It's darn impressive that I get anything done.

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And there's a huge desire for those who contemplate starting families, to control factors surrounding an embryo/infant's nutritional development.

But once you get rid of the stigma, bring the price down a few grand, perfect the nutritional issue (the psuedo-amniotic sac), and figure out how to make breastfeeding work, the majority of women will opt out of pregnancy in a heartbeat.

No. Contest.

You know why? Painful things . . . hurt.

And pointless suffering is . . . rather unnecessary, and contrary to the direction the human race likes to go in.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Hittin' the ground running at the Journal of Neurophysiology:

My challenge to all of you DM readers is to put forward ideas that could reasonably be implemented at Journal of Neurophysiology (or similar journals) that would be steps in the right direction. However, I would appreciate it if the suggestions weren't heavily expletive-laden. That fucking shit just gets old really goddamn fucking fast, eh?

I like someone who can bring some seriousness of purpose to an endeavor and cuss up a storm at the same time.

Fuckin' damn right. Glad to see some seriousness of purpose among biologists.

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Reader Gregory has a good-faith question out there on a previous thread. After I made a rather cavalier joke about ADD (assuming everyone realized I was including myself as a target of same), Gregory enquired as to how, objectively, we can tell the difference between these conditions and those of ordinary, energetic children.

There is a real concern, here, inasmuch as Ritalin may well be overprescribed to minors, and we shouldn't be giving our kids speed without some thought (any more than we should be using the television as an "electronic babysitter").

Given that I'm pushing 46, I reserve the right to take any drugs I like (provided my personal meth lab—now located in the back of my Cruiser—doesn't blow up).

But seriously . . . what are your thoughts?

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1 I think that the real cause of ADD/ADHD is PCDD: (Pedagogical Competency Deficit Disorder), defined as "a mental disorder characterized by the inability to inculcate useful knowledge in an educational setting."

Posted by: John at June 15, 2008 02:55 AM (XtJSd)

2 So nasty; so cynical. And at such a young age!

Posted by: Attila Girl at June 15, 2008 03:21 AM (1q/ac)

3 ADD does exist. I think it's over-diagnosed because people have forgotten what little boys are supposed to be like (and in some cases, little girls). But I can assure you, there are several folks in my family that are just, um, different in their executive function. And if they can have a happier and more successful life with some medication to help them achieve their goals, more power to them. Remember though, medicating is just one part of it. Really, what people with ADD need to be taught how to deal with it. Making routines, lists, organization, etc.. Just having a place to keep their car keys, so that when they get home their routine is to put them there, then there's no more running through the hosue for 20 minutes trying to find the keys, which makes them late, and so forth.

Posted by: silvermine at June 15, 2008 10:03 AM (4gdyI)

4 If you happen to attend any conferences, you will find many doctors arguing that in fact both of these are under diagnosed and under-prescribed. In my experience as an educator, I have seen students who could get help from the medical community but the parents did not want to label the child and in a lot of cases had a mistrust of medical authorities. John is absolutely correct, that in educational settings these conditions become enlarged and are a headache for the teacher trying to maintain a reasonable learning environment and the administrator who has to deal with parents who do not want the medicine to treat the the symptoms.

Posted by: Azmat Hussain at June 15, 2008 03:58 PM (+fapf)

5 I've seen the identical problem among adults who are chronically depressed but so hate the idea of taking medication that they don't do it: They choose to "tough it out," and suffer for no reason. Unnecessary suffering does NOT ennoble a person. Unnecessary suffering is just stupid.

Posted by: Attila Girl at June 16, 2008 01:58 PM (1q/ac)

6 As a parent of one ADD son and one non-ADD son, the decision to medicate was based on the fact that my ADD son knew that he was behaving badly and was upset (furious with himself, actually) that he was not able to control himself on a consistent basis. That, coupled with the observation by his teacher that he could do his school work if stuck in a corner by himself, but could not if left at a table with other children, made the decision straightforward. At the other end of the issue, I knew of two children who were being medicated (according to their mothers) because the mothers 'couldn't handle' the behaviors. Bottom line: if it is about the kid then medication can be appropriate, otherwise it probably isn't. B.t.w., over time my son was able to control his behavior by himself. When he said that he wanted to do it on his own (he was 16), then it was time to take him of the meds. He is progressing well.

