Dan Ariely for the Holidays

No this isn't another plug for Dan's book or about his most recent post on gift giving. It is a plug to see Mr. Ariely in person. Except instead of a lecture hall, it will be at a comedy theater. That's right, behavioral economist,  author, and blogger Dan Ariely will be the special guest monologist December 17th for DSI's flagship show, Mister Diplomat. Improv. Economics. Me. What more could you ask for?

Clergy poll: offertory prayers

The 1928 Prayer Book explicitly states in the offertory rubrics, "And the Priest shall then offer, and shall place upon the Holy Table, the Bread and the Wine." The 1979 Prayer Book just assumes this is done and directs the congregation to "stand while the offerings are presented and placed on the Altar."

Neither book provides a form for doing so. It is presumed in the Prayer Book tradition that this is something that falls under the domain of custom. And that is understandable since the Roman offertory prayers were a late addition and varied greatly from place to place at the time of the first Prayer Book.

The offertory is an occasion that naturally invites prayer. Some celebrants simply raise the gifts slightly as a gesture of oblation and place them on the altar without any words, letting the ceremonial serve as a prayer. Others naturally turn to the offertory prayer of the Roman rite--either the old rite, or more recently the new rite of Pope Paul VI. The latter has even been included in various new eucharistic rites around the Anglican Communion.

For those who make use of the former, and use an English translation rather than the Latin originals, which translation do you prefer? There have been two main altar books with these offertory prayers printed in them--the Anglican/English Missal published by Knott & Sons and the American edition of the Anglican Missal, sometimes just called the American Missal. The Missal of the Western Rite Orthodox parishes uses another translation (see below).

I have a hard time choosing myself; my preference goes back and forth. Which do you favor for use at the altar?

From the (Knott) English Missal:

At the offering of bread
Receive, O holy Father, almighty everlasting God, this spotless host, which I, thine unworthy servant, offer unto thee, my living and true God, for my numberless sins, offences and negligences; and for all who stand here around, as also for all faithful christians, both living and departed, that to me and to them it may avail for salvation unto life eternal. Amen.

At the blessing of water
O God, who didst wondrously create, and yet more wondrously renew the dignity of human nature: grant that by the mystery of this water and wine we may be made co-heirs of his divinity, who vouchsafed to be made partaker of our humanity, even Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord: Who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God: world without end. Amen.

At the offering of wine
We offer unto thee, O Lord, the cup of salvation, humbly beseeching thy mercy: that in the sight of thy divine majesty it may ascend as a sweet-smelling savour for our salvation, and for that of the whole world. Amen.

Over the Holy Gifts
In a humble spirit, and with a contrite heart, may we be accepted of thee, O Lord: and so let our sacrifice be offered in thy sight this day, that it may be pleasing unto thee, O Lord God.
Come, O thou Fount of holiness, almighty, eternal God: He blesses the Oblations, proceeding: and bless this sacrifice, made ready for thy holy name.


From the (American) Anglican Missal:

At the offering of bread
Receive, O Holy Father, Almighty and Everlasting God, this spotless Host, which I thine unworthy servant now offer unto thee, my God, the living and true, for all my countless sins, wickedness and neglect; and for all those here present; as also for all the faithful in Christ, both the quick and the dead; that it may set forward their salvation and mine, unto life everlasting. Amen.

At the blessing of water
O God, who didst lay the foundation of man's being in wonder and honour, and in greater wonder and honour didst renew the same: grant by the mystery of this water and wine, that he who was partaker of our humanity may make us joint-heirs of his very Godhead, even Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

At the offering of wine
We offer unto thee, O Lord, the Cup of Salvation; beseeching thy mercy that it may ascend in the sight of thy Divine Majesty as a sweet-smelling savour for our salvation, and that of the whole world. Amen.

Over the Holy Gifts
In a contrite heart and an humble spirit let us be accepted of thee, O Lord, and so let our sacrifice be in thy sight this day that it may be well pleasing unto thee, O Lord our God.
Come, O thou Sanctifier, Almighty and Everlasting God, and bless this sacrifice made ready for thy Holy Name.


From the Western Rite Orthodox Missal:

At the offering of bread
Accept, O holy Father, almighty and everlasting God, this unspotted host which I, unworthy servant, offer unto thee, my living and true God, for my innumerable sins, offences and negligences, as also for those here present and for all faithful Christians, both living and dead, that it may avail me and them unto life everlasting. Amen.

At the blessing of water
O God, who in creating human nature hast wonderfully dignified it and still more wonderfully reformed it, grant that by the mystery of this water and wine, we may become partakers of his divine nature who deigned to partake of our human nature, thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God; throughout all ages of ages. Amen.

At the offering of wine
We offer unto thee, O Lord, the chalice of salvation, beseeching thy mercy, that it may ascend before thy divine majesty as a sweet odor for our salvation and for that of the whole world. Amen.

Over the Holy Gifts
Accept us, O Lord, in the spirit of humility and contrition of heart: and grant that the sacrifice we offer this day in thy sight may be pleasing to thee, O Lord God.
Come, O almighty and eternal God the Sanctifier, bless this sacrifice prepared for the glory of thy holy Name.

Chic Girl - Les Tuileries - Paris

I met this beautiful parisian girl as she was working for
"Grazia Magazine" in les Tuileries. A Kiss from Paris !

Easy Fashion Fred

Trees That Grow on Rocks? Foresting the Drylands

Peter Hoff is a retired tulip and lily magnate who has invented a means of growing robust trees that can survive in even the driest of climates. His invention is the clever Groasis Waterboxx, a portable microclimate in a bucket. If you are interested, you will want to watch the Groasis slideshow -- or the YouTube video below -- to get more details behind the actual workings of the Waterboxx.

The plant grows within the hole inside the Waterboxx. The Waterboxx itself is full of water -- which acts as both a thermal flywheel to regulate the plant's temperature within favourable limits, and as an ultraslow wicked water source.

These Waterboxxes should be quite inexpensive when produced and sold in quantity. Test plantings in the drylands of Spain and in the Sahara, seem to support the claims being made for the device. Certainly a worldwide drive to plant more forests in marginal and dry climates would be more productive for the Earth, than current doomer wailings over a phantom carbon catastrophe. In other words: "So you have nothing to do? Well, just go plant a tree, then!"

The device has evolved from its conceptual beginnings, and is likely to evolve further yet -- perhaps specialising into various forms more ideal for planting specific trees, shrubs, or crops. Or Waterboxxes with a more linear shape and multiple holes, for planting rows of crops at a time. The limit lies within human ingenuity.

