Psychological Science Ramblings

Can 80% of Americans REALLY have access to high-speed rail?

2011-01-26T09:59:00.000-06:00

"Within 25 years, our goal is to give 80% of Americans access to high-speed rail, which could allow you go places in half the time it takes to travel by car."

Wow! That sounds kewl.

But does it make any sense?

Back in 2000 about 66% of Americans lived in coastal areas—38% east coast, 16% West Coast, and 12% Gulf coast. The smallest numbers lived between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. While the Rocky Mountain and plains states account for about half of the landmass of the United States, 34 percent of the population resides in these areas.

Given this factual distribution of Americans we need to make an assumptions about President Obama's goal statement.

What is meant by "access to"?

Since the statement appears to seek replacement of car travel by high-speed rail travel it's reasonable to assume that "access to" doesn't include a long drive. But does it mean "within walking distance"? Or, "by taxi"? Or could it mean "by subway"? It probably doesn't mean "short bush plan ride" so Obama isn't planning to include Alaskan Americans in his high-speed rail plan.

Without being snarky, let's assume he means to include walking, biking, short taxi rides, subway, and rickshaw as "access to". This limits the distance between home and rail head to a few miles.

This then requires that high-speed rail be built to within a few miles of 80% of American dwelling places.

But, 34% of Americans are distributed (yes, I realize not uniformly) over 50% of the US land area. To meet Obama's goal, 100% of the coasters and 14% of the rest must be within a few miles of a high-speed rail depot. It doesn't count if you live next to the tracks. The train has to stop and pick you up or you don't have "access".

Further, you not only must live within a few miles of a depot but your destination must also be within a few miles of a depot. Makes no sense if you walk to the train and then it drops you off in the middle of Arizona.

So, just how likely are we to meet Obama's goal? Looks like it's only achievable if:
1. Americans are relocated to urban concentration camps.
2. Americans only travel to urban concentration camps.

Vacations would then consist of traveling from New York to Miami. Or Chicago to Boston. And when we get there we've got to stay down town.

Sure solves the problem of too many visitors to all those National Parks.

Gets rid of those pesky rural farmers and ranchers too.

Is Wiki Leaks Terrorism or just Prostitution?

2010-11-30T11:26:00.000-06:00

Listening to Hoekstra being interviewed on Fox News this morning (30 Nov 2010) about the latest Wiki Leaks publication provides an insight into the strange world of politician thinking.

Hoekstra seems to be saying, in his Wiki Leaks comments, that since Wiki Leaks didn’t steal the data we can’t prosecute them for using the data. This is exactly like saying that since terrorists didn’t make the explosives we can’t prosecute them for using the explosives. Or, since the murder didn’t make the gun we can't prosecute him for killing his victim.

This “logic” can only be the product of a liberal or law education.

In the real world, that most of us live in, we’re less interested in the supplier than we are in the user. We don’t believe that the firearm manufacturer is responsible for the bank robbery. We don’t blame Ford for drunk driver deaths. We don’t even blame the brewer for bar fights.

Perhaps our national approach to “The War on Drugs” has corrupted our thinking process. In The War on Drugs we prosecute the drug supplier instead of the user. Well, we do prosecute Black users and poor users, but most of the effort is on shutting down the suppliers. Often users are seen as victims.

Perhaps our approach to stamping out prostitution is another example of a corrupted thinking process. Again the supplier is prosecuted while the user is, usually, not prosecuted.
This corrupted thinking is a product of prosecuting victimless “crimes”. Drug users are hurting themselves and, unless they commit crimes to acquire funding for their drug use, rarely hurt others. Johns even more rarely hurt others except by spreading disease.

In both of these examples, government efforts would be best spent on treatment, education, and monitoring rather than on user incarceration.

Politicians are not, however, likely to understand the difference between, say, prostitution and terrorism. They are far less interested in the John than in the prostitute. They are far less interested in the publisher than in the leaker. This, despite that fact, that the leak without publication is harmless. Only the publisher has the power to harm us. Only the publisher actually did harm us. But that fact is ignored or not understood or denied.

It’s time to replace our liberal educated “over thinker” politicians with people educated by the everyday, real world.

Opt-out and Widdershins Spin - Just One Example

2010-11-25T16:09:00.000-06:00

Wow! The left is spinning like a ten year old at Disney’s Teacup Ride.

Tactics employed consist of the whole panoply of left wing disinformation techniques:

· False premises (straw men) [FP]

· Misrepresentation of opponent’s views and statements [Mr]

· Misquotes [Mq]

· Using biased sources as ‘authorities’ [BS]

· Distortion of facts [DF]

· Quoting opinions of uninformed sources [US]

· Outright lies [L]

· Throw away truthful statements [T]

· Irrelevant statements that appear to support point of view [I]

· Unverifiable statements [UV]

· Qualified statements that actually deny statement itself [Q]

· Assertions not supported by author [A]

Let’s tag just part of a recent article published on Live Science (Complete article here).

“Complaints about airport security recently triggered calls for a consumer-led "Opt-Out" day [T] (boycotting full-body scans) that would hopelessly snarl travel plans [FP] and force the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to rethink its intrusive methods [T]. Airline and government officials worried that there would be nationwide travel disruptions today [unknown].

“According to the Chicago Sun-Times [BS], "Despite threats of protests from passengers angry at new security rules, it was relatively [DF] smooth sailing — and flying [I] — at O'Hare Airport Wednesday. Lines at ticket counters [I] and at security checkpoints were moving freely throughout the morning and early afternoon [T. 'There are no delays [UV], no lines [UV] [difficult to believe], no protests [F] that I know of [Q],' said Karen Pride, spokeswoman for the Chicago department of aviation [BS]."

“Why did the Opt-Out protest fizzle? [A, L]

…

“Furthermore, only a small minority of passengers is asked to go though the body scanner [L, although possibly true on Wednesday]. It is not routine [L], nor required for all airline passengers [FP, DF] [exactly the opposite of TSA’s published statements]. In fact it’s likely that many of the people who might have planned on opting out in protest never even had the chance to do so[T], since they weren't among those asked to undergo those body scans in the first place[T] [Not mentioned that the actual reason is because of changes in TSA operations on Wednesday].

If the threat [FP] was intended to make the Transportation Security Administration back down, it failed [L]. The TSA did not discontinue any procedures [L] in response to the threatened protest [A, UV], though it reiterated its long-standing position that policies would be continually re-evaluated [UV].”

Article author was Benjamin Radford, managing editor of Skeptical Inquirer science magazine and author of six books. His website is www.RadfordBooks.com.

Thus we see that this article supposedly debunking the success of the opt-out protest of TSA’s invasive procedures consists only of lies and distortions. While the article appears honest and filled with supported facts it is actually a typical left wing spin piece.

Political Impact of Generalized Perceived Intelligence

2010-11-25T13:29:00.001-06:00

Selecting a leader has been a challenge for humans well before written and even oral history. Without belaboring what is know about this process, humans apply selection methods using one or more of the following characteristics:

Physical characteristics

Beauty - facial biometry, ethnic features, adornments
Physique - height, strength
Physical abilities - weapon prowess, stamina, dance, wrestling
Perceptual abilities - excellent sight, hearing, olfactory,

Psychological characteristics

Bearing - 'presence', confidence,eye contact
intelligence- proven decision making, problem solving, invention
Oratorical skills -

Social Characteristics

Status - including companion status
Friendliness

Usefulness Characteristics

Providing for individuals or group - hunting, gathering, tool manufacture
Dispute resolution
Spatial memory - navigation, resource location,

Combinatorial Characteristics

Dispute resolution
Organization skills
Hunting
Manufacturing
Building
Animal care/management

And so forth

Any particular individuals may use different selection methods when choosing a leader. Each selection method may use a combination of the above characteristics. These combinations may weight each characteristic differently. And, finally, an individual may use different methods in different circumstances.

For example, one is likely to use Method A to select a soccer team captain, Method B to select a raiding party leader, and Method C to choose a person for president.

Or, one may use Method A when in a particular emotional state and Method B when in another emotional state.

Not only are the methods we use complex but also complex is the selection of the method. Further, both are typically not a conscious act.

With the above discussion as a background, let us consider the thesis of this post. Psychologists have known for many years that intelligence is not unitary. While there has been considerable dispute among psychologists about the number and characteristics of these several intelligences,the over arching belief is not disputed.

[Well, it is disputed by Progressives who cling to the discredited notion that "g" adequately explains human intelligence and is measured by traditional intelligence tests. This belief was and is the basis of the eugenics movement which underlies Progressive thought and was the basis for Germany's "final solution' during WWII .]

Without getting involved in the arguments over the number and the nuances of the kinds of intelligence, most psychologists would agree that there are at least the following types: emotional intelligence, social intelligence, abstract reasoning intelligence, musical/mathematical intelligence, and kinesthetic intelligence.