Posted by: Wayne Martin at June 17, 2008 09:34 AM (m/dF+)

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'Cause if moderate drinking keeps it at bay . . . .

Whaaaaaatt?

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Oh, dear.

In our eagerness to combat The Evil Ben Stein, we're now referring to speech as a "brushfire of controversy"? That's a heck of a metaphor to apply to free speech. Got to extinguish them stray ideas, yo.

And now David Linden, who was sweet and lovely enough to send me the above link, is thinking, "ah, but—yes. The difference is that this speech is subsidized by the government, and whether we call it 'creationism' or 'intelligent design,' our conclusion must be the same: this cannot be subsidized by the State."

Linden is right, of course. But that is the predicament we have gotten ourselves into as a result of thinking that education must be a function of the State. And that therefore scientific inquiry itself must be an arm of the government. Do not get me wrong: I want all the benefits of that, too. I want my fellow citizens to have gobs and gobs of "free" education (or, perhaps, free "education"). But not to the point of muzzling academics, or policing thought.

And certainly not to the point of censorship within the academy: the idea of proving "thought crimes" by going back to the previous draft of a book (as in the video linked on the home page above) to establish intent is outrageous in the extreme. What's next?—finding an article that I've fact-checked, reverting to the original text, and using that submitted manuscript to prove that the publication I was working for meant something other than what it agreed to publish?

Whaaaaat? A publication makes a correction, but should be accountable for each early draft?

I'll concede that Stein might have been so horrified by what he found during the making of Expelled that he fell off the intellectual balance beam on the other side.

But I do not care. History will correct Ben Stein's mistakes, just as it corrected Darwin's. And I shan't cower on this side of the balance beam out of fear.

What cannot be corrected is the stifling of intellectual exchange. If we didn't have that, you'd be researching the four humors, Baby. Cutting up rats and looking for Earth, Wind, and Fire in their little rodent brains. *

The difference between us lies in what we hold dear: what is sacrosanct to some is the ideal of science, a desire to hold it precious above all else, and not to see it sullied with error. To others, it's speech.

Here's my perspective: Error will always be with us. What we must have is the agency for correcting same.

Neither ideal is absolute. Neither can be absolute. I'm not going to defend yelling the word "fire!" in a crowded theater, and you aren't going to defend someone who looks for flaws in the theory of evolution, and posits a stopgap notion—or, to the athiestic way of thinking, someone who "cheats" (or throws up his or her hands, acknowledges the mysteries of the universe, and utters the phrase "intelligent design").

So you are intellectually married to Imperfect Science, and I am married to an even more Imperfect Search for Truth. **

We must, of course, both push on. But always, always looking through the looking glass to the other's side, here and there. However darkly.

* Though I'm not sure that would be so bad; they were the best. To you, Sweet Thing. And to World Peace.

** Keats told me that it's the same thing as beauty, but Keats never researched the careers of serial killers. Nor, as I understand it, did he cut up rats.

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1 The ironic bit about "yelling 'Fire' in a crowded theater" was that it was said by a Supreme Court justice in his opinion upholding a sedition charge against a man whose "crime" did not consist of yelling "Fire" in a crowded theater, but of pointing out that military conscription violated the Thirteenth Amendment (which is plainly does).

Posted by: John at May 01, 2008 03:36 AM (XnWuX)

2 Yea, I mean I still think that talking about God and so forth is a philosophical questions. It's not science, it's metaphysics. But I don't think it requires any witch hunts or anything. All sorts of really lame science is done, funded by the government. Trust me, way more bad experiments are done, fully government funded, with crazy liberal ideas than there are ones with crazy conservative ideas. A lot of people need to just go take a cold shower and a nap and get over themselves.

