BULB PROTOTYPE / RED MEAT

BULB PROTOTYPE. Unless you've been living under a rock, you're probably aware of the move afoot in the illumination industry to replace the familiar warm glow of incandescent light bulbs with longer-lasting compact fluorescent lamps which also use less energy. Alas, CFLs may be greener and more economical in the long run, but at present they are quite expensive compared to ILBs. Regardless, the soft yellow light of ILBs may soon be unavailable, according to Andrew Rice in the New York Times magazine. In Bulb In, Bulb Out he describes the transition, as well as an even newer generation of bulbs whose prototype "resembles a neon yellow mushroom" (see left image above, click to enlarge). The new model seeks to produce "the soft luminance of the incandescent bulb, while conforming to much higher standards of energy efficiency and durability." Just when I thought I'd simplified my choices to 60W or 75W.

RED MEAT. A vegetarian for over ten years reports that he recently reintroduced red meat into his diet, resulting in "an improved sense of well-being, mental clarity, and energy." Within three months his Body-Mass Index (BMI) went from 17% to 12%, while he gained nearly ten lb. of muscle mass. This individual works out regularly, eats well, and is sold on the value of retaining animal protein in our diets. He honors those who, out of principle, maintain a vegetarian diet, but has come to the realization that being omnivorous is a defining feature of human evolution, for very specific reasons. To learn more, check out So I Started Eating Meat Again .... I would be interested in any comments you choose to post.

NATO

NATO. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates "sharply criticized NATO nations on Friday for what he said were shortages of military spending and political will .... Mr. Gates issued a dire and unusually direct warning that the United States, the traditional leader and patron of the alliance, was exhausted by a decade of war and its own mounting budget deficits and simply might not see NATO as worth supporting any longer .... The United States accounts for about three-quarters of all military spending by all NATO countries, and it has in the past taken the lead in military operations and provided the bulk of weapons and materiel. But in a post-Soviet world, there is growing resentment in Washington about NATO effectively paying for the defense of wealthy European nations .... 'The Europeans enjoy generous social welfare programs in part because the United States subsidizes their defense spending.'"

NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, came into being in 1949 in response to the perceived threat of a Soviet invasion. The conflict in ideologies formed the genesis of the Cold War, a state of intense political/military tension and economic competition which kept the world on the brink of nuclear war until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. At the time of NATO's founding, it made sense that the U.S. would provide primary military and economic leadership for the alliance, since most European nations had been decimated by the tragedy of World War II. However, during the years since, with U.S. aid like the Marshall Plan and under the protection of the U.S. nuclear umbrella, the nations of western Europe have prospered. Similarly, with the demise of the Soviet Union, eastern European nations are entering a time of relative stability and prosperity.

So why is it that the U.S. continues to bear three-quarters of the economic and military burden of protection for Europe? It seems likely that NATO has become an anachronism, or at the very least, carries out a misdirected role. I've long maintained that the United Nations, whose stated aims include "facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace," is an ideal forum for resolving conflicts between nations. The one thing the UN lacks is the power of enforcement. Just as ascending levels of government (municipal, county, state, and national) maintain and enforce laws for the common good, so should the world community.

It strikes me that a simple solution would be to incorporate the military elements of the NATO alliance into the UN, creating for the first time a formal, recognized means of adding teeth to the UN's mission of world cooperation, equality, and prosperity. Thus each member nation of the UN would be required, as a condition of membership, to contribute a fair share to subsidizing the UN's military operations -- which would add legitimacy to the fight against terrorism and the censure of national leaders who commit human rights violations. Such a shift in organization would not provide a significant added strain on the world's more prosperous nations, and it would clarify the political and economic process by which decisions are made to resort to military means to enforce humanitarian goals. Representative government at its best, no? True, democracy is a messy affair, and the more members, the messier. But we allege that one of our national goals is the spread of democracy -- it's time to live up to our propaganda. Besides, engaging all the nations of the world in decision-making would legitimize military actions which are currently viewed as being grabs for territory or resources. The world is evolving, and we need to evolve with it.

The map above shows the 28 member nations of NATO. The map below shows the 192 member nations of the UN. Click on either image to enlarge.

BEING BILINGUAL / LEARNING TOGETHER

BEING BILINGUAL. During my first two years of high school, my classes included four semesters of Latin -- not the form or pronunciation found in the modern Catholic church, but the form and pronunciation of classical Latin. The real deal. I remain grateful for that experience -- not only because Latin forms the basis for a significant portion of English, but also because it gave me the opportunity to experience the ancient world in its own language. This broadening of one's perceptual and cognitive experience is explored in The Bilingual Advantage, in which a cognitive neuroscientist compares how monolinguals and bilinguals differ -- from brain structure (anatomy) to brain function (physiology), and the implications for comprehending our world and even extending our lives. It is a worthwhile read.

Latin, by the way, is the common root of the Romance Languages -- Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian, and Catalan. Of these, I've studied Spanish and French, and found that my background in Latin was invaluable in understanding not only vocabulary, but also grammar and syntax. Riches upon riches. Our brains are like any muscle -- the more we exercise them, and the more variety we introduce into our activities, the healthier we are.

A related concept is Intertwingularity, a term coined to express the complexity of interrelations in human knowledge. In a world of accelerating complexity, it is clear that the learning/teaching of topics in isolated compartments is no longer useful. As a teacher, I often drew upon concepts from history, poetry, philosophy, art, or the daily lives of my students while helping them to learn biology or environmental studies. All knowledge is connected, and interdisciplinary teaching has become the norm in many schools and universities, rightfully so.

LEARNING TOGETHER. Since I seem to be on a roll here, allow me to include this link to a Boston Globe article about a school where "Facilitative learning, not repetition or following a curriculum script, is the mandate .... The classrooms are designed to foster collaboration (among students) ..... Teachers are not boxed in between a large desk and the blackboard. They stand. Walk around. Ask questions .... There's a five-step engineering model for continuous improvement (ask, imagine, plan, create, improve)."