Practical support for this notion is provided by the US military's ASVAB does a good job of recognizing various kinds of intelligence. It has demonstrated better predictive power than the WAIS in military applications.

I propose that humans make a fundamental error when applying leader selection methods. This error is one of expectations. Regardless of which method is selected and the characteristics evaluated by the method, humans then generalize the results of their selection. Positive selection leads to the expectation of positive scores on other, disparate, unmeasured attributes.

As a young child will fail to correctly evaluate two objects' weight based solely on their visual appearance, so too will adults fail to correctly evaluate a leader's full ability set based upon their selection method.

A trivial example is provided by the well known fact that in a one-on-one political race the more attractive candidate has a considerable [need to research exact number] advantage. Other positive appearance influencers are known to be: height, oratorical skill, movement (Carter appeared taller on TV because he walked like a Southerner), accent, hair, lack of glasses, clothing/style, and facial expression.

People who select politicians based on these characteristics expect their choice to be intelligent, warm, a good decision maker, considerate, and thoughtful. [need to add reference]. Clearly such a relationship is strictly chance. While appearance really is an indicator of genetic uniformity and good looks are frequently associated with less childhood stress, such characteristics are not well correlated with outstanding capabilities as a leader.

Even in those individuals who use a selection method well purposed to political leadership make the generalization error. This is noticed when evaluating leaders with which one disagrees.

We often hear people say things like "That guy's an idiot! How did he get elected?"

Here the individual is applying the generalization error in reverse. A leader is seen not to possess a desired characteristic of leadership. Humans then question the leader's abilities in all other areas of leadership.

The 'guy' in question undoubtedly has excellent social skills, is capable of raising large sums of money, and probably is better than average looking. Further, this 'guy' likely sounds like those who elected him and dresses appropriately. He is very likely to be well spoken or can at least read a teleprompter convincingly. He is very likely to be tall and have 'prescience' .

At the same time he may be morally bankrupt, not be able to ride an ATV, have zero ability to operate let alone fix a computer, and have no understanding of economics or farming.

Is he a good leader? That depends on what he is being asked to lead. Is he an incompetent moron? That also depends upon what he is asked to do.

Recognizing our propensity to generalize from our selection characteristics to other, even hidden, characteristics of potential leaders could lead us to choose better leaders. Of equal importance, it could lead us to better appreciate those who we or others have chosen as out leaders.

Proposal for a new psychosocial / political term - DRAFT

2010-10-08T09:47:00.000-05:00

Proposal for a new psychosocial / political term
(Draft version)

The old political terms liberal and conservative are inappropriate for today’s discussion. Progressive, while accurate, fails as a label because too few people understand that the roots of Progressives lie in the dark soil of ethnic cleansing and eugenics. A new term based upon the characteristics of today’s political forces would better serve political discourse.

I, therefore, propose a new term: Phylasts

Phylasts comes from the root Phylae. Phylae were any of several “tribes” that formed the largest political subgroups within all Dorian and most Ionian Greek city-states. The phylae were kinship groups embracing all citizens; corporations with their own officials and priests; and local units for administrative and military purposes. Ref

Phylasts are people who have an innate mental set where they perceive the social world as a construct of groups rather than individuals. Such people are uncomfortable with the atomization of culture, politics, and society into individual persons. The cause of such conceptual prejudice is unknown. However, Phylasim can be studied to ascertain the basis of this mental illness.

Some possible causes include, but are not limited to:

    * A defect in the ability to partition concepts into parts
    * A defect causing abnormal clustering of information including inappropriate perceptual clustering
    * Childhood experiences which led to a fear of individuals
    * Limited childhood experience with individuals with varied characteristics.
    * Social learning (unlikely because Phylasts are so emotionally attached to this world view)
    * An inability to perceive those small characteristics that distinguish one person from another when there is a large difference between the person and the viewer (for example, skin color, ethnicity, social class, or clothing style masks personality differences, social relationships, and individual behavior)

All interaction with Phylasts should be based upon the understanding that people suffering from this affliction do not perceive the world in the same way as ordinary people. Their misperception often leads them to make decisions that appear random, inconsistent, and opaque to others.

Phylasts hold strongly to their distorted world view. They are likely driven by fear and thus are unwilling to engage in civil discourse if they think their view is not accepted. They must classify all individuals into groups. The most fundamental division in to groups is “us” verses “not us.” “Not us” is the enemy and will be attacked fiercely. This primitive division of the world is the basis for all wars, serious civil disorder, and, ultimately, the basis for murder. Crimes against individuals simply can not be committed by someone who sees their victim as “one of us.”

Phylasts are exquisitely dangerous. The Gestapo provides but one example of Phylasts behavior. Consider any war. Phylast motivation will be found to be, if not the cause, the sustaining motivation for its prosecution. Crimes against Humanity are all based upon Phylast world views. Racial discrimination rarely occurred because one individual disliked another individual. Rather, racial discrimination existed because Phylasts intimidated non-Phylasts. When finally given the chance to escape the Phylast’s world view of group oppression, most Southerners abandoned the group think of prejudice. After all, the individuals they knew in the “not us” class they thought of as “good folks”.

Perhaps Phylastism is caused by an in error conceptualization where thought is dominated by abstract as opposed to concrete thinking. Or is it because they are trapped in childhood thinking? Developmental Psychologists posit that there are several stages in mental development.

Take Piaget’s theory of cognitive development (most Psychologists do not believe that this schema is entirely accurate nor is it either sufficient or complete).

Stages of Cognitive Development

Stage	Characterized by
Sensori-motor (Birth-2 yrs)	Differentiates self from objects Recognizes self as agent of action and begins to act intentionally: e.g. pulls a string to set mobile in motion or shakes a rattle to make a noise Achieves object permanence: realizes that things continue to exist even when no longer present to the senses
Pre-operational (2-7 years)	Learns to use language and to represent objects by images and words Thinking is still egocentric: has difficulty taking the viewpoint of others Classifies objects by a single feature: e.g. groups together all the red blocks regardless of shape or all the square blocks regardless of color
Concrete operational (7-11 years)	Can think logically about objects and events Achieves conservation of number (age 6), mass (age 7), and weight (age 9) Classifies objects according to several features and can order them in series along a single dimension such as size.
Formal operational (11 years and up)	Can think logically about abstract propositions and test hypotheses systematically Becomes concerned with the hypothetical, the future, and ideological problems

Table I: From http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/piaget.htm.

(Spelling Americanized. Underline added.)

Piagetians assert that each stage builds upon earlier stages. In other words, adults fall back on Concrete Operational thinking when Formal Operational thinking fails them. Modern Psychologists would also assert that the vast majority of adults principally use Concrete Operational thinking and many adults never achieve Formal Operational thinking (Concrete Operational thinkers can’t ‘think’ in algebra, for example).

So where would our Phylasts fit in the Piaget Schema? Ignoring for the moment a discussion about whether or not they exhibit ‘logical thinking”, how do they group or classify social objects? Certainly the can classify people. Yet, they think about people only in large groups. They do focus on only one trait for their classification: Blacks/Whites, People of Color/, Elderly, Party affiliation, Us/Not Us, friend/enemy, educated/literate, rich/poor, and so forth.

Note that such classifications are strictly unidimensional. This places our Phylasts in the Preoperational stage (2-7). Preoperational thinkers can not conceive of a multidimensional classification system where a “rich” individual could be any one of another group like a high income, small business owner, family farmer, high income from inherited wealth, high income wage earner, or periodic high income earner like an artist or actor. Such complexity blurs their reality like a person with hyperopia struggling to sort apples into quality categories. Only the most salient feature of the apples is visible to them. So the apples are categorized by color alone.

Adults who think primarily in the Pre-operational stage are not limited in their intelligence. Intelligence has no relationship to developmental stages, although intelligence tests intertwine them. Indeed, highly intelligent Pre-operational thinkers develop methodological strategies to solve multidimensional problems. Concrete operational thinkers can memorize formulas and pass Algebra courses even though they do not ‘understand’ algebra. Such individuals come to believe that they do, in fact, understand. Criticism of their comprehension by “other people” is simply a lie. I would expect that intelligent Phylasts do not become mathematicians or engineers or scientists. Rather, they gravitate towards elementary education or literature. The more paranoid are attracted to law school. Such endeavors allow them to succeed while avoiding confrontation with Formal Operational thinkers.

These educational pursuits are obviously dominated by Pre-operational thinkers. Thus a cultural Zeitgeist evolves that cultivates, reinforces, and confirms Phylasts. Their US/Not Us tendency is also reinforced as is their disdain for technologists.