Posted by: silvermine at May 01, 2008 07:35 AM (4gdyI)

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Instapundit:

I don't believe in intelligent design. The case for not-very-bright design, however, remains open.

This in response to one of his readers, Raymond Eckhart, who suggests that David Berlinski (a Fellow at the Discovery Institute, and author of The Devil's Delusion: Athiesm and Its Scientific Pretensions) should debate I.D. with John Derbyshire. "Methinks the Derb would clean up."

The Intelligent Design debate I'd like to see would be between David Linden and Ben Stein. The first time I proposed this, it was an exercise in surrealism; I think I suggested Jonathan Rauch as the referee, because I loved (and love) Rauch's thoughts on free speech and freedom of ideas; he's a solid libertarian.

But now I'm serious about the Stein-Linden idea, probably because I feel that Stein and Linden are both sufficiently intellectual and pro-science to make the exercise worthwhile. After all, according to Stein's associate producer* on No Intelligence Allowed, Stein's movie reflected Stein's own quest for truth about the origins of life and humanity. When he asked Intelligent Design proponents whether I.D. wasn't merely "microwaved Creationism," Stein meant it.

His views evolved as the production rolled along and he was not able to get good answers to his questions.

UPDATE: Claire Berlinski explains that her dad isn't really an I.D. proponent, according to Reynolds. There's a subscriber-only link with details here. Claire Berlinski acts as Reynolds' "Istanbul correspondent" a good deal, and the Glenn and Helen Show interviewed her and her brother, Mischa, on their respective novels here.

* Mark Mathis, in a private interview with your favorite blogger.

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. . . that makes science cuddly and cute. Like DJQ Linden does.

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There are stem cells in amniotic fluid:

Researchers at Wake Forest University and Harvard University reported the stem cells they drew from amniotic fluid donated by pregnant women hold much the same promise as embryonic stem cells.

They reported they were able to extract the stem cells without harm to mother or fetus and turn their discovery into several different tissue cell types, including brain, liver and bone.

"Our hope is that these cells will provide a valuable resource for tissue repair and for engineered organs as well," said Dr. Anthony Atala, head of Wake Forest's regenerative medicine institute and senior researcher on the project.

It took 'em seven years to figure out how to extract the cells, but it sounds promising.

As Glenn put it: "If this pans out, it will be bad news for politicians, but good news for the rest of us."

Posted by: Attila Girl at 10:55 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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There's an interesting discussion going on over at Two Babes and a Brain.

Me? I'm a market chick. I honestly do believe that vaccine production has plummeted because of price controls and the threat of lawsuits. So I think Bush's proposal is a step in the right direction.

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. . . made the joke.

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A new analysis of bones unearthed nearly 40 years ago in Ethiopia has pushed the fossil record of modern humans back to nearly 200,000 years ago — perhaps close to the dawn of the species.

Researchers determined that the specimens are around 195,000 years old. Previously, the oldest known fossils of Homo sapiens were Ethiopian skulls dated to about 160,000 years ago.

Former Democratic presumptive Presidential candidate John Kerry stated in regards to the announcement "President Bush has done a great disservice to the American People, the world community, and my cousin by keeping this secret for 40 years."

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On the heels of the previous post, here is a wake up call, guys (especially since it is 6:30 on the West Coast)

Turns out Sweet was close to the mark on its old pop hit Love Is Like Oxygen. Some may recall the song's hook: ``Love is like oxygen / Not enough and you're gonna die.''

Positive marital relations translated into lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. The lower the cortisol, the faster compounds are delivered to a wound to kick-start the healing process. A correlated study of older married couples - married an average of 42 years - found lower cortisol levels helped reduce the risk of infectious diseases and perhaps cancer.

''Men get a lot more out of marriage than women do in terms of an extra boost,'' Kiecolt-Glaser said. ``This is probably because women have broader social support networks. For men, the wife is the major confidante and if they are not married many may not have a confidante.''

Sounds good. If you are single, propose right now. If married, give her a kiss and thank her. Make something low fat for breakfast, though:

Married men are more likely to become obese than never-wed or previously married men, a 1997 Cornell University study found. This, naturally, could compromise the health boost that marriage provides, the report said.

