to act.” New York Times

Inside the Death House: “And I said, `I don’t feel good.’

And tears, uncontrollable tears, was

coming out of my eyes and she says,

`What’s the matter?’ And I told her. I said, `I just thought

about that execution that I did two days ago, and everybody

else’s that I was involved in.’ And what it was, something

triggered within, and it just, everybody — all of these

executions all sprung forward.” A powerful NPR radio documentary, “Witness to the Execution,” to be broadcast this week considers the stresses accompanying the accelerated pace of executions in Texas. New York Times

Brain Pioneers — Two Americans, One Swede — Share Nobel Medicine Prize for elucidating the mechanisms of neurotransmission in the brain. One (Greengard) was my teacher in medical school. BBC

Group websurfing: “Need to get out more but can’t bear to leave your

computer screen? Jack Schofield explains how to

socialise in cyberspace.” Guardian

Group websurfing: “Need to get out more but can’t bear to leave your

computer screen? Jack Schofield explains how to

socialise in cyberspace.” Guardian

Group websurfing: “Need to get out more but can’t bear to leave your

computer screen? Jack Schofield explains how to

socialise in cyberspace.” Guardian

Privacy News: Tailgating the Motorist: Big Brother? Drivers’ locations and driving habits may soon be monitored in a variety of ways, including using your electronic toll “passport”, onboard navigation systems, cellphones and a “sniffer” that records what radio station you’re listening to. International Herald Tribune

Talk to the Palm. A $179 attachment is an MP3 player, a digital voice recorder and a backup device rolled into one. Out of deference to music industry copy protection rules, users will not be able to beam songs to other Palms via the infrared link. Wired

To IgNobel-ly Go… This years IgNobel Prizes are out, for just plain silly things in the name of science. Beyond 2000

Mir attacked by cosmic mushrooms

The Boston Globe is reporting Mir’s trouble with rampant fungus which is eating plastics and other “spare parts” aboard the aging space vehicle.

Simple Simon.

If nothing else, the criticism of John

Simon has kept alive a sense of history. No one writing

today has done more to uphold the aesthetic standards of the

Third Reich. As film critic for the National Review and

theater critic for New York magazine, Simon’s specialty is

making punching bags out of people whose looks he finds

repellent, especially those who don’t conform to traditional

modes of beauty. (Barbra Streisand has been a favorite

target over the years: Early in her career, he said she looked

like “a tremulous young borzoi.”) If a performer isn’t

Simon’s idea of pinup material, the merits of his or her work

are beside the point. It was one of his remarks that once

earned him a plate of hot goulash in the face courtesy of

actress Sylvia Miles. His prejudices often make him sloppy

with the facts. In his review of Raúl Ruiz’s film of Proust’s

“Time Regained,” he identified Ruiz as “like Proust, a

homosexual.” As Film Comment pointed out, that should

come as some shock to Mrs. Ruiz.

Charles Taylor tries to go off on critic John Simon the way Simon goes off on everybody else. The occasion was Simon’s comments to director Atom Egoyan, taking questions from the press after the New York Film Festival opening of his film of Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape, one of the first two movies in a project seeking to film all of Beckett’s plays. Salon

Split Personality. Thoughtful review of Girl, Interrupted — the book and the film — by esteemed psychiatrist Alan Stone. Access a list of his other psychologically-informed film reviews from this page. Boston Review

It was a tricky moment the night Lilith Lacroix tried to join the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra on stage. Sydney Morning Herald

Message in a bottle travels halfway round the world Ananova

Exorcism goes to show how little we know. A Chicago priest reflects on the fact that his archdiocese now has a full-time exorcist. Chicago Sun-Times

“I hate this hand”. “The man who was given the world’s first hand transplant wants it removed by surgeons because he hates the sight of it. Clint Hallam, who two years ago underwent the operation carried out by a British surgeon, claims the hand no longer works and that he is being made ill by anti-rejection drugs. Mr. Hallam, 53, has gone to Lyon, where he received the hand, to convince the French member of the transplant team to amputate it. ‘I can no longer do anything with it. It just hangs uselessly by my side. It looks hideous because it is withered and I don’t see any point in keeping it any longer.’ ” The Independent