Please note that none of the above discussion is intended to imply that those who have achieved Formal Operational thinking are excluded from professions such as elementary education or the Law. However, it does imply that such individuals may experience discrimination and develop distain for their fellow students, professors, and colleagues.

Also note that tribal behavior is both an ordinary stage of development and a tendency that remains into adulthood. We all have tendencies to root for “our team”, identify with our college, call ourselves according to our current location (I’m a South Dakotan, for example), develop protectionist feelings about our family and our possessions. Ordinary people, however, do not clutch these labels to their bosom so tightly that they distain individuals not or their label. Ordinary people do not pass legislation to protect Vikings Fans, or to prohibit wearing of Ga Tech sweatshirts.

Phylasts are behaviorally the same as street gangs, Iraqi Sunnis, drug cartels, the Taliban, and high school cliques.

Observe the behavior of Progressives closely and you will understand why they identify with certain enemies of the United States.

According to modern anthropological thinking, tribes all have a similar structure. Whether matriarchal of patriarchal, African or Central American, large or tiny, tribes are clearly bounded, homogeneous, parochial, and stable. Tribal members can easily identify individuals as members or non-members of the tribe. All members of the tribe have nearly identical features on the characteristic important to the members. Tribes have a limited or narrow outlook or scope. And, tribes are stable over time.

Progressives clearly meet all the above requirements to be described as a tribe. One can explore each characteristic and find many examples.

Phylasts use projection when interacting with non-progressives or Others. This is one of the best ways to ascertain the viewpoint of Phylasts. One must simply listen to what they say about others to understand how they think. For example, Progressives frequently accuse Others of racism. Thus one can understand that Phylasts themselves are racists. Phylasts frequently accuse Others of being stupid. Thus we can understand that Phylasts believe themselves to be superior while subconsciously believing that they are less intelligent. Phylasts frequently accuse Others of being uncaring. Phylasts are thus themselves uncaring. Phylasts often accuse Others of being uncharitable. Here we have excellent data that shows liberals, progressives, and Democrats to contribute less to church, private, and public charities than Republicans, conservatives, the religious, and Independents.

Some theorists hold that tribes represent a stage in social evolution intermediate between bands and states.

McAfee's Website Verification Tech Sucks

2010-07-28T13:58:00.000-05:00

Many individuals and small businesses have third parties host their web sites. Lots of these hosting companies use 404 errors to advertise their services.

McAfee developers a website which assesses the safety of other websites. Owners of these sites can download a special page from McAfee and place it in the root directory of their website.

However, if the site is hosted by one of the many providers who use the 404 error for advertising, trying to use Mcafee's service results in this message:

"Error Submitting Site for Verification

"It appears that the Web site kitcarframes.com (or www.kitcarframes.com) is returning an HTTP 2xx or 3xx status response code in the header of 404 pages.
"We cannot verify a Web site that is configured this way because it allows anyone to verify themselves as the owner of your site. Please update your Web site server configuration to return 404 status codes in the headers for pages that do not exist. Once your site is configured this way then you can return and request a file name verification."

Perhaps McAfee should enhance their technology rather than expect every hosting provider to change their business model.

Sniff, sniff,...

I think I smell hubris.

Hydrogenation and Your Food

2010-06-30T10:04:00.000-05:00

But is it still food?

According to the Wikipedia, "Hydrogenation is a chemical reaction between molecular hydrogen (H₂) and another compound or element, usually in the presence of a catalyst. The process is commonly employed to reduce or saturate organic compounds. Hydrogenation typically constitutes the addition of pairs of hydrogen atoms to a molecule, generally an alkene. Hydrogenation of unsaturated fats produces saturated fats and, in some cases, trans fats."

Margarine (and other "food") is hydrogenated (this means hydrogen is added, changing the molecular structure of the substance). Margarine is just ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC....

Want proof? Try this for yourself: purchase a tub of margarine and leave it in your garage or shaded area. Watch for a few days. You'll note a couple of things: no flies will go near it. And it doesn't rot or smell differently. Because it has no nutritional value, nothing will grow on it - not bacteria, not yeast, not mold.

Why? Because it is nearly plastic. Would you melt your kid's toys and spread that on your toast?

Of course we could be using the process to make gasoline. To wit:

"The Bergius process was extensively used by Nazi Germany and targeted for bombing during the Oil Campaign of World War II. At present there are no plants operating the Bergius Process or its derivatives commercially. The largest demonstration plant was the 200 ton per day plant at Bottrop, Germany, operated by Ruhrkohle, which ceased operation in 1993. There are reports ^[4] of the Chinese company constructing a plant with a capacity of 4 000 ton per day. It was expected to become operational in 2007 ^[5], but there has been no confirmation that this was achieved.

During WWII the United States conducted secret research in converting coal to gasoline at a facility in Louisiana, Missouri. Located along the Mississippi river, this plant was producing gasoline in commercial quantities by 1948. Production costs produced automobile gasoline comparable in price with petroleum based gasoline but of a higher quality. The facility was shut down in 1953 by the Eisenhower administration after intense lobbying by the oil industry ^[6]. Declassified documents detailing the experiments and the production process were systematically destroyed. In the 1980s 16mm microfilm of these documents were discovered in a few Federal Depository Libraries. Within three months researcher requests to view this microfilm were told the canisters were missing. In one case a physical search turned up only the rusty pattern of a 16mm film canister on a steel shelf. Apparently The National Petroleum Council continues to suppress this information. ^{[7]" Wikipedia}

Other References: Advertisement for "Super Foods for a Super Healthy You"

Why Progressive Jurists like RBG are Dangerous

2010-06-28T11:42:00.001-05:00

"Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented in Heller and wondered why the right to bear arms was necessary to extend to the states. "[I]f the notion is that these are principles that any free society would adopt, well, a lot of free societies have rejected the right to keep and bear arms." [Italics mine]

There are so many things worng with this statement it boggles the mind.

1. The United States of America is not "any free society" it is a particular free society based upon specific principles only some of which are written down in the Constitution. My country has a special, unusual, and quite specific history. "We believe these truths are self evident. " No other country in the world is founded on the belief that the truths articulated in the Declaration of Independence are obvious and based upon divine principles.

To cast the United States of America into the pot of "a lot of free societies" whose foundations are the idea that "rights" are "allowed" by government is to sully, belittle, and degrade our Principles, our Founders, and all those who have died to uphold the Constitution.

Shame on you Justice Ginsburg. You stain the proud duties of the Court.

2. Under Article IV the Supreme Court is restricted to base rulings on the Constitution, the Laws of the United States and Treaties. To wit:

"This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding."

Any appeal to "a lot of free societies" is thus explicitly prohibited as the basis for making decisions.

Justice Ginsburg should follow her oath of office and uphold ALL the Constitution not just those parts she finds fit her ideological preferences.

3. While it may be true that "a lot of free societies have rejected the right to keep and bear arms." our country has not. The Second Amendment specifically provides for the protection of that right. Even a Constitutional Amendment removing the Second Amendment would still not remove the underlying right.

Our Constitution, unlike "other free societies", doesn't extend rights to citizens, it protects rights which are inalienable. The Constitution grants specific, limited, enumerated powers to the three branches of Government. It does not grant rights. The first ten amendments articulate some rights to avoid ambiguity and further restrict government.

I appeal to Justice Ginsburg to put aside her ideology and adopt the ideology of our Founders and ordinary United States Citizens.

I could go on, but my point has hopefully been made. The United States is founded on certain principles that assume freedom, grant limited power to government, and requires those who serve us to uphold the Constitution according to their Oath of Office. Our elected representatives should be held to the later in order to ensure the former.

Protein Consumption Truth or Scare

2010-06-28T09:30:00.002-05:00

Conventional scientific wisdom hold two tenants to be proven true:

Increasing protein intake does not build muscle
You can not build muscle after 60.

An example of the first "truth" is contained in the article "Find out how consuming too much protein can harm your body" by Miriam Nelson published by WebMD and
Reviewed By Gary D. Vogin, MD

Miriam E. Nelson, Ph.D. certainly appears to have the appropriate credentials. She is director of the John Hancock Research Center on Physical Activity, Nutrition, and Obesity Prevention and associate professor of Nutrition at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. She's written several books. (See bio: http://jhrc.nutrition.tufts.edu/faculty/nelson.html)

She's also wrong.

One of life's little lessons is that "it isn't what you don't know that kills you, it's what you know that isn't true."

What follows are quotations from her WebMD article with my observations:

"Seems like everyone at the gym is doing it: filling up on protein to bulk up those biceps. But it's a misconception. Eating extra protein actually doesn't do much toward boosting your muscle mass and strength."

While it is possible that virtually every person engaged in strength training has been hornswoggled by the protein shake industry, I find it rather unlikely. There are simply too many users and too much information exchange for such a gigantic fraud.