That's ok, you can take some nice walks together.

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From Free Republic via Michelle Malkin:

LONDON - A woman who keeps quiet during an argument with her husband is four times more likely to die from heart disease and other causes, according to a study published in the American Heart Association (AHA) journal.

Researchers believe women who argue with their husbands are warding off heart disease and other causes of death...

To the scurvy dogs out there, hey, I be just reporting this tid bit. Ye may thank me later.

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1 I wonder how this affects the rate of heart disease in the husbands? Is it me or her? I might also point out that women outlive men on average? Hhhmmm......

Posted by: Pile On® at February 19, 2005 05:57 PM (3rQcV)

2 Well, there is a dangerous road to go down

Posted by: William Teach at February 19, 2005 06:23 PM (HxpPK)

3 But a husband who opens his mouth during an argument with his wife is 15 times more likely to die a sudden, violent death. It's really a matter of pulling the band-aid off slowly or quickly.

Posted by: Paul at February 19, 2005 06:36 PM (O2fD/)

4 A friend whose wife is assertive, and willing to share her opinion with others (yeah!) tells me that "you can always tell which guys have wimpy wives." I loved that phrase, "wimpy wives." It made me feel like the norm, rather than an odd mistake Attila the Hub made 15 years ago and hasn't ever quite owned up to.

Posted by: Attila Girl at February 20, 2005 05:55 AM (IU3og)

5 A woman who keeps quiet during an argument with her husband is ...a mythical creature.

Posted by: Brian B at February 21, 2005 05:01 PM (CouWh)

6 You sound like James Thurber, in more ways than one.

Posted by: Attila Girl at February 22, 2005 01:01 AM (RjyQ5)

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This is an interesting model of masculine vs. feminine walks. I believe most people I know, to the degree that their walks are gender-differentiated at all, are just to either side of the "neutral" model.

But it's an interesting thing to observe tiny points of light that stand in for joints, because one has so little information about what this theoretical "human" looks like: it's all in the movements.

Check it out.

Via the Dr. Mengele of the rat world.

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Via Photon Courier (one of the most under-appreciated blogs out there) comes this rather shocking news from the UK about the transformation of science from a classroom subject into a vehicle for political propaganda.

Blogger Melanie Phillips compares this to other subjects that have declined in Britain, including the study of languages. (Of course, I'm from the U.S., where we don't study other languages because we so often don't have to: other than Spanish in the South and French in the North/South, there's just nothing but English as far as the eye can see. [Look at a map: living in Europe would be like if I needed to learn another language to visit Nevada or Colorado. We're just spoiled here, for better and worse.])

Professor Purkinje, let me know just how things look from Cambridge: is it as bad as the News.Telegraph suggests? Will the Ghosts of Science's Past fight the trend? Phone home.

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1 Well Said!

Posted by: EdWonk at December 03, 2004 12:38 AM (NMv0e)

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Francis Crick died on Wednesday. I'm still miffed about the Rosalind Franklin thing, but this isn't the day to get into that.*

I once lived with someone who lived with someone who shared a Nobel Prize with Dr. Crick in 1962. Figure that one out.

And at this moment I cannot remember who it was who had that dream about the double-helix—as I recall, it was monkeys dancing in two helical shapes. Somehow I think it was Crick, but I could well be wrong. Professor Purkinje, let me know. Or maybe I'll call my mom, who knows all this stuff.

Hat tip: James.

* I mean, what was the Nobel Committee thinking?—Franklin had been dead for four years when Watson and Crick were awarded the prize for figuring out the structure of DNA. If her cancer was indeed caused by her research, she died so they could get the prize—and so we could improve . . . well, everything. Wouldn't you think she deserves a Nobel footnote or something? Maybe a technical award, like those Oscars for computer programmers that aren't quite statuettes, but are more like plaques. No one on the Nobel Committee has called me for help with this. Not one. I sense a conspiracy. Someone alert Michael Moore.

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