Group websurfing: “Need to get out more but can’t bear to leave your

computer screen? Jack Schofield explains how to

socialise in cyberspace.” Guardian

The American Library Association’s list of the Top 100 Banned or Challenged Books of 1990-1999

Artificial stupidity. Salon interviews techno-visionary Jaron Lanier who, at 38, has gone impressively sour on a computer-driven future. For one thing, he says that software is brittle and cannot keep up with ongoing advances in processing power. He views with contempt the half-baked stabs at artificial intelligence touted as the newest advances in most commercial software. His “One-half a manifesto” at The Edge provokes responses from luminary techno-heads: George Dyson, Freeman Dyson, Cliff Barney, Bruce Sterling, Rodney Brooks, Henry

Warwick, Kevin Kelly, Margaret Wertheim, John Baez, Lee Smolin, Stewart Brand,

Rodney Brooks,Lee Smolin, and Daniel Dennett.

A police officer in Long Island left a loaded gun lying around the school where he was conducting a security exercise. New York Daily News

Palestinian Demand to Probe Killings May Be Vetoed: “…The United States is poised to cast its veto against a UN draft resolution sponsored by the 114-

member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) calling for an international inquiry into the killings of over 45 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza since

last week.

The resolution, which is expected to be taken up later this week, faces a possible US veto because Israel has made it clear it will not permit any

international investigation into the shootings.

The proposed investigation is also one of the demands made by Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat Wednesday at the Paris talks involving Israeli Prime

Minister Ehud Barak and US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.”

I missed my chance to wish you a happy Mad Hatter Day yesterday.

Your world is crazier than you think:

We travel around by taking the juice from hundred-million-year-old rotten dinosaur food and exploding it in a metal can.

A “sports fanatic” is not someone who participates in sports, but someone who sits indoors on a beautiful day, drinking beer while

yelling at the picture on a little box. (Throw the ultimate football party: Forget the TV; just sit around eating and drinking with

friends.)

As much as we say we like to “get away from it all”, the more successful we are, the more we take it all with us when we go. (Take a

vacation with all the comforts of home: Just stay home!)

We’re so well-fed that we’re getting food with intentionally reduced nutritional content–so we can take the trouble to eat without

getting the benefit of doing so. (Enjoy the ultimate in fast-diet-food: Skip lunch.)

We’ve saved so much gift-giving for the Christmas season that it has entirely unbalanced the flow of cash and consumer goods

through the year. So merchants decided to start the season early to have something to do the rest of the year. (There’s now only one

major gift-giving holiday — but it lasts for five months. Surprise someone with a MadHatterDay present.)

…and it goes. Take a look around you, drop your assumptions about what must be proper and normal, and see how much of it is just silly.

Better yet, try to find something that does make sense.

Branded Journalism. Hybrid branded magazines published by companies to showcase their products or associated lifestyle — from Abercrombie and Fitch, Sony, Kinko’s etc. — are the latest obscenity blurring the boundaries between journalism and commercialism. ‘Increasingly, as Naomi

Klein shows in her blistering book No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand

Bullies, companies see themselves as alternative providers of content.

They can now shape the environment in which their advertising is

delivered, enabling them to further reinforce their brands. The

magalog, Klein tells me, represents “a growing impatience in the

corporate world with the traditional role of the advertiser as the

commercial interrupter, intruding on ‘real’ culture. Now, the brand

wants to be the cultural infrastructure, not an add-on, or an interruption.

Magalogs are an important part of that: rather than associating

with a lifestyle, represented by Rolling Stone or the New Yorker,

magalogs allow the brand to be the lifestyle, their products the

essential accessories.” ‘

What Was Al Gore Thinking? – Guess the meaning of the vice president’s drawings.  Slate

Slate’s “Explainer”: Could a New President Ban RU-486?

Can a Girl Take RU-486 Without Telling Her Parents?

