psychescientia

The Gift of Imagination

2010-05-24T15:01:00.000-05:00

TOPICS: imagination, education, sir ken robinson

… kids will take a chance. If they don't know, they'll have a go. They're not frightened of being wrong. Now I don't mean to say that being wrong is the same thing as being creative. But what we do know is if you're not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original.

— Sir Ken Robinson.

Investigating other topics, I was reminded of this TED talk by Ken Robinson on education and imagination.

We are educating people out of their creativity.

— Sir Ken Robinson.

Stimulating yet sobering thoughts for me as the parent of an 8-yr-old in public school (made more poignant having just returned from lunch with my wife and a discussion of some of the pros and cons about homeschooling vs. public school). But also provocative from the perspective of a college-level instructor.

Is it possible that 2nd grade at the local public elementary school is somehow ruining my 8-yr-old's creativity? The school organizes classes in music and art each week and the teachers incorporate imaginative, creative exercises and activities into their daily teaching/learning plans. The classrooms are organized to allow and encourage socialization and small group work. The teachers are enthusiastic, sincere, and encouraging. Even the PE classes sound pretty fun (though the students like to complain about them).

And yet there is a palpable squelching of creativity. A gradual erosion of the kids' natural love of learning (which I mix into the general concept of creativity).

So what's happening? Is it a problem, as Sir Ken Robinson suggests, of over-emphasizing the analytical? Under-emphasizing motion, energy, music, dance, emotion, physicality? Under-appreciating all the various modes of learning, under-appreciating the various modes of learning about, and interacting with, the world and others?

I think the problems are much more insidious and challenging to address. In fact, for U. S. elementary and secondary education, I have to laugh somewhat bitterly when I think of Robinson's suggestion that we over-emphasize the analytical. In a generic, theoretical sense, I recognize the truth of his observation that an alien visitor might think the whole logical endpoint point of our educational system/process is the creation of college professors; but that would only be the conclusion from aliens with really sloppy thinking after a very superficial analysis. If such aliens looked carefully at the consistent outcomes, year after year, decade after decade, I think they'd come to the conclusion that we are instead intent on crushing students' natural love of learning (quite the opposite of the effect desired for a college instructor), perhaps with the overall plan of controlling or at least homogenizing the students.

And this is where I think we hit Robinson's perceived squelching of creativity.

But it's not a process of educating people out of their creativity, except in some ironic sense of "education." It's not a problem of, or a result of, over-emphasizing the analytical.

Instead, it's a problem born of mind-numbing bureaucracy, a glacial pace set for the educational process, and a mixture of culturally entrenched negative ideas about teaching and learning, all at least in part due to a number of questionable assumptions underlying the attempt to mass-produce so-called educated individuals in the same way we mass produce clothing, cars, and other commodities.

We "educate" kids in our public school system, not by over-emphasizing the analytical, but by treating the kids like just so many cattle to be organized and controlled. The (eventual) college professors are the students who survive the process despite years of intellect-degrading efforts by such an educational system.

For me, the real point of Robinson's story about the dancer and dance school is not that we should teach everyone to dance. But that each person has his/her own unique abilities, needs, and ways to excel. Our public school system is not set up to acknowledge, encourage, or take advantage of such abilities. Nor is it an adaptive system that will ever evolve to do so. The system itself is essentially starved of imagination.

RELATED REFERENCES

Robinson, K. (2006). TED talk, available at http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

Robinson, Ken at http://sirkenrobinson.com/

TED biographical information on Sir Ken Robinson at http://www.ted.com/speakers/sir_ken_robinson.html

The Poetry of Reality

2010-02-25T16:50:00.004-06:00

TOPIC: science, science education, science popularization

Science is the poetry of reality.

— Richard Dawkins.

SOME RECENT (and not-so-recent) RELATED REFERENCES & LINKS

Bronowski, J. (1978). The common sense of science. Harvard University Press, ISBN 0674146514. Amazon.com link: http://www.amazon.com/Common-Sense-Science-Harvard-Paperbacks/dp/0674146514/

Dawkins, R. (2009). The greatest show on earth: the evidence for evolution. Free Press, ISBN 1416594787. Amazon.com link: http://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Show-Earth-Evidence-Evolution/dp/1416594787/

Dawkins, R. (2008). The god delusion. Mariner Books (paperback), ISBN 0618918248. Amazon.com link: http://www.amazon.com/God-Delusion-Richard-Dawkins/dp/0618918248/

Feynman, R. P. (2005). The pleasure of finding things out: the best short works of Richard P. Feynman. Basic Books (paperback), ISBN 0465023959. Amazon.com link: http://www.amazon.com/Pleasure-Finding-Things-Out-Richard/dp/0465023959/

Greene, B. (2005). The fabric of the cosmos: space, time, and the texture of reality. Vintage (paperback), ISBN 0375727205. Amazon.com link: http://www.amazon.com/Fabric-Cosmos-Space-Texture-Reality/dp/0375727205/

Hawking, S. (2007). The theory of everything: the origin and fate of the universe. Phoenix Books, ISBN 1597775541. Amazon.com link: http://www.amazon.com/Theory-Everything-Origin-Fate-Universe/dp/1597775541/

Krauss, L. (2007). Fear of physics: a guide for the perplexed. Basic Books, ISBN 0465002188. Amazon.com link: http://www.amazon.com/Fear-Physics-Lawrence-M-Krauss/dp/0465002188/

Myers, P. Z. Blogging at http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/

Porco, C. Profile on TED.com available at http://www.ted.com/speakers/carolyn_porco.html

Sagan, C. & Druyan, A. (1997). The demon-haunted world: science as a candle in the dark. Ballantine Books, ISBN 0345409469. Amazon.com link: http://www.amazon.com/Demon-Haunted-World-Science-Candle-Dark/dp/0345409469/

Shermer, M. (2009). The mind of the market: how biology and psychology shape our economic lives. Holt Paperbacks, ISBN 0805089160. Amazon.com link: http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Market-Biology-Psychology-Economic/dp/0805089160/ Symphony of Science at http://symphonyofscience.com/

Tarter, J. (2009). Are we alone? TED talk available at http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_tarter_s_call_to_join_the_seti_search.html

Tyson, N. D. (2005). Origins: fourteen billion years of cosmic evolution. W. W. Norton, ISBN 0393327582. Amazon.com link: http://www.amazon.com/Origins-Fourteen-Billion-Cosmic-Evolution/dp/0393327582/

Hamster Gadget by Adam Bowman

2009-08-20T22:37:00.003-05:00

I couldn't resist.

For more about Adam Bowman and some other very cool gadgets, see http://abowman.com/about/

Arthur Benjamin on Statistics

2009-07-12T10:31:00.006-05:00

TOPIC: math education

The relative importance of statistics vs calculus — something I've pondered many times as a part-time member of the math & computer science department at a small liberal arts college. Our general distribution requirements here demand neither calculus nor statistics, although of course our science majors end up at various levels of calculus, and some eventually include a thorough one-semester statistics class.

Would it be interesting and useful to re-organize some things and plan for a required stats experience?

RELATED REFERENCES

TBA

Misreporting of Recent Flu Vaccine Research: Headlines Sure To Spark Trouble

2009-05-21T09:01:00.029-05:00

TOPIC: recent flu vaccine research, science in pop media

A recent headline on ScienceDaily.com announces that "Children Who Get Flu Vaccine Have Three Times Risk Of Hospitalization For Flu," and sure enough a quick Google search on that exact title produces hundreds of hits, including respectable sites such as ScienceDaily.com and medwirenews and a title at the U. S. Dept of Health & Human Services site www.healthfinder.gov:

Hospitalization Rates Higher in Kids Who Get Flu Shots

and of course at anti-vaccine propaganda sites such as www.ageofautism.com, that site trumpeting that "Flu Vaccine Triples Child Hospitalizations."

Wait — what?

Where is all of this coming from?

It turns out that the headlines are terribly misleading, especially for a unscientific general population that (1) easily confuses correlation with causation and (2) doesn't understand the difference between an experimental study and a quasi-experimental (or even correlational) study.

Most of the material being published out there under these headlines consists of simple regurgitations (or sometimes only pieces of) a premature and irresponsible press release issued 5/19 by The American Thoracic Society in promotion of that 'Society's 105th International Conference being held in San Diego, the press release having been timed to coincide with the specific symposium in which the related research was first being presented.

Premature? Yes. The American Thoracic Society press release concerned research not yet ready for general public consumption, concerning research not yet peer-reviewed (except minimally for conference presentation) or published in a peer-reviewed journal and involving a relatively small and special population of participants.

Irresponsible? Yes, in part for the reasons mentioned above, but also for the breath-takingly cavalier attitude with which they threw out for pop-media consumption poorly-explained research results under a heading sure to catch attention and sure to appear to have widespread and profound public health policy implications. Add to that the fact that the press release was based on an already-poorly-written abstract with questionably-worded conclusions, and the news release becomes an incredible fiasco.

Here's the original press release:

News Release

FOR RELEASE MAY 19, 2009 at 1:30 p.m. PDT

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Keely Savoie or Brian Kell
ksavoie@thoracic.org or bkell@thoracic.org
ATS Office: 212-315-8620 or 212-315-6442 (until May 13)
Cell phones: 917-860-5814 (KS) or 516-305-9251 (BK)
ATS Press Room: 619-525-6323, 619-525-6324 or 619-525-6325 (May 15 to 20)
Mini-Symposium time: May 19: 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Presentation time: May 19: 3:20 p.m.
Location: San Diego Convention Center, Room 3 (Upper Level)

Flu Shot Not Effective in Preventing Flu-Related Hospitalizations in Asthmatic Children

ATS 2009, SAN DIEGO— The inactivated flu vaccine does not appear to be effective in preventing influenza-related hospitalizations in children, especially the ones with asthma. In fact, children who get the flu vaccine are more at risk for hospitalization than their peers who do not get the vaccine, according to new research that will be presented on Tuesday, May 19, at the 105th International Conference of the American Thoracic Society in San Diego.

Flu vaccine (trivalent inactivated flu vaccine—TIV) has unknown effects on asthmatics.

“The concerns that vaccination maybe [sic] associated with asthma exacerbations have been disproved with multiple studies in the past, but the vaccine’s effectiveness has not been well-established,” said Avni Joshi, M.D., of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. “This study was aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of the TIV in children overall, as well as the children with asthma, to prevent influenza-related hospitalization.”

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommend annual influenza vaccination for all children aged six months to 18 years.

The National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (3 revision) also recommends annual flu vaccination of asthmatic children older than six months.

In order to determine whether the vaccine was effective in reducing the number of hospitalizations that all children, and especially the ones with asthma, faced over eight consecutive flu seasons, the researchers conducted a cohort study of 263 children who were evaluated at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota from six months to 18 years of age, each of whom had had laboratory-confirmed influenza between 1996 to 2006. The investigators determined who had and had not received the flu vaccine, their asthma status and who did and did not require hospitalization. Records were reviewed for each subject with influenza-related illness for flu vaccination preceding the illness and hospitalization during that illness.

They found that children who had received the flu vaccine had three times the risk of hospitalization, as compared to children who had not received the vaccine. In asthmatic children, there was a significantly higher risk of hospitalization in subjects who received the TIV, as compared to those who did not (p= 0.006). But no other measured factors — such as insurance plans or severity of asthma — appeared to affect risk of hospitalization.

“While these findings do raise questions about the efficacy of the vaccine, they do not in fact implicate it as a cause of hospitalizations,” said Dr. Joshi. “More studies are needed to assess not only the immunogenicity, but also the efficacy of different influenza vaccines in asthmatic subjects.”

###

Session # C94: “Viral Infections in Childhood Respiratory Disease”

Abstract # 561: “Flu Vaccination in Asthmatics: Does It Work?”

It's interesting to look at the deterioration of the information as it flowed from Joshi, et al's original conference abstract, to the press release, then on to various pop media outlets:

Original title of Joshni, et al's conference abstract:
Flu Vaccination in Asthmatics: Does It Work?
(which, given the actual description of the research actually seems a poor title)
Then to this in the press release from the American Thoracic Society:
Flu Shot Not Effective in Preventing Flu-Related Hospitalizations in Asthmatic Children
Then to something like this in the mainstream pop-media (this one appearing on ScienceDaily.com):
Children Who Get Flu Vaccine Have Three Times Risk Of Hospitalization For Flu, Study Suggests
Then further mangled by less mainstream media to things like this:
Flu Vaccine Triples Child Hospitalizations

That last one of course now making it sound like the very existence of the flu vaccine is somehow leading to dramatic increases in child hospitalizations, which is utter nonsense.

So what's really happening here? And why does the first author Dr. Avni Joshi herself remark that the findings “… do not in fact implicate it [the vaccine] as a cause of hospitalizations” ?

In part, she is acknowledging what this study was NOT: the study was not an experimental study allowing cause-effect conclusions. In other words, the study was NOT something like that outlined in the figure below:

Given such a design, we might reasonably compare the conditional probabilities of being hospitalized with and without having earlier received a flu vaccine, something like

p(hospitalization | flu vaccine) vs. p(hospitalization | no vaccine)

Such an experimental design would allow us to fill in all of the cells of an incidence table like the one shown here at right:

But again, that's NOT the study Joshi and colleagues did. Instead we have the following description from Joshi and colleagues in their conference abstract:

METHODS: We conducted a cohort study of all pediatric subjects( 6 months to 18 years age) who were evaluated at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA who had laboratory confirmed influenza during each flu season from 1999-2006 to evaluate the efficacy of TIV. A case control analysis was performed with the cases and the controls being the subjects with asthma who did and did not required hospitalization with the influenza illness respectively.

and this slightly elaborated description from the press release:

… the researchers conducted a cohort study of 263 children who were evaluated at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota from six months to 18 years of age, each of whom had had laboratory-confirmed influenza between 1996 to 2006. The investigators determined who had and had not received the flu vaccine, their asthma status and who did and did not require hospitalization. Records were reviewed for each subject with influenza-related illness for flu vaccination preceding the illness and hospitalization during that illness.