Furthermore, my personal experience demonstrates that additional, high quality protein supplementation with appropriate exercise and other supplementation does, in fact, build muscle. I've tried exercise with and without. No comparison with is way more effective. And, I've see considerable fat loss too.

"In fact, medical research shows that consuming too much protein -- more than 30% of your total daily caloric intake -- could actually harm your body, says protein expert Gail Butterfield, PhD, RD, director of Nutrition Studies at the Palo Alto Veterans' Administration Medical Center and nutrition lecturer at Stanford University."

Note that there are no scientific references given. Rather, an "appeal to the expert" neatly sidesteps substantive information.

Also note, that "your body" is a mythical body. Individual metabolism varies widely. And, individuals who are performing heavy exercise or are over 60 have metabolisms that are certainly different from the average body what ever that is.

By-the-way, according to the UN Americans are currently consuming about 53% of their total calories in the form of protein! So we're already "harming" our bodies.

[Not that I actually believe the UN document any more than I believe the WebMD article. I actually think there is a whole lot of BS floating around! I include the reference here to demonstrate the wide divergence of "expert" information]

"She says that a diet containing excess protein can have the following adverse effects:

Adding more protein but not more calories or exercise to your diet won't help you build more muscle mass, but it may put your other bodily systems under stress.
Eating more protein and increasing total caloric intake while maintaining the same exercise level will build an equal amount of additional fat and muscle mass, according to a study published in 1992 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society."

Bullet point one certainly sounds frightening. Not only does extra protein not work it is harmful. Again no references.

Bullet point one and two result in the following equations:

Protein+(food-protein equiv calories) => no change in muscle
Protein+food => ^ in muscle + ^ in fat

Thus, the increase in muscle and the increase in fat are only based on an increase in calories.

Really!

So here we have three "experts" telling us that muscle is built only from calories. Does anyone believe this? Of course if you confronted these experts with the above implication of their beliefs you will be bombarded with piles of vague, jargony, BS resplendent with quotes of other "believers."

These folks are "experts" because other "experts" were convinced they had accepted the "scientific truth." You get a PhD when you convince other PhDs that you are knowledgeable of (That means agree with) what they "know" (believe).

While this keeps the religion pure, it may or it may not be "true".

So keep on chugin' those protein shakes.

If there is no Drug Company Profit a Compound is Worthless

2010-05-17T00:42:00.000-05:00

"The NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE study by Nair that dismissed DHEA supplementation as being without value made no assessment of endothelial function, effects of cortisol on the hippocampus, of immune function, of skin status and of a number of other parameters." (http://www.benbest.com/nutrceut/DHEA.html)

"Canada has declared DHEA to be an "anabolic steroid" that is illegal to own or sell without a prescription in that country. DHEA is sold without prescription in the United States." (IBID)

" A sense of futility (or acceptance) concerning aging-associated functional decline, the diversity & vaguely-understood nature of DHEA actions and the fact that DHEA is a natural hormone that cannot be patented have all contributed to the relative lack of research that has been done on the value of DHEA hormone replacement."

Can you see the pattern here? If it can't be exploited for a profit it is dismissed by the establishment as worthless.

The Progressive way to Internet Freedom

2010-05-04T12:52:00.000-05:00

"Public Knowledge, a media public interest group quoted by the BBC: "The obvious solution that will protect consumers and fulfil (SIC) the Obama administration's technology platform is to make sure broadband access is properly regulated so there is a cop on the beat for consumers," Art Brodsky told BBC News."

Public Knowledge's solution for the restrictive, overly censored, Internet is for the federal government to be the "cop on the beat". Of course their real objective, like all Progressives, is to "properly regulate" the internet by restricting your speech to fit their agenda.

The Centre for Democracy and Technology acknowledged that industry can play a role but that ultimately the FCC has to assert its authority.

"There could be a positive role for industry to play here by talking about the kinds of practices that ought to be avoided and establish some norms," said David Sohn.

"But I still think at the end of the day it would be important to ensure the government has some ability to really play an oversight role here. The devil is in the detail and as yet the question of whatever principles they come up with and how strong they are are open to question."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10095732.stm

These nut jobs and their need to control everyone reminds me of the King of England, say around the late 1700s. Remember how that worked out for the regulators?

2010-04-23T12:55:00.000-05:00

Dan Gerstein of Forbes was just on FOX News demonstrating the Lefty View of how other folks should run their lives, political parties, etc. I see a clear relationship between the lefty personality and their overwhelming predilection to lecture those of us less intelligent on how we should do virtually anything!

Dan wants the Tea Party folks to change their views so they are more appealing to Democrats and Independents.

Gee, Dan, if they change their views then they'd BE Democrats. I think that's their point! They think the Lefty Dems are WRONG.

And, by the way, Independents are INDEPENDENT! They're not likely to be attracted to the same ol' lefty propaganda. That's why they're NOT DEMOCRATS!

I've got a suggestion for YOU, Dan. Clean up your own mess and let other folks run their own lives - and political movements.

Senator Tim Johnson of SD

2010-04-23T10:08:00.000-05:00

Here's my email to Senator Tim Johnson:

"I just talked to your Sioux Falls office about the state of SD dropping my college kid's health insurance. You had sold me on the health care bill, in part, because of the provision about covering our older children. Now I find out it won't be in effect for five years. I feel ripped off and lied to. I'll remember this when I vote."

Of course I don't believe he actually reads constituent email, none of our politicians do. In poor Tim's case, I doubt that he can understand the content of emails or the legislation his staffers vote on. But then he's not the only brain damaged person sitting in our senate.

"Oh we're going to be collecting money for five years so we can pay for the bill", the young man told me on the phone when I called Tim's office.

Do these idiots really believe that the US government is going to collect money for five years and put it in a sack? Do they really expect us to believe that any funds collected to "pay for health care 'reform'"will be set aside and not gobbled up by another of their vote buying projects? Does the bill they passed even establish such a piggy bank? Will this money earn interest? Will the interest it earns be higher than the interest we pay on the national debt? Does this make ANY sense?

Do I personally feel lied to?

You betcha!

Wigner's Random Matrix Theory and Human Behavior

2010-04-16T11:00:00.000-05:00

My question: "Does Wigner's Random Matrix Theory apply to human behavioral driven systems?

If so, it may provide an unique analysis tool applicable to everything from terrorist communications to mental health treatment to network communication phenomena.

In a paper from 2006, Percy Deift of New York University showed how random matrix theory applies to the mathematics of certain games of solitaire, to the way buses clump together in cities, and the path traced by molecules bouncing around in a gas.

While "bus clumping" depends upon a wide variety of factors (like the physical systems originally targeted by this technique), it also depends upon human behavior. If there is an underlying physical system responding only to physical properties with an imposed human behavioral driving force and the composite system still follows the random matrix principles then only one of two conclusions can be drawn:

1. The physical characteristics of the system swamp the human behavioral drivers
2. The human behavioral drivers also follow the random matrix principles. Or at least the sum of the two systems does.

The latter conclusion (2) assumes that two interacting systems following random matrix principles also follows random matrix principles. I believe this can be shown by taking any complex system following random matrix principles and breaking it into subsystems. If arbitrary subsystems also follow the random matrix principles the the assertion is supported, if not proven.

Further investigation of human behavioral driven systems should be undertaken to ascertain if Wigner's Random Matrix Theory applies.

Complexity, Reality, and Rubber Sheets

2010-04-06T15:22:00.000-05:00

Consider a complex function of many time varying variables. Choose any two variables. Plot the value of the function over the ranges of the chosen two variables creating a three dimensional surface. Observe this surface over time. If there are a sufficient number of time varying variables and if a sufficient number of these variables are not simply correlated then the surface will appear chaotic.

In nearly all physically realizable systems there are constraints on the macroscopic rate of change from point to point in space. In other words, a surface representing real phenomena must be continuous.

In our example, the surface was not constrained to be continuous. Nonphysical chaotic systems (mathematical simulations) are not constrained. Their surface plot can have many areas and points of discontinuity.

One could consider complex functions as driver functions. These driver functions are, however, constrained in their real world behavior by characteristics of the representational media. Such constraints can be perceived as “forces”. Thus inertia acts like a force to limit the rate of change in the position of objects which have mass. Communication speed acts as a retarding force to limit the rate of change in mob behavior.

An analogy of such system constraints would be to conceive of our example function driven surface as connected to a two dimensional rubber sheet where each point in the rubber sheet is connected to the function surface by tiny rods. As the function attempts to drive these rods up and down their movement is constrained by the physical characteristics of the rubber sheet and by the strength of the tiny rods. The resulting surface of the rubber sheet is a constrained representation of the underlying function.