Will globalization make you happy? Foreign Policy

Men of Steel Feel Like 97-Pound Weaklings.

Why are men so much

more concerned

about their bodies today

than they were 50 years ago?

This was the question

Harrison G. Pope Jr., a

professor of psychiatry at

Harvard Medical School, and

two colleagues asked

themselves after noticing a

sharp increase in male gym

memberships, anabolic

steroid use and especially

body image disorders,

including muscle dysmorphia

(sometimes called

bigorexia), an illness

characterized by compulsive

exercising and the sufferer’s

irrational conviction that he

is weak and puny even

though he may be bulging

with muscle.

New York Times

UN Experts Say Ozone Depletion at Record Level. For the first time, the ozone hole has extended so far that populated areas of southern Chile and Argentina were uprotected from high ultraviolet radiation levels. Watch for crop failures in the coming growing season from irradiation of the emerging seedlings, and increased skin cancer in decades to come in the affected areas. Reuters

Thnigs Bite Back: Deadly touch: ‘Hospital superbugs thrive on sweat, say Danish researchers. They have found that some antibiotics “leak” out of the

body in sweat, and believe that bacteria on patients’ skin become resistant through unrelenting exposure to the

seeping drugs. Simple physical contact would then be enough to pass on the bugs.’ New Scientist

Things Bite Back (cont’d.): Sinister side of sunscreens. “The widespread use of sunscreens has been increasingly questioned by experts who say that it may not provide

protection against skin cancer because it encourages people to sunbathe for longer. Now there is evidence that a

substance called octyl methoxycinnamate (OMC), used as a UVB filter in 90 per cent of sunscreens worldwide, may

itself be toxic,” especially in reaction with sunlight. New Scientist

Alexander Cockburn on the Yanomami scandal: “Will Tierney’s book provoke the uproar that Turner and Sponsel predict? Will anthropology be

placed in the dock? I doubt it. For years native groups across the world have recounted their

stories of the depredations of anthropologists, and have been eager to tell them to anyone

interested. If Tierney’s claims are true, Chagnon may end up in some judicial venue, facing

charges of crimes against humanity. But I doubt that, too. The can of worms is way too full.” NY Press [via Robot Wisdom]

Review of Antonio Damasio’s The Feeling of What Happens by Aldo Mosca. An accessible summary of an important neurobiologist’s thinking on how emotions and feelings rooted in the body contribute to consciousness. Psyche 6(8)

The only “post-game analysis” of the The First Presidential Debate that makes any sense, by Washington Post columnist Joel Achenbach. Was Dubya the winner merely because he didn’t mangle the English language too badly this time or claim that Poland is in Africa? Is Gore’s fallback position, if not elected, to demonstrate his readiness to be Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget?

Did Gore invent the Internet? Deceptive title there, Salon: not really about whether he invented it, but about whether he ever said he did. In other words, not really about Gore’s lies, but those of his detractors. Points us to Phil Agre’s excellent dissection of this “most successful of flat-out lies” by Gore-bashers.

“Students got an unusual assignment from their English teacher: Pick

out a victim, come up with a recipe for assassination and devise a successful getaway

formula.

The Covina High School teacher no longer works for the school district.” Sacramento Bee

Piercing led to woman’s death. ‘A coroner gave warning yesterday of the

“considerable risks” of bodypiercing after

recording a verdict of misadventure on a woman

who died after her 118th piercing.

The inquest on Lesley Hovvells, 39, in her home

town of Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, heard that

she collapsed last New Year’s Eve, and died of

septicaemia in January. Miss Hovvells had 28 ear

studs, 13 ear rings, 11 belly bars through her

navel, 18 other bars, six lip rings, 36 body rings

all over her body and six nose studs. She is

believed to have had over 40 piercings in the

year before her death.’ The Times of London

Doctor: Toe-finger transplants progressing .

“My wife always use to say that my toes were so long that I

could wave with them. I guess she was right.”