So, to be clear: this appears to have been a retrospective study of 263 participants already diagnosed with flu, some of whom had received a flu vaccine before their illness, some of whom had not, and some of whom were later hospitalized for their illness. The design of the study looks more like this:

and instead of giving information about the probability of hospitalization if you get a flu vaccine, the results give us information (with limited generalizability) about the probability of hospitalization if you were vaccinated but still came down with the flu. The phrasing makes this sound like some arcane, subtle distinction, but the information being communicated is dramatically different.

The pop media headlines and coverage lead one to believe that getting a flu vaccine somehow triples one's likelihood of being hospitalized for the flu. That is wrong. Instead, the research being reported implies only that if you get the flu (and have serious enough symptoms that you go to a medical clinic to be checked out) despite having self-selected into getting a flu vaccine (which means you're already part of an at-greater-risk population in general) then you're more likely to be hospitalized than someone who was also quite sick from the flu but without having had the earlier immunization.

Some of the possible explanations for such a result lie with the special patients themselves, and this is why Joshi points out that the results do not imply that the vaccine causes an increase in hospitalization rates. The special patients who get a serious case of the flu despite being vaccinated may be special (for example) in having particular health difficulties already or some other constitutional predisposition for the illness, and/or the patients may be special in having contracted particularly dangerous forms of the illness.

RELATED REFERENCES

Children Who Get Flu Vaccine Have Three Times Risk Of Hospitalization For Flu, Study Suggests. (5/20/2009). Science Daily, accessed 5/21/2009 at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090519172045.htm

Flu Shot Not Effective in Preventing Flu-Related Hospitalizations in Asthmatic Children. (5/19/2009). New Release from the American Thoracic Society, accessed 5/20/2009 at www.thoracic.org/sections/publications/press-releases/conference/articles/2009/abstracts-and-press-releases/joshi.pdf

Heckenlively, K. (5/21/2009). Flu Vaccine Triples Child Hospitalizations, but Won’t Turn Them into Horned, Hairy Apes, say Experts! Age of Autism: Daily Web Newspaper of the Autism Epidemic, accessed 5/21/2009 at http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/05/flu-vaccine-triples-child-hospitalizations-but-wont-turn-them-into-horned-hairy-apes-say-experts.html

Joshi, A. Y., Iyer, V. N., Hartz, M. F., Volcheck, G. W., Patel, A. M., & Li, J. T. (2009). Flu vaccination in asthmatics: does it work? Presentation at The American Thoracic Society's 105th International Conference, San Diego, CA, 5/19/2009. Abstract available as part of the press release available at www.thoracic.org/sections/publications/press-releases/conference/articles/2009/abstracts-and-press-releases/joshi.pdf

Lyford, J. (5/21/2009). Flu vaccine fails to reduce hospitalization in asthmatic children. medwirenews, accessed 5/21/2009 at http://www.medwire-news.md/48/82539/Respiratory/Flu_vaccine_fails_to_reduce_hospitalization_in_asthmatic_children.html

RELATED RESOURCES

American Thoracic Society. http://www.thoracic.org/

CDC - Influenza (Flu). http://www.cdc.gov/flu/

Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC). http://www.cdc.gov/

QualiaSoup on Open-Mindedness

2009-04-05T17:09:00.004-05:00

TOPIC: open-minded skepticism vs simple open-mindedness

Just recently discovered this nice video from QualiaSoup as I was browsing over at the Pharyngula website. The extended commentary there and at QualiaSoup's youtube site is pretty much what you might expect: lots of positive remarks, the usual non-sequitars and tangential remarks, and the occasional critical response being harshly attacked by the other commenters.

What I wondered, though, all the way through the video and as I scanned through the comments, was this: who watching such a video would come away changed? And who needing such change would ever watch the video?

These aren't just idle questions. My academic colleagues and I strive often to address pseudoscience and pseudoscientific beliefs/concepts in the classroom — raising questions concerning falsifiability, bias, systematic empiricism, etc., and encouraging the practice of open-minded skepticism. But I often wonder seriously about how much thinking we actually change out there, instead of possibly just being heard by the students who are already attuned to this way of thinking and just alienating the ones who really need the message.

RELATED REFERENCES & SOURCES

QualiaSoup at http://www.youtube.com/user/QualiaSoup

Pharyngula at http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula

Shermer, Michael (1997) excerpt from Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time (W. H. Freeman.) at http://www.skeptic.com/about_us/manifesto.html

ACM President Wendy Hall Appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire

2009-01-06T15:13:00.009-06:00

TOPIC: topic here in lower-case letters

WENDY HALL, innovative and groundbreaking professor of computer science at the University of Southampton, UK, has been appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for "services to science and technology." Here's the text of the news release from School of Electronics & Computer Science at the University of Southampton:

New Years Honours - Dame Wendy Hall

Professor Wendy Hall, CBE, has been appointed DBE in the New Year Honours List for services to science and technology.

One of the world’s leading computer scientists, Wendy Hall is a Professor at the University of Southampton and was Head of the School of Electronics and Computer Science from 2002 to 2007. Her influence on the development of computer science has been fundamental not only in her academic work and the many successful research initiatives in which she has been involved, but also for the large number of prominent roles she has held in the scientific and technological community.

In 2003 Professor Hall was appointed President of the British Computer Society (BCS), the UK’s leading professional body for IT. In 2005 she became the first woman to be elected Senior Vice-President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and in July 2008 she took up office as President of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the first person from outside North America to hold this role in the organization’s 60-year history.

She is a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology, and a founding member of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council. In November 2008 she was one of 25 European figures honoured for their contribution to Information, Communication and Technology by the EU. Among the many awards she has won is the Anita Borg Award for Technical Leadership (2006).

She is known throughout the community for her energy and vision and, in addition to her large number of commitments in areas of policy development, she continues to advance new research directions. In 2006, she was one of the founders of the Web Science Research Initiative, along with Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, Professor Nigel Shadbolt and Daniel Weitzner. They are pioneering the new discipline of Web Science, to develop a better understanding of the architectural principles that led to the Web’s growth and success, and ensure that these support the Web’s future development.

Throughout her career Wendy Hall has been a prominent and vocal advocate of women’s opportunities in science, engineering and technology. In her research and her public life she has sought to ensure that women are equal beneficiaries of technological advance, and her example of achievement and dedication has made her a distinguished and powerful role model for women. ‘I am thrilled to have been honoured in this way,’ said Professor Hall. ‘It is of course exciting for me personally and for my family, but it is also a tribute to all the people I have worked with in my career as a scientist and engineer both at Southampton and in the wider community.’

Professor Dame Wendy Hall took her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at the University of Southampton, where she met her husband Peter Chandler. They have been married for nearly 30 years and live in the New Forest.

See coverage of the announcement on BBC Technology, The Guardian, and TechRadar.com

Posted by Joyce Lewis on 31 Dec 2008.

Wendy Hall is also President of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), described as "the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society."

RELATED REFERENCES & RESOURCES

Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). Web site at http://www.acm.org/

Lipsett, Anthea (12/31/2008). Visionary computer scientist becomes a dame. guardian.co.uk, accessed Tues 1/6/2008 at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/dec/31/new-years-honours-computing

Pioneer of cyberspace honoured. (12/31/2008). BBC online, accessed Tues 1/6/2009 at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7806093.stm

Web pioneer honoured by Queen: Professor Wendy Hall becomes a Dame in New Year's Honours. (12/31/2008). techradar.com, accessed Tues 1/6/2008 at http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/web-pioneer-honoured-by-queen-497490

Religion: A Force For Self-Control?

2009-01-04T21:00:00.001-06:00

TOPICs: religion, evolutionary psychology

Prompted by a recent news release on Science Daily, I had promised myself time to blog about and review McCullough & Willoughby's recent meta-analysis article on Religion and self-regulation, due out in Psychological Bulletin.

As I sat down this evening to organize some thoughts, I was surprised (although in retrospect surely shouldn't have been) to see I'm behind the curve already, with several blogs already responding to the news release and journal article — for example, see: Tim Rees' brief critical response (Improve your self control... with religion?) at the BHA Science Group blog. Since most of the blogs I've seen, however, seem to be responding directly to the news release (or related articles, like John Tierney's of the New York Times) instead of the actual research article, it's clear there's still plenty of opportunity (and need) to look carefully at the research article itself (downloadable in pre-print pdf form from Prof Michael McCullough's University of Miami website.

And that's where I will pick up tomorrow, beginning with McCullough & Willoughby's stimulating introduction and description of half-dozen or so propositions laying out the potential connections between religion and self-regulation.

In the meantime, here are some related video comments from McCullough himself (courtesy of the University of Miami website):

RELATED REFERENCES

McCullough, Michael (2008). Beyond Revenge: The Evolution of the Forgiveness Instinct. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, CA.

See details at Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Revenge-Evolution-Forgiveness-Instinct/dp/078797756X/ref=si3_rdr_bb_product.

McCullough, Michael E. & Willoughby, Brian L. B. (2009). Religion, self-regulation, and self-control: associations, explanations, implications. Psychological Bulletin, in press.

A pre-print pdf of this article is available from the author's web site at http://www.psy.miami.edu/faculty/mmccullough/Religion_Research.htm

Rees, Tom (1/1/2009). Improve your self control... with religion? A BHA Science Group Blog entry accessed 1/4/2009 at http://bhascience.blogspot.com/2009/01/improve-your-self-control-with-religion.html?

Religion, Self-control, and Values (1/3/2009). TS-Si News Service, article accessed 1/4/2009 at http://www.ts-si.org/the-discussion/3708-religion-self-control-and-values.html

Religion May Have Evolved Because Of Its Ability To Help People Exercise Self-control (1/1/2009). Accessed 1/1/2009 at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081231005355.htm

Tierney, John (12/29/2008). For Good Self-Control, Try Getting Religious About It. The New York Times accessed 1/4/2009 at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/30/science/30tier.html?

Disheartening Censorship

2009-01-03T12:43:00.014-06:00

TOPICs: censorship, political correctness

Enfuriating. Political correctness run amok — watch the video below about a university student-employee's brush with his school's political-correctness police, then link over to Ed Brayton's Dispatches From The Culture Wars for stimulating comments and discussion.

We have this snippet from the minutes of the 4/1/2008 Indianapolis Faculty Council (IFC) meeting:

Agenda Item IV: Updates/Remarks from the Chancellor

Chancellor Bantz gave the following report:

[…]

Affirmative Action: The Chancellor spoke to the recent action by the Affirmative Action Office regarding staff member, Keith Sampson. He stated there was no question there was a mistake in sending the first letter. The second letter sent withdrew the first letter and made clear there was no finding in the case and therefore, nothing placed in the staff member’s file. This is not a matter of litigation. He intended this spring to begin a review of the office procedures. At the end of this month, an external reviewer will look at the office and procedures. He agrees the office needs to be more successful in a number of places. The search continues for the new Director of Equal Opportunity. When the report is received for that office, it will be reviewed by the IFC which will show the number of cases the office reviews each year.

All of which seems reasonable. Later in the same minutes, however, the circumstances are referred to as "the Keith Sampson issue," which unfortunate phrasing suggests a continued institutional mis-apprehension and mis-interpretation of the ~~fiasco~~ entire event.

Moreover, apparently the Affirmative Action Office at IUPUI was reconstituted as the Office of Equal Opportunity (although publicly accessible records are not necessarily clear on this — did the OEO already exist previously?) with director Kim D. Kirkland and now … Assistant Director (!) Marguerite Watkins, who says on her staff directory web page that "My passion includes educating people."

Sadly, a Google-search of the IUPUI website produces only the single page hit for "Keith Sampson" (the IFC minutes quoted above).

RELATED REFERENCES & RESOURCES

Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). Web site at http://www.thefire.org/

Indianapolis Faculty Council (IFC) Minutes dated April 1, 2008. Accessed Sat 01/03/2008 at http://www.iupui.edu/~fcouncil/minutes/Minutes_IFC_4-1-08.htm

IUPUI: Indiana University - Purdue University, Indiana. Web site at http://www.iupui.edu/

Proposed Resolution for the Review of the Affirmative Action Office, Agenda Item X of the Indianapolis Faculty Council (IFC) Minutes dated April 1, 2008. Accessed Sat 01/03/2008 at http://www.iupui.edu/~fcouncil/documents/ProposedResolutionAAO2008.htm.

Saha, Abhishek (5/2/2008). Keith Sampson round-up. Accessed Sat 01/03/2009 at http://musefree.wordpress.com/2008/05/02/keith-sampson-round-up/

Watkins, Marguerite. IUPUI Staff Directory Webpage at http://www.iupui.edu/~oeo/directory/watkins.html

Generating Ideas for Research —Post & Discussion on Thus Spake Zuska

2009-01-02T17:48:00.006-06:00

TOPIC: research ideas

Check out the stimulating post and discussion at Suzanne Franks' Thus Spake Zuska on the challenges of generating new ideas for research. Thought-provoking and motivating.

And keeping track of ideas … that's a serious challenge as well, requiring (1) some habitual "system," and (2) the regularly available energy to use one's system.

Gay Adoption Ban in Florida: UPDATE?

2009-01-01T16:30:00.007-06:00

TOPICs: GLBT, adoption

Some recent articles floating around online implied we might hear/see something in the near future from Florida's State Supreme Court on that state's ban on adoptions by gay couples. But the recent article by Janine Zeitlin and a Law Blog article by Dan Slater appear to just be recycling old news with nothing new to add.

I did find this bit of news, however, on the Martin Gill-related ACLU site:

On December 5, 2008, the ACLU and the children's lawyers filed a request seeking to expedite the appeal by bringing the case directly before the Florida Supreme Court. The request for an expedited appeal was subsequently denied.

An hour of my life lost on various searches has led to no other official information about the continuing court case of Martin Gill and his two adopted sons. (I ended my searches after looking through the Florida Third District Court Of Appeal site . . . if anyone can point me to better/more information, please do! )

Here's a brief youTube video from acluvideos:

RELATED RESOURCES

ACLU website: http://www.aclu.com/

RELATED REFERENCES

A challenge to Florida's ban on adoption by gay parents. ACLU website for miscellaneous information related to the Gill case, including a link to a PodCast featuring Martin Gill. Accessed Thurs 01/01/2009 at http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/parenting/37875res20081124.html

Slater, Dan (12/29/2008). Same-sex adoption debate rages on in Sunshine State. The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog on WJS.com. Accessed Thurs 01/01/2009 at http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/12/29/same-sex-adoption-debate-rages-on-in-sunshine-state/.