It is possible to reverse desertification to a large degree, with an intelligent enough approach. The ascendancy of life on this planet is no fluke.

The Lunatic Who Believes He Is Barack H Obama

Somewhere in a Washington DC asylum, a lunatic who believes he is Barack H Obama is busy writing yet another autobiographical account of his short life.  The US elections of November 2010, and a recent media release of internal US State Department diplomatic correspondence, should provide some excellent -- though unsolicited -- grist for the book mill. What do others think about what the cables reveal?

The cables, in sum, reveal an American administration that refuses to look at the facts on the ground, even when friendly governments rub the noses of American diplomats into them. Obama is beyond reality; he has become the lunatic who thinks that he is Barack Obama. _Spengler_via_ReverseSpins

Image via ScottySarnesIt is Obama's turn to be riding on the "down" escalator, although nobody in the White House dares to be the one to tell "The One" what is going on. Unfolding events will simply need to "drip, drip, drip . . ." through the lunatic's near-impervious skull like a Chinese water torture, until he finally gets it. It may, finally, require the moving van's arrival at the asylum to remove his personal belongings, before this one begins to comprehend the turning of the screw.

Napoleon was a lunatic who thought he was Napoleon, and the joke applies to the 44th United States president with a vengeance. What doesn't the president know, and when didn't he know it? American foreign policy turned delusional when Barack Obama took office, and the latest batch of leaks suggest that the main source of the delusion is sitting in the Oval Office.

...The initial reports suggest that the US State Department has massive evidence that Obama's approach - "engaging" Iran and coddling Pakistan - has failed catastrophically. The crisis in diplomatic relations heralded by the press headlines is not so much a diplomatic problem - America's friends and allies in Western and Central Asia have been shouting themselves hoarse for two years - but a crisis of American credibility.

Not one Muslim government official so much as mentioned the issues that have occupied the bulk of Washington's attention during the past year, for example, Israeli settlements. The Saudis, to be sure, would prefer the elimination of all Israeli settlements; for that matter, they would prefer the eventual elimination of the state of Israel. In one conversation with a senior White House official, Saudi King Abdullah stated categorically that Iran, not Palestine, was his main concern; while a solution to the Arab/Israeli conflict would be a great achievement, Iran would find other ways to cause trouble.

...How do we explain the gaping chasm between Obama's public stance and the facts reported by the diplomatic corps? The cables do not betray American secrets so much as American obliviousness. The simplest and most probable explanation is that the president is a man obsessed by his own vision of a multipolar world, in which America will shrink its standing to that of one power among many, and thus remove the provocation on which Obama blames the misbehavior of the Iranians, Pakistanis, the pro-terrorist wing of the Saudi royal family, and other enemies of the United States.

Never underestimate the power of nostalgia. With a Muslim father and stepfather, and an anthropologist mother whose life's work defended Muslim traditional society against globalization, Obama harbors an overpowering sympathy for the Muslim world. He is not a Muslim, although as a young child he was educated as a Muslim in Indonesian schools. His vision of outreach to the Muslim world, the most visible and impassioned feature of his foreign policy, draws on deep wells of emotion. _Spengler

The lunatic who believes he is Obama contains many deep wells of emotion, and little else. Besides his deep well of emotion connecting him to the Muslim world, is his deep well of emotion connecting him to third world liberation movements, and the deep wells of emotion containing unbridled hatred toward capitalism and anything European. Any deep wells of emotion he may have regarding his wife Michelle, or anyone else who has managed to get reasonably close to him, might best remain unexplored. Like the Wikileaked documents, many people may not like what is revealed by such explorations.

This lunatic's delusions might have been better left undisturbed altogether, if not for the unbounded stupidity of voters within a growing Idiocracy.

Economics of Social Safety Nets

Food stamps, unemployment, Emergency Rooms, Medicaid, disability checks are just a few of the social safety nets that most industrial countries have. They exist to ensure the "least of these" have some basic living standard provided by the government. Many economists, myself included, complain about the inefficiencies these incentives can create. But what if instead of government distortion of the free market, this is just a correction of it. What if the welfare state is genetic insurance?:

Back before you were born--in fact, before you were even conceived--nobody knew you were going to develop into the sort of sophisticated individual who reads Slate. For all anyone knew, you might have been born without enough skills to boot up a computer--or to earn a decent living.

If your unborn soul could have bought an insurance contract, then you'd probably have snapped up some kind of "skill insurance" in which everybody pays premiums, and those who land in the shallow end of the gene pool split the pot.

If this did exist, just how much insurance (or how much safety net) would there be? You'd have to know the risk of being poor and the difference between the rich and the poor. Once you know that, then you know what percentage of the population should be getting assistance:

If you take the insurance metaphor seriously, then 23 percent of the population--the 23 percent with the fewest skills--should be permanently unemployed and on welfare.

Based on those numbers the welfare state should be bigger. That is, unless, you take into account the inefficiencies created:

Factor that into the equation, redo the calculations, and you end up concluding that the fraction of the population on welfare should be just 0.6 percent--in other words, practically zero.

"Stuxnet Can't Hurt Us," Says Iranian Government

According to a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran has been forced to suspend activity on enriching uranium because of “technical problems” that are bedeviling thousands of centrifuges at its Natanz nuclear reactor. _TNA

Fueling of the reactor was delayed in recent months by what Iran called a small leak in a storage pool and not by the Stuxnet computer worm, allegedly designed to sabatoge Iran's nuclear power program, as is widely believed. _jta

Iran has adamantly stated that its nuclear program has not been hit by the bug. But in doing so it has backhandedly confirmed that its nuclear facilities were compromised. _FoxNews

Map: EbequityThe sophisticated Stuxnet computer worm has the uncanny ability to "worm" its way into sensitive computer systems, then interferes with commands to motor controllers for centrifuges involved in uranium enrichment. Iran denies that its nuclear enrichment operations were negatively impacted by Stuxnet, but:

Experts dissecting the computer worm suspected of being aimed at Iran’s nuclear program have determined that it was precisely calibrated in a way that could send nuclear centrifuges wildly out of control.

Their conclusion, while not definitive, begins to clear some of the fog around the Stuxnet worm, a malicious program detected earlier this year on computers, primarily in Iran but also India, Indonesia and other countries. _NYT

Experts have examined the worm's code and come to some interesting conclusions about how the intruder works:

Here's how it worked, according to experts who have examined the worm:

--The nuclear facility in Iran runs an “air gap” security system, meaning it has no connections to the Web, making it secure from outside penetration. Stuxnet was designed and sent into the area around Iran's Natanz nuclear power plant -- just how may never be known -- to infect a number of computers on the assumption that someone working in the plant would take work home on a flash drive, acquire the worm and then bring it back to the plant.