Surfin’ and sippin’ at Starbucks. “Starbucks has been quietly testing whether customers will click

with wireless Internet access in its stores.” Seattle Post-Intelligencer

150-ft.-high tidal wave could threaten Atlantic seaboard. BBC

“I think that people need to be held responsible for the actions they take in life. I think that’s part of

the need for a cultural change. We need to say that each of us needs to be responsible for what we

do.” – George W. Bush in the first Presidential debate, October 3, 2000.

The Smoking Jet. Thanks to Chuck Taggart at Looka! for pointing to this expose of serious discrepancies between Dubya’s claims about his military service and facts revealed by an independent investigation by a former Air National Guard veteran and aviation consultant. Of course, it is posted at “democrats.com,” which creates at least the appearance of partisanship.

From the beginning of his Presidential campaign, George W. Bush has forcefully and repeatedly

insisted that he faithfully fulfilled all his military obligations by serving his time as a member of the

Texas Air National Guard.

But the first independent investigation of Bush’s military record by a former Air National Guard pilot

has revealed the following:

1. Pilot George W. Bush did not simply “give up flying” with two years left to fly, as has been

reported. Instead, Bush was suspended and grounded, very possibly as a direct or indirect

result of substance abuse.

2. The crucial evidence – a Flight Inquiry Board – that would reveal the true reasons for Bush’s

suspension, as well as the punishment that was recommended, is missing from the records

released so far. If no such Board was convened, this raises further questions of extraordinary

favoritism.

3. Contrary to Bush’s emphatic statements and several published reports, Bush never actually

reported in person for the last two years of his service – in direct violation of two separate

written orders. Moreover, the lack of punishment for this misconduct represents the crowning

achievement of a military career distinguished only by favoritism.

”I did the duty necessary … That’s why I was honorably discharged” – George W. Bush, May 23,

2000

“I hate a song that makes you think that you are not any good. I hate a

song that makes you think that you are just born to lose. Bound to lose.

No good to nobody. No good for nothing. Because you are too old or too

young or too fat or too slim or too ugly or too this or too that. Songs

that run you down or poke fun at you on account of your bad luck or hard

travelling.

I am out to fight those songs to my very last breath of air & my last

drop of blood…”

—Woody Guthrie, who succumbed to Huntington’s Disease in New York on this date in 1967, at age 55.

“Cause sometimes you hear’em when the night times comes creeping

& you fear that they might catch you a-sleeping

& you jump from yer bed, from yer last chapter of dreamin’

& you can’t remember for the best of yer thinking

If that was you in the dream that was screaming

& you know that it’s something special you’re needin’

& you know that there’s no drug that’ll do for the healin’

& no liquor in the land to stop yer brain from bleeding…

—Bob Dylan, “Last Thoughts On Woody Guthrie”

Where Is Your Junk Mail From? “Why do these things arrive? It’s not quite random,

and figuring out why you’re on the owl lovers’ mailing list is part of the fun.”

US Funds Yugoslav Politicians; Why Not Do the Same Here? The shock waves from the charges of Chinese influence-buying in the 1996 US presidential campaign have yet to settle, but such action pales in comparison with the millions of dollars we are funnelling into supporting foes of Milosevic’s Serbian regime. “What if other nations adopted a similar approach to help level the playing field for

candidates here in the United States? After all, the terrain for campaigns is

severely skewed by access to big money and mass media.” But of course we want the rest of the world to do as we say, not as we do. Do we lose the moral authority to decry wrongs done us when our actions are not unimpeachable?

Fall Television Preview 2000: ‘Ed’ and ‘Bette,’ Standing Out in a Surly Crowd . I’m including this not ‘cuz of any particular interest in the new TV season, but for the continuing pleasure I take in Washington Post critic Tom Shales’ entertaining, caustic wit. One reader wrote to differ with me, saying Shales loses credibility by skewering absolutely everything and appreciating nothing, so I’ll point out that he actually does like a couple of the shows he’s previewing, as the headline indicates. Me? I don’t think I’ll be watching much if any TV this fall, with Homicide long gone, the X-Files tiresome and irreparable, and nothing but nothing on the horizon looking enticing. Saves an enormous timesink!