If you grew up in a traditional rote learning environment like I did, this may sound a little outre at first. But I've seen variations of collaborative learning succeed dazzlingly. Though it may not be useful to every discipline or every student, it remains an exceptionally powerful model for learning. And we can never have too many tools in our kit, can we?

BULLIES / NUCLEAR POWER

BULLIES. "Abusive treatment, the use of force or coercion to affect others, verbal harrassment, intimidation, physical assault." Bullying manifests both among children and among adults. It has often been suggested that bullying has its formative roots in childhood. Many (though not all) bullies were themselves mistreated as younger children, usually by parents or older children. In order to bolster their self-esteem, these young victims use the only language they've been shown, and become bullies themselves. Some may witness a parent (usually the same gender parent) engage in physical, verbal or emotional abuse, and adopt that model as a guide to their own behavior.

Other risk factors may elicit bullying behavior -- envy, resentment, depression, a strong need to control or dominate, personality disorders, even addiction to aggressive behaviors. The end result is always a need to seek out targets (usually those perceived as weaker) upon whom to inflict abuse.

What is often overlooked is that when bullies mature, so does their behavior. A study in the journal Pediatrics foung that "men who recalled being frequent bullies in school were four times more likely to physically abuse their partner .... bullies are at a higher risk of bullying their own kids, losing a job, and getting involved in the criminal justice system." Domestic violence inflicts physical and emotional scars on adults, on children -- and sometimes results in homicide. The victims' suffering is too often hidden or rationalized, out of fear of retaliation.

I survived being bullied by several individuals at different times during my childhood, and attempts by one individual as an adult. I learned to defend myself -- college boxing, Army hand-to-hand combat, and later karate. I also learned to use my intelligence, both to understand those who are given to bullying behavior, and to defend myself using words. I'm at ease in most situations, but I avoid those which hold the potential for encountering insecure, aggressive individuals. But when confronted, or when witnessing someone being assaulted, I'm prepared to interrupt bullying, by whatever means is appropriate.

NUCLEAR POWER. Germany made the news in recent weeks by formally announcing plans to abandon nuclear energy completely within 11 years. Though there had been some vague movement in this direction, Germany's declaration was clearly influenced by Japan's ongoing inability to manage the Fukishima Daichi nuclear disaster. It has been my observation that the human species tends to react to crisis, rather than to think ahead and plan proactively. I applaud Germany's decision, and hope that other nations with nuclear power plants will follow suit. The risks of operating nuclear plants, and the absence of safe storage for nuclear waste products which take many generations to decay to harmlessness, are far greater than the energy benefit derived. Radioactivity will ruin your day.

LAUGHTER / AIDS / VIKINGS

LAUGHTER. What situations, events, or behaviors make us laugh? Why are some jokes funny, and others not so much? Slate suggests that if there is a single, unified theory of humor, it may be found in a new book called Inside Jokes: Using Humor to Reverse-Engineer the Mind. The authors, a cognitive scientist, a philosopher, and a psychologist, "assert that humor serves an evolutionary purpose. In comprehending the world, we sometimes commit too soon to conclusions we've jumped to. The humor emotion, mirth, rewards us for figuring out where we've made such mistakes. In developing this view, the authors considered -- but ultimately had to discard -- some long-cherished theories. They present five such hypotheses, and the jokes that demonstrate they don't hold water." Among the five are:

~ The Superiority Theory

~ The Incongruity and Incongruity-Resolution Theories

~ The Benign Violation Theory

~ The Mechanical Theory

~ The Release Theory

The pursuit of a single, unified theory can be an elusive goal, whether in explaining Einsteinian relativity or in explaining humor. Check out the article and see what you think.

While in the realm of laughter and happiness, The World's Happiest People considers the people of Denmark, a nation which has the "highest well-being of any country in the world, according to a recent Gallup Poll, with 72 percent of Danish people 'thriving'. (The world median is just 21 percent.) In addition, during World War II, the country rescued almost all Jewish Danes from impending [Nazi] atrocities. A kind of positive psychology underlies both accomplishments. People who trust their government and their neighbors, and who resist abuses in their society, are more likely to feel a sense of well-being in their lives.

" .... How do Danes reconcile their standing up and rescuing others with their traditional reluctance to stand out? Danes are taught not to tolerate abusive behavior, and to speak their minds even if others disagree .... What may be essential are the supporting networks between people and groups that enhance social capital, a major predictor of national happiness."

I recall that when Germany invaded Denmark during World War II, and decreed that all Jews must wear Star of David armbands, King Christian X responded that all Danes would wear the armbands, and he himself put on the first one. I was struck by the sterling courage and humane solidarity of the country, in the face of such a ruthless, bloodthirsty adversary. The Danes are entitled to their happiness, and to a well-earned national pride in doing the right thing, even at the risk of one's own death.

AIDS. Yesterday marked the 30th anniversary of the first report of AIDS/HIV in the U.S. The PBS Newshour aired a segment titled AIDS at 30: Who's at Greatest Risk of Infection Now?i The report is a must-see to understand how far we've come, and what we have yet to accomplish in eliminating this global scourge. You can view the video or read the transcript here.

VIKINGS. Today is the anniversary of the beginning of the Viking Age. On this day in the year 793, "Vikings destroyed the abbey on Lindisfarne, a center of learning famous across the continent .... Scandinavian (Norse) Vikings explored Europe by its oceans and rivers through trade and warfare. The Vikings also reached Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland, and Anatolia. There is evidence to support the Vinland legend that Vikings reached farther south to the North American continent." Explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates, Vikings penetrated most of Europe and heavily influenced cultures from Ireland to Russia (see map below, click to enlarge.)

SEX SCANDALS / POSITIVE THINKING'S PERIL

SEX SCANDALS. Representative Anthony Weiner (D-NY) gave a press conference yesterday, in which he admitted that he "had sent lewd photos (see above, click on any image to enlarge) and text messages to six different women in the last three years -- all of whom he met online." Weiner was (for a politician caught with his hand where it didn't belong) unusually remorseful and candid in owning up to his misbehavior, but stopped short of resigning from his elected office.