Zeitlin, Janine (12/27/2008). Florida high court to rule on same-sex adoption ban: Florida has only ban in U.S. news-press.com. Accessed Thurs 01/01/2009 at http://www.news-press.com/article/20081227/SS08/812280386/1002/NEWS01.

Festive Medical Myths

2008-12-31T20:41:00.003-06:00

TOPIC: medical myths

Do you think that sugar makes kids hyperactive and late-night eating makes people fat?

You're not alone. Those are just two of many medical-related beliefs commonly held by people around the world.

But they're also FALSE, and so are many other commonly-believed health-related assertions, as discussed in the article Festive Medical Myths recently published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), by Rachel C. Vreeman (asst prof of paediatrics) and Aaron E. Carroll (assoc prof of paediatrics), both at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

Among the medical myths Vreeman & Carroll address:

Sugar Causes Hyperactivity in Children? FALSE!

According to Vreeman & Carroll,
At least 12 double blind randomised controlled trials have examined how children react to diets containing different levels of sugar. None of these studies, not even studies looking specifically at children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, could detect any differences in behaviour between the children who had sugar and those who did not. [original text contained endnote citations of relevant articles]
Moreover:
Scientists have even studied how parents react to the sugar myth. When parents think their children have been given a drink containing sugar (even if it is really sugar-free), they rate their children’s behaviour as more hyperactive. The differences in the children’s behaviour were all in the parents’ minds. [see Hoover & Milch, 1994, referenced below]
Suicides Increase Over the Holidays? FALSE!

Vreeman & Carroll point out that "While the holidays might, indeed, be a difficult time for some, there is no good scientific evidence to suggest a holiday peak in suicides. [see the Annenburg Public Policy Center references below, as well as Bridges (2004)] … Indeed, people might actually experience increased emotional and social support during holidays. In the US, rates of psychiatric visits decrease before Christmas and increase again afterwards. [see Hillard, Holland, & Ramm, 1981] … Further debunking myths about suicide, people are not more likely to commit suicide during the dark winter months. Around the world, suicides peak in warmer months and are actually lowest in the winter.

Poinsettias are Toxic/Poisonous? FALSE! Vreeman & Carroll explain:
In an analysis of 849,575 plant exposures reported to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, none of the 22,793 cases involving poinsettia resulted in considerable poisoning. No one died from exposure to or ingestion of poinsettia, and most (96%) did not even require medical treatment. In 92 of the cases, children ingested substantial quantities of poinsettias, but none needed medical treatment, and toxicologists concluded that poinsettia exposures and ingestions can be treated without referral to a healthcare facility. Another study, looking at poinsettia ingestion by rats, could not find a toxic amount of poinsettia, even at amounts that would be the equivalent of 500-600 poinsettia leaves or nearly a kilogram of sap. [citations can be found in original text]

Some other beliefs Vreeman & Carroll look at and expose as groundless or outright false involve heat loss from one's head, nocturnal feasting, and curing hangovers.

Makes for entertaining and educational reading, especially when combined with their earlier paper on Medical Myths [see full citation below], in which they discuss commonly-held (but baseless) beliefs involving: drinking 8 glasses of water per day, the sleep-inducing properties of turkey, using only 10% (or some other small fraction) of one's brain, etc.

Perhaps JUST as entertaining, educational, and … sobering (?) are some of the reader responses to the original Vreeman & Carroll article (back in 2007), several of which manage (by example) to illustrate the challenges inherent in communicating scientific findings to the general public …

see e.g. —
"stupid and irresponsible" by david clarke [22 December 2007],
"unbelievable and shameful!" by Mikhail Vinin [23 December 2007],

but also the heartening responses exemplified by responses such as:
"Orders of magnitude?" by Andrew J Rees [24 December 2007]

RELATED REFERENCES

Annenberg Public Policy Center. Media continue to perpetuate myth of winter holiday-suicide link. www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/Downloads/Adolescent_Risk/Suicide/myth_holiday_suicides20011204.PDF.

Annenberg Public Policy Center. Holiday-suicide link: newspapers turn the corner. www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/Downloads/Releases/Release_HolidaySuicide_111907/suicidereleasenov152007final.pdf.

Annenberg Public Policy Center. The Holiday-Suicide Myth: newspapers (and TV shows) return to old ways. Report accessed Wed 12/30/2008 at http://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/Downloads/Releases/Release_HolidaySuicide/suiciderelease%202008%20with%20tables.pdf

Bridges, F. S. (2004). Rates of homicide and suicide on major national holidays. Psychol Rep, 94, 723-724.

Hillard, J. R., Holland, J. M., & Ramm, D. (1981). Christmas and psychopathology. Data from a psychiatric emergency room population. Arch Gen Psychiatry, 38, 1377-1381.

Hoover, D. W. & Milich, R. (1994). Effects of sugar ingestion expectancies on mother-child interactions. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 22, 501-15.

Vreeman, R. C. & Carroll, A. E. (2007). Medical myths. BMJ, 335, 1288-1289. Full text accessed Wed 12/30/2008 at http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/335/7633/1288

Vreeman, Rachel C. & Carroll, Aaron E. (2008). Festive medical myths. BMJ (British Medical Journal), 337(7684), doi: 10.1136/bmj.a2769. Full text article accessed online Wed 12/30/2008 at http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/337/dec17_2/a2769.

UniSudoku: For The Perfect Sudoku Experience

2008-12-01T16:52:00.004-06:00

TOPIC: sudoku, logic puzzles

I've intended to post something on this for a long time: for the perfect sudoku puzzle experience on a Mac, try out UniSudoku (just $15 and downloadable at http://www.unisudoku.com/). David Ross is apparently a GUI-programming genius and has produced possibly the most perfect sudoku puzzle software/interface ever.

With a little practice you too can enter the beautiful heightened sudoku flash zone where the world seems to disappear and it's just you racing through an alternative sudoku universe. With a finely-tuned mouse the "flow" experience can be breath-taking and addictive.

Quick screen shot below. Let me know what you think!

KENKEN!If You Like Sudoku &hellip

2008-11-26T22:20:00.004-06:00

TOPIC: games

So, I finally clicked on that KENKEN link on NYT's crossword puzzle site and found a great new puzzle. Here's Will Shortz to tell us all about it:

And here's the page to get daily doses at whatever challenge level you crave: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/crosswords/kenken.html. Seems quite addictive … sudoku with a bit more depth. Try it out and tell me what you think. Seems like a great combination of arithmetic and logic for kids — I'm going to see if my 7-yr-old likes it too. UPDATE [a few minutes later]: OK, this is structurally only superficially like the sudoku, but it is indeed quite addictive!

Relying on SCIENCE & REASON,Judge Rules Against Florida's Ban on Adoptions by Gays

2008-11-26T16:14:00.012-06:00

TOPICs: gay rights, adoption

A bit of good news on the civil liberties front: Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman [pictured at right] has ruled as UNCONSTITUTIONAL a strict Florida law blocking gay people from adopting children (see the original USA Today article here):

Miami judge rules against Fla. gay adoption ban

MIAMI (AP) — A judge on Tuesday ruled that a strict Florida law that blocks gay people from adopting children is unconstitutional, declaring there was no legal or scientific reason for sexual orientation alone to prohibit anyone from adopting.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman said the 31-year-old law violates equal protection rights for the children and their prospective gay parents, rejecting the state's arguments that there is "a supposed dark cloud hovering over homes of homosexuals and their children."

She noted that gay people are allowed to be foster parents in Florida. "There is no rational basis to prohibit gay parents from adopting," she wrote in a 53-page ruling. …

Later in the article, ACLU attorneys are quoted as saying "the case was the first in the nation in which numerous experts in child psychology, social work and other fields testified that there is no science to justify a gay adoption ban." In fact, according to the USA Today article, "Organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association and American Psychiatric Association all support permitting same-sex couples to adopt."

The great state of Florida begs to differ, however — and in the form of one Florida Assistant Attorney General Valerie Martin, apparently plans "a swift appeal." Even attorney and same-sex marriage ~~bigot~~ crusader John Stemberger got into the act, being quoted as calling the ruling "classic judicial activism."

Go to the ACLU website and download the PDF doc version of the trial court final decision — makes for great reading: Judge Lederman offers a thorough review of the scientific evidence presented and a firm no-holds-barred dismissal of much of the state's so-called expert testimony. In fact, reading the decision in greater detail has made me feel less dread as the state of Florida "swiftly" files the appeal … the state's case really seems based largely on outdated bigotry and explicitly religion-affiliated dogma. Even if the appeal is eventually heard, the state will have to come up with much, much better support for its stand. And frankly, such support simply doesn't exist. Let's hope Lederman's great example of relying on science and reason inspires courts in any future litigation.

RELATED RESOURCES

ACLU website: http://www.aclu.com/

American Medical Association (AMA) website: http://www.ama-assn.org/

American Psychiatric Association website: http://www.psych.org/

Family Equality Council website: http://www.familyequality.org/index_main.html

Florida Department of Children and Families website: http://www.dcf.state.fl.us/ess/ . The adoption program website is: http://www.dcf.state.fl.us/adoption/

Stemberger, John: professional website at http://www.orlandolawyer.tv/

RELATED ARTICLES & REFERENCES

A challenge to Florida's ban on adoption by gay parents. ACLU website for miscellaneous information related to the Gill case, including a link to a PodCast featuring Martin Gill. Accessed Wed 11/26/2008 at http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/parenting/37875res20081124.html

Florida Trial Court Opens Way For Lesbians And Gay Men To Adopt (11/25/2008). ACLU Press Release, accessed Wed 11/26/2008 at web address http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/parenting/37907prs20081125.html

Hudson, Waymon (10/23/2008). The insanity of John Stemberger: going down the rabbit hole in Florida. Blog commentary accessed Wed 11/26/2008 at http://www.bilerico.com/2008/10/the_insanity_of_john_stemberger_going_do.php

Miami judge rules against Fla. gay adoption ban. (11/25/2008). USA Today. Retrieved Wed 11/26/2008 at http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-11-25-gay-adoption_N.htm.

Trial Court Decision, available as PDF download at http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/parenting/37906lgl20081125.html

Congratulations to Heather Gillman!

2008-10-24T17:45:00.008-05:00

TOPIC: free speech

Surfing around looking for recent news/updates on the recent litigation involving Florida's Okeechobee High School and its efforts to suppress student efforts to form a Gay-Straight Alliance club (efforts that eventually failed spectacularly, by the way — see earlier commentary here), and I was reminded of the related events involving Ponce de Leon High School, then-principal David Davis, and Ponce de Leon High School senior Heather Gillman, which then led to this pleasant discovery [for the original, click here]:

Florida High School Student Wins Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award (10/20/2008)

Senior Heather Gillman Honored for Fearlessness In Speaking Out For the Rights of Gay and Lesbian Students

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org

MIAMI - The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida announces that Heather Gillman has been selected by the Playboy Foundation to receive the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award for "her fearlessness in speaking out on behalf of the rights of gay students" at her Ponce de Leon high school, located in Florida's Panhandle.

Gillman sued her school after her high school principal discriminated against her gay and lesbian friends. At trial, the principal testified that he believed clothing or stickers featuring rainbows would make students automatically picture people having sex, and he forbade students from wearing any sort of clothing, stickers, buttons, or symbols to show her support of equal rights for gay people.

"Heather Gillman is a courageous young woman who is most deserving of this very prestigious First Amendment award," said Howard Simon, Executive Director, ACLU of Florida. That her actions have received accolades from the Playboy Foundation demonstrate that her actions go beyond the walls of her rural high school, she has in essence taken a stand for all students in America. She exercised leadership and honesty when she stood up to the school's principal and the school board on behalf of the rights of gay students and we congratulate her."

Tomorrow, Gillman and her Mother Ardena will travel to Washington D.C. to be honored at the October 21 awards ceremony where she will receive her $10,000 award to pursue education.

"I thank the Playboy Foundation for the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment award. With the support of my parents and family I chose to protect the First Amendment rights of my classmates who support equal rights for gay people. Standing up to my school was really hard to do, but I'm so happy that I did, because the First Amendment is a big deal to everyone. I am grateful to the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida for defending me," said Gillman.

The day after being reprimanded for defending a gay student who had been harassed she returned to school wearing symbols of support including the rainbow flag and the initials G P for "gay pride." She was told by her school principal that she was not allowed to express any support for gay rights because it would be "disruptive," and that the symbols were signs of a "secret/illegal organization."

Past recipients of the First Amendment Award include filmmaker Michael Moore, comedian Bill Maher, and the late columnist Molly Ivins.

Wow. Way to go, Heather!

The 9/24/2008 press release from the Playboy Foundation notes that the First Amendment Awards were bestowed this year on just three recipients from a record number of 60 nominees,

… ranging from law professors to website creators to student journalists and representing both traditional and digital means of expression. The winners were chosen by a panel of distinguished judges: David M. Rubin, Professor and former Dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University; Geoffrey Stone, Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor at University of Chicago Law School, and Nadine Strossen, President of the American Civil Liberties Union and Professor of Law at New York Law School.

The Playboy Foundation praised Gillman for her "fearlessness in speaking out on behalf of the rights of gay students."

This puts 17-yr-old high school senior Heather Gillam in quite distinguished company. Former recipients include film-maker and activist Michael Moore and columnist Molly Ivins. This year's recipients also included New-York-based attorney Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), recognized for "his tireless efforts to defend First Amendment rights of students and faculty," and Mark Klein, a retired AT&T technician, recognized for his courage in speaking out against electronic surveillance of American citizens by our own government.

RELATED REFERENCES

Florida High School Student Wins Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award (10/20/2008): Senior Heather Gillman Honored for Fearlessness In Speaking Out For the Rights of Gay and Lesbian Students. Accessed 10/24/2008 at http://www.aclu.org/freespeech/youth/37255prs20081020.html

Hudson, Waymon (10/23/2008). FL Student Heather Gillman Honored for Speaking Out for LGBT Rights. Accessed 10/24/2008 at http://florida.bilerico.com/2008/10/fl_student_heather_gillman_honored_for_s.php

The Playboy Foundation. Web site accessed 10/24/2008 at http://www.playboyenterprises.com/home/content.cfm?content=t_template&packet=0007B308-45F5-1C7D-9B578304E50A011A&artTypeID=0007B451-BB99-1C76-8FEA8304E50A010D

Ponce de Leon Senior Wins $10,000 Hugh Hefner Award. (10/16/2008). Accessed 10/24/2008 at http://www.wtvynews4.com/home/headlines/31126474.html.