An Acquired Taste Via The Spike Report: ‘Despite his image as a charisma-impaired policy wonk, Al Gore is “America’s

most lethally effective practitioner of high-stakes political debate,” says

James Fallows. Fallows examines

Gore’s performance in debates dating back to 1987, tracing a Michael

Corleone-style transformation from naive idealist to cold-blooded pragmatist.

After steadily improving his skills throughout the 90s, says Fallows, Gore

has become “the political combatant most likely to leave his victims feeling

not just defeated but battered…We can’t be sure about what will be best

about Al Gore if he becomes President,” writes Fallows. “But what will be

worst is probably closely connected to the way he has learned to destroy

opponents in debates.” ‘ The Atlantic Monthly

Warner to bow albums in DVD audio format

Baby Born As Donor Raises Ethical Debate. “To any stranger, Adam appears to be just another healthy baby

boy. But he is not just any baby.

Unlike most infants, Adam was selected from among six embryos during in vitro fertilization… The embryo that would become Adam was chosen specifically to ensure that a rare genetic

disease called Fanconi anemia would not be inherited. But the embryo was also chosen to be

a good transplant match for Adam’s 6-year-old sister, who does have the disease.” Reuters

Can gorillas and dolphins communicate? Koko the gorilla “talks” with humans. Several Atlantic bottlenose dolphins do as well. Now they’re all moving to Maui to see if the two species can communicate with each other via sign language over video links. CNN

More Germans switch their mobile phones off at the movie theater than during sex, a poll shows.

Supreme Court Declines to Review ‘Cheers’ Case

“The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday allowed the actors who played Norm and Cliff

on the hit television series “Cheers” to sue over the use of two

robots that the actors claim commercially exploited their

identities.” In this fascinating case, the legal principle of the “right to publicity” (in which celebrities retain the right to profit from their recognizeability) clashes with the copyright on the likenesses of the characters the actors played. Reuters

A Rule of Thumb That Unscrambles the Brain. ‘A new breed of animal,

dubbed the “sand

mouse,” has been added to

the annals of biological

science, and it has become

the subject of a scientific

challenge.

Last week Dr. John J.

Hopfield, a Princeton

professor known for seminal

discoveries in computer

science, biology and physics,

posed an unusual test to his

fellow scientists.

Dr. Hopfield challenged

them to discover a simple,

new computational principle

— a general rule of thumb —

for how the brain of this

creature works, using only

the power of deductive

reasoning and a set of facts

about the animal that Dr.

Hopfield and a former

student, Dr. Carlos Brody,

have posted on a Web site.’ New York Times

Women with Male Chromosomes Say Life is Good

Girls born with male

chromosomes can still grow up to be women with normal sex lives, according to new

research.

Women with the rare gene mutation known as Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome

(CAIS) contradict a basic difference between men and women: That men have xy

chromosomes and women have xx chromosomes.

Women with CAIS, however, have xy chromosomes and started out as boys while still

embryos, say medical scientists at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, which

pioneered research into the syndrome. But because of the gene mutation, their bodies don’t

recognize or use androgens, which are male hormones, like testosterone, that cause the

development of male characteristics. HealthScout

CueCat Bar Code Reader Privacy Advisory. The CueCat is a pen-like barcode scanner peripheral for your computer that is being given out for free through Radio Shack, Wired, Forbes magazine, etc. Promoted as an easy way to visit websites by scanning barcodes included in catalogues, magazine articles and advertisements, each pen has a unique digital ID and the accompanying software appears to transmit a history of your surfing behavior back to the parent company, Digital:Convergence in Dallas. Even if, as the company insists, no tracking of individual data is done, The Privacy Foundation is concerned at the ease with which this might eventually occur. If you have concerns about being tracked in this manner, you should probably pass on the free CueCat and (gasp!) type in your URLs when you surf.