Note that, depending upon the characteristics of the rubber sheet and the connecting rods, it may be quite difficult to know the value of any particular point in the driving function. The transfer function between a point on the sheet’s surface and the driving function is an interaction of the sheet characteristics, the rod’s characteristics and not only the particular point value of the driving function but also of the values of the driving function at many points surrounding the particular point. Thus observing the rubber sheet provides limited understanding of the driving function.

As the number of variables involved in the driving function increases, our ability to derive understanding from observing the rubber sheet rapidly decreases. As the complexity of the rubber sheet’s characteristics and the characteristics of the connecting rods increases, our ability to derive understanding also rapidly decreases.

Physics - Content or Framework?

2010-01-27T08:37:00.006-06:00

Popular explanations of the relationship between classical and quantum physics are inadequate. I suggest the following dichotomy. Classical physics describes the local behavior of the universe. Quantum physics describes the framework or container for the local universe. As such, quantum physics describes the universe across the complete range of physical and temporal dimensions: The very distant and the very small.

Classical physics works within the quantum framework describing deterministic phenomena. The quantum physics framework accounts for non-deterministic and/or probabilistic phenomena. Apparently more distant and smaller phenomena are less deterministic than near, macroscale phenomena.

Classical physics is the content. Quantum physics is the context. Neither has consequential existence with out the other.

This concept has some "comfortable" or familiar characteristics. First, as independent observers our personal experience is that we have less control over events distant in space. Personal experience teaches that we have less control over events distant in time. Such events become increasingly probabilistic as such spatial or temporal distance increases. Such events are less deterministic than events nearby.

It is almost as if events are connected by a sequence of intermediate events like pearls on a string. "Cause" operates on the first pearl. "Effect" is this pearl acting as the "cause" on the next pearl in the string and so on until the distal event occurs. At each pearl there is some, small, probability that the "cause" will act on pearls in adjacent strings. Thus the "cause energy" can be dissipated or redirected to other strings. As the number of "event pearls" increases the probability of the intended distal effect occurring decreases.

Such a model implies that the universe is constructed of discrete cells of existence in which events occur. It also implies that any descriptive theory of the universe describes not only the characteristics and relationships of events within such a cell but also the relationship between the cells.

Until theoretical physics recognizes this nested dichotomy and develops mathematics to represent it, understand of the universe is not possible.

Some thoughts about New Orleans

2006-08-19T12:37:00.004-05:00

This was originally written several years ago shortly after the New Orleans "disaster." Perhaps with the passage of time we have had an opportunity to reflect on what went right and wrong and who was really to blame.

We're all Americans. Americans are the most resourceful, independent, toughest folks in the world. Lets try to remember that. Let's try to treat each other in that spirit. Lets be enablers - not rescuers!

I’m a little confused about our response to the New Orleans disaster. News reports state that there are, four days after the event, xxx people left in New Orleans. Our response? Send yyy National Guard troops, zzz Red Cross volunteers, and hundreds of search & rescue, law enforcement, medical, and aid workers.

Here is my conundrum. There are thousands of people in New Orleans with out food and water. They crowd highway overpasses and the Super Dome. Why are we sending MORE people?

Why don’t the people that are already there take care of the problems: Rescue people, care for them, set up shelters, fix the dikes, and clean up the city. After all, it’s THEIR city.

Oh, I hear the answers, “These are poor minority folks. They don’t have the resources.”

So, let’s send RESOURCES. Let’s not send people. There are plenty of people there already.

But, the enablers cry, “These are poor minority folks.”

What a condescending, racist viewpoint.

Yes these folks are poor. “Poor” is defined by a lack of money and/or resources.

So we send them resources. We pay them to use the resources. They are no longer poor – they have incomes and resources.

Why should I pay salaries of National Guard members who must leave jobs to be in the Guard when I could be paying salaries of “poor folk” who don’t have jobs?

Oh, the enablers cry, “These are poor minority folks. They aren’t police or search and rescue or food servers or boat drivers or nurses or engineers.”

What a condescending, racist viewpoint!

Are the enablers saying that poor folks can’t work?

Give them a chance. “Poor folks” built this country.

Are they saying that minorities can’t be police or save people or prepare food or serve food or drive boats or care for people or be engineers?

Look around. Minorities fill all these jobs and fill them quite well.

Don’t look down on the people of New Orleans. Don’t treat them as if they are helpless. Don’t accept a racist plantation mentality.

Provide them resources. Pay them for their work. Support them with training and leadership. And, let them stand-up to the challenges they have been presented.

They will be stronger for it. Our nation will be stronger for it. And, we will all be proud of them.

Thinking about Milk ... and Oil

2006-08-19T12:14:00.002-05:00

Suppose you live in a small town. Your name is Wilson. In your small town there is only one milkman. One Saturday you are down town shopping and you see the milkman standing on an apple crate in the town square. In a loud voice he is listing all the miseries people in the town have experienced.

Suddenly he turns toward you and screams. “There is the reason.”

He points to you and says in a menacing voice “We need to rid our town of Mr. Wilson. And all Mr. Wilson’s friends.”

Now you are a rather large man. Certainly you’re a match, physically, for the milkman or any of the other town folk. You laugh and walk into the hardware store.

The owner of the hardware store is a friend of yours. He comes up and says, “The milkman is crazy. He’s been saying all week that he is going to get rid of you. Get you to move out of town – even out of the state. If you don’t go, something worse will happen to you. And to me!”

Now consider your and the hardware store owner’s reaction.

Milk is difficult to find. So, even though the milkman has raised his prices, you and the hardware store owner keep buying milk. You and your families keep drinking the milkman’s milk. You keep paying the milkman ever increasing prices.

Would you really do this in your own life?

I’ll bet you wouldn’t. You’d move away. If you couldn’t move, you’d find another source for your milk. If you couldn’t find another source, you’d stop drinking milk.

America and the western world is like Mr. Wilson and his friend. Mr. Wilson is hooked on milk and it must be cow’s milk. He has lots of goats living in his yard – but he won’t drink goat’s milk. He has soybeans growing on his farm but he won’t drink soy-milk. He even has an artesian well supplying unlimited amounts of powdered milk but he won’t drink powdered milk.

Mr. Wilson must be certifiably insane. You’d never keep buying milk from the crazy milkman if you were Mr. Wilson, would you

But we keep buying oil. We buy oil from an oilman who wants to kill us. We’re hooked on Middle Eastern oil. Even though we have lots of coal right in our own yard we won’t use gasoline made from coal. We too have soybeans growing on our farms but we won’t use biodiesel. We have the capability to produce boundless amounts nuclear power but we won’t use nuclear power.

We must be certifiable insane. Why do we keep buying oil?

----------------------------

You can easily substitute other resources for milk in the above discourse. While it was originally written as comment on America's apparently insane addiction to foreign oil, it can also be applied to health care in the political discussions of 2009.

The Oil Industry’s Plan for Ethanol

2006-08-19T12:12:00.002-05:00

The oil industry has a plan for ethanol. Unfortunately it isn't a plan you're going to like.

The oil industry resisted using ethanol to decrease gasoline emissions. They clung tenaciously to a chemical that had poisoned and still poisons hundreds of wells and sickened thousands of humans. They persisted in using this chemical despite the fact that ethanol doesn’t have any risk associated with it’s use.

One of the reasons they give to not use ethanol is that there is not an adequate supply.

When they were forced by congress to phase out the poisonous chemical they instead abruptly stopped using it. This had the obvious effect of creating an ethanol shortage. Lack of supply and overwhelming demand caused the price of ethanol rise.

Now any economist will tell you that the response to shortage is for new producers to enter the market place. And indeed this is happening. Ethanol plants are springing up like mushrooms after a rain all over the Midwest.

Any educated person can predict the result of a vastly increased supply - the price will drop.

As the price drops additional supply will continue to come on line. This is sometimes called 'lagged supply'. The time it takes to bring additional manufacturing on-line lags behind the demand curve. At some point the demand is met but additional supply is still being created. In situations where demand is bound and inelastic, by the time this lagged supply is available, supply exceeds demand. Prices fall. Manufacturers, especially inefficient manufacturers, fail.

Oil companies are counting on this lagged supply phenomenon. They will wait until there is excess capacity – which there surely will be – and then they will introduce an alcohol substitute.

The demand for ethanol will will dry up because oil producers will stop purchasing ethanol. The alcohol manufacturers will go broke. The oil companies will be there to buy them for pennies on the dollar. They will buy the inefficient manufacturers first and operate them at a loss to further drive the price down.

The result? Oil companies will gain control over a competing fuel. And they’ll do it on the cheap. Lots of manufacturers, farmers, investors, and consumers will be hurt.

How can Americans defend themselves from these evil predators? Actually, it’s very simple.