Political sex scandals are nothing new, of course. Those in positions of influence or power often begin to believe that they are somehow special, and immune from the ethical standards expected of others. Witness the downfall of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the International Monetary Fund head and prominent French politician, charged with the rape of a New York City hotel maid. Neither political party in the U.S. has a monopoly on virtue. To demonstrate, here is a list of public apologies made by an assortment of politicians in recent years. Each entry includes a video of the apology, how the person was (as it were) exposed, his strategy in response, and whether or not he left office. Clearly some egos are larger than others, and some are more in denial than others. Squirm, baby, squirm. All of which ties in neatly with the next segment --

POSITIVE THINKING'S PERIL. We are taught from an early age to think positively, look on the sunny side, be optimistic, see the glass as half full. But recent research suggests that there are limits, and even dangers, in being too aggressively cheerful. A persistent optimism can amount to being in denial, when there are real problems and real threats with which to deal. A certain amount of worry over a school project or work deadline can result in one's being better prepared to deal with the assignment. In extremis, pessimists "were less prone to depression than were optimists after experiencing negative life events, like the death of a friend. The pessimists had likely spent more time bracing themselves mentally for unpleasant possibilities."

Which is not to suggest that we should all resign ourselves to a dour and gray life. My own outlook is to hope for the best, and prepare for the worst. A healthy balance between positive and negative thinking works well for me, though it may not be for everyone.

PALIN / WEIGHT LOSS / D-DAY

PALIN. I know, I know -- the more attention which the halfwit Tea Party darling receives, the more she inflates in the national consciousness. But she's receiving it anyway, thanks in no small part to Faux News, and the media at large. So it is incumbant upon those of us with half a lick of sense to repudiate her wilder statements. Former Alaska governor and failed Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin is currently on a bus tour of (coincidentally) those states holding the earliest primaries in the 2012 presidential election, disingenuously disguised as a "One Nation Tour". In the Washington Post, a regular feature called The Fact Checker: The Truth Behind the Rhetoric examines a series of Palin distortions and outright lies, under the headline Sarah Palin Collects A Bushel of Pinocchios on her bus tour.

The Fact Checker's mission is described here, and can be summarized as (a) checking of facts, not on opinions; (b) focusing on the issues most important to voters; (c) sticking to the facts without regard to ad hominem attacks; (d) adopting a common sense approach to arriving at conclusions; and (e) drawing equal attention to inaccurate statements by both the left and the right. A Pinocchio is the symbol of a graduated scale of honesty, with four Pinocchios being a blazing liar. Palin has earned four. To read her more egregious statements, and the facts which belie them, check out the report here.

I noted with amusement that an entry in the satirical Borowitz Report listed a series of statements attributed to Palin which, though they were indeed satire, were also credible as things Palin might actually have said. Through the looking glass ....

Finally, in Palin/Bachman: Separated at Brain, David Phillips compares the surreal claims of Palin to her rival for Tea Party ascendancy, Representative Michele Bachman. As each strives to outdo the other in hijinks reminiscent of the Three Stooges (minus one), Phillips offers a reality check which must be sobering for conservatives everywhere -- "It's hard to imagine that mainstream Republicans are happy with these two. The Tea Party has become the base of the Republican Party, and you cannot win a Republican primary without your base. So, as a Republican you criticize either of these two at your peril.

"Perhaps the best that the GOP can hope for is that they start going after each other. Which is entirely conceivable. Both are camera and microphone hounds -- even if they require a controlled (see FOX) environment. When it comes to the leader of the soul of the Tea Party, I've got a pretty strong feeling that there can be only one.

"While both Palin and Bachmann are prone to extraordinary gaffes, they are not exactly the same. There is an underlying meanness in Palin which I have yet to see in Bachmann. A nastiness that underscores her nickname, "the Barracuda". Whereas Bachmann is a genuine whackadoodle. As one local politician (who shall remain nameless) confided in me, 'she really believes that the Martians are coming.'

"So this is the choice before the Tea Party, and to a degree the GOP as well. The Tea Party has to decide whom they like more, and the GOP has to decide who hurts them less. The crazy person who knows nothing, or the mean person who knows nothing.

"Because the truth is, neither of these messengers can be fixed. Both are guilty of profound levels of ignorance. Of which, there are two kinds -- the regular sort, and the willful sort. The first kind can be fixed. The second cannot. They don't have the first kind."

WEIGHT LOSS. As one who, over a period of several years lost 55 lb., this caught my attention. A Science Daily article report on a study comparing weight loss in two different environments -- "Participants in two weight-loss programs -- one involving traditional health club sessions and the other delivered online in a 3D virtual world -- lost similar amounts of weight and body fat, but the online contingent reported significantly greater gains in behaviors that could help them live healthier and happier lives." Wow. Check out the article to learn more.

D-DAY. On a much more sober note, today marks the 67th anniversary of the D-Day landings on the beaches of Normandy during World War II. Arguably the largest military operation is the history of warfare, D-Day also carried the highest risk. If the Allies had failed to establish a beachhead and subsequently drive Nazi Germany to defeat, genocidal totalitarianism would have become a much more global presence than it is today (and it does still exist, make no mistake). Here's a salute to the brave young men and women and their visionary leaders to took that risk, many by sacrificing their own lives. An image of the American cemetary and memorial at Normandy appears below.

ART / ADS / STRAY CATS

ART. In Art Is The Beauty of Imagination, cartoonist and playwright Jules Feiffer joins a panel discussion on art, and on how the artist gains access to the viewer's imagination, hosted by World Science Festival. The video is brief, the insights provocative.

ADS. On a decidedly less elevated plane, here are 25 Old-Timey Ads for Modern Products. I think my personal favorite may be number 25, only because I served in the Army Signal Corps. Spoiler alert -- political incorrectness abounds.

STRAY CATS. In a fascinating report, Researchers Track the Secret Lives of Feral and Free-Roaming House Cats. "The study used radio telemetry and a sophisticated activity-tracking device to capture the haunts and habits of dozens of owned and un-owned cats .... As expected, in most cases the un-owned cats had larger territories than the pet cats and were active throughout the year. But the size of some of the feral cats' home ranges surprised even the researchers. One of the feral cats, a mixed-breed male, had a home range of 547 hectares (1,351 acres), the largest range of those tracked (see map below).