Banned Sect Stages Protest in Beijing on Holiday. Waves of Falun Gong protesters thwarted violent efforts of Chinese security forces to subdue their protests, embarrassing the Chinese regime by forcing Tiananmen Square to be cordoned off on Chinese National Day. New York Times

Banned Sect Stages Protest in Beijing on Holiday. Waves of Falun Gong protesters thwarted violent efforts of Chinese security forces to subdue their protests, embarrassing the Chinese regime by forcing Tiananmen Square to be cordoned off on Chinese National Day. New York Times

Banned Sect Stages Protest in Beijing on Holiday. Waves of Falun Gong protesters thwarted violent efforts of Chinese security forces to subdue their protests, embarrassing the Chinese regime by forcing Tiananmen Square to be cordoned off on Chinese National Day. New York Times

Youngsters infect themselves with head lice. Students in Sofia Bulgaria have begun buying and selling them to one another in matchboxes after learning that they would automatically get three days off from school if found to be infected. ‘A Bulgarian education spokesman told the Daily Trud
newspaper: “This regulation, that was aimed at
stopping head lice spreading, appears to have worked
against us, especially now when there are a lot of
exams.” ‘ Things bite back… Ananova

Sleepwalking in Seattle. A post-operative brain surgery patient wandered out of the hospital. Efforts to find him were fruitless until he was recognized by a group of street people queried by his family. His picture had been all over the media. He has no recollection of how he acquired the black hooded sweatshirt that covered his most prominent identifying details, a shaven head and surgical scar.

As soon as an online music-trading service gets big enough to be useful, it’s doomed: The Gnutella paradox. Online music traders waiting to hear if Napster will be shut down repeat, ‘There’s always Gnutella.’ “Is there, though? …Gnutella is hardly ready for prime

time — and is facing dilemmas almost as worrisome as the

Napster lawsuit. Over the last month, users of the system

have noticed a dramatic slowdown in responsiveness, and a

number of reports have revealed serious instabilities in the

Gnutella network. The open-source software developers

who nabbed the program after America Online forced its

programmers to abandon it are still striving to learn how to

work together. And Gnutella’s legal status is also murky:

The RIAA is already hinting that it may be preparing a

strategy to attack Gnutella.” Wired

Crowd panic simulated: “Mob stampedes have killed thousands of people in recent years, but they are usually explained in terms of psychology. Now, European

scientists say they can predict and prevent crowd panic by computer simulations using the laws of physics.

The new computer model relies on distances, sizes and velocities instead of emotional states but produces results similar to actual panics,

the researchers said in today’s issue of the journal Nature.” Lawrence Journal-World

Human Pheromone Link May Have Been Found: “In animals, researchers have documented the complex

neurological paths pheromones trace to stimulate parts of

the brain that are deeply rooted in instinct. Researchers

have long believed that humans also communicate through

pheromones, but until now had been unable to identify any

of the biological equipment needed to detect these potent

molecules.

Now, in experiments at Rockefeller and Yale Universities,

neurogeneticists have isolated a human gene, called V1RL1,

that they believe encodes for a pheromone receptor in the

mucous lining of the nose.” New York Times

Prions may play crucial role in evolution. “Prions, abnormally folded proteins associated with several bizarre human diseases, may hold the

key to a major mystery in evolution: how survival skills that require multiple genetic changes

arise all at once when each genetic change by itself would be unsuccessful and even harmful.”

Basic Differences in Rival Proposals on Drug Coverage

It is very difficult for the average

Medicare beneficiary to sit down with

the Bush and Gore plans and compare

how much she would pay in premiums

and co-payments and how much she

would receive in benefits. That is

because the approaches of the two

candidates are so different, and there

are so many unknowns about Gov.

George W. Bush’s plan.

Given what is known, many analysts and consumer advocates

consider Vice President Al Gore’s plan to be more generous;

he would devote much more money to it, they note, and he

promises a higher federal subsidy for premiums. Mr. Bush’s

health care advisers counter that his plan offers more

flexibility and more choices for older Americans. New York Times

Banned Sect Stages Protest in Beijing on Holiday. Waves of Falun Gong protesters thwarted violent efforts of Chinese security forces to subdue their protests, embarrassing the Chinese regime by forcing Tiananmen Square to be cordoned off on Chinese National Day. New York Times