--Once the worm was inside the plant, the next step was to get the computer system there to trust it and allow it into the system. That was accomplished because the worm contained a “digital certificate” stolen from JMicron, a large company in an industrial park in Taiwan. (When the worm was later discovered it quickly replaced the original digital certificate with another certificate, also stolen from another company, Realtek, a few doors down in the same industrial park in Taiwan.)

--Once allowed entry, the worm contained four “Zero Day” elements in its first target, the Windows 7 operating system that controlled the overall operation of the plant. Zero Day elements are rare and extremely valuable vulnerabilities in a computer system that can be exploited only once. Two of the vulnerabilities were known, but the other two had never been discovered. Experts say no hacker would waste Zero Days in that manner.

--After penetrating the Windows 7 operating system, the code then targeted the “frequency converters” that ran the centrifuges. To do that it used specifications from the manufacturers of the converters. One was Vacon, a Finnish Company, and the other Fararo Paya, an Iranian company. What surprises experts at this step is that the Iranian company was so secret that not even the IAEA knew about it.

--The worm also knew that the complex control system that ran the centrifuges was built by Siemens, the German manufacturer, and -- remarkably -- how that system worked as well and how to mask its activities from it.

--Masking itself from the plant's security and other systems, the worm then ordered the centrifuges to rotate extremely fast, and then to slow down precipitously. This damaged the converter, the centrifuges and the bearings, and it corrupted the uranium in the tubes. It also left Iranian nuclear engineers wondering what was wrong, as computer checks showed no malfunctions in the operating system.

Estimates are that this went on for more than a year, leaving the Iranian program in chaos. And as it did, the worm grew and adapted throughout the system. As new worms entered the system, they would meet and adapt and become increasingly sophisticated.

During this time the worms reported back to two servers that had to be run by intelligence agencies, one in Denmark and one in Malaysia. The servers monitored the worms and were shut down once the worm had infiltrated Natanz. Efforts to find those servers since then have yielded no results.

This went on until June of last year, when a Belarusan company working on the Iranian power plant in Beshehr discovered it in one of its machines. It quickly put out a notice on a Web network monitored by computer security experts around the world. _FoxNews

It is apparent to Al Fin security analysts, that Stuxnet is the work of agencies within the Israeli government. It is extremely likely that the Iranians are lying through their teeth in regard to the damage that the worm did to their nuclear enrichment programs.

Imagine that instead of computer worms, the Stuxnet ensemble had been a set of nanotechnological infiltrators, capable of imitating desert dust, bunker concrete, or pipeline insulation. Propelled by blowing winds, flowing water, on the soles of shoes, or inside the lungs of workers -- essentially unstoppable by most modern security systems. Such a suite of nanotech infiltrators could not only install computer worms into virtually any system, they could insert targeted explosive devices to disrupt communications, convey poisonous substances into ventilation or water systems, or travel in a target's circulatory system to cerebral arterioles, where they do whatever damage they are programmed to do.

We see that deep underground bunkers are essentially naked to the newer and more clever tools of saboutage. How much more exposed are government and industrial centers on the surface.

The world is entering a new age of advanced espionage and covert destruction. Stuxnet can be seen as an early warning of the type of destructive tools which are coming soon, out of the djinn's bottle. Once released from their container, they cannot be returned safely.

Update 29 Nov 2010: Someone was unwilling to wait for advances in nanotechnological espionage and saboutage. Bombers-on-motorcycles used magnetic-attachable bombs on automobiles to attack two Iranian nuclear scientists (killing one and injuring the other) in Tehran. One of the scientists, at least may have been involved in trying to counter the effects of the Stuxnet worm on Iran's nuclear facilities (see comments).

Complete and Finished

What is the difference between "COMPLETE" and "FINISHED"?

If you find Good Wife, You are COMPLETE

otherwise, You are FINISHED.

Test Your GK

What is the expansion of YAHOO?

YAHOO- Yet Another Hierarchy of Officious Oracle


What is the expansion of ADIDAS?




ADIDAS- All Day I Dream About Sports


Expansion of Star as in Star TV Network?




Satellite Television Asian Region


What is expansion of "ICICI?"





Industrial credit and Investments Corporation of India,


The 1984-85 season. 2nd ODI between India and Pakistan at Sialkot-
India 210/3 with Vengsarkar 94*. Match abandoned. Why?





That match was abandoned after people heard the news of Indira Gandhi
being killed.


Who is the only man to have written the National Anthems for two different countries?








Rabindranath Tagore who wrote national anthem for two different countries
one is our 's National anthem and another one is for
Bangladesh- (Amar Sonar* *Bangla).


From what four word expression does the word `goodbye` derive?





Goodbye comes from the expression: 'God Be With You'.


How was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu better known?








Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu is none other than Mother Teresa.


Name the only other country to have got independence on August 15th?







South Korea


Why was James Bond Associated with the Number 007?






Because 007 is the ISD code for Russia (or the USSR, as it was known
during the cold war)


Who faced the first ball in the first ever One day match?






Geoffrey Boycott


Which cricketer played for South Africa before it was banned from international cricket and later represented Zimbabwe?





John Traicos


Which is the only country that is surrounded from all sides by only one country
(other than Vatican)?







Lesotho surrounded from all sides by South Africa.


Which is the only sport which is not allowed to play left handed?





Polo

What Are They

1) If we say 'MUMMY', they come together & go apart when we say 'DADDY':
*-* LIPS

2) What goes up & never comes down:
*-* AGE

3) Patches over patches but no stitches:
*-* CABBAGE

4) What is that we cannot see, but is always before you:
*-* FUTURE

5) What goes up & down a hill, but never moves:
*-* ROAD

6) You can never wet it:
*-* SHADOW

7) What belongs to to You, but used by your friends more often you do:
*-* YOUR NAME

Each Day Is A Gift

The 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud lady, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o'clock, with her hair fashionably coifed and makeup perfectly applied, even though she is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today.

Her husband of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary.

After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready.

As she maneuvered her walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of her tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on her window. "I love it," she stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.

"Mrs. Jones, you haven't seen the room .... just wait."

"That doesn't have anything to do with it," she replied. "Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged, it's how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it. It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do. Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open I'll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I've stored away, just for this time in my life."

She went on to explain, "Old age is like a bank account, you withdraw from what you've put in. So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories Thank you for your part in filling my Memory bank. I am still depositing."