Jacobsen v. Katzer: Apppeals Court Rules That The Terms In Artistic License Are Indeed Enforceable Copyright Conditions

2008-08-15T16:12:00.024-05:00

TOPIC: open-source software, creative commons license

An apparent victory for Open-Source Software and Creative Commons licenses.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has vacated a District Court decision in the case of Robert Jacobsen v. Matthew Katzer and Kamind Associates, Inc. (dba KAM Industries) and eventually sent the case back to the District Court (Northern District of California) for further proceedings.

The Appeals Court summarized the case quite simply:

We consider here the ability of a copyright holder to dedicate certain work to free public use and yet enforce an "open source" copyright license to control the future distribution and modification of that work.

Indeed. So what's the problem? Jacobsen originally sued for copyright infringement and moved for a preliminary injunction when Katzer/Kamind used his code without following the conditions Jacobsen provided in the public license. The District Court apparently ruled that the open-source Artistic License was overly broad and did not create any liability for copyright infringement, only perhaps a breach of the nonexclusive license.

I'm only vaguely aware of some of the issues surrounding the open-source software movement, but I've benefitted from the movement in several ways (e.g. my current personal printer driver is open-source software and works much better than the driver supplied by the printer's manufacturer) and I've encountered related issues (e.g. working on b logs such as this and developing wiki sites for various class-related work). The Appeals Court ruling is actually quite informative/educational in terms of some of the reasoning behind, necessity, benefits, and incredible propagation of Creative Commons public licenses.

Open Source software projects invite computer programmers from around the world to view software code and make changes and improvements to it. Through such collaboration, software programs can often be written and debugged faster and at lower cost than if the copyright holder were required to do all of the work independently. In exchange and in consideration for this collaborative work, the copyright holder permits users to copy, modify and distribute the software code subject to conditions that serve to protect downstream users and to keep the code accessible.2 By requiring that users copy and restate the license and attribution information, a copyright holder can ensure that recipients of the redistributed computer code know the identity of the owner as well as the scope of the license granted by the original owner. The Artistic License in this case also requires that changes to the computer code be tracked so that downstream users know what part of the computer code is the original code created by the copyright holder and what part has been newly added or altered by another collaborator.

Traditionally, copyright owners sold their copyrighted material in exchange for money. The lack of money changing hands in open source licensing should not be presumed to mean that there is no economic consideration, however. There are substantial benefits, including economic benefits, to the creation and distribution of copyrighted works under public licenses that range far beyond traditional license royalties. For example, program creators may generate market share for their programs by providing certain components free of charge. Similarly, a programmer or company may increase its national or international reputation by incubating open source projects. Improvement to a product can come rapidly and free of charge from an expert not even known to the copyright holder. The Eleventh Circuit has recognized the economic motives inherent in public licenses, even where profit is not immediate. See Planetary Motion, Inc. v. Techsplosion, Inc., 261 F.3d 1188, 1200 (11th Cir. 2001) (Program creator "derived value from the distribution [under a public license] because he was able to improve his Software based on suggestions sent by end-users. . . . It is logical that as the Software improved, more end-users used his Software, thereby increasing [the programmer=s] recognition in his profession and the likelihood that the Software would be improved even further.").

Jacobsen originally sued because Katzer/Kamind used his code but didn't include the required attributions/notices. Katzer has argued that Katzer/Kamind cannot be liable for copyright infringement because Katzer/Kamind had a license to use the material. The District Court originally agreed, basically concluding that one cannot be liable for copyright infringement for something one has been granted a license to use.

The Appeals Court ultimately disagreed, however, noting that "The heart of the argument on appeal concerns whether the terms of the Artistic License are conditions of, or merely covenants to, the copyright license," [pg 9] and going on to explain:

… The District Court did not expressly state whether the limitations in the Artistic License are independent covenants or, rather, conditions to the scope; its analysis, however, clearly treated the license limitations as contractual covenants rather than conditions of the copyright license.

Jacobsen argues that the terms of the Artistic License define the scope of the license and that any use outside of these restrictions is copyright infringement. Katzer/Kamind argues that these terms do not limit the scope of the license and are merely covenants providing contractual terms for the use of the materials, and that his violation of them is neither compensable in damages nor subject to injunctive relief. Katzer/Kamind's argument is premised upon the assumption that Jacobsen's copyright gave him no economic rights because he made his computer code available to the public at no charge. From this assumption, Katzer/Kamind argues that copyright law does not recognize a cause of action for non-economic rights, relying on Gilliam v. ABC, 538 F.2d 14, 20-21 (2d Cir. 1976) ("American copyright law, as presently written, does not recognize moral rights or provide a cause of action for their violation, since the law seeks to vindicate the economic, rather than the personal rights of authors.").

The Appeals Court points out, however, that "The conditions set forth in the Artistic License are vital to enable the copyright holder to retain the ability to benefit from the work of downstream users," [pg 11] going on to point out that:

By requiring that users who modify or distribute the copyrighted material retain the reference to the original source files, downstream users are directed to Jacobsen's website. Thus, downstream users know about the collaborative effort to improve and expand the SourceForge project once they learn of the "upstream" project from a "downstream" distribution, and they may join in that effort.

The District Court interpreted the Artistic License to permit a user to "modify the material in any way" and did not find that any of the "provided that" limitations in the Artistic License served to limit this grant. The District Court"s interpretation of the conditions of the Artistic License does not credit the explicit restrictions in the license that govern a downloader's right to modify and distribute the copyrighted work. The copyright holder here expressly stated the terms upon which the right to modify and distribute the material depended and invited direct contact if a downloader wished to negotiate other terms. These restrictions were both clear and necessary to accomplish the objectives of the open source licensing collaboration, including economic benefit. Moreover, the District Court did not address the other restrictions of the license, such as the requirement that all modification from the original be clearly shown with a new name and a separate page for any such modification that shows how it differs from the original.

The Appeals Court concludes that

The clear language of the Artistic License creates conditions to protect the economic rights at issue in the granting of a public license. These conditions govern the rights to modify and distribute the computer programs and files included in the downloadable software package. The attribution and modification transparency requirements directly serve to drive traffic to the open source incubation page and to inform downstream users of the project, which is a significant economic goal of the copyright holder that the law will enforce.

and in the end determine that "the terms of the Artistic License are enforceable copyright conditions."

John Markoff has a nice summary article in The New York Times, titled Ruling Is a Victory for Supporters of Free Software.

A more informative summary is available at GPL JMRI Beats Patent Troll Matt Katzer in Court.

ADDENDUM (OMG!): apparently this case has a very interesting history not even whispered about in much of the news coverage of the Appeals case, with Katzer apparently copying Jacobsen's code THEN obtaining a patent on some model railroad technology that included the Java Model Railroad Interface (JMRI) work already done by Jacobsen's group, THEN Katzer attempting to charge Jacobsen's group for the right to offer downloads … Katzer apparently went so far to even cybersquat — Jacobsen's group writes that "Katzer also improperly registered one of our trademarks, DecoderPro, as the domain name "decoderpro.com". The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has ordered it returned to us, and wrote an entire section of the order on "Katzer's bad faith"." (see http://jmri.sourceforge.net/k/index.html). It appears that Katzer is much more than he appears. It will be ironic if such duplicity on his part eventually leads to solid case support for the affirmation of the open-source licenses.

RELATED REFERENCES

GPL JMRI Beats Patent Troll Matt Katzer in Court (8/15/2008). Slated, accessed 8/15/2008 at web address http://slated.org/jmri_beats_katzer_troll.

Jacobsen, Robert G. Website at the Department of Physics, University of California (Berkeley), accessed 8/15/2008 at web address http://physics.berkeley.edu/index.php?option=com_dept_management&act=people&Itemid=312&limitstart=0&task=view&id=363.

Jacobsen v. Katzer. (8/13/2008). Ruling from the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, accessed 8/15/2008 in pdf form at http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/opinions/08-1001.pdf.

Java Model Railroad Interface (JMRI) website (accessed 8/15/2008) at http://jmri.sourceforge.net/.

KAMIND Associates, Inc. website, accessed 8/15/2008 at http://www.kamind.net/.

Markoff, John (8/13/2008). Ruling Is a Victory for Supporters of Free Software. New York Times (online). Accessed 8/14/2008 at web address http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/14/technology/14commons.html.

Open-source pact subject to copyrights law - US court. (8/15/2008). Reuters, accessed 8/15/2008 at web address http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4657006a28.html.

Shiels, Maggie (8/14/2008). Legal milestone for open source. BBC News (online), accessed 8/15/2008 at web address http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7561943.stm.

Welcome to KAM Industries. Website (accessed 8/15/2008) for "The Conductor" software and related information at web address http://www.trainpriority.com/.

Secular Camp featured on NPR (8/7/2008)

2008-08-07T17:28:00.011-05:00

TOPIC: religion, summer camp

Not long ago I posted on Summer Camp, Hold The Religion — prompted by an AP article by Valerie Bauman on the secular summer camp called Camp Quest. Barbara Bradley Hagerty of NPR has just run a segment this afternoon (8/7/2008) on a similar camp called Camp Inquiry, described on the Camp inquiry website as "one of many educational initiatives offered by the Center for Inquiry," and the following mission statement:

This is a place where kids can be themselves. We work toward helping youth confront the challenges of living a non-theistic/secular lifestyle in a world dominated by religious belief and pseudoscience. Grounded on the conviction that kids can begin establishing habits of the good and ethical life early on, Camp Inquiry 2008 adopts a three-part focus: The arts and sciences, the skeptical perspective, and ethical character development comprise an integrated approach to this “Age of Discovery.” Campers, counselors, and teachers will address key issues around individual identity, forging trusting relationships, establishing a sense of local and global community, and living with respect for the natural world.

Hagerty's NPR segment is available at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93174374 and will be available shortly in audio. The segment/article is a bit condescending, but she was dealing with relatively young kids and the attention itself was generally positive. It will be interesting to see the listener/reader reactions.

Angie McQuaid (one of the camp counselors, pictured above) spoke well in the segment:

"It's a brain spa," says Angie McQuaig, one of the counselors. McQuaig is an elementary school administrator in Georgia.

"As an educator, I like to teach critical thinking at a deep and erudite level, because it's not embedded in the curriculum as much as I'd like to see," McQuaig says. "And this provides a place for kids to talk about deep questions that many into adulthood don't even consider and contemplate."

Are they trying to create little atheists?

"Absolutely not!" McQuaig says. "We want to create little thinkers. Little thinkers that explore their own capacity and the external world, with all of the tools of science and humanity. That's why we're here."

Of course, the participants in any such summer camp will be uniquely self- or parent-selected. But the critical point for me is the opportunity for such kids.

Go visit the Camp Inquiry website. It's good reading.

RELATED REFERENCES

Bauman, Valerie (updated 5/28/2008). Atheist, agnostic families opt for own sleep-away camp. Accessed 8/7/2008 at web address: http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-05-27-atheist-camp_N.htm.

Camp Inquiry website, accessed 8/7/2008 at web address: http://www.campinquiry.org/.

Camp Quest website, accessed 8/7/2008 at web address: http://camp-quest.org/.

Center for Inquiry website, accessed 8/7/2008 at web address: http://www.centerforinquiry.net/.

Craft, W. D. (5/27/2008). Summer camp, hold the religion. Available at web address: http://psychescientia.blogspot.com/2008/05/summer-camp-hold-religion.html.

Hagerty, Barbara Bradley (8/7/2008). Camp Offers Training Ground For Little Skeptics. Segment broadcast on All Things Considered, National Public Radio, with text (and related figures) available (8/7/2008) at web address: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93174374.

Federal Court Says Okeechobee High SchoolMust Allow Gay-Straight Alliance Club To Meet

2008-08-02T13:57:00.014-05:00

TOPIC: gay rights, high school, freedom of speech

In an article titled "Judge: Gay club can meet at Okeechobee high school," the MiamiHerald.com reported Wednesday 7/30/2008 the ruling of federal judge K. Michael Moore:

By KELLI KENNEDY
Associated Press Writer

MIAMI --
A school district in rural Florida must allow a Gay-Straight Alliance to meet on campus and must provide for the well-being of gay and straight students, a federal judge ruled, capping a nearly two-year legal battle over First Amendment rights.

Students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate," Judge K. Michael Moore said in a written ruling issued Tuesday night, quoting another case.

Kennedy also alludes to the case involving (former) high school principal David Davis of Ponce de Leon High School:

Earlier this year, a Florida judge said a Panhandle principal led a "relentless crusade" against gay and lesbian students at Ponce de Leon High School and violated their First Amendment rights by trying to prevent them from wearing gay pride clothing, stickers and buttons.

By the way: former principal David Davis, who ended up costing his Holmes County School District more than $300,000 in damages and attorney fees, has now elected to return to the classroom to teach … American government and other classes! American Government?! OMG. (see "Ponce de Leon High School Principal Back to the Classroom," 7/24/2008, referenced below.) ANYWAY, Kennedy notes that:

Her lawsuit [against Okeechobee] cites the 1984 federal Equal Access Act, which was initially pushed by evangelical Christians after some public schools banned after-school prayer meetings and other religious gatherings. It says that if a public school allows any extracurricular activities to meet on campus it must allow all groups to do the same.

There's some great irony for you!

The actual ruling can be downloaded in pdf form from the ACLU site at: http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/youth/36195lgl20080729.html.

I'm looking forward to a detailed reading of that document. In the mean time, I notice that the Gay Straight Alliance is not mentioned on the Okeechobee High School website nor is any link provided to the GSA under the website's listing of "clubs."

I DID notice, however, that the school website included the picture of the school mascot "Bubba" shown above. The picture itself is ironic after you read about some of the supposed shenanigans the school went through to deny the Gay Straight Alliance club the right to meet.

RELATED REFERENCES

Bubba the Brahman (picture of the Okeechobee High School mascot), accessed 8/2/2008 at web page http://www.okee.k12.fl.us/ohs/mascot/mascot.htm.