States must pass laws prohibiting oil companies from the sale and distribution of alternative fuels. Gasoline would be allowed to use alcohol as an additive – say 10% or less – but no more. Mixtures above 10% could only be sold and distributed by non-petroleum owned corporations or individuals. Existing laws requiring gasoline be used as the denaturing agent in alcohol fuels must be revoked. The result will be competition - competition between the oil companies and the alcohol/biodiesel manufacturers, distributors, and filling stations. Alcohol manufacturers will be isolated from market manipulations of the oil companies. The United States will have a robust, non-petroleum based fuel industry. Our dependency on Middle Eastern oil will diminish.

Competition is a good thing.

---------------------------

This was written several years ago. Look around. Any of it come true? Have the oil companies successfully blocked the use/increased use of ethanol? Have they caused producers to fail? Have they bought up ethanol plants for pennies on the dollar?

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

And the trend continues.

I have been using 50% ethanol in my 1990s vehicles for over 15 years with absolutely no ill effect. My oil looks noticeably lighter when I change it. Engine performance remains excellent. And, despite my northern plains location, I have had no low temperature starting issues - even at 30 below zero. 50% also works fine in my 2009 Obama funded Traverse.

A Middle Eastern Thought Experiment

2006-08-19T12:03:00.001-05:00

Sometimes when we are presented with a problem, aspects of the problem have strong emotional effects. Such effects often make solving the problem more difficult than it really is. Such emotional aspects cloud our thinking. Our feelings preclude certain logically possible solutions. Thus, we can reject out-of-hand, or not even identify, logically correct solutions.

One method that can be employed in such circumstances is to change the actors and the actions to some less emotionally charged scenario. It is often helpful if another person performs the recasting. Their resulting scenario becomes merely a thought experiment. A thought experiment we can consider logically. And, therefore, develop a logical solution.

I that manner, let me posit a thought experiment. I’ll provide some of my own analysis. I’ll let you consider what you think is the logical solution. And then, I’ll translate the thought experiment back into the real life problem. You can see if you would have come to the same conclusion had you been considering the “real” problem.

Here is my thought experiment.

You are a Black man living in a mostly white neighborhood. You are a nice guy and don’t cause trouble. However, Old Man Thompson (an entirely fictitious name), is a nasty hold over from the days of bed sheets and burning crosses. He has an extreme dislike of Black folks and lets everyone in the neighborhood know it.

A few weeks after cold weather arrives, the neighborhood children start pelting you with snowballs. Now this is odd as it hasn’t snowed yet and therefore the children cannot be making their own snowballs. Yet, they seem to have an endless supply. They pelt you whenever you go out side. This makes walking your dog or riding your bike impossible.

A snowball here or there isn’t going to do much damage but there are so many you are being injured. And your dog is suffering. You’re not even safe in your own house, as they have started pelting your house and breaking windows. Something must be done.

You spend the weekend watching the neighborhood with your binoculars and discover the source of the snowballs. Old Man Thompson has an ice machine going in his back yard and is passing out boxes of snowballs to the children along with lectures on how bad black folks in general and you in particular are.

What do you do to address your problem? Let me suggest a few alternatives.

Just put up with it?
Start throwing snowballs back at the children?
Move out of the neighborhood?
Call the police on the children?
Call the children’s parents?
Call Old Man Thompson?
Call the police on Old Man Thompson?
Start throwing snowballs at Old Man Thompson?
Call a lawyer?
Build a snowball shield?
Steal or disable the ice machine?
Other.

Let’s examine each of these possibilities logically.

1. Just put up with it.

This is a fine solution if you want others to know you’re patient and not moved to anger. In the short run you can probably succeed. However, in the long run your dog and you die.

2. Start throwing snowballs back at the children

This might make you feel good. You’re bigger and stronger than any one of the children. You can through a snowball that might knock a smaller child down. However, there are a lot of children. How long can you do this before their parents get involved? Is attacking children really a good idea?

3. Move out of the neighborhood

OK if you can afford it. But most folk can’t afford it. And besides, is this really a solution? Old Man Thompson will continue to spread hate and can now point to your departure as a victory for his ideas and the children’s behavior.

4. Call the police about the children

In a rational world this sounds good. Let the authorities deal with the children. You don’t have to do anything. The police do what they are supposed to do – keep the peace.

Unfortunately I need to modify the story a bit here to reflect the real scenario. The police refuse to do anything. Worse, they blame you for starting the trouble. Oh they post a sign saying that throwing snowballs is not acceptable. But they don’t even lecture the children despite seeing them throw snowballs at your house.

5. Call the children’s parents

Again, in a rational world one might be successful with this approach. It requires, however, that the children have parents, that the parents want a quiet neighborhood, that they are capable of controlling their children, and that they also think Old Man Thompson’s view of the world is wrong.

Unfortunately, the real scenario requires that most of the children have no parents and those that do are the grandchildren of Old Man Thompson. The parents think the children are justified in their behavior.

6. Call Old Man Thompson

You can imagine how well this would work.

You’ll appeal to his what? Conscious? Sense of fairness? Tell him that he’s wrong? That he’s doing something bad? Are you going to plead? Threaten? Explain? Ya, right!

7. Call the police on Old Man Thompson

We’ve been here. If the police think the children are fine then at worst they must agree with Old Man Thompson at best he intimidates them. This just isn’t going to work.

8. Start throwing snowballs at Old Man Thompson

Might make you feel better. Might even get him to stop if he gets hurt. Of course he still has the ice machine. Where are you going to get an equal number of snowballs? You could buy your own ice machine. In the mean time you’re going to have to survive all the children’s snowballs until Old Man Thompson stops supplying them.

Is this a good approach? Well, I’d say yes – if it works. If it doesn’t you’ve really pissed off the old man and he may bring in the police on his side. If he doesn’t give in pretty quick, you’re in even bigger trouble.

9. Call a lawyer

This is a solution most folks jump to right after calling the police doesn’t work. Problem here is, what’s the lawyer going to do? He can’t control the police or make you snowballs. He can’t control the children of Old Man Thompson now the children’s parents. He can’t control the children. The police are the government’s action players. The courts, politicians, and lawyers are just mechanisms to direct the police. They don’t really DO anything - ‘cept take your time and money, of course.

10. Build a snowball shield

Take another sip of that Kool-Aid…

11. Steal or disable the ice machine

This is going to get you into all kinds of trouble with the police. However, it will provide a respite. The children are going to run out of snowballs pretty quickly and you’ll be safe. If the police are worthless at enforcing laws to protect you they will probably be worthless at enforcing laws to hurt you. Here you’re taking a chance. But you’re probably safe from the police doing anything that hurts you.

Of course, Old Man Thompson can just buy another ice machine. He does, however, have to consider that you can steal or disable the new one too. Now Old Man Thompson is faced with giving up, a long string of ice machine purchases, or changing the game.

At this point the situation comes down to who can spend the most - Old Man Thompson buying ice machines or you taking them out. If it’s less expensive to destroy an ice machine that purchase one and if your resources are proportionally equal to Old Man Thompson’s, then the contest could go on for a long time. In the mean time you don’t have to put up with the neighborhood children throwing snowballs at you, your dog, or your house. It’s a stalemate but one your can live with.

If taking out Old Man Thompson’s ice machines are more costly to you than buying them is for Old Man Thompson then you have a problem. He can replace them faster than you can take them out. This approach just won’t work under these circumstances.

Oh you might get lucky and frighten Old Man Thompson. Then he would not buy a new ice machine. But Old Man Thompson is probably not the intimidatable type. This approach becomes a gamble based on your assessment of Old Man Thompson’s psychology.

12. Other

Here are a few additional solutions.

Kill Old Man Thompson.

Quick, completely ends the problem but might get the police to actually do something against you. And worst case, it angers the children so much they buy ice machines. But it may also intimidate the children and their parents and even the police. Besides, can the police do anything worse that the children are already doing?

Kill the children

More difficult than killing the Old Man and it only solves the problem for a generation. The parents will have more children. Old Man Thompson can buy a second or third ice machine and build up an arsenal of snowballs. This approach probably has an even higher risk of getting the police to take action against you. And besides, it really pisses off the parents. There is a big intimidation factor but it leaves the real source of the problem around to continue causing trouble.

Kill the parents

You can figure out why this isn’t a great solution. It doesn’t address the root cause and it doesn’t stop the snowball throwing.

Kill the neighbors who don’t have children.

Seems ridiculous but is relevant to our thought experiment.

Take a while to think about this little thought experiment.

Now answer this question. Why did the Israelis (our Black Man) choose solution #12: Other – Kill all the children, kill some of the children’s parents, and kill some of the neighbors who don’t have children?