Moral:
Each day is a gift.

Banana Tree

Invaluable Words

A husband wakes up at home with a huge hangover.

He forces himself to open his eyes and
the first thing he sees is a couple of aspirins and a glass of water on the side table.

He sits down and sees his clothing in front of him, all clean and pressed.
He looks around the room and sees that it is in perfect order, spotless, clean.
So is the rest of the house.

He takes the aspirins and notices a note on the table.
“Honey, breakfast is on the table, I left early to go grocery shopping. Love You!”

Totally shocked with the note , he goes to the kitchen and sure enough there
is a hot breakfast and the morning newspaper.

His son is also at the table, eating.

He asks, “Son, what happened last night?”

His son says, “Well, you came home around 3 AM, drunk and delirious.

Broke some crockery, puked in the hall, and gave yourself a black eye when you
stumbled into the door”.

Confused, the man asks, “So, why is everything in order and so clean,
and breakfast is on the table waiting for me? I should expect a big quarrel with her!”

His son replies, “Oh, that! Mom dragged you to the bedroom, and
when she tried to take your clothes n shoes off, you said,

“LADY LEAVE ME ALONE! I’M MARRIED!”

Moral:

Self-induced hangover – $ 400.00
Broken crockery – $ 800.00
Breakfast – $ 10.00
Saying the Right Thing While Drunk – "PRICELESS"
...

There are truly some things that MONEY CAN'T BUY.

Some Interesting Facts

1) LONGEST ENGLISH WORD: Praetertranssubstantiationalistically --> has 37 letters.

2) BOOK WITHOUT LETTER 'e': GADFY, written by Earnest Wright in 1939 is a 50,000+ word book, which doesn't contain a single word with ' e' in it.

3) WORD WITHOUT VOWEL: RHYTHM

4) BRAIN: Organ of body which has no sensation when cut .

5) CROCODILE: Only animal & reptile which sheds tear while eating.

6) OWL is the only bird, which can rotate its head to 270 degrees.

7) DIMETRODON was a mammal like REPTILE with a snail on its back.
This acted as a radiator to cool the body of the animal.

8) CASSOWARY is one of the dangerous BIRD, that can kill a man or animal by tearing off with its dagger like claw.

9) The SWAN has over 25,000 feathers in its body.

10) OSTRICH eats pebbles to help digestion by grinding up the ingested food.

11) POLAR BEAR can look clumsy & slow but during chase on ice, can reach 25 miles/hr of speed.

12) KIWIS are the only birds, which hunt by sense of smell.

13) ELEPHANT teeth can weigh as much as 9 pounds.

14) No of Alphabets, which SOUND AS WORDS: 10, They are:
B-Bee
C-Sea
G-Zee
I-Eye
Q-Queue
R-Are
S-Yes
T-Tea
U-You
Y-Why

Motivation- Secrets of Success

When I woke up this morning lying in bed, I was asking myself;
What are some of the secrets of success in life?
I found the answer right there, in my very room.

The Fan said Be Cool
The Roof said Aim High
The Window said See the World
The Clock said Every Minute is Precious
The Mirror said Reflect Before You Act
The Calendar said Be Up-to-Date
The Door said Push Hard for Your Goals.

So,

Carry a Heart that Never Hates.

Carry a Smile that Never Fades.

Carry a Touch that Never Hurts.

Personality Developments

Don't compare yourself with any one in this world, If you compare, you are insulting yourself.

No one will manufacture a lock without a key, Similarly God won't give problems without solutions.

Life laughs at you when you are unhappy...., Life smiles at you when you are happy..., Life salutes you when you make others happy...

Every successful person has a painful story, Every painful story has a successful ending.
Accept the pain and get ready for success.

Easy is to judge the mistakes of others. Difficult is to recognize our own mistakes.
It is easier to protect your feet with slippers than to cover the earth with carpet.

No one can go back and change a bad beginning; But anyone can start now and create a successful ending.
If a problem can be solved, no need to worry about it.
If a problem cannot be solved what is the use of worrying?


If you miss an opportunity don't fill the eyes with tears. It will hide another better opportunity in front of you .

"Changing the Face" can change nothing. But "Facing the Change" can change everything.
Don't complain about others; Change yourself if you want peace.

Mistakes are painful when they happen, But year's later collection of mistakes is called experience, which leads to success.

Be bold when you loose and be calm when you win. Heated gold becomes ornament. Beaten copper becomes wires. Depleted stone becomes statue. So the more pain you get in life you become more valuable.

Fifty Facts

1. Look at your zipper. See the initials YKK?
It stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha, the world's largest zipper manufacturer.

2. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously
from the bottom of the glass to the top.

3. A duck's quack doesn't echo. No one knows why.

4. 40 percent of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.

5. 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.

6. On the average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.

7. Chocolate kills dogs! True, chocolate affects a dog's heart and nervous system.
A few ounces is enough to kill a small sized dog.

8. Most lipstick contains fish scales.

9. Ketchup was sold in the 1830's as a medicine.

10. Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.

11. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.

12. There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casin0s.

13. Leonardo da Vinci invented scissors. Also, it took him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa's lips.

14. Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to slow a film down so you could see his moves. That's the opposite of the norm.

15. The original name for the butterfly was "flutterby"!

16. By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sink in
quicksand.

17. Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's
sensors so they don't know you're there.

18. Dentists recommend that a toothbrush be kept at least six feet away from
a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.

19. The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.

20. The first owner of the Marlboro Company died of lung cancer.

21. Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than the entire Nike
factory workers in Malaysia combined.

22. Marilyn Monroe had six toes on one foot.

23. Adolf Hitler's mother seriously considered having an abortion but was
talked out of it by her doctor.

24. The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and
Budweiser, in that order.

25. "Stewardesses" is the longest word that can be typed with only the left
hand.

26. To escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws, prick your fingers into its
eyeballs. It will let you go instantly.

27. A mathematical wonder: 111,111,111 multiplied by 111,111,111 gives the
result 12, 345, 678, 987, 654, 321.

28. The most common name in the world is Mohammed.

29. The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.

30. The "pound" ( ) key on your keyboard is called an octothorp.

31. The only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the cat.

32. Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

33. The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.

34. "Dreamt" is the only word in the English language that ends in "mt".