"Like most of the feral cats, this lone ranger was seen in both urban and rural sites, from residential and campus lawns to agricultural fields, forests, and a restored prairie .... The owned cats had significantly smaller territories and stayed close to home. The mean home range for pet cats in the study was less than two hectares (4.9 acres) .... The overlap of feral and pet cat territories spells trouble for the cats, the environment, and potentially also for the cat owners .... Two of the leading causes of death were other cats and disease.

" .... Even though pet cats have relatively small ranges and are active only in short bursts, their impact on wildlife in the vicinity of their homes is likely much more intense than that of a feral cat that wanders over a larger territory. Unlike other feline predators, such as bobcats, that are native to the [habitat], domestic cats are invasive species that have a disproportionately damaging effect on wildlife -- either through predation or disease."

THE WHOOP-UP TRAIL

Greetings, Earthlings. I'm spending a long weekend in my home town in north central Montana. My visit coincides with the annual local celebration called Whoop-Up Trail Days, which features music, a parade (equestrians, old farm tractors, floats, marching bands), a rodeo, and general good times. Alas, my computer access is limited to the public library's wi-fi network, so this will be my only blog post for several days. Just in case you were wondering. If you were not wondering, shame on you.

I don't enjoy rodeos (cruelty to animals), but it's always nice to get back into the slower rhythms and friendly faces of the prairie. Thankfully both my parents are still alive, an added incentive to visit the town in which I did part of my growing up. Here's an additional link describing the origins of the Whoop-Up Trail, and its eponymous name. And with that, gentle readers, adios por ahora. See you on Sunday, or Monday at the latest. Cheers.

PLEASURE AND PAIN

Several recent studies shed new light on the biological processes associated with how we feel. Check out each one to see whether the results resonate with your experience.

Researchers at Columbia University have found that in our brains, there is an area of overlap which shows neural activity whether the pain we feel is physical or emotional. "The theory is that the parts of the brain that process social rejection developed by co-opting brain circuits responsible for physical pain .... social rejection and physical pain are similar not only in that they are distressing, they share a common representation in somatosensory brain systems as well." In short, heartache is more than just a figure of speech.

Another study by Andrea Kuszewski explains the neurochemical changes which take place when we are attracted to someone, and when we engage in sex. Of prime interest are the release of dopamine (linked to attraction, arousal, desire, and pleasure) and oxytocin (linked to attachment). "The dopamine-oxytocin (DO) combo is the reason why after having sex with someone, you suddenly feel more bonded to them emotionally." Well, most of us do.

At the University of British Columbia, a new study on sexual attractiveness discovered a significant gender difference in the relationship between emotions and attraction, specifically when it comes to .... smiles. "The study found that women were least attracted to smiling, happy men, preferring those who looked proud and powerful, or moody and ashamed. In contrast, male participants were most sexually attracted to women who looked happy, and least attracted to women who appeared proud and confident." (I guess I'm an outlier -- I find all three traits attractive.)

Lastly, for pure pleasure, take a peek at the images in Tiny People's Wonderful World of Food. The whimsy and creativity that went into this series of mini-tableaux are a delight.

EDUCATION EVOLVING

For some time I've been accumulating interesting articles on learning and the human brain. Today seems like a good opportunity to offer a grab bag to readers. Check out the summaries and investigate the links which pique your interest.

The Link Between Creativity and Eccentricity. We all know people who are weird but not necessarily creative. Yet many highly creative people are eccentric. What's the link? "Some of the biological vulnerabilities that predispose individuals to disorders are shared by some highly creative individuals. These individuals are more open -- thanks to latent inhibition, for instance -- to novel, creative ideas than folks whose mental filters do suppress scores of irrelevant information. However, they're protected from psychopathology by traits such as high IQ and increased working memory capacity." See the article for a more thorough explanation.

When should you teach children, and when should you let them explore? The upshot from one experiment -- when adults provide instruction prior to introducing children to a new toy or activity, the children spend less time playing than when they're allowed to discover the toyor activity's potential on their own. This makes intuitive sense to me. When I was very young, I had to invent my own games, and I believe my imagination is richer for the experience.

Which isn't to say that there is no place for adult guidance and inspiration. Witness Children Full of Life a video showing the bond of affection and enthusiasm between grade school students and their former home room teacher in Japan. The express intent of the class was to encourage a life of happiness, and to foster mutual support and affection between the students. A very touching narrative.

How the Internet is Revolutionizing Education shares a number of initiatives which incorporate online learning into traditional education, especially at the college level. Will access to the Internet replace a college degree? Unlikely. But it is becoming an essential tool to add further dimension to higher learning. Some class assignments are performed and submitted exclusively online. Much class content is available free on the Internet, without having to purchase expensive texts. And question-and-answer sessions conducted via Skype or email sidestep the limitations of traditional professors' office hours. None of which replaces the value of face-to-face, realtime interaction between instructors and students. Still, in a very different but still relevant context, Abraham Lincoln said, "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is pile high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion."

On a different note, Creationism in the Classroom: A Tragic State of Affairs describes the most recent skirmish between those who advocate teaching creationism in science classes, and those who advocate teaching only evolution. The article lays out the arguments for each side, with emphasis on why so many people feel threatened by (another way of saying "do not understand") evolution. Bottom line, in this observer's view, creationism is a religious belief, and should be taught in a religious venue. Evolution is a scientific principle, backed by many decades of rigorous research and irrefutable evidence, and should be taught in science classes. Any attempt to mingle the two detracts from both.

Project Implicit is an ongoing psychological study about the unstated assumptions and associations we all carry with us. You can click on the link for a demo, or to participate. Your results may well take you by surprise.

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not include a link to TED, an astonishing resource for learners of all ages. As Wikipedia describes, TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) is "a global set of conferences .... formed to disseminate 'ideas worth spreading'. The TED website offers live streaming of addresses on "an increasingly wide range of topics within the research and practice of science and culture." That's a lot of ground, so be careful -- you may become ensnared and spend hours exploring and learning. Here is a link to the TED homepage, and here is a link to a particular presentation on bioluminescence in nature. Have fun !!