In our little thought experiment, the police represent the UN. They aren’t going to do anything to anyone. They are not a threat. Old Man Thompson represents Iran. Iran is not only providing the neighborhood children with snowballs (missiles and car bombs), but is vigorously selling oil to buy more ice machines and winter weather making devices. The children represent Hezbollah and the other Islamic terrorist groups. Like deranged, vicious children they have no real snowballs of their own, no morals, and no conscious. The neighbors with no children represent the Christian and neutral Lebanese. They are afraid to speak out lest they become targets of the children. The children’s parents represent the Hezbollah supporting Lebanese.

So what was your solution to the neighborhood problem? Would it have been the same if you had been solving the problem presented by Hezbollah and the Middle East?

Illegal Immigration and Politics

2006-08-11T16:01:00.001-05:00

There simply is not an illegal immigration problem. Nor is the problem is solely one of political ideology. Rather, it is a legal problem. Take, for example, the position that the United States is a sovereign country with the obligation to protect its citizens from ‘external threats’ as described in the US constitution.. Include in the idea of ‘external threats’ a decrease in individual citizen’s physical security, invasion, and economic loss to citizens and US businesses.

Next ask the question, “Does illegal immigration constitute an ‘external threat’?”

This question devolves to each of it’s components:

Component	Situation	Threat
A decrease in individual citizen’s physical security	There has been an increase in murders, sex crimes, and physical assault against US citizens directly proportional to the number of illegal immigrants	Yes
Invasion	There are, by most accounts, over 10 million citizens of other countries in the US with out the permission of the US government and in violation of US laws. This is an invasion.	Yes
Economic loss to citizens	Wages in jobs filled my illegals are static or lower than prior to the invasion. This is an economic to US citizens in these and related jobs. US citizens cannot work for these wages while paying taxes, FICA, and meeting other requirements of employed legal residents.	Yes
Economic loss to US Businesses	Some US businesses competing in international trade acquire a competitive advantage through lower wages. In the long run, taxes must increase to support the unfunded social services required by illegals. Other businesses facing increased shrinkage, poor quality workmanship, increased security requirements, on-the-job language issues, labor disputes, and dissatisfied citizen employees face immediate financial burdens	No/Yes

A reasonable person would look at the above table and conclude that the United States is indeed experiencing an “external threat.”

Therefore, it is the responsibility of the Federal government under the Constitution to take all possible measures to eliminate this threat. To the extent that the Federal government fails to perform this duty as required by the constitution, federal officers, judges, and elected representatives are guilty of violation of their oath of office. All such officials, judges, and elected representatives should be impeached. This is not a political or ideological issue but rather a legal issue.

Leucine Metabolism and Alzheimer's Dementia

2006-08-11T15:29:00.001-05:00

Background

Leucine is one of the twenty most common amino acids and coded for by DNA. It is isomeric with isoleucine. Nutritionally, in humans, leucine is an essential amino acid. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leucine)
Leucine is the most common amino acid found in proteins, and is essential for optimal growth in infancy and childhood and for nitrogen equilibrium in adults. It is suspected that Leucine plays a part in maintaining muscles by equalizing synthesis and breakdown of proteins.
The major food sources of leucine are whole grains and milk and milk products. Eggs, pork, beef, chicken, pulses, Soya beans, and leafy vegetables are good sources of leucine.

An example of early-onset autosomal dominant familial Alzheimer disease (FAD) has been found to be caused by a leucine-to-valine change at codon 153 (L153V) of the presenilin 1 (PSEN1) gene. This finding raises the possibility that such substitution may also be induced by a chronic lack of Leucine in individuals with normal genes.

Observation 1

Elderly humans experience muscle wasting. This wasting can be stopped and even reversed through consumption of appropriately timed Leucine supplements. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4502862.stm)

Implication 1

Elderly humans absorb Leucine poorly from a normal diet. As a result, they become Leucine deficient.

Observation 2

In Alzheimer’s the beta-amyloid plaque contains Leucine.

Implication 2

An unknown process causes CNS accumulation of beta-amyloid plaque. Such accumulation can logically be caused through one of the following mechanisms:

Leucine is not excreted due to a failure of the normal excretory process:

Transport failure
Transport blockage

Leucine is abnormally retained

Genetic causes: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/281/5376/507
Age related failure of clean up process:

· Scientists Make Discovery in Alzheimer's (ABC News;Fri, 11 Aug2006)
Scientists Find Cell Cleaners That Banish Alzheimer's-Linked Gunk, Which May Lead to New Drug

· Scientists make discovery in Alzheimer's (AP via Yahoo! News;Fri, 11 Aug 2006)
Scientists have discovered molecular janitors that clear away a sticky gunk blamed for Alzheimer's disease - until they get old and quit sweeping up.

Leucine is bound to the beta-amyloid plaque in a passive, non-active ingredient

Observation 3

Leucine is rapidly turned over in the normal brain.

Implication 3

An adequate supply of Leucine is necessary to support normal turn over in the brain.

http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v12/n7/abs/nm1438.html;jsessionid=501B94F643995FE210A7C4B3BBC454CC

Hypothesis

A systemic lack of Leucine caused by failure to absorb adequate amounts from the diet leads to abnormal brain Leucine metabolism that directly, or indirectly, causes a buildup of beta-amyloid plaque in the central nervous system.

Possible Approaches to Tests of the Hypothesis

Compare the systemic Leucine levels of Alzheimer’s and normal elderly adults.
Identify animals having a Leucine metabolism similar to humans and conduct an experiment whereby Leucine levels are manipulated and brain morphology is studied.

Dietary deprivation
Chemical interference in vivo.

Examine the effects on neural tissue of varying levels of Leucine in vitro.
Compare the levels of Leucine in animal models of Alzheimer’s.
Investigate the relationship between neurotoxins that cause Alzheimer’s like lesions and their effect on Leucine metabolism.
Investigate the morphology of muscle wasting related to Leucine deprivation.

Look for plaque related deposits in elderly muscles
Look for plaque related deposits in animals deprived of Leucine.
Look for neuromuscular junction effects in elderly muscles.
Look for neuromuscular junction effects in animals deprived of Leucine.
Consider the relationship between the known changes in neuromuscular junctions with aging and leucine supplementation.

Investigate the location of the beta-amyloid plaque buildup and localization of Leucine metabolism in Alzheimer’s and normal brains.

Developing a Leucine specific stain/antibody could accelerate such studies.
Explore the localization of Leucine metabolism in the normal CNS using both human and animal models. (A quick approach would be to use mice as an initial demonstration of differential Leucine metabolism across brain areas.)
Focus special attention on CNS astrocytes.

Web References

In addition to those links included above, you may wish to review information found at these websites:

http://www.raysahelian.com/carnosine.html

http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/95/6/3275

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11785964&dopt=Abstract

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=16098915&dopt=Abstract

Janssen, J. C., P. L. Lantos, et al. (2001). "Autopsy-confirmed familial early-onset Alzheimer disease caused by the l153V presenilin 1 mutation." Arch Neurol 58(6): 953-8. As found in: http://lansbury.bwh.harvard.edu/Literature/Review/amyloid_plaque_2001.htm

http://plaque.researchtoday.net/archive/2/8/55.htm

From the University of Waterloo’s Alzheimer’s Research Exchange website (11 Aug 06):

· Scientists Make Discovery in Alzheimer's (ABC News;Fri, 11 Aug 2006 16:29:18 GMT)
Scientists Find Cell Cleaners That Banish Alzheimer's-Linked Gunk, Which May Lead to New Drug

· Scientists make discovery in Alzheimer's (AP via Yahoo! News;Fri, 11 Aug 2006 02:36:11 GMT)
Scientists have discovered molecular janitors that clear away a sticky gunk blamed for Alzheimer's disease â€” until they get old and quit sweeping up.

· New biomarkers could help doctors spot Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases (EurekAlert!;Fri, 11 Aug 2006 18:16:37 GMT)
Neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's in their early stages can be difficult for physicians to spot, and many diagnoses are incorrect. A finding by researchers at the University of Washington and Harborview Medical Center may soon help in the diagnosis of such diseases.

· New Research Points Toward Mechanism Of Age-onset Toxicity Of Alzheimer's Protein (Science Daily;Fri, 11 Aug 2006 16:13:58 GMT)
Like most neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer's disease usually appears late in life, raising the question of whether it is a disastrous consequence of aging or if the toxic protein aggregates that cause the disease simply take a long time to form. Now, a new study shows that aging is what's critical. Harmful beta amyloid aggregates accumulate when aging impedes two molecular clean-up crews

· Calories and Alzheimerâ€™s (ScienCentral;Fri, 11 Aug 2006 15:56:53 GMT)
Scientists are finding that reducing calories might be a way to slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease. This ScienCentral News video explains how a study in mice is offering new clues in fighting the disease.