35. It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

36. In Chinese, the KFC slogan "finger lickin' good" comes out as "eat your
fingers off".

37. A cockroach can live for 10 days without a head.

39. We shed 40 pounds of skin a lifetime.

40. Yo-Yos were once used as weapons in the Philippines.

41. Coca-Cola can be used as car oil.

42. Mexico City sinks abut 10 inches a year.

43. Brains are more active sleeping than watching TV.

44. Blue is the favorite color of 80 percent of Americans.

45. When a person shakes their head from side to side, he is saying "yes" in
Sri Lanka.

46. There are more chickens than people in the world.

47. It's against the law in Iceland to have a dog.

48. The thumbnail grows the slowest, and the middle nail grows the fastest.

49. The only word in the English Language with all vowels in reverse order
is "s ub c ont in ent al".

50. There are more telephones than people in Washington, D.C.

Thinking Through the Greenhouse Effect

An imaginary planet surrounded by a thin transparent shell a few kilometres above the surface (vertical scale exaggerated). The top of the transparent shell has been temporarily removed to clarify the physical layout. For our thought experiment, the transparent shell completely encloses the planet, with no holes. There is a vacuum both inside and outside the transparent shell_WUWT_Eschenbach
Willis Eschenbach imagines a thin transparent shell "greenhouse" completely surrounding the Earth. Then he thinks through the implications of this shell -- with regard to radiative balance and global temperature. As a simplified model of the Earth's actual "greenhouse effect," it serves well enough as a useful starting point. And we know that the starting point is merely a place where one begins, not where one ends.

This is not Willis' first thought experiment about the greenhouse effect. He presented an earlier thought model called "The Steel Greenhouse," but the transparent shell greenhouse is a bit closer to the actual situation. But Willis warns readers that this thinking analogy will simply not serve. Then he asks his readers, "Why not?" Comments are entertaining and occasionally enlightening.

One commenter linked to the "Bad Greenhouse" website, which provides a sort of FAQ for the greenhouse effect.

Another comment points to "Greenhouse Confusion Resolved" by Stephen Wilde, Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society. Worth a read.

The CO2 web is a useful look at atmospheric, ocean, and terrestrial effects of CO2, with a number of downloadable papers.

Once you think you have a handle on the greenhouse effect, you may want to read a bit about climate feedbacks in Warren Meyer's Layman's Guide to AGW

Finally, you may wish to observe expert opinions from both pro-AGW and a more skeptical (and better reasoned) anti-climate doom viewpoints. Richard Lindzen provides a great counterpoint to Andrew Dessler in the video below, filmed at the U. Virginia Law School. Dessler goes first, followed by an absolutely incisive Lindzen. The last half of the video is lawyers debating some policy points of AGW, so you can watch that as you wish..  Video H/T Nuclear Green

No one said these things were going to be easy to understand. After all, Al Fin started out as a believer in AGW (possible doom) and Peak Oil (doom), as well as having been a deeply religious soul. It was not easy to change any of those beliefs. But given a significant amount of applied logic and data, the changes came. We were born into a sea of delusion, and not one of us escapes it entirely. But we really should try, all the same.

Fashion Jewelry For Fadz

Costume jewelry is also called “Fashion Jewelry” as it is used mainly for the purpose of fashions. Everything that glitters is not made of gold. Costume jewelry is that which is made of less valuable materials like plastic, base metals, synthetic stones and glass. Basically, in jewelry expensive materials like gems, metals are used but in costume jewelry expensive materials are replaced by the inexpensive materials.
It is an asset for those who use jewelry for fashion purposes. It is so called “costume jewelry” because it is used frequently for stage costume.
Gold over silver and silver over brass are the best combinations. Crystals are also having their own importance in the fashion jewelry. Ivory is mostly used in the preparation of jewelry for men. Acrylic and plastic are involved in the manufacturing of low value jewelry. Most of the products of costume jewelry are handcrafted.
Bracelets, Rings, chains, earrings, necklaces and pendants are most renowned items of costume jewelry. Gems like amber, aquamarine, and garnet, opal, freshwater pearl and amethyst are used in crafting of costume jewelry.
However, care should be taken of the costume jewelry to preserve the shiny appearance of it. You must wipe out the costume jewelry with a soft cloth since its shininess will be lost due to the sweat produced by the body. They must be preserved in smooth pouches and velvet boxes so that they may not become dull and its originality remains same. Dipping this jewelry in some strong solutions may disturb the glowing outlook of the jewelry. It may alter the color of stones on it and sprays, perfumes must be used before the wearing of this costume jewelry. They need some periodical maintenance like they should be rewashed in gold or silver. Dull gems in the costume jewelry are replaced by brighter and new gems to get brighter look.


Fashion Jewelry
Fashion Jewelry
Fashion Jewelry
Fashion Jewelry
Fashion Jewelry

Allison Sends and Receives 27,000 Texts a Month . . .

NYTWell before high school, children's brains adopt a will-of-the-wisp tendency to flit about from one train of thought to another -- anything to avoid concentration and focus! So, of course, by the time these children get to college -- if they get that far -- they are in no frame of mind to settle down and learn. Much less are they able by then to learn how to learn, think, and develop laser-like focus -- the main reason for higher education in the first place.

“I realized there were choices,” Vishal recalls. “Homework wasn’t the only option.”

Several recent studies show that young people tend to use home computers for entertainment, not learning, and that this can hurt school performance, particularly in low-income families. Jacob L. Vigdor, an economics professor at Duke University who led some of the research, said that when adults were not supervising computer use, children “are left to their own devices, and the impetus isn’t to do homework but play around.”

...Allison Miller, 14, sends and receives 27,000 texts in a month, her fingers clicking at a blistering pace as she carries on as many as seven text conversations at a time. She texts between classes, at the moment soccer practice ends, while being driven to and from school and, often, while studying.

Most of the exchanges are little more than quick greetings, but they can get more in-depth, like “if someone tells you about a drama going on with someone,” Allison said. “I can text one person while talking on the phone to someone else.”

...With powerful new cellphones, the interactive experience can go everywhere. Between classes at Woodside or at lunch, when use of personal devices is permitted, students gather in clusters, sometimes chatting face to face, sometimes half-involved in a conversation while texting someone across the teeming quad. Others sit alone, watching a video, listening to music or updating Facebook.

Students say that their parents, worried about the distractions, try to police computer time, but that monitoring the use of cellphones is difficult. Parents may also want to be able to call their children at any time, so taking the phone away is not always an option.

...In an experiment at the German Sport University in Cologne in 2007, boys from 12 to 14 spent an hour each night playing video games after they finished homework.

On alternate nights, the boys spent an hour watching an exciting movie, like “Harry Potter” or “Star Trek,” rather than playing video games. That allowed the researchers to compare the effect of video games and TV.