GAMES / WOMEN IN ORCHESTRAS

GAMES. In her provocative new book Reality Is Broken, researcher and game designer Jane McGonigal presents a paradigm shift in our assumptions about what is possible in our lives -- at home, at work, in our relationships, shaping a better world. As she asks in the introduction, "Gamers want to know: Where, in the real world, is that gamer sense of being fully alive, focused, and engaged in every moment? Where are the bursts of exhilaration and creative game accomplishment? Where is the heart-expanding thrill of success and team victory? While gamers may experience these pleasures occasionally in their real lives, they experience them almost constantly when they're playing their favorite games.

"The real world just doesn't offer up as easily the carefully designed pleasures, the thrilling challenges, and the powerful social bonding afforded by virtual environments. Reality doesn't motivate us as effectively. Reality isn't engineered to maximize our potential. Reality wasn't designed from the bottom up to make us happy.

"And so, there is a growing perception in the gaming community: Reality, compared to games, is broken."

If you look upon games, especially online games, as mere escapism or a waste of time, think again. As psychologist Sonja Lyubomirksy said in her review of the book, "Reality Is Broken is the most eye-opening book I read this year. With awe-inspiring expertise, clarity of thought, and engrossing writing style, Jane McGonigal cleanly exploded every misconception I've ever had about games and gaming. If you thought that games are for kids, that games are squandered time, or that games are dangerously isolating, addictive, unproductive, and escapist, you are in for a giant surprise!"

McGonigal identifies four defining traits shared by the best games --

~ The goal is the specific outcome that players will work to achieve. It focuses their attention and continually orients ther participation throughout the game. The game provides players with a sense of purpose.

~ The rules place limitations on how players can achieve the goal. By removing or limiting the obvious ways of getting to the goal, the rules push players to explore previously uncharted possibility spaces. They unleash creativity and foster strategic thinking.

~ The feedback system tells players how close they are to achieving the goal. It can take the form of points, levels, a score, or a progress bar. Or, in its most basic form, the feedback system can be as simple as the players' knowledge of an objective outcome: "The games is over when ... " Real-time feedback serves as a promise that the goal is definitely achievable, and it provides motivation to keep on playing.

~ Finally, voluntary participation requires that everyone who is playing the game knowingly and willingly accepts the goals, the rules, and the feedback. Knowingness establishes common ground for multiple people to play together. And the freedom to enter or leave a game at will ensures that intentionally stressful and challenging work is experienced as safe and pleasurable activity.

Sprinkled throughout the book are fourteen Reality Fixes, concepts from gaming which are applicable to real life. For that is the ultimate message of Reality Is Broken -- not that we should seek to escape from the drudgery of work or an unfulfilling personal life, but rather that we can improve our work, enrich our personal lives, and ultimately (in multi-participant mode) we can better the world by applying those qualities which make gaming so successful and appealing. Consider: In the United States alone, there are 183 million active gamers (individuals who play computer or video games an average of thirteen hours a week). Globally, the online gamer community counts more than three times this number, as a conservative estimate. This is a wealth of talent, commitment, and imagination begging to be tapped. A few forward-thinking research, humanitarian, and conservation groups are doing just that, through well-designed massive multiplayer games (MMGs) which serve the needs of humans and nature, as McGonegal documents. When we feel that we have a stake in a work or a community project, when we are engaged by being shown not only our small part but also the larger goal, and when our ideas are sought out for achieving those goals, we become more than cogs in the machine. We design, own, and enjoy our participation in life. What could be finer?

ORCHESTRAS. In his 2005 book Blink, prolific writer Malcolm Gladwell examines our ability to gauge what is really important from a very narrow period of experience, a process he calls "thin-slicing". Gladwell explores a range of situations in which we make snap judgments, and clarifies the unconscious mental processes at work. In a previous post I made oblique reference to the precepts in Blink in the context of police work. In parting tribute, I'd like to quote another passage, this one set in another realm entirely.

"The world of classical music -- particularly in its European home -- was until very recently the preserve of white men. Women, it was believed, simply could not play like men. They didn't have the strength, the attitude, or the resilience for certain kinds of pieces. Their lips were different. Their lungs were less powerful. Their hands were smaller. That did not seem like a prejudice. It seemed like a fact, because when conductors and music directors and maestros held auditions, the men always seemed to sound better than women. No one paid much attention to how auditions were held, because it was an article of faith that one of the things that made a music expert a music expert was that he could listen to music played under any circumstances and gauge, instantly and objectively, the quality of the performance. Auditions for major orchestras were sometimes held in the conductor's dressing room, or in his hotel room if he was passing through town. Performers played for five minute or two minutes or ten minutes. What did it matter? Music was music. Rainier Kuchl, the concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic, once said he could instantly tell the difference with his eyes closed between, say, a male and a female violinist. The trained ear, he believed, could pick up the softness and flexibility of the female style.

"But over the past few decades, the classical music world has undergone a revolution. In the United States, orchestra musicians began to organize themselves politically. They formed a union and fought for proper contracts, health benefits, and protections against arbitrary firing, and along with that came a push for fairness in hiring. Many musicians thought that conductors were abusing their power and playing favorites. They wanted the audition process to be formalized. That meant an official audition committee was established instead of a conductor making the decision all by himself. In some places, rules were put in place forbidding the judges from speaking among themselves during auditions, so that one person's opinion would not cloud the view of another. Musicians were identified not by name but by number. Screens were erected between the committee and the auditioner .... And as these new rules were put in place around the country, an extraordinary thing happened: orchestras began to hire women.