· Molecular find may help Alzheimer's research (USA Today;Thu, 10 Aug 2006 18:50:01 GMT)
Scientists have discovered molecular janitors that clear away a sticky gunk blamed for Alzheimer's disease until they get old and quit sweeping up. The finding helps explain why Alzheimer's is a disease of aging. More importantly, it suggests a new weapon: drugs that give nature's cleanup crews a boost.

· Cell Activities that Protect against Alzheimer's Protein Buildup Found (Senior Journal;Fri, 11 Aug 2006 18:39:31 GMT)
August 11, 2006 â€“ Yesterday there was news of research finding it is aging that actually causes the brain to stop cleaning out the protein build-up that causes Alzheimer's.

· Scientists find natural Alzheimer's controls (Boston Globe;Fri, 11 Aug 2006 08:27:17 GMT)
WASHINGTON -- Scientists have discovered molecular janitors that clear away a sticky substance in the brain blamed for Alzheimer's disease -- until they get old and quit sweeping up.

· Aging 'janitors' key to disease Study shows why Alzheimer's plaque build-up affects the old (Pioneer Press;Fri, 11 Aug 2006 08:04:33 GMT)
WASHINGTON â€” Scientists have discovered molecular "janitors" that clear away a sticky gunk blamed for Alzheimer's disease â€” until those molecules get old and quit sweeping up.

· Genetic link is identified for aging, Alzheimer's (San Diego Union-Tribune;Fri, 11 Aug 2006 10:16:24 GMT)
Alzheimer's disease may be caused by a failure of the brain's natural ability to clean house as it gets older, San Diego scientists have found.

References

Shiga, D. 2005. Disease detector: Chemical test may spot Alzheimer's. Science News 167(Feb. 5):83. Available at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050205/fob1.asp.

Seppa, N. 2006. Looking ahead: Tests might predict Alzheimer's risk. Science News 169(Feb. 18):102. Available to subscribers at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20060218/fob7.asp.

______. 2005. A new test for Alzheimer's risk? Science News 167(Feb. 5):93. Available to subscribers at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050205/note13.asp.

______. 2003. Early warning? Spinal fluid may signal Alzheimer's presence. Science News 164(Sept. 20):179. Available to subscribers at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20030920/fob2.asp.

Diet and Terror

2006-02-20T19:39:00.002-06:00

Could the Middle Eastern diet be responsible for radical terrorism, perpetual poverty, and a generally self-destructive culture?

Michael Tulloch, an Experimental Psychologist at the University of South Dakota, thinks so.

According to Dr. Tulloch, “Back in the 1930s the United States Department of Agriculture was concerned about the loss of minerals in US farm land. The Middle East has been occupied by humans and intensively farmed for six to eight thousand years compared to only two hundred years in the US. It seems likely that this continuous agriculture has severely depleted the soil. Animals grazing on this land will also be depleted in nutrients essential for normal human development.”

Is there evidence to support his views?

The LiveScience article Something Fishy: How Humans Got So Smart(Complete article), describes the potential value of fish in the human diet. Stephen Cunnane, a metabolic physiologist at the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec presented his research Saturday, February 18, 2006 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. “Even today, many people are dependent on shore-based foods. And it's possible, Cunnane speculates, that diets which aren't based on the ancient tradition put us at grave risk.

“Deficiencies in iodine and iron—minerals rich in a fish diet—can lead to cognitive degeneration. That's why companies added iodine to salt starting in the 1920s.

"’We're still vulnerable when we're not consuming that vitamin-rich diet,’ Cunnane told LiveScience. … If you take away the fuel, the brain suffers."

Contrast this article with the information contained in a recent NIH article. There, David B. Adams, Ph.D. reports the results of his study suggesting an association between greater seafood consumption and lower rates of bipolar disorders. The most precipitous rise in prevalence rates for the bipolar disorders generally occurs in countries having a seafood consumption of less than 50 lb per person (per year). (Am J Psychiatry 2003;160:2222-2227.)

Additional research shows young adults exposed to an enriched, stimulating environment during childhood may be at decreased risk for schizophrenia and criminal behavior. The enrichment program emphasized a stimulating environment and focused on three key elements-nutrition, education, and physical exercise. Program participants scored lower on tests of schizotypal personality and antisocial behavior at age 17 years and were less likely to have a history of criminal behavior. The strongest benefits were seen among children with evidence of malnutrition at age 3 years. The findings may be particularly relevant to poor rural areas of the US...and also to US inner cities, where rates of both malnutrition and behavioral problems in children are relatively high. (Am J Psychiatry 2003;160:1627-1635. As found here.)

In another study, the adjusted mean MacArthur Comprehension score was significantly higher for children whose mothers consumed fish four times/week compared with those children whose mothers did not consume fish. The results indicate that a relationship exists between fish consumption by mothers during pregnancy and development of verbal and communication abilities in children. Even moderate fish consumption seems to have positive effects on children’s development (Daniels et al., 2004).

The availability of fish for human consumption can be found in AAAS articles (for example: Natural Resources and Waste) and in World Wildlife Fund Reports (for example: Living Planet Report 2002). Availability is assumed to be highly correlated with consumption for a given country. However, those countries with a large tourism industry may have consumption estimates skewed toward the tourist country of origin.

Never the less, the following map makes a striking statement. Access to fish alone is a fairly good predictor of wealth and civilization while lack of access to fish is a predictor of poverty and terrorism.

Dr. Tulloch proposes a formula that creates a nutra-deficiency coefficient. This coefficient can be found by multiplying [Cropland/person] by [Grazing Land] by [Fishing Grounds/person] by [the inverse of Years of Agriculture] by [Per Capita Income].

The first three factors of this formula relate to the availability of the three primary sources of foods: grain/vegetables, animal, and fish. The fourth factor is a stand in for measured soil depletion. The final factor attempts to adjust the coefficient for wealthy countries’ ability to purchase nutrition resources beyond their local capabilities.

It is difficult to evaluate how to scale the depletion factor - inverse of Years of Agriculture. Values vary from 8000 years for the Fertile Crescent to 200 or so years for North America and Australia.

Similarly, there appears to be no a priori scale for “Per Capita Income” which also has a large range.

Therefore, nutra-coefficient values were computed without the factors for Farming History and Per Capita Income. A nutra-coefficient was calculated for six representative countries yielding the following chart:

By simply combing crop and grazing land availability with the availability of fish, areas of the world with lower scores are found to be the source of today’s terrorism. Note the extreme value range in the above chart.

A Nutra-Coefficient can be calculated for nearly any country using values available in the WWF report referenced above or the USA's CIA Fact Book.

Related Links:

Kids' Asthma Linked to Maternal Nutrition

Cat Parasite is Killing Otters

2006-02-20T09:00:00.001-06:00

According to the BBC, "Cat faeces (sic) carrying Toxoplasma parasites wash into US waterways and then into the sea where they can infect otters, causing brain disease.

"The parasite is familiar to medical researchers, as it can damage human foetuses (sic) when expectant mothers become infected while changing cat litter.

"The most likely source of infection for sea otters is the parasite's tough egg-like stage, known as the oocyst, which is passed in the faeces (sic) of cats. ... Once the parasite reaches the sea, it may be concentrated in mussels, oysters and clams, a major source of food for some otters. "

"For the sea otters, we don't exactly know how it gets in," said Dr Conrad, "but it must be through ingestion. "

The study also states that, "...individuals with moderate to severe brain inflammation were about four times as likely to die from a shark attack."

While most humans are not at risk of shark attack, it would be interesting to know the specific neural effects caused by such "brain inflammanation." We could then search for similar effects in humans.

I would also like to know the relationship between "brain inflammation" and alcohol.

The BBC article also reports that "There are 78 million domestic cats in the US, and the number has doubled in the last 10 years; there are estimated to be another 78 million feral cats. " It doesn't give an infection rate for these animals but, if the otter study is any indication, the rate must be rather high. Such a high infection rate has serious implications for human infection - and human mental health.

This research is attributed to Patricia Conrad, DVM of the Wildlife Health Center at the University of California, Davis. She was speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in St Louis, Missouri. Additional comments are strictly the opinion of this author.

See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4729810.stm for the complete article.

Cat Ladies and Parasites

2006-02-14T08:36:00.000-06:00

One can invoke evolution to explain "Cat Ladies".

Toxoplasmosis infected female humans have an increased probability of becoming cat horders.
This increases the survival probability of infected cats.
Cats living in such conditions have an increased probability of getting infected.
This increases the the survival probability of the parasite.

Such a positive feedback loop can drive evolution (co-evolution).

PsySci Toxoplasmosis links:

http://loom.corante.com/archives/2006/01/17/the_return_of_the_puppet_masters.php
http://www.slate.com/id/2123006/?nav=ais
http://gojomo.blogspot.com/2005/07/cat-ladies-caused-by-toxoplasmosis.html