The researchers looked at how the use of these media affected the boys’ brainwave patterns while sleeping and their ability to remember their homework in the subsequent days. They found that playing video games led to markedly lower sleep quality than watching TV, and also led to a “significant decline” in the boys’ ability to remember vocabulary words. The findings were published in the journal Pediatrics. _NYT

It is likely that the brains of someone who experiences such a childhood and adolescence will be different from the brains of those who are raised to be engaged in real world, hands-on, face-to-face skills, competencies, and responsibilities. Anyone who has watched an assortment of modern music videos should understand what it takes to grab and hold the attention of the modern child -- even if only for a few moments.

Vishal -- the boy portrayed in the NYT piece linked above -- may well grow up to become a famous music video creator. He may even take the medium to an entire new level of teen-brain-entrancement. Will such skills lead to a higher capacity to make video viewers want to do something important with their lives? Or will music video creator Vishal become as much a slave to the distractability of modern young brains as the young and distracted brains are a slave to the hijacking of their own evolved tendencies?

What is happening in the lives of these children which will make them immune to the smirking groupthink gib gab talking heads such as Jon Stewart or Bill Maher, telling them how to vote and how to think? They are, after all, your future. They will choose which nursing home to send you to when you are no longer willing to let them live in your basement.

It's almost enough to drive a person to homeschool, country living, and an off-the-grid existence.

Economics of Native American Stereotypes

In honor of my full stomach from two Thanksgiving dinners (two more to go tomorrow) I ask this question: What factor determines how historically authentic Native American tribes portray themselves? You might think it's how much time they spend with other tribes. It's actually the opposite, it's the tourists:

The framing analysis found that nearly 4 out of 10 tribes with casinos represent their own identities using the historic relic frame—primarily relying on the exotic Other, such as tepees and stoic chiefs in headdresses, locked in the past. In contrast, only 1 in 10 of the tribes without casinos communicates the same identity, instead being more likely to display a voiced participant frame of modern images and assertions of sovereignty and resistance.

Happy (Economics of) Thanksgiving

College: The Five Year Party

If college is a rite of passage, what is a five-year party of binge drinking, fornication, and indoctrination into dysfunctional philosophy and lifestyle a rite of passage into? If modern employers are forced to give remedial training and education to college graduates, what was that five-year party all about?

In high-priced private colleges, students may become indebted by as much as $200,000 or more. If they graduate with a bachelor's degree in queer ethnic women's studies, literature, or social sciences, they may never pay back their college debt. In government-subsidised colleges, low tuition fees allow students more latitude in their leisure activities, without worrying so much about later debt to themselves. They can begin cultivating better tastes in liquor at an earlier age, in other words.

...artificially low fees attract some students to higher education who simply aren't suited to the academic rigors of a university. Ultimately, the presence of these lower-achieving students hurts those who are more academically inclined, as they end up in watered-down courses in which professors have to focus on bringing the low achievers along. _LATimes

Only students with IQs of 115 or higher should be studying for a rigorous 4 year degree. In the US, that might include 30% of Asian students, 25% of Europeans, 15% of Hispanics, and 5% of African Americans, to be generous. Even many of the brighter students can be uninterested in learning, when presented with all the other opportunities available at a party college -- and these days, what college is not a party college?

...only 10 percent of students are really interested in academics. The rest are there for mostly social purposes.

The slackers take dumbed down courses in which grade inflation results in 90 percent of students getting As and Bs. Learning is optional, neither required nor expected. Even mental midgets who do no work are too big to fail. Nobody fails. That would make the professor look bad, and the school would risk losing a paying customer. _UnionLeader

Why not just relax, party, accumulate debt (either personal debt or societal debt), and simply go for broke with the devil taking the hindmost? Take advantage of your 5 year party to learn about life (?!?) at parental or societal expense, in preparation for a lifetime of unemployment?

I suppose someone will have to pay for it all eventually, but there will be plenty of time to worry about that.

Five Year Party Blog

H/T Instapundit

How Government Regulation and Bureaucracy Invigorates the Private Sector and Creates New Jobs and Prosperity

After watching the video carefully, one can no longer deny the benefits of the massive new bureaucracy and regulation being installed under the 2 year Obama Pelosi reign of error. Mr. Obama's love for government control over the economy, and his antipathy to constitutional freedoms, have arrived in time to save the day.

Be thankful, Americans, for the wisdom of your ruling class.

H/T Instapundit

Leather Jacket Parisian Girl - Odéon

Model I-Phoning - Grand Palais - Paris

Model - Pont Alexandre III - Paris

China's Dangerous Bubble: CCP Had No Choice

Update 6December2010: More on the China bubble via TNE. China is an insular society and culture, so that by the time outsiders comprehend what is going on, it may be too late to save themselves from the fallout.

Stories about China's economy are typically upbeat, presenting the country as the most prominent success story of the recent prolonged global downturn. But you can also hear discordant notes such as this:

“It is the greatest bubble in history with the most massive misallocation of wealth,” said James Rickards, formerly of hedge fund Long Term Capital Management. He told a business summit in Hong Kong that stock market speculation on credit and wasteful spending by officials were disasters waiting to happen. _Times

We expect to hear China bears talking about a "China Bubble" in real estate, commodities hoarding, infrastructure (to nowhere), and so on.

Despite the global downturn, China's economic growth rate remains above 10 percent. But there is mounting evidence that Beijing has misallocated vast amounts of capital, touching off a real-estate crisis that could yet drag the world's second-largest economy down to earth. _Reason

But when even the China bulls begin sounding cautionary notes, it is time to look more closely at the middle kingdom's state of affairs.

There is undoubtedly a bubble emerging in some of the stock prices of Chinese companies, so be really cautious about where you place your bets in the coming months. _ShaunRein_China_Bull

Can the Chinese government deal with this inflationary phenomenon before it brings the entire house of China tumbling down? Opinions are mixed.

I believe China’s ability to alter its own course is grossly exaggerated. As a net exporter with relatively minimal internal consumption as a source of economic activity, it is basically at the mercy of importing nation’s ability to buy their goods. Any attempt to stoke the ability of these nations importing will be ancillary at best. The “reported” success of their bubble blowing is showing only one side of the equation – the bubble blowing. Signs of a traditional bubble (such as the one whose bursting the US and Europe are struggling to escape from) are everywhere, yet the mainstream media has not focused nearly as much attention on such. Unless the laws of basic human nature has changed, expect to see China suffering from the effects of profligate excesses just as the others that tried to inflate their economies the quick and easy way did. _ZeroHedge

One of the problems is that Chinese communist officials themselves are heavily invested in state owned banks and industries, and stand to lose a great deal if they face the economic bubble and misallocation honestly. Corruption in high places is almost as bad in China as in Russia, Cameroon, or other developing nations. As a result, it is likely that the bubble of lies will grow to devour much of what the decades of partial economic reform have accomplished.