"In the past thirty years, since screens became commonplace, the number of women in the top U.S. orchestras has increased fivefold .... What the classical music world realized was that what they had thought was a pure and powerful first impression -- listening to someone play -- was in fact hopelessly corrupted .... In Washington, DC, the National Symphony Orchestra hired Sylvia Alimena to play the French horn. Would she have been hired before the advent of screens? Of course not. The French horn, like the trombone, is a 'male' instrument. More to the point, Alimena is tiny. She's five feet tall. In truth, that's an irrelevant fact. As another prominent horn player says, 'Sylvia can blow a house down.' But if you were to look at her before you really listened to her, you would not be able to hear that power, because what you saw would so contradict what you heard. There is only one way to make a proper snap judgment of Sylvia Alimena, and that's from behind a screen. (Pictured below is Sarah Willis, who plays French horn with the Berlin Philharmonic.)

"Before the advent of blind auditions, the percentage of women in major symphony orchestras in the United States was less than 5 percent. Today it's closer to 50 percent."

The thrust of Blink is not to suggest that all snap decisions are misleading. Rather, the book explores the processes going on in our brains, as well as our cultural assumptions, to guide us in deciding when "thin slicing" is adaptive, and when it is not. It is an invaluable distinction.

MEMORIAL DAY / MILITARY WOMEN

MEMORIAL DAY. This is one of two days each year (the other being Veterans Day) which finds me reflecting on my time in the military, and on war, and on memories both painful and poignant. Memorial Day has become a time of retail sales, car races, barbeques, and fireworks .... all of which miss the point. The crass commercialization of our holidays leaves me sad. It is a time to honor those of all generations who died in military service to the nation. It is a time to recall that not all casualties are marked by a gravestone. War inflicts a terrible cost in lives lost, innocence lost, sometimes sanity lost. Only those who've been through it understand fully the language of conflict and grief. That does not excuse the rest of us from reaching out to express our gratitude. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times someone has told me "thank you" in the 42 years since I came home from Vietnam .... and still have fingers left over. Most of our society has learned from that particular war, and now honors returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. Which does not ease those veterans' burdens entirely, but it's a step in the right direction.

MILITARY WOMEN. Serendipitously, today's Washington Post features an evocative article, Five Myths About Women In Combat. The piece is by Jane Blair, a Marine officer and veteran of the Iraq War. Written with authority and credibility, her views closely parallel my own when it comes to placing gender restrictions on military service. Here are the myths which she addresses --

1. Women are too emotionally fragile for combat.

2. Women are too physically weak for the battlefield.

3. The presence of women causes sexual tension in training and battle.

4. Male troops will become distracted from their missions in order to protect female comrades.

5. Women can't lead men in combat effectively.

Blair does an excellent job of discrediting those myths, and documenting her assertions. Click on the link to learn more.

NASA / UNIVERSE MAP / WORLD PROGRESS

NASA. In a surprise announcement, the U.S. space agency NASA revealed that our presence in space won't end with the last space shuttle launch in June. Rather, after decades of treading water in near-Earth orbit, the agency will once again focus on manned exploration of deep space using four-person crews aboard MPCVs (Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicles - click on image to enlarge) on missions lasting up to 21 days. Since it can dock with the International Space Station, it will be capable of multiple missions without having to splash down and re-launch for each mission. The MPCV is a stepping stone toward reclaiming the grand vision first voiced by President John Kennedy in 1961 -- the manned exploration of the moon, the solar system, and hopefully beyond.

It's about time. NASA continues to be woefully underfunded compared to the massive hemorrhaging of federal funds used to support Wall Street, oil wars, and tax breaks for the wealthy in this country. Our priorities require a thorough reorganization, from the ground up.

UNIVERSE MAP. Here's one of those gee-whiz curiosities -- the most complete 3D map of the universe to date. In the 2D version seen below, distance is color-coded, with purple dots indicating nearby galaxies, and red dots indicating more distant galaxies. The text at the link explains how this imagery can be used to better understand the motion of our own Milky Way galaxy (whose presence partially blocks our view of the universe, explaining the apparent dark band across the middle of the image).

WORLD PROGRESS. Finally, check out this link to an impressive computer-generated visualization of how the world's nations have shifted in human lifespan and income during the past 200 years. The narration and graphics are fascinating, and at first blush, one gets the impression that prospects for the human race are pretty good. But the data are over-simplified, and do not take into account the rapidly increasing gap between the wealthy few and the poorer many (whether individuals or nations). Still, it is a fun exercise to watch.

SWAT -- OUT OF CONTROL

At about 9 A.M. on May 5, 2011, a Pima County (AZ) Regional SWAT team approached the Tucson home of Jose Guerina, 26, a Marine veteran who had served two tours in Iraq. Guerina and two other men were allegedly suspects in a drug investigation. The original news report revealed conflicting perceptions of what transpired next. Guerina's wife said that there were no sirens or "police" callouts, and that they feared a home invasion was about to happen. Guerina told his wife and son to hide in a closet, and picked up an AR-15 to defend his home. The officers burst open the door, then fired 71 shots in seven seconds, fatally wounding Guerina. His wife pleaded with officers to call for medical assistance, but by the time paramedics were allowed by officers to approach Guerina 45 minutes later, he had died of his wounds. The wife said there were no drugs in the house, and subsequent examination of Guerina's weapon revealed that he had not fired a single shot.

SWAT officers, on the other hand, insisted that they sounded their siren upon approach, and called out "police" in both English and Spanish repeatedly. One officer said he heard Guerina say "I've got something for you," and saw Guerina crouched down pointing a weapon at them. The officers in the doorway (none entered the house until after the shooting) opened fire.

A more recent news report fills in a few blanks, but raised more questions about law enforcement conduct that day. The Pima County Sheriff's Office released over 500 pages of officers' statements, evidence lists, and witness interviews, as well as audio tapes and a short video tape of the event. The video shows the SWAT vehicle approach to the house, and a brief siren blast and unintelligible voices are heard. The team of officers appears to gather uncertainly at the front door, not unlike teenage boys at a school dance. After a few seconds the door is forcibly opened, then after a short pause the officer unleash a barrage of gunfire into the home.

According to the attorney for the five officers who did the shooting, "all those officers were separated immediately after the shooting so they could be interviewed and provide objective statements of what happened." Yet the audio tapes reveal that the SWAT officers were still together 45 minutes after the shooting, discussing what had happened. Several officers said they never heard Guerina say anything, but the lead officer insisted he'd heard "I got something for you, or something."

Other taped comments which raise red flags include "I just started boom, boom, boom", and "Yeah, we were all out of ammo when we got back."

In his book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Malcolm Gladwell draws on psychology and behavioral research to describe mental processes which work rapidly and automatically from relatively little information. In one section of the book he talks at length about police training, and about events in which police officers have shown both appropriate and out-of-control responses. "In interviews with police officers who have been involved with shootings, these same details appear again and again -- extreme visual clarity, tunnel vision, diminished sound, and the sense that time is slowing down. This is how the human body reacts to extreme stress, and it makes sense. Our mind, faced, with a life-threatening situation, drastically limits the range and amount of information that we have to deal with.

" .... the optimal range of 'arousal' -- the range in which stress improves performance -- is when our heart rate is between 115 and 145 beats per minute .... very few people perform in that optimum range. Most of us, under pressure, get too aroused, and past a certain point, our bodies begin shutting down so many sources of information that we start to become useless. After 145, bad things begin to happen. Complex motor skills start to break down. Doing something with one hand and not the other becomes very difficult .... At 175, we begin to see an absolute breakdown of cognitive processing .... The forebrain shuts down, and the mid-brain -- the part of your brain that is the same as your dog's -- reaches up and hijacks the forebrain .... Vision becomes even more restricted. Behavior becomes inappropriately aggressive .... Arousal leaves us mind-blind.

"When we make a split-second decision, we are really vulnerable to being guided by our stereotypes and prejudices, even ones we may not necessarily endorse or believe .... For this very reason, many police departments have moved, in recent years, toward one-officer squad cars instead of two-. That may sound like a bad idea, because surely having two officers work together makes more sense. Can't they provide backup for each other? Can't they more easily deal with problematic situations? The answer in both cases is no. An officer with a partner is no safer than an officer on his own. Just as important, two-officer teams are more likely to have complaints filed against them. With two officers, encounters with citizens are far more likely to end in an arrest or a charge of assaulting a police officer. Why? Because when police officers are by themselves, they slow things down, and when they are with someone else, they speed things up. All cops want two-man cars. You have a buddy, someone to talk to. But one-man cars get into less trouble because you reduce bravado. A cop by himself makes an approach that is entirely different. He is not as prone to ambush. He doesn't charge in. He says, 'I'm going to wait for the other cops to arrive.' He acts more kindly. He allows more time."

Does Gladwell's analysis mean that SWAT teams should be abolished? No. There are situations in which a SWAT presence is legitimate. But it does suggest that in the SWAT environment, heightened adrenaline flow combined with the presence of half a dozen or more fellow officers in the same elevated state increases the risk of acting irrationally, aggressively, and often fatally. Repeated training lessens, but does not eliminate, this risk. In Tucson, I submit, events spun out of control. Five officers fired 71 shots in seven seconds, killing a man who appears to have been simply defending his home and family. The subsequent conflicting accounts of what happened reinforce this view, and may even point to a police coverup to avoid culpability.

I do not fault individual officers -- theirs is an inherently dangerous and often thankless task. But I do fault the system in which they operate, a system which maximizes the chance that police officers will fall into a precipitous war mentality, when other, less violent means might still get the job done.

MLADIC ARRESTED / SUICIDE KITS

MLADIC ARRESTED. Former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, who is charged with "orchestrating the largest mass killings of civilians in Europe since World War II'', has been detained by the Serbian Security Intelligence Agency. Mladic was first indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal in 1995, and will be extradited to the UN War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. He has been a fugitive in the intervening years, hidden by Serb militant supporters. A Washington Post article describes the arrest.

Mladic was one of a triumvirate of Serb leaders who ordered or participated in genocide, and the last to be apprehended by authorities. He is pictured above, at right, beside former Serb politician Radovan Karadzic, who remains in custody. The third war criminal, former Serb President Slobadan Milosevic, died in his cell in 2006 before his trial could be completed. All three men were Serb leaders during the bloody and vicious Bosnian Civil War which raged between 1992 and 1995, after the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. The multiethnic region was inhabited chiefly by Muslims, Orthodox Serbs, and Catholic Croats. It was during this conflict that the term "ethnic cleansing" first entered public awareness, as a polite euphemism for genocide.

According the the Washington Post, the arrest of Mladic has been hailed by "Western governments and human rights activists as a landmark in international justice. They said it would send an unmistakeable message to other leaders -- including Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and Libya's Moammar Ghaddafi, two leaders charged with mass atrocities by the International Criminal Court -- that they will ultimately be held accountable." Time will tell. Too many national and revolutionary leaders have literally gotten away with murder over the years, by virtue of their international political alliances or the natural resources they control.

SUICIDE KITS. A NYTimes article describes a rekindled "debate over the ethical and legal implications of what it means to assist a suicide." The context is the online purchase of helium hood kits (see image below) by those who feel that their lives are too painful or troubled to want to continue living. Assisted suicide is legal in the states of Oregon, Montana, and Washington, so long as the patient requesting it is of sound mind, and suffers from a terminal illness.

It is a vexing issue on many levels. How do you tell the loving relatives of someone who has been in a coma for years, with no prognosis for recovery, not to pull the plug and end the emotional and financial misery? For those with severe Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, terminal cancer, AIDS, and other debilitating conditions, death would be a release from suffering. Yet our society has strict laws and stricter ethical standards when it comes to ending the life of another, for whatever reason. Most of us internalize those standards, and so face a wrenching dilemma when a loved one is living in misery, with no end in sight.

There are no easy, one-size-fits-all answers. We each must come to our own resolution. Yet there ought to be a national standard for assisted suicide, so that individual states (and individual families) do not bear the brunt of the decision. The laws in Oregon, Montana, and Washington strike me as a humane, balanced approach. Each of us is entitled to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Should we not also be entitled to decide when to end our lives, humanely and free of pain?

RETHUGLICANS

A news report surfaced over the weekend which is profoundly disburbing -- so disturbing that it merits an extended quote here.

"Amy Myers is a pretty, 16-year-old Cherry Hill High School East sophomore and an aspiring veterinarian. She is a critic of Minnesota Congresswoman [and 2012 presidential hopeful, image above] Michele Bachmann. Amy is also concerned for her personal safety.

"She wrote a letter to Bachmann dated April 29. Together with her father, she posted it to CNN's iReport on May 6. It didn't take long for news outlets to pick up the story. In it, she criticized the Tea Party caucus leader. She challenged Bachmann to a constitutional debate, [stating] 'I have found quite a few of your statements regarding the Constitution of the United States, the quality of public school education and general U.S. civics matters to be factually incorrect, inaccurately applied, or grossly distorted.'

"In fact, many liberals and progressives have questioned the educational background of women like Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. How do you get through high school not knowing the things that they don't know? Where do the weird and bizarre notions they hold originate? Perhaps it is not so much our educational system as some people (Palin, Bachmann, O'Donnell, Angle, et al) not paying attention in class.

"Myers also addressed Bachmann's obligations and responsibilities as a woman -- 'As one of a handful of women in Congress, you hold a distinct privilege and responsibility to better represent your gender nationally. The statements you make help to serve an injustice to not only the position of Congresswoman, but women everywhere.'

"The reaction to Myers' letter has been nothing short of terrifying. 'A lot of them are calling me a whore' .... Amy and her father said the comments from conservative websites alarmed them most. Some commenters threatened to publish her home address. Others threatened violence. Some threatened rape .... because she challenged the Tea Party goddess

" .... The Tea Party has made much of 'strong' women like Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. The narrative is that any opposition to the gross factual distortions and dishonesty of these women is founded on jealousy or misogyny or that those critics are threatened by strong women .... But the anti-American Tea Party is also anti-woman, and they don't want any women, including feisty 16-year-olds, to bust the formulaic requirements of ideology over fact, ignorance over education, and dishonesty over honesty. The Tea Party message is clear: there is no future for women who do not agree to sell their soul.

" .... [Criticism of elected officials] is not a crime. Violence and rape are. Ignorance of the U.S. Constitution by elected officials ought to be."

I recall on May 4, 1970, when I first heard the news of the murder of Kent State students by the Ohio National Guard, thinking, "My god, we're killing our children." Malicious conservative brutality is still with us, when a young girl is threatened with violence and rape for exercising her right to free speech. What are they so desperately afraid of?

And how do they get away with such blatant hypocrisy, on so many levels? Witness another news report which points out one of many instances of legislative extortion on Capitol Hill -- "After pushing the government to the brink of shutdown, Republican Congressional leaders are now preparing to push America to the edge of default by refusing to increase the nation's debt limit without first getting Democrats to concede to large spending cuts. But while the four Republicans in Congressional leadership positions are attempting to hold the increase hostage now, they combined to vote for a debt increase 19 times during the presidency of George W. Bush. In doing so, they increased the debt limit by nearly $4 trillion."

The party of alleged fiscal conservatism actually is the party of gross fiscal mismanagement. Democratic President Bill Clinton left office with the nation enjoying a budget surplus. Republican George W. Bush quickly turned that into a monumental debt, mostly through tax breaks for the wealthy and through shady dealings with Wall Street bankers, big oil, and through war-mongering.

Let's examine the contrast between the two parties through a different lens. Here is a table showing the gross U.S. debt since World War II, broken down by the president in office. Notice in particular column 1 (the president), column 2 (party affiliation), and column 7 (the increase or decrease in our national debt as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product, or GDP). Consistently, during Democratic administrations, our national debt leveled off or decreased. During Republican administrations, our national debt increased. (See chart below -- the pink portions of the timeline depict Republican presidencies, the blue portions Democrats.)

There is a simple reason -- government exists to serve the people, through social services, infrastructure, consumer protection, environmental protection, and national defense. These services cost money, which we pay for in taxes. Republicans seek to reduce spending which benefits the people, while allowing the wealthy to escape their fair tax contribution toward supporting the government. So who shoulders the financial burden, while receiving fewer services? The 95% of us who are not wealthy. But since the non-wealthy cannot afford as large a contribution, the national debt increases.

Democrats, on the other hand, seek to hold the wealthy accountable, while providing the non-wealthy with the services to which they are entitled. The national debt decreases.

It appears that Tea Party members aren't the only ones who slept through government and civics classes.

O'BAMA'S IRISH ROOTS / BRAIN MYTHS

O'BAMA'S IRISH ROOTS. I've kidded around about the similar sound between our president's surname and a typical Irish name, but it turns out that Barack Obama does indeed have ancestral ties in Ireland. It's true that the president's surname comes from his Kenyan father, and that when spoken aloud, it sounds like a typically Irish name. But it's also true, as reported by Reuters, that Barack Obama can trace part of his ancestry to the tiny Irish village of Moneygall, which lies in both County Offaly and County Tipperary, south west of Dublin. As part of his tour of Europe, Obama visited Ireland, where he was grandly treated like a long-lost son. Not since John F. Kennedy has an American president been so welcomed in Ireland, whose current economic struggles Obama addressed directly. He even offered the signature phrase from his 2008 presidential campaign, translated to Gaelic -- "This little country that inspires the biggest things -- your best days are still ahead. And Ireland, if anyone ever says otherwise, remember that whatever hardships winter may bring, springtime is always just around the corner. And if they keep on arguing with you, just respond with a simple creed, 'Is feider linn' (Yes we can)."

The president is a popular figure in Ireland, and rightfully so.

BRAIN MYTHS. Thanks to Andea Kuszewski for posting this link from Smithsonian.com, Top Ten Myths About The Brain. I'll provide a few teaser statements, and you can click on the article to read more about those that pique your interest.

1. We use only 10 percent of our brains.

2. "Flashbulb memories" are precise, detailed, and persistent.

3. It's all downhill after 40 (or 50, or 60, or 70).

4. We have five senses.

5. Brains are like computers.

6. The brain is hard-wired.

7. A conk on the head can cause amnesia.

8. We know what will make us happy.

9. We see the world as it is.

10. Men are from Mars, women are from Venus.

BONUS FEATURE. I came across a wonderful video posted in Roger Ebert's Journal at the Chicago Sun-Times