Gonzalez v. School Board of Okeechobee County - Case Profile (5/21/2008 ?). American Civil Liberties Union (online), article accessed Sat 8/2/2008 at web page http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/youth/35421res20080521.html.

Gonzalez v. School Board of Okeechobee County - Order Granting Plaintiffs' Motion for Summary Judgment; Denying Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment (7/29/2008). PDF document available for downloading, accessed Sat 8/2/2008 at web address http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/youth/36195lgl20080729.html.

JUDGE REJECTS OKEECHOBEE SCHOOL BOARD'S ATTEMPT TO BLOCK GAY-STRAIGHT ALLIANCE'S ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAWSUIT (3/13/2007). American Civil Liberties Union (online), article accessed Sat 8/2/2008 at web page http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/youth/29025prs20070313.html.

Kennedy, Kelli (7/30/2008). Judge: Gay club can meet at Okeechobee high school. MiamiHerald.com, accessed 8/2/2008 at web address http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/AP/story/623334.html.

Okeechobee High School website: accessed Sat 8/2/2008 at web address: http://www.okee.k12.fl.us/ohs/index.html.

Ponce de Leon High School Principal Back to the Classroom (7/24/2008). wtvynews4.com, accessed 8/2/2008 at web page http://www.wtvynews4.com/news/headlines/25875264.html

Ponce de Leon High School website: accessed Sat 8/2/2008 at web address http://pdlhs.hdsb.org/

Cool News From NASA:Phoenix Verifies Water On Mars

2008-07-31T23:35:00.006-05:00

TOPIC: water on Mars

Image: full-circle panorama in approximately true color, combining more than 400 images taken during the first several weeks after NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander arrived on the Martian artic plane. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University Arizona/Texas A&M University. See http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/images/press/15158.html for more details.

NASA's Phoenix spacecraft & Mars probe has confirmed the presence of ice in the polar soil:

NASA Spacecraft Confirms Martian Water, Mission Extended
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/news/phoenix-20080731.html

The Mission News site at NASA.gov reports:

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Laboratory tests aboard NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander have identified water in a soil sample. The lander's robotic arm delivered the sample Wednesday to an instrument that identifies vapors produced by the heating of samples.

"We have water," said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA. "We've seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted."

Boyton went on to say that "From my standpoint, it tastes very fine." (Mars probe finds water. USA Today, 7/31/2008).

RELATED REFERENCES

Mars probe finds water (7/31/2008). USA Today, accessed 7/31/2008 at http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2008-07-31-mars-water_N.htm

NASA Spacecraft Confirms Martian Water, Mission Extended (7/31/2008). NASA website, accessed 7/31/2008 at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/news/phoenix-20080731.html

Massachusetts Takes Another Step Toward Equal Rights

2008-07-29T18:35:00.006-05:00

TOPIC: gay rights, gay marriage

The Massachusetts legislature has now voted to repeal a 1913 law that had been used to block gay marriages involving out-of-state couples, and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick indicates he will sign the bill.

So, now in addition to allowing residents of Massachusetts to participate in same-sex marriages (since 2004 under then governor Mitt Romney), out-of-state gay couples can go to Massachusetts to get married, even if their "home state" does not allow/recognize such unions.

Partly (ironically) driven by economic considerations, sure. But my less cynical side hopes that Massachusetts state Rep. Byron Rushing is sincere when he says that "This is question of fairness, and it is a question of equity" (Mass. House OKs out-of-state gay marriage, USA Today, 7/29/2008).

RELATED REFERENCES

Braun, Stephen (7/16/2008). Massachusetts Senate votes to end gay marriage restriction. Los Angeles Times, accessed Tues 7/29/2008 at web address http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gaymarry16-2008jul16,0,5071765.story .

Goodridge v. Mass. Department of Public Health, 440 Mass. 309, 798 NE2d 941 (Nov. 18, 2003).

Mass. House OKs out-of-state gay marriage. (7/29/2008). USA Today, accessed 7/29/2008 at web page http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-07-29-mass-gaymarriage_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip .

Massachusetts Law About Same-Sex Marriage. Massachusetts Trial Court Law Libraries (online), web page accessed Tues 7/29/2008 at http://www.lawlib.state.ma.us/gaymarriage.html.

Viser, M. (7/10/2008). Gay-marriage advocates hope to repeal old law: Nonresidents now barred. The Boston Globe, accessed Tues 7/29/2008 online at web address http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/07/10/gay_marriage_advocates_hope_to_repeal_old_law/ .

Deroy Murdock Blasts "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" on National Review Online

2008-07-28T21:56:00.007-05:00

TOPIC: gays in the military

Deroy Murdock (a New York-based columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service and a media fellow with the Hoover Institution) has authored a nice article on National Review Online pointing up the continuing absurdities of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" anti-gay military policy, and reporting particularly on the increased granting of "moral waivers" (through which the Army has evidently even inducted felony child molestors!):

… Pentagon officials evidently trust military inductees with felony rap sheets more than they do law-abiding gay GIs. Having relaxed academic, age, and weight restrictions to achieve recruitment goals, the Defense Department has granted “moral waivers” to criminal convicts. Simultaneously, it uses the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy to jettison gays in uniform, usually for merely disclosing their sexuality. This policy deserves a dishonorable discharge.

… Between 2003 and 2006, U.C. Santa Barbara’s Michael D. Palm Center calculates, “106,768 individuals with serious criminal histories were admitted” to the armed forces.

Last year, the Army gave moral waivers to 106 applicants convicted of burglary, 15 of felonious break-ins, 11 of grand-theft-auto, and eight of arson. It also admitted five rape/sexual-assault convicts, two felony child molesters, two manslaughter convicts, and two felons condemned for “terrorist threats including bomb threats.”

…

Conversely, expelled military personnel include Arabic linguists and intelligence specialists who help crush America’s foes in the War on Terror. “Don’t Ask” has ousted at least 58 soldiers who speak Arabic, 50 Korean, 42 Russian, 20 Chinese, nine Farsi, and eight Serbo-Croatian — all trained at the prestigious Defense Language Institute. Al-Qaeda intercepts need translation, and Uncle Sam may need people who can walk around Tehran with open ears. Yet these dedicated gay citizens now are ex-GIs.

Murdock's take-home message is rationality itself:

“Don’t Ask” should yield to equality: Sexual orientation should be irrelevant while inappropriate sexual conduct — gay, straight, or otherwise — should be punished.

RELATED REFERENCES

American Veterans for Equal Rights, http://aver.us/aver/

Freeman, Simon (7/02/2008). Pride & patriotism: The fight for the right to serve. Published online and accessed 7/03/2008 at web site http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/pride_amp_patriotism/Content?oid=508559

Murdock, Deroy (7/23/2008). Don’t Make Sense: A policy that deserves a dishonorable discharge. National Review Online. Article accessed 7/28/2008 at web address http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ODliYjkwN2RkNWExMWE5OGQxMzA2ODNlZTc5NTRhYjY=

Discovery Channel’sI Love The Whole World (Boom-de-Ah-Dah)

2008-07-05T14:51:00.014-05:00

TOPIC: Discovery Channel and the Whole World

OK, so I love to sing along with it (apparently like millions of others out there). And if you're one of the few who haven't had enough of it, here it is again:

I'm also a sentimental sap for feel-good songs with children singing:

And I really wish I had had someone like singingcera for one of my science teachers as a kid:

and then morbid me, I am thinking about the WHOLE world, with its violence and poverty and hunger and disease …

(Gay) Pride & Patriotism:A Cover Story by Scott FreemanAt Creative Loafing

2008-07-03T17:01:00.005-05:00

TOPIC: gay rights, don't-ask-don't-tell

Here's a terrific article on the US military’s painful "don't ask, don't tell" policy, by Scott Freeman at Creative Loafing (Atlanta), including some interview comments from Stephen Benjamin (recent former Arabic translator for the Navy, recent op-ed contributor to The New York Times: Don't Ask, Don't Translate, and recent guest on "The Colbert Report") and Danny Ingram (described as "one of the first gays kicked out of the Army under 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.' ").

Along with some important personal stories and history of gays in the military, Freeman also has some sobering number for us:

In the 15 years since the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law was put in place, an estimated 12,000 gay, lesbian and transgendered soldiers have been forcibly discharged.

"'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' has been an expensive proposition," says [Atlanta lawyer Jeff] Cleghorn, who sits on the board of directors of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. He points to a study by the University of California that determined the law has cost the military $363 million over the past 10 years. "Unfortunately, the military is not impressed by the numbers," he says.

Cleghorn's confident "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" will soon be repealed. According to the Pew Research Center, 52 percent of Americans supported removing the ban on gays in 1994 and 45 percent thought the ban should be continued. A recent Gallup poll showed 79 percent now support allowing gays to openly serve. And numerous other countries – including Great Britain, Australia, Canada and Israel – no longer have bans.

Freeman's article is a worthwhile read.

Related References

American Veterans for Equal Rights, http://aver.us/aver/

American Veterans for Equal Rights (Georgia Chapter), http://www.avergeorgia.org/

Graphical Analysis of Shakespearean Sonnet

2008-07-03T11:45:00.002-05:00

TOPIC: humor, math, & poetry, from graphjam

Anti-Creationist OpEd from Lawrence Krauss(in New Scientist, 6/18/2008)

2008-06-28T20:55:00.012-05:00

TOPIC: anti-creationism

If you're worried about the teaching of science in our public schools, but the irony is not lost on you when scientists use ad hominem attacks and blogwrite smug anti-creationist rants that serve only to entertain the blogger's worshippers, you'll enjoy more considered commentaries like this one by Lawrence Krauss in the New Scientist:

Commentary: Stop creationists undermining school science
Lawrence Krauss, 6/18/2008, New Scientist

Krauss doesn't rant. Instead, he points out quite reasonably that those making the decisions about school curriculum should have the credentials appropriate for the job:

When public committees appraise existing knowledge in order to set educational standards, or report on the status of scientific knowledge for use in the public domain, the people involved should be required to demonstrate independent, relevant expertise. School board members should not be beholden to those who have elected them, nor should they represent political constituencies. They should instead be appointed by elected officials following thorough vetting and peer review.

The health of a modern society depends on the opportunities it provides its children through education. That's too important to be left to amateurs, much less enemies of knowledge.

Of course, there is also another issue here I've only begun to ponder carefully: why do we have these so-called educational boards in the first place to establish statewide mandates on school system curricula?

Now, before you roll your eyes and blast me for being naive, realize I'm most definitely not suggesting that such curricula should be "anything goes." Far from it.

What I wonder is this: why is it that we allow our kids to be taught, and the schools to be locally administered, by individuals who don't already know what's appropriate to be taught in biology class, or chemistry class, or English class, etc? Who are the high school biology teachers we hire that have to be told, "oh, by the way, you need to teach them what a cell is, how plant cells are different from animal cells, … and, oh! by the way, teach them something about evolution, and oh! while you're at it remind them that there are still a few details about that evolution-thing that haven't been worked out yet."

Real Physics

2008-06-28T18:29:00.005-05:00

TOPIC: real physics &mdash humor from wulfmorgenthaler.com

More Good News On Gay Rights: Marriage In California

2008-06-17T21:44:00.006-05:00

TOPIC: gay rights, gay marriage

The news and pictures are heartwarming, and not without considerable irony when you think about the irrational objections of homophobes and gay bashers across the country. With ranting illogic about how gay rights threaten to destroy our society and eat away at so-called family values, gender-bigots across the country have smugly denied gays legal rights on par with heteros — often viciously attacking gays and gay rights groups for "living in sin" and (ignorantly) accusing gays of not being capable of long-term healthy, loving romantic relationships, then refusing to grant gays who want it the legal right to publicly dedicate themselves to and proclaim these long-term (healthy) relationships in the same way heteros everywhere are allowed.

So what do we as a society say to Del Martin (age 87) and Phyllis Lyon (age 84) who have been together for more than 50 years (!) but until now haven't been allowed to wed? As a society we've not only disallowed them a host of legal rights with numerous implications for their lives and the lives of their relatives, but as a society we've forcibly disallowed for them the basic sociocultural roles that we then criticize them for not being able to fulfill — the roles of functional, nurturing, embedded-in-society de facto families.

They do: First same-sex couple — women in their 80s — wed in California

Del Martin, 87, and Phyllis Lyon, 84, tied the knot at 5:01 p.m. PT in San Francisco City Hall, marking the first same-sex marriage in California.

Martin and Lyon, who have been together for more than 50 years, repeated the vows they said four years ago, when Mayor Gavin Newsom declared that gay and lesbian couples could get married in the city. His decision was later overturned, but the state Supreme Court ruled last month that same-sex marriages were constitutionally protected.

[http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/06/they-do-first-s.html]

I fear the country isn't ready. Sexist and racist language and behavior are still pervasive, if not as explicit and openly condoned as it once was. Gender bigotry is still at full boil.

I admire the courage and passion I see in the gay couples taking advantage of this opportunity right now in the face of national and world attention and while the anonymous gender bigots swamp the web commentaries on the news articles with their hate and fear and bible thumping. Of course, these daring couples face more direct animosity as well:

They may face opponents such as protesters in San Francisco waving signs reading "Homo Sex is Sin" and similar warnings.

Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council, predicted "months of social chaos that could wreak havoc on every state in America."

He said California's new policy "threatens to undo thousands of years of natural marriage."

http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/n16257382-marriage-gays/

In such responses I see fear. I see outright hatred and intolerance. I see men and women moved by strong emotion to outrageous claims and offensive behavior.

But I don't see the logic. I certainly don't see compassionate humanity. In fact, I suspect when we lose the logic we quite often lose the compassionate humanity along with it.

I am hoping that California's newest effort in recognizing the rights of its gay citizens will hold … and eventually grow and spread.

Related References

Henderson, P. & Beck, A. (6/16/2008). California gays, lesbians marry legally. News Daily, accessed 6/17/2008 at website http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/n16257382-marriage-gays/

Henderson, P. & Chatterjee, S. (6/17/2008). California gay couples rush to wed as vote looms. News Daily, accessed 6/17/2008 at web site http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/n17360382-marriage-gay/

Winter, Michael (2008). They do: First same-sex couple — women in their 80s — wed in California. Accessed Tues 6/17/2008 at web site http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/06/they-do-first-s.html

RAND Study:Virginity Pledge Works (Sometimes),But Only For Those Who've Already Pledged

2008-06-15T00:02:00.011-05:00

TOPICS: adolescent sex & culture, misleading news releases

The news release picked up by Science Daily (among others) from RAND corp about a recent study of virginity pledges touts the potential effectiveness of such pledges:

Virginity Pledges May Help Postpone Intercourse Among Youth

Making a virginity pledge may help some young people postpone the start of sexual activity, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

Researchers found that adolescents who made pledges to remain virgins until they are married were less likely to be sexually active over the three-year study period than other youth who were similar to them, but who did not make a virginity pledge, according to the study published online by the Journal of Adolescent Health.

— http://www.rand.org/news/press/2008/06/10/

Just two problems: (1) It's not quite true, and (2) The not-quite-true part is going to be lost in the mire of the popular press reporting and mindless copying of the news.

The actual research study, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health (June 5, 2008), is actually titled: "Virginity Pledges Among the Willing: Delays in First Intercourse and Consistency of Condom Use," and unlike the news release being propagated by various consumers of headline-bites, includes the phrase "among the willing."

After careful statistical analysis to compensate for considerable pre-existing differences between pledgers and non-pledgers, the researchers

… estimate that in the absence of pledging 42.4% of virgins with characteristics indicating an inclination to pledge initiate intercourse within 3 years; in the presence of the pledge, 33.6% of such youth initiate intercourse.

— http://www.rand.org/health/feature/2008/05/martino.html

The problem though here is that those who willingly made such a virginity pledge self-selected themselves into that action. Regardless of the propensity-score weighting process to reduce selection bias, ultimately the individuals with an "inclination to pledge" chose not to and those that did pledge selected themselves into the pledge group, making that group fundamentally different from the other group. In other words, this "actually pledged" vs. "inclination to pledge" characteristic is just as likely to be a characteristic of the personality or philosophy of people who would, or would not, have delayed sexual intercourse anyway, regardless of the actual commitment to a virginity pledge, and thus might just as well serve absolutely no causal effect in the chain of events leading to delayed sexual intercourse.

In fact, the lack of causal role for the pledge is suggested by the further result that

Among those who had sex during this period, pledging was unassociated with condom use. Among those who did not have sex during this period, pledging was unassociated with engagement in noncoital sexual behavior.

— http://www.rand.org/health/feature/2008/05/martino.html

But even if we take the data at face value, we must remember that any such pledge-increased postponement of sex occurs only among the group of adolescents already willingly inclined to make such a pledge anyway, and within that group only by less than 10 percentage pts. As the authors themselves carefully note:

Our findings should not be taken as evidence that virginity pledges should be imposed upon adolescents. For youth who want to have sex and whose social environments support doing so, pledging is not likely to be an effective means of delaying sexual initiation (and it is doubtful that sincere pledges could be elicited from such youth). These youth need sex education that helps reduce sexual risk taking and unintended pregnancy, as do the substantial number of pledgers who eventually have sex [Santelli, Ott, Lyon, Rogers, & Summers (2006)]. Moreover, it is questionable whether being coerced into making a pledge will be effective even for teens who have characteristics like those of teens who pledge voluntarily. Psychological theory would suggest that pledging will have an effect on behavior to the extent that the pledger believes he or she freely chose to make a pledge [Festinger (1957)].

— Martino, et al. (2008)
emphasis mine

I am pessimistic that the authors' more careful conclusions and recommendations will be noticed. Instead I fear we're in for more naive calls for "abstinence education" and coerced virginity pledges.

A summary of the online article appears below.

Article Summary

SOURCE:

Martino, S.C., Elliot, M.N., Collins, R.L., Kanouse, D.E., Berry, S.H. (2008). Virginity Pledges Among the Willing: Delays in First Intercourse and Consistency of Condom Use. Journal of Adolescent Health, In Press

General Methodology	National telephone survey in 2001, with follow up 1 and 3 yrs later, using a purchsed national list of households with high prob of containing a 12–17 yr-old. Parents mailed explanation of the study in advance.
Participants and Sample Size(s)	1,461 12-17 yr-old participants in the 3-year follow-up (73% of the baseline sample), with notable attrition patterns. 47% female; 68% white; 14% African American; 12% Hispanic.
Conditions/Manipulations	no manipulations
Dependent Measures included	Questions assessing sexual behavior with someone of the opposite sex, including the extent/nature of such encounter(s), and the use of condoms; virginity pledge status: "Have you made a public or written promise to not have sex before marriage (yes/no)?"; various other covariates, such as age, sex, race, siblings, religiosity, self-esteem, sexual knowledge, etc.
Other Measures	none
Results
Of baseline sample of virgins, 23.8% reported having made a virginity pledge; More generallly: 17% had intercourse by baseline; 29% at 1-yr; 53% at 3-yr; Of teens reporting intercourse in year prior to 3-yr follow-up, 42% reported "less than consistent condom use." ultimately, primary question addressed was whether "among adolescents who have characteristics associated with being inclined to make a virginity pledge, making a virginity pledge delays sexual initiation." 42.4% of 12-17 yr-old virgins who were the type inclined to make a virginity pledge init'd sexual intercourse within 3 yrs in the absence of making a pledge, whereas 33.6% initiated sexual intercourse in the presence of such a pledge. also various correlates with pledgers vs. non-pledgers, including differences in relgiosity, monitoring by parents, peer pressures, etc.
Discussion/Conclusions
The authors are careful to note that the "… findings should not be taken as evidence that virginity pledges should be imposed upon adolescents. For youth who want to have sex and whose social environments support doing so, pledging is not likely to be an effective means of delaying sexual initiation (and it is doubtful that sincere pledges could be elicited from such youth). These youth need sex education that helps reduce sexual risk taking and unintended pregnancy, as do the substantial number of pledgers who eventually have sex [Santelli, Ott, Lyon, Rogers, & Summers (2006)]. Moreover, it is questionable whether being coerced into making a pledge will be effective even for teens who have characteristics like those of teens who pledge voluntarily. Psychological theory would suggest that pledging will have an effect on behavior to the extent that the pledger believes he or she freely chose to make a pledge [Festinger (1957)]."

Related References

Festinger, L. (1957). A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.

Martino, S. C., Elliott, M. N., Collins, R. L., Kanouse, D. E., & Berry, S. H. (2008). Virginity Pledges Among the Willing: Delays in First Intercourse and Consistency of Condom Use. Journal of Adolescent Health, Articles in Press, available online 6/5/2008. [doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2008.02.018]

Santelli, J., Ott, M. A., Lyon, M., Rogers, J., & Summers, D. (2006). Abstinence-only education policies and programs: a position paper of the Society for Adolescent Medicine. Journal of Adolescent Health, 38, 83–87.

Personal Data & Privacy Still Being Sacrificed On Facebook

2008-06-12T22:04:00.007-05:00

TOPIC: facebook social network privacy risks

I've been consumed with class and lab preparations this first week of summer school, so haven't had the energy to blog for a few days.

But like so many (all?) of my undergraduate students here at Sewanee: The University of the South in Sewanee, TN, I have a facebook page and have tinkered with it some over the past year or two, enjoying some of the extra connectivity it gives me to students (and faculty). Some of my students and friends have impressive facebook pages — some impressive in creativity, others impressive with their own form of blogging about their everyday lives and concerns, still others impressive with their ability to capture so much in their amateur photography.

I've often warned some of them about sharing too much on their pages, reminding them that future employers (e.g.) will be searching such social networking sites. Stupid pictures and off-color remarks can develop a frightening life of their own. And of course, facebook stalking is a concern.

Now there's even more to worry about. Turns out all the crazy, lovable, weird, and hated widgets and add-on applications now available (over 24k of them !?) routinely expose users' personal information to strangers:

A Flashy Faceboook Page, at a Cost to Privacy

Add-Ons to Online Social Profiles Expose Personal Data To Strangers
[by Kim Hart, washingtonpost.com]

Like David Dixon (quoted in the article), I too wondered "Why does a Sudoku puzzle have to know I have two kids? Why does a postcard need to know where I went to college?" But I naively assumed there was some good (and safe) reason for the widgets to need access to my personal info … perhaps this was needed in some technical way generally for the widget to install itself … (I thought hopefully) ? Mostly what surprises me here is how gullible I still am. And now I am wondering just what the widget developers are doing with all that data.

I'm also still wondering what drives so many people to put their personal information out there. Why share information hourly about our moods? Why worry daily about updating friends on exactly what we're doing or where we're going to be? As much as the phenomenon of social networking itself, the underlying generally unexamined motivations for participating are ripe for research.

Related References

Hart, Kim (2008). A Flashy Facebook Page, at a Cost to Privacy: Add-Ons to Online Social Profiles Expose Personal Data to Strangers. WashingtonPost.com, Thursday 12 June 2008, accessed 6/12/2008 at website http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/11/AR2008061103759.html

World Science Festival

2008-06-04T22:40:00.007-05:00

TOPIC: science for the masses?

A World Science Festival? Yep, the first World Science Festival took place recently in New York City. As reported in the New York Times, the 5-day festival drew large crowds, and most if not all events were sold out, even with multiple festival events running concurrently. Looking over the events and participants (see http://www.worldsciencefestival.com), perhaps that's not entirely surprising. The originators of the festival—Columbia physicist Brian Greene and his wife, Tracy Day, a former producer for ABC news—put together an fascinating and enticing collection of more than 30 events celebrating and exploring science, with a world-renowned cast of players. With an estimated 120,000 people in attendance, the inaugural event drew enthusiastic crowds and greater than anticipated interest; plans are already underway for another festival next May.

I'd be interested to know more about the demographics of the Festival attendees. Relative to the population of and tourism in New York City, 120,000 attendees is somewhat less remarkable. Or is it? Perhaps that depends not only on the number in attendance, but on other characteristics of those in attendance.

Regardless, it's intriguing to consider science festivals as an addition to our array of cultural events. As Brian Greene, physicist and co-founder of the World Science Festival states, "The World Science Festival aims to spark a movement where science shifts from the cultural outskirts to the cultural center."

Related References

http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/30/arts/30fest.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/03/science/03fest.html?

http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/30/early-reviews-of-science-festival/index.html

http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/30/boffo-box-office-for-science-festival/index.html

In Texas: Two Systems of Science ?

2008-06-04T22:07:00.006-05:00

TOPIC: creationism in Texas

Texas is not just a big state — it's also a huge consumer of public school textbooks, and the textbook publishers are understandably and entrepreneurally eager to meet the demand.

Thus many people are alarmed to see a confluence of events (further?) threatening the future of critical thinking in the Lone Star State:

(1) According to The New York Times, "Starting this summer, the [Texas] state education board will determine the curriculum for the next decade" (Beil, 2008).

A relatively innocuous event — education boards across the country are working on such things all the time. Realize, though, that

… the Board, the commissioner, and the Agency facilitate the operation of a vast public school system consisting of 1,227 school districts and charter schools, more than 7,900 campuses, more than 590,000 educators and other employees, and more than 4.5 million schoolchildren. [Texas Education Agency (TEA) website]

So the decisions being made here have huge and direct implications for a very large population, and indirect implications for millions of others (non-Texans) whose school systems will be influenced by the actions of the TEA.

(2) Texas governor Rick Perry, like all politicians, has a mixed record, with laudable efforts to increase access to health care and increase school funding, to reform the state's juvenile justice system, to divest state pension funds of companies doing business with Iran, and to encourage the wide-spread adoption of the human papillomavirus vaccine. Serious causes for concern, though, are: the governor's stance on Texan anti-sodomy laws (Perry called them "appropriate"), homosexuality and gays in the Boy Scouts (he's against both), and gay marriage (he supported the Defense of Marriage act; see http://christiannews.christianet.com/1098362715.htm).

In particular, however, the Texas governor has trouble separating his religious practices from his governmental office, and claims to believe in the literal truth of the bible. For example, in a recent interview for ChristiaNet, Perry said "that it was not out of the ordinary for him to pray throughout the day - even in the midst of official meetings." (Texas Governor Rick Perry, http://christiannews.christianet.com/1098362715.htm). In The Dallas Morning News, Perry also confirmed that

… he believes in the inerrancy of the Bible and that those who don't accept Jesus as their savior will go to hell.

Mr. Perry said Sunday that the acceptance of Christ is what his faith teaches, and he could not abandon that any more than anyone can pick which of the 10 Commandments they chose to follow. He would not argue with God's wisdom, he said.

"I doubt if any one human being can grasp all of his wisdom … " (Hoppe, 2006).

And lest you think Perry's deeply-held religious beliefs will not translate into political action, he recently appointed Don McLeroy as chair of the Texas State Board of Education (Stutz, 2007) (see item (3) below). (3) The current chair of the State Board of Education is Don McLeroy. According to his bio on the TEA website, McLeroy is a dentist in Bryan-College Station, Tx., holds a BS in electrical engineering from Texas A & M University and a Doctor of Dental Science degree from The University of Texas Dental Branch in Houston, is a fourth-grade Sunday school teacher at Grace Bible Church in College Station and has been active in youth soccer and Boy Scouts.

McLeroy is also a young-earth creationist, and thinks of creationism as an alternative scientific "system:"

Dr. McLeroy, the board chairman, sees the debate as being between “two systems of science.”

“You’ve got a creationist system and a naturalist system,” he said.

Dr. McLeroy believes that Earth’s appearance is a recent geologic event — thousands of years old, not 4.5 billion. “I believe a lot of incredible things,” he said, “The most incredible thing I believe is the Christmas story. That little baby born in the manger was the god that created the universe.”

But Dr. McLeroy says his rejection of evolution — “I just don’t think it’s true or it’s ever happened” — is not based on religious grounds. Courts have clearly ruled that teachings of faith are not allowed in a science classroom, but when he considers the case for evolution, Dr. McLeroy said, “it’s just not there.” (Beil, 2008).

Of course, in the same interview, McLeroy assures us that "My personal religious beliefs are going to make no difference in how well our students are going to learn science" (Beil, 2008).

But how can his religious beliefs not affect this process?

In this interview by Evan Smith on Texas Monthly Talks, originally broadcast 5/1/2008, McLeroy appears in many ways to be an intelligent, well-meaning man, earnest in his desire to safeguard the Texas public school system:

http://www.klru.org/texasmonthlytalks/archives/mcleroy/movies/mcleroy_hi.html

But the interview is alarming in a number of ways.

For example, in an interview ostensibly about McLeroy in his service as chair of the State Board of Education, McLeroy almost immediately interjects his religious convictions into the conversation. As he recites a brief biography, McLeroy notes that he “met this wonderful gal, became a Christian at that point …" He goes on say that he has "40 yrs experience with public education, 12 in Texas public education," a notably disingenuous and misleading claim based on not just serving on school boards but also based on his "own time in public schools, [and] the time my sons spent"! According to McLeroy’s bio on the TEA website, he began his "experience" in Texas public education when he was first elected to the Bryan Independent School District Board of Trustees in 1997. So in the first minute or so of this interview, we know (a) McLeroy is a Christian, (b) he wants to inject his religious beliefs into his public service (why raise the issue otherwise?), and (c) he likes to mislead and exaggerate.

After discussing aspects of the board's current work on English standards, McLeroy makes the offhand comment that “soon will take on the science standards," and then goes on to talk about issues in the teaching of evolution, characterizing the debate as one about "teaching the strengths and weaknesses." But it becomes painfully clear that he's not talking about "weaknesses" of evolutionary theory so much as what he personally sees as fatal flaws for which alternative theories must be provided, citing as so-called weaknesses some of the standard creationist topics of (1) gaps in the fossil record; (2) the Cambrian explosion; (3) the complexity of living organisms; and (4) a critique (I'm not yet familiar with) based on some concept of information and design. About this time he condenscendingly mentions Eugenie Scott and disingenuously (or perhaps just confusedly) equates his own criticisms of evolutionary theory with Scott's encouragement that students should be able to explain how (for example) the Cambrian explosion poses challenges for our current understanding of evolutionary processes.

Summary

So … to summarize: (1) we have major curriculum decisions looming in one of the largest states in the union; (2) whose governor prays during meetings, thinks the bible is a source of inerrant truth, and thinks all non-Christians will go to hell, and has appointed a young-earth creationist as chair of the Stated Board of Education; and (3) said chair makes a point of interjecting his religious beliefs into the public arena and feels that evolution and creationism are just two different "systems" of science.

OMG.

Can't wait to see what happens next.

Related References

Beil, Laura (2008). Opponents of evolution adopting a new strategy. The New York Times, accessed 6/4/2008 at website http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/04/us/04evolution.html.

Hoppe, C. (2006). Perry believes non-Christians doomed: Governor shares views following sermon; rivals pounce. The Dallas Morning News, 11/06/2006, accessed 6/4/2008 at website http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/110606dnTSWperry.351c57c.html.

Smith, E. (2008) Interview with Don McLeroy on klru: Texas Monthly Talks, accessed 6/4/2008 at website http://www.klru.org/texasmonthlytalks/archives/mcleroy/movies/mcleroy_hi.html

Stutz, T. (2007). Conservative to lead state education board: Perry picks chairman as panel prepares to revisit several course standards. The Dallas Morning News, 7/18/2007, accessed 6/4/2006 at website http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/education/stories/DN-sboe_18tex.ART.State.Edition1.3bba4d6.html

Texas Education Agency (TEA) website, accessed 6/4/2008 at website http://www.tea.state.tx.us/.

Texas Governor Rick Perry (interview published on Christiannews.Christianet.com, no date supplied). Accessed 6/4/2008 at website http://christiannews.christianet.com/1098362715.htm

Dancing Computer Science Professors

2008-06-03T23:34:00.010-05:00

TOPIC: bright spot on a gray day

A few days ago I came upon one of my academic colleagues, ipod in hand, dancing along a country lane. I was touched. "A bright spark in an otherwise gray day," I wrote to her later.

Those of you looking for a great college, come to

Sewanee: The University of the South,

nestled on a wooded mountain top in southern Tennessee, teeming with deer and rabbits and squirrels and wild blackberries, where even the computer science professors can be caught (occasionally) dancing along the country lanes.

Computer Simulation of the Evolution of Religious Belief

2008-06-02T20:54:00.005-05:00

TOPIC: evolution of religion

Adding to the general melee that is the debate about the evolution of religious belief, here's some stimulating news about a computer simulation created by evolutionary anthropologist James Dow (Oakland University in Rochester, Mi):

Religion is a product of evolution, software suggests
[NewScientist.com, 5/27/2008]

and the original research paper can be found here: Is Religion an Evolutionary Adaptation?

I'll take some time soon to blog more carefully on the original paper, but immediately tantalizing was the general concept: a computer simulation of interactions between "believers" and "non-believers," with the believers eventually flourishing! How cool … but of course this all depends on the assumptions built into the simulation. How were "believers" and "non-believers" defined? What type of interactions were being modeled? And how was adaptive fitness defined?

Dow used a co-evolutionary agent-based model allowing for influences of both genetically determined behavior and learned behavior. Dow explains that

The model does not include a large external storehouse of cultural memory, such as books or databases, from which agents learn. Therefore, it is more applicable to an early, pre-literate culture than to a modern civilization. The brain underwent most of its evolution when people lived such cultures. [§2.4]

The simulated agents have both inherited and learned capacities to communicate "real information" vs. "unreal information." The assumptions here are that:

Real communication carries information about the environment that the receiver can use to increase its fitness. Unreal communication carries no information about the environment and may decrease the fitness of the receiver by diverting its attention. Religious communication is of the unreal type. Although religious communication has benefits, these have nothing to do with the information in the communication. It is precisely the lack of material real-world information that defines religious belief. The simulation examines how unreal communication can evolve by means of social selection. [§2.5]

So "believers" are essentially defined as communicators of unreal information, and eventually fitness is manifest in terms of the number of offspring an agent leaves when it dies. Agent fitness is affected in the simulation, though, through the complex interactions (communications) among the multiple agents. Basically: agents that receive real information increase in fitness; agents who receive unreal information decrease in fitness. But an agent's tendency to communicate either type of information is affected by the type of information being received from other agents, a form of cultural learning.

In most of the simulations, the general population increases and the non-believers dominate the believers — under these basic conditions, populations increase, but the gene frequencies for real communication rise and those for unreal communication fall.

The interesting variant occurs, prompting the article title and the pop media coverage, when Dow plays with the greenbeard parameter that determines with whom an agent communicates. [see the Green-beard effect on wikipedia]. The simulations mentioned so far used greenbeard = 0, designating that the agents with whom an agent communicates is chosen randomly from a uniform distribution of the agents (i.e. no agents are preferred for communication). When Dow incorporates the greenbeard effect, then "If one agent sees that another agent is more likely to communicate unreal information, it can select that agent as a recipient of its communication with a greater probability." Basically, Dow simulates a situation in which agents are more likely to communicate with agents that themselves are more likely to disseminate unreal information.

Under such conditions, we see the population of believer agents eventually thrive.

Now, why would one implement such a greenbeard effect in the simulation? That's not clear, and makes a nice topic for another post.

Related References

Dawkins, R. (1976) The Selfish Gene. New York: Oxford University Press.

Dow, James (2006). The Evolution of Religion: Three Anthropological Approaches. Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, 18(1), 67-91.

Dow, James (2007). A Scientific Definition of Religion. Anpere: Anthropological Perspectives on Religion <http://www.anpere.net/ccount/click.php?id=13>.

Dow, James (2008). Is religion an evolutionary adaptation? Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 11(22) <http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/11/2/2.html>.

Science is a Way Of Life — Brian Greene, 6/1/2008

2008-06-01T21:32:00.008-05:00

TOPIC: Science (general)

Here's a nice New York Times op-ed piece by Brian Greene (6/1/2008), author of The Fabric of the Cosmos, and The Elegant Universe.

After acknowledging the standard reasons cited for "why science matters," such as the fact that science is "woven into the fabric of our day-to-day activities … affects the quality of our lives" and is critical for problem-solving and making informed decisions, Greene continues:

But here’s the thing. The reason science really matters runs deeper still. Science is a way of life. Science is a perspective. Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding in a manner that’s precise, predictive and reliable — a transformation, for those lucky enough to experience it, that is empowering and emotional. To be able to think through and grasp explanations — for everything from why the sky is blue to how life formed on earth — not because they are declared dogma but rather because they reveal patterns confirmed by experiment and observation, is one of the most precious of human experiences.

Later in a paragraph I would like to send to all my students who complain that science sucks out all the mystery and wonder of the world, Greene points out that:

It’s one thing to go outside on a crisp, clear night and marvel at a sky full of stars. It’s another to marvel not only at the spectacle but to recognize that those stars are the result of exceedingly ordered conditions 13.7 billion years ago at the moment of the Big Bang. It’s another still to understand how those stars act as nuclear furnaces that supply the universe with carbon, oxygen and nitrogen, the raw material of life as we know it.

Read the whole editorial yourself. It's a short and worthwhile read. I hope more and more people eventually agree with Greene that "Science is the greatest of all adventure stories …"

Related References

Easter, R., Greene, B. R., Jackson, M. G., & Kabat, D. (2005). String windings in the early universe. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2005(2). [doi: 10.1088/1475-7516/2005/02/009]

Greene, Brian 1999, original hardcover). The elegant universe: superstrings, hidden dimensions, and the quest for the ultimate theory. W. W. Norton & Company.

Greene, Brian (2004, original hardcover). The fabric of the cosmos: space, time, and the texture of reality. Knopf Publishing Group.

Greene, B., Schalm, K., Shiu, G., & van der Schaar, J. P. (2005). Decoupling in an expanding universe: backreaction barely constrains short distance effects in the cosmic microwave background. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2005(2). [doi: 10.1088/1475-7516/2005/02/001]

Dropping Babies for Good Luck & Good Health

2008-05-31T22:57:00.010-05:00

TOPIC: bizarre, sad, religious rituals

You are not alone if you think superstitions and religious beliefs are innocuous personal choices and harmless forms of self-expression. But check this out — a brief video of religious devotees tossing babies off a building in some kind of "good luck" ritual:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV9EsQU5YgE
A brief description can be found all over the web now as various news agencies and blogs have picked this up. For example at:

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1314661,00.html
But we all might benefit from the moderating influence at a site devoted to renewed anthropological perspectives in this article focusing on anthropology and the popular media:

http://openanthropology.wordpress.com/2008/05/02/
Also very interesting right now: despite the almost month-long time since the original story, there's a surprising dearth of real information about this particular ritual and its practitioners &hellip I've been looking but have found only hundreds of copies (some more true to the original than others) of some original news blurb and lots of hysteria. I'll post again when I find further, perhaps less sensationalized, information.

UPDATE: the original news piece seems to be the following from CNN

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/01/babies.tower/index.html#cnnSTCText

Summer Camp, Hold The Religion

2008-05-27T21:00:00.006-05:00

TOPICS: religion, summer camp, popular press

As a child, I was truly puzzled by the religious beliefs of family, of friends, and of adults in general. The beliefs and belief systems seemed so . . . blatantly irrational, and the vigor with which people espoused their fantastic beliefs seemed inversely correlated with the humanity with which they lived their lives and treated those around them. But as a youngster, this was difficult to articulate.

Difficult in part because I was too young, too inexperienced, to understand what I was seeing and feeling, often leading me to simply dismiss the beliefs and associated behaviors as unimportant — because (my innocent self thought) how could such irrationality have any great force in the world? Wouldn't that be bizarre? So (my naive self concluded), such irrational beliefs and related behaviors must not, could not, be terribly important or influential in the day-to-day “real world” of people and things and schools and governments, etc. It must be merely some odd quirkiness of human society, so I thought. Older now, but not much wiser, I still feel that pull of amazed disbelief. How could someone be so … blatantly irrational? Surely such irrational beliefs and related behaviors couldn't (and couldn't be allowed to) influence society in any but the most superficial ways? But the amazed disbelief is increasingly tempered with outrage, disgust, and discouragement: how can people be so … blatantly irrational? And how can such irrationality be so pervasive, insidious, and so forceful?

My concerns as a youngster were difficult to articulate also because I never, ever encountered anyone else questioning such things. Friends, family, children and adults around me … the only criticism I witnessed of religious belief was leveled by others with a different religious belief. Our irrational belief system, they seemed to say, is better than that irrational belief system over there. As a kid, who was I going to talk to about my lack of belief? And why did I feel embarrassed when confronted with weird religious beliefs and rituals of my friends? I wasn't embarrassed for them — I was truly embarrassed myself.

I think I would have really appreciated an escape to something like Camp Quest, described on the Camp Quest website as “The Secular Summer Camp” founded explicitly to

… provide children of freethinking parents a residential summer camp dedicated to improving the human condition through rational inquiry, critical and creative thinking, scientific method, self-respect, ethics, competency, democracy, free speech, and the separation of religion and government guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States.

USAToday picked up a piece on Camp Quest by Valerie Bauman of the Associated Press.

Camper Caitlin Fox, 16, said the camp has helped her build confidence.

“Before I attended I used to feel really embarrassed,” she said. “I was afraid my friends would reject me if I didn't believe in some higher power.”

Bauman points out, of course, that

Critics say the camps appear to espouse a particular point of view.

Erika Chopich, a psychotherapist, chaplain and founder of the nonprofit Hope America Ministries Foundation, said the invisible creatures in the exercise are obvious metaphors for God. "It's clearly meant to teach that God cannot possibly exist," Chopich said. "... There's obviously some teaching going on, there's some philosophy there. It's not completely neutral."

Chopich has a good point, of course, although it's not the point she intended. Rational thought is never neutral when used to confront nonsense.

And I wish I had such support when I was a kid.

Quick note: try a Google search on this topic — it's amazing (and encouraging? I don't know) how many sites have picked up this news item.

Mindfulness-Based Therapies in The New York Times

2008-05-27T00:03:00.003-05:00

TOPIC: mindfulness, popular press

Here's a great article by Benedict Carey in the New York Times on the increasing clinical interest in mindfulness-based practices and therapies:

Lotus Therapy, a New Old Path (NYT 5/27/2008)

Lotus therapy? Yes … well, in addition to the ridiculous title, someone decided to throw in two really silly pictures, one of a pseudo-Freudian-looking man, presumably a psychologist, floating in a lotus position with pen and notepad in hand, and the other an equally silly picture of Zindel Segal titled “a psychologist, demonstrating meditative therapy.” [see below, originally captioned as “ANXIETY AID Zindel Segal, a psychologist, demonstrating meditative therapy. Jim Ross for The New York Times.”].

I don't mean that Zindel Segal himself is silly, of course. I can just imagine some poor staff photographer sent over to get pics for this article and discovering that . . . there's nothing to photograph.

Photographer: well, maybe you could demonstrate the technique, you know, for a picture to go along with the article.

Segal: the technique?

Photographer: yeah, you know, like doing something mindfully?

Segal: you want to take a picture of me doing something mindfully?

Photographer: yeah, like just for a few seconds do something mindful and I'll take a few snaps and get out of here.

Segal: Hmmm. OK. [sitting down and crossing legs] How's this?

Photographer: Uh huh. Well, could you do something more active? I mean, something more obviously mindful?

Segal: So people will see it in the picture?

Photographer: yeah man, exactly.

Segal: no.

Photographer: well that sucks.

DESPITE that silliness, the article itself is a treat, mentioning all in one place a good handful of pioneering researchers in the field of mindfulness studies and applications (in order of appearance): Zindel Segal, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Marsha Linehan, J. Mark G. Williams, John D. Teasdale, & S. Helen Ma, and striking a reasonable balance between the pros and cons, the positive and negative results flowing from research into mindfulness-based applications to physical and mental health.

Among any number of nice bits of information, Carey quotes Segal as thinking “… a big part of [the rising interest in mindfulness] is that more and more therapists are practicing some form of contemplation themselves and want to bring that into therapy.” In fact (something Carey probably didn't have the space to point out), there are at least two other significant aspects to that particular influence — not just the therapists bringing contemplative practices from home into the office, but also taking mindfulness practices home to help with the stress of the job and using mindfulness practice to make themselves better therapists/practitioners. Just a few examples of recent research include:

Carson, S. H. & Langer, E. J. (2004). Mindful Practice for Clinicians and Patients. In Haas, L. J. (Ed) Handbook of primary care psychology, 173-183. New York:Oxford University Press.

Christopher, J. C., Christopher, S. E., Dunnagan, T., & Schure, M. (2006). Teaching Self-Care Through Mindfulness Practices: The Application of Yoga, Meditation, and Qigong to Counselor Training. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 46(4), 494-509.

Grepmair, L., Mitterlehner, F., Nickel, M. (2006). Promotion of mindfulness in psychotherapists in training and treatment results of their patients. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 60(6), 649-650.

Grepmair, L., Mitterlehner, F., Loew, T., Bachler, E., & Rother, W. (2007). Promoting mindfulness in psychotherapists in training influences the treatment results of their patients: A randomized, double-blind, controlled study. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 76(6), 332-338.

Shapiro, S. L., Brown, K. W., ; Biegel, G. M.(2007). Teaching self-care to caregivers: Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on the mental health of therapists in training. Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 1(2), 105-115.

Stratton, P. (2006) Therapist mindfulness as a predictor of client outcomes. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, 66(11-B), 6296.

Wexler, J. (2006) The relationship between therapist mindfulness and the therapeutic alliance.Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, 67(5-B), 2848.

Carson & Langer (2004), e.g., note that “Increasing mindfulness rather than mindlessness can help patients recast their experiences in a different light as well as help clinicians approach patients' problems from a different perspective,” and argue that “a mindful perspective can have a useful impact on the decisions of a mental health professional regarding diagnostic issues and coordination with the primary care physician and staff.”

Carey points out that “Many researchers now worry that the enthusiasm for Buddhist practice will run so far ahead of the science that this promising psychological tool could turn into another fad.” The enthusiasm, of course, is building in both the professional health-care system and in the general public.

But this just reminds us that we need to carefully evaluate the science, continue to do the critical research, and remind ourselves that no single treatment will be effective or appropriate for complex human behaviors with multiple underlying causes.

Some Related References

Hahn, T. N. (1987). The miracle of mindfulness: an introduction to the practice of meditation. Boston: Beacon Press.

Kabat-Zinn, J. (1994/2005). Wherever you go, there you are: mindfulness meditation in everyday life (10th anniversary edition). New York: Hyperion.

Kabat-Zinn, J. (2005). Coming to our senses: Healing ourselves and the world through mindfulness. New York: Hyperion.

Segal, Z. V., Williams, J. M. G., & Teasdale, J. D (2002). Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression. New Tork: The Guilford Press.

Prebish, C. S. & Baumann, M. (Eds) (2002). Westward Dharma: Buddhism beyond Asia. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Scientists vs. Non-Scientists

2008-05-25T22:42:00.002-05:00

TOPIC: Science Humor

Ever wondered about the fundamental differences between scientists and non-scientists? Logic? Creativity? Rationality? Skepticism? Hmmmm … try this:

http://xkcd.com/242/

Confirmed: The Phoenix has Landed!

2008-05-25T21:10:00.004-05:00

Here's one of the first images from Phoenix — a look at the northern polar region of Mars. (photo courtesy of the NASA website at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/main/)

Photos from an alien world. What an amazing way to end the weekend.

The Phoenix has Landed!

2008-05-25T20:08:00.005-05:00

TOPIC: science news, current events

Looks like a successful landing for Phoenix! Check this out at NASA’s own web site:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/main/
and a report at the New York Times web site:

NYT: NASA Spacecraft Appears to Have Landed on Mars

And this is really cool — watch the NASA control room live:

NASA Control Room TV

Alzheimer’s Disease As Infection

2008-05-25T16:14:00.007-05:00

TOPIC: science & health news

COULD Alzheimer’s disease (AD) be caused in part by infection?

Evidence has gradually accumulated to suggest that this theory about the etiology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) should be taken up more seriously. And the serious tone is evidenced now in a series of articles in a special May 2008 issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease as reported on ScienceDaily and EurekAlert! (Both ScienceDaily and EurekAlert have good summaries of the news, so I'm not attempting a summary here — just passing along the news.)

But hasn't public scientific discussion of AD centered primarily on the genetic bases for the disease, for which we have good accumulating evidence? (See e.g. Ertekin-Taner, 2007, below.) And doesn't the apparent genetic basis/susceptibility for AD rather contradict an infection-based theory about the causes of the disease?

Yes … and most definitely No. The approaches are quite compatible. After all, genetics can determine in no small part, for example, one’s susceptibility to certain types of infection. So a disease may have significant genetic and environmental components — essentially a diathesis-stress model of disease.

Moreover, roughly 95% of cases of AD are non-familial late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD), also called “sporadic” AD, which has a number of known genetic risk factors — but risk factors aren't the same as determinants of the disease. Somehow such risk factors interact with environmental factors (in the broad sense of that phrase) to ultimately determine the course (if any) of the disease.

The work on AD is exciting and our growing understanding of its causes inspires hope that we'll eventually be able to treat and prevent this awful affliction.

Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease [http://www.j-alz.com/index.html]

Wikipedia: Alzheimer’s Disease [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alzheimer_disease]

Related references.

Ertekin-Taner, Nilüfer (2007). Genetics of Alzheimer’s disease: a centennial review. Neurologic Clinics, 25(3), 611–667.

Balin, B., Little, C. S., Hammind, C. J., Appelt, D. M., Whittum-Hudson, J. A., Gerard, H. C., & Hudson, A. P. (2008) Chlamydophila pneumoniae and the etiology of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 13(4), 371–380.

Hammer, N. D., Wang, X., McGuffie, B. A., & Chapman, M. R. (2008) Amyloids: Friend or Foe? Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 13(4), 407–419.

Itzhaki, R. F. & Wozniak, M. A. (2008) Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 in Alzheimer’s disease: The Enemy Within. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 13(4), 393–405.

KRamer, A. R., Dasanayeke, A., Craig, R. G., Glodzik-Sobanska, L., Bry, M., & de Leon, M. J. (2008) Alzheimer’s disease and peripheral infections: The possible contribution from periodontal infections, model and hypothesis. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 13(4), 437–449.

Miklossy, J. & Martins, R. (2008) Preface: Chronic inflammation and amyloidogenesis in Alzheimer’s disease: The emerging role of infection. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 13(4), 357.

Miklossy, J. (2008) Chronic inflammation and amyloidogenesis in Alzheimer's disease – role of spirochetes. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 13(4), 381–391.

Schwab, C. & McGeer, P. L. (2008) Inflammatory Aspects of Alzheimer Disease and Other Neurodegenerative Disorders. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 13(4), 359–369.

Scott, L. C., Hammind, C. J., MacIntyre, A., Balin, B. J., & Appelt, D. M. (2004) Chlamydia pneumoniae induces Alzheimer-like amyloid plaques in brains of BALB/c mice. Neurobiology of Aging, 25(4), 419–429.

Urosevic, N. & Martins, R. N. (2008) Infection and Alzheimer’s disease: The ApoE e4 connection and lipid metabolism. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 13(4), 421–435.

Weinberg, E. D. & Miklossy, J. (2008) Iron withholding: a defense against disease. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 13(4), 451–463.

Challenging GAD with Mindfulness

2008-05-24T16:47:00.028-05:00

TOPIC: psychology, peer-reviewed research

RECENT results from a small pilot study by Susan Evans & colleagues (2008, see full citation and summary below) add to the growing literature on the efficacy of mindfulness-based approaches to various psychological disorders, in this case applied to generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), a disabling anxiety disorder characterized by chronic anxiety and associated physical symptoms in the face of little-or-no provocation (see, e.g. the NIMH site on GAD).

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), perhaps best described in Segal, Williams, & Teasdale’s (2002) book Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy For Depression, combines elements of cognitive therapy and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) originally pioneered by Jon Kabat-Zinn (see Full Catastrophe Living, 1990). Cognitive Therapy, or Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), in general seeks to challenge a patient’s cognitive distortions (such as all-or-nothing thinking, labeling, etc). On the other hand, Kabat-Zinn describes mindfulness as "paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally" (see e.g. Kabat-Zinn’s Wherever You Go, There You Are, 1994). Combined in MBCT, participants learn to reflect nonjudgmentally on their own thought, a metacognitive process in which participants treat their thoughts as thoughts per se rather than reality and in which participants train themselves in attentional control.

Evans & colleagues point out that, although CBT is an effective treatment for GAD,

… GAD nonetheless remains the least successfully treated of the anxiety disorders (Brown, Barlow, & Liebowitz, 1994). Ninan (2001) points out that nearly twice as many patients in treatment for GAD achieve partial remission as those who achieve full remission and indicates the persistence of residual symptoms in many who respond to treatment. [pg 717]

But what’s the motivation to try MBCT for GAD? Why would we think that mindfulness training might complement and possibly enhance CBT treatment for GAD through mindfulness-based cognitive therapy? After all, attentional training is a big component of mindfulness training, and it’s superficially counterintuitive to suggest we should increase the attentional awareness of patients with GAD &mdash aren't they essentially too aware already?

Not necessarily. And mindfulness training isn't really about increasing awareness per se (although it can certainly have that effect). Instead, mindfulness is an exercise in attentional control. In this sense, there are several plausible mechanisms for the palliative effect of mindfulness training, including (1) the ability to redirect attention away from troubling thoughts; (2) the ability to relate to thoughts as thoughts instead of true reflections of reality; and (3) the redirection/redistribution of cognitive resources (i.e.thinking about one thing makes it difficult to think about some other thing). Evans’ team reminds us:

Roemer and Orsillo (2002) point out that since the nature of worry is future directed, training in present-moment mindful awareness may provide a useful alternative way of responding for individuals with GAD. Astin (1997) suggests that the techniques of mindfulness meditation help the person to develop a stance of detached observation towards the contents of consciousness and may be a useful cognitive behavioral coping strategy. [pg 217]

The results of the pilot study are consistent with MBCT being helpful in treating GAD, although firm conclusions aren’t possible from this non-experimental design. A summary of the paper appears below.

Article Summary

SOURCE:

EVANS, S., FERRANDO, S., FINDLER, M., STOWELL, C., SMART, C., HAGLIN, D. (2008). Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for generalized anxiety disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 22(4), 716-721. DOI: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2007.07.005

General Methodology	Small, pre-test post-test, non-experimental pilot study. No control group. Participants screened for inclusion/exclusion criteria, but otherwise self-selected.
Participants and Sample Size(s)	11 (6 female, 5 male), mean age = 49 yrs, mean educ = 17 yrs, resulting from first screening 36 applicants down to 12, then dropping 1 from data analysis due to unrelated medical problem.
Conditions/Manipulations	8-week mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) program
Dependent Measures included	Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI); Beck Depression Inventory (BDI); Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ); Profile of Mood States (POMS); Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS)
Other Measures	Anecdotal participant self-reports.
Results
Before MBCT: moderate levels of anxiety (BAI); pathological degree of worry (PSWQ); significant levels of anxiety and tension (POMS); mild levels of depression (BDI); & mindful awareness significantly lower than normal (MAAS) After MBCT: statistically significant improvement on all scales except the MAAS; MAAS scores improved to approximately normal, though the change didn't reach statistical significance (probably due to small sample size); all participants completed the 8-week MBCT course; very positive anecdotal stories from participants.
Discussion/Conclusions
MBCT appears to be "a feasible and acceptable treatment for individuals with GAD" [pg 720]; stronger conclusions not possible because of non-experimental design, and external validity (generalizability) difficult to assess.

Related references.

Astin, J. A. (1997). Stress reduction through mindfulness meditation: effects on psychological symptomatology, sense of control and spiritual experiences. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 66(2), 97–106.

Brown, T., Barlow, D., & Liebowitz, M.(1994). The empirical basis of generalized anxiety disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 151, 1272–1280.

Kabat-Zinn, J. (1990) Full Catastophe Living. New York: Delta Publishing.

Ninan, P. T. (2001). General anxiety disorder: why are we failing our patients? Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 62(Suppl. 19), 3–4.

Roemer, L., & Orsillo, S. M. (2002). Expanding our conceptualization of and treatment of generalized anxiety disorder: integrating mindfulness/acceptance-based approaches with existing cognitive-behavioral models. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 9(1), 54–68.