As empty apartment buildings, shopping malls, highway overpasses, and other shoddily built structures continue to collapse decades before their time -- their dust and rubble lost in the polluted and poisonous air, land, and water of China and the China Seas -- more observers are likely to flash to what is happening. When that happens, more investors will begin to exhibit a healthier caution when looking at opportunities in China.

Memristor Brains? No, But Likely a Step in the Right Direction

IEEE
Brian Wang presents a fascinating glimpse at the next stage of attempted machine intelligence -- driven by DARPA grants. The approach will likely involve the use of the Chua memristor -- or similar nano-scaled electronic devices. DARPA has specified its requirements for its new family of scalable and adaptive electronic thinking systems, and it appears that the memristor family of devices may be the best approach for government contractors wishing to collect their fees.

Researchers have suspected for decades that real artificial intelligence can't be done on traditional hardware, with its rigid adherence to Boolean logic and vast separation between memory and processing. But that knowledge was of little use until about two years ago, when HP built a new class of electronic device called a memristor. Before the memristor, it would have been impossible to create something with the form factor of a brain, the low power requirements, and the instantaneous internal communications. Turns out that those three things are key to making anything that resembles the brain and thus can be trained and coaxed to behave like a brain. In this case, form is function, or more accurately, function is hopeless without form.

Basically, memristors are small enough, cheap enough, and efficient enough to fill the bill. Perhaps most important, they have key characteristics that resemble those of synapses. That's why they will be a crucial enabler of an artificial intelligence worthy of the term.

The entity bankrolling the research that will yield this new artificial intelligence is the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). When work on the brain-inspired microprocessor is complete, MoNETA's first starring role will likely be in the U.S. military, standing in for irreplaceable humans in scout vehicles searching for roadside bombs or navigating hostile terrain. But we don't expect it to spend much time confined to a niche. Within five years, powerful, brainlike systems will run on cheap and widely available hardware. _IEEE

A step in the right direction? Yes. The memristor family of devices will allow for a nanoscale fabrication of devices which function very much like a inter-neuronal synapse. Creating massively parallel circuits with such devices will allow designers to produce some fascinating -- and possibly quite functional -- computing devices.

But will these devices work anything like the human (or animal) brain? Not anytime soon. Because the designers seem focused on one small, rudimentary aspect of the human brain -- the neuronal synapse -- it is unlikely that they will achieve the "bigger picture" view of how human brains actually work for a long, long time, and after many failures.

But the development of electronic devices which imitate the synapse more accurately will place the pursuit of the machine brain on an entirely different level, above and away from the diminutive local optima which previous AI researchers have been struggling to achieve.

What will it take for memristor family devices to approach human brain level of function? First, it will require the knowledge that the brain has many distinct types of neurons, which form many distinct types of synapses. Next, it will require the awareness that synapses are just the meager beginning of the spark of intelligence. It is actually a vast ensemble of synaptic actions occurring in precise ways at precise times, and affecting precise modular systems of processors, which makes animal-style consciousness and intelligence possible.

Then, it will require the insight that intelligence is "embodied," to start the research down a long, difficult, but final road toward the creation of a rudimentary working machine intelligence.

If you are thinking that there are other approaches to intelligence than the animal or human approach, Al Fin cognitive scientists respond, "of course." But where are these alternative approaches? Where are their proofs of concept, their working prototypes? No closer today, than in the late 1940s and 1950s when absolutely brilliant computer scientists first believed they were within easy reach.

Human level machine intelligence would create a radical revolution of human existence at many levels, in many ways. But such a development does not appear to be very close. Certainly, humans are not ready for it. But a lot of things happen which humans are not prepared to experience. Better start getting ready now.

More: Brain Inspired Computing by Versace (via Brian Wang)

Moneta Neuromorphics Laboratory (via Brian Wang)

Worthwhile Sentences on Political Commentary

From moderate David Brooks: "Democratic victories are always ascribed to hope; Republican ones to rage."

From the Economic Logician: "Many see the Great Recession, as it is now called, as a dual crisis: an economic crisis and a crisis of economics, and more specifically macroeconomics."

From Professor of Shakespeare Peter Saccio: "Shakespeare and Sarah Palin have two things in common. One, they both tend to make up words. Two, half the country can't understand what the other half of the country thinks is so great about them."

From the Seattle Times: "There are no small-government disciples in massive oil spills."

From New York Magazine: "If you can't beat it, the thinking goes, yell at it."

Collusion in the Classroom

Recently due to a field trip, my AP Microeconomics class was cut down to just a handful. So instead of treading forward without most of the class, I decided to introduce the perfect board game, Settlers of Catan. It shows first hand some important economic principles: changes in price due to scarcity, gains from trade, and as I found out, how to collude. The first time I played with the students I won. Not necessarily a huge feat since none of them had played before and I've certainly spent enough time playing online. However they called for a rematch and I was happy to oblige them one day after school. Again I took an early lead and was close to wrapping up my second victory.

Near the end of the game I got distracted by a phone call from a friend of a friend asking about the Clemson economics program. Suddenly, one of my students came from behind to win the game. So suddenly in fact that I suspected a little foul play. After packing up the game the students let me in on their plan. I'll paraphrase their excited words. "Mr. Brookie we worked together! I traded what she wanted, we put the robber on you, AND we gave her our bonus points! We did that thing you talked about in class. We colluded!" As the regulator, it was important for me to not to get distracted. Then again, at least I know they're learning.

The German "Bell Curve" Becomes European Best-Seller

Thilo Sarrazin, a minor German politician on the technocratic wing of the country’s Social Democratic party, has just written what is probably the bestselling political book in postwar Europe (1m copies in hardback and counting). Everyone in Germany knows at least a simplified version of what Germany Abolishes Itself says, and the reaction to the book is helping to drive government policy on minority integration. _Prospect

Thilo SarrazinA German politician -- a Social Democrat -- has gained fame in Europe by authoring the German equivalent of Charles Murray's controversial book, The Bell Curve. If The Bell Curve was too much for the 1990s US politically correct pseudo-intellectual community, imagine how a German equivalent must be faring amid the suicidally PC intellectual communities of Europe!

The message of the book, in headline form, is that Germany is becoming smaller (thanks to the familiar story of a falling birthrate among native Germans) and stupider (thanks to the fact that educated Germans are having fewer children and the fastest growing part of the population are poorly-integrated Muslim immigrants). That “stupider” is, of course, contested and has led to accusations of a flirtation with eugenics—of which more later.

But Sarrazin is no right-wing populist in the image of Jörg Haider, the late Austrian politician, or even Geert Wilders, the anti-Islamic leader of the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands. Much of the book is a dry compendium of economic and social data. [editor: like The Bell Curve]

...The political and media class’s initial instinct was to denounce the book, and Sarrazin was forced out of his job at the Bundesbank. But as sales started to take off and as the new social media—the bloggers and emailers—lined up overwhelmingly behind Sarrazin, the reaction of political Germany shifted, albeit grudgingly. Chancellor Angela Merkel opportunistically declared the happy-clappy multikulti of the German left to have “failed utterly.” There was even a respectful and self-critical essay in Der Spiegel magazine by a leading liberal, Peter Schneider.

...Sarrazin’s policy solutions are relatively mainstream, echoing some of the new Labour reforms in Britain: tighter control of immigration and language tests for newcomers; steps towards compulsory citizenship for long-term residents; a sharp focus on teaching German at immigrant-dominated schools. Sarrazin is also concerned at how the welfare system creates alienation, saps initiative and prevents the workplace integration that countries like America are famous for, and so he recommends probationary periods before immigrants are entitled to benefit. The government is already acting on some of these points.

Ultimately, Sarrazin’s hard-headedness is a welcome counterpoint to the wishful thinking of the 1968 generation. The former finance minister of Berlin, who looks like a soldier in the Kaiser’s army, is a member of the awkward squad. You can imagine him causing minor riots at liberal Berlin dinner parties. Most of his argument is clear-eyed and well-informed, but he could not resist the provocations both on intelligence and on the nature of the underclass... _Prospect

The author of the profile piece above, David Goodhart, is oblivious to much of the scientific evidence supporting statistical group differences in IQ and behavioural tendencies such as crime and poverty. But he performs a useful service by pointing the reader toward a sea change in German public discourse -- which is slowly becoming a new European discourse. While Goodhart's piece is full of misinformation based upon outdated societal prejudices, the information that slips through is quite important.

The politically correct policies of the left have led to a developing demographic catastrophe in Europe, which can no longer be denied. More of the same political correctness will not stop the slow motion train wreck from reaching its bloody conclusion. But a rude awakening -- even a belated one such as seems to be occurring -- can help to mitigate some of the inevitable destruction.

Sarrazin has started the boulder rolling down the mountainside. Now, neither he nor anyone else has control of where it will go. Once a popular discontent grows into a popular movement, all bets are off. Will it turn into a nightmare of terror like the French or Russian revolutions? Or will it turn into a multi-century success story, like the better planned aftermath of the American revolution? Only time will tell. The future of Europe hangs in the balance, and the recent PC history of European thought leaders in general, offers no reassurance.

Review of Sarrazin's book from an Aussie perspective

fMRI Neurofeedback Opening Windows into the Brain

TechnologyReviewWhen most psychologists think of neurofeedback, they think of EEG feedback. Certainly EEG feedback has accomplished some amazing clinical and scientific results, and is even beginning to show up in mainstream gaming applications. But the state of the art in neurofeedback and brain-machine interfacing is shifting to fMRI, due to a superior spatial resolution over the entire brain. (the actual state of the art may be combined EEG plus fMRI, but let's just look at fMRI for now)

U Penn researchers recently used fMRI neurofeedback in an attempt to discover if they could teach cocaine addicts to control certain brain functions.

Childress asked 11 healthy controls and three cocaine addicts to watch a feedback screen while alternately envisioning two 30-second scenarios: Repeatedly swatting a tennis ball to someone, and navigating from room to room in a familiar place. By analyzing whole-brain activity, researchers found that a part of the brain called the supplementary motor area was most active during an imagined game of tennis. They then linked this pattern to an upward movement of a computer cursor. They did the same with the navigation task, linking it to downward movement of the cursor. After four cycles or fewer—less than five minutes of training—the subjects had learned to alternate between the two states of mind, as well as associate each one with its corresponding cursor position. From there onward, they could move the cursor up or down with their thoughts.

...The researchers found that both addicts and healthy people could control their state of mind equally well, something Childress says is encouraging for future studies. "The patients who have trouble controlling their craving could still demonstrate control over this sort of non-emotional test," she says. That confirms what earlier studies had suggested: Addicts' cognitive control issues are not linked to more general thinking, but instead limited to more emotionally charged thoughts, like cravings.

However, Childress's team will need to develop specialized tasks to figure out how to apply this to addiction and other disorders. For therapy, "You really need feedback from localized regions that have to do with their disease, and have people learn to control them," says Rainer Goebel, a professor of psychology at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands who has done similar work with depression patients. _TechnologyReview

As mentioned parenthetically above, the combination of EEG plus fMRI neurofeedback offers a superior tool, in that both spatial and time resolutions are optimised. When using neurofeedback to facilitate a brain-machine interface, one wants to optimise time resolution. When using neurofeedback to train in controlling brain responses, one would want optimal spatial resolution. As training programs become more specialised, each small improvement in spatial and temporal resolution will be treasured by researchers.

Powerful EEG neurofeedback tools have been used for assisting in brain rehabilitation after brain trauma or infarct, in treating severe autism, for treating depression, and in other neuro-psychiatric conditions. Clinicians are typically more daring than researchers when using such relatively safe tools, given the difference between the clinical environment and the research culture. Researchers are quite cautious, and appear almost plodding in their careful step by step approach to scientific knowledge. Clinicians, on the other hand, are often desperate to help in cases which seem hopeless. They are willing to take intuitive leaps, and work with what they find.

The difference between attempting to build a structure of knowledge from the bottom up, brick by brick, vs. the sudden achievement of disconnected but profound findings when taking a leap of faith, contributes to the wall of incomprehension which often grows between the research and the applied branches of a given science.

As fMRI neurofeedback tools (and combined fMRI-EEG tools) eventually move from the hospital and lab into the outpatient clinical setting, the possibilities of sophisticated feedback tools combined with VR techniques in normal brains, should be astounding. Non-invasive, non-toxic tools such as neurofeedback, offer little risk in comparison with surgical, pharmaceutical, invasive electrical, and radiologic tools that might be used in a clinical setting. Clinicians typically feel free to try new and unconventional approaches when there is little to lose and much to gain.

Al Fin Futurists place the transformative potential of advanced neurofeedback technologies at the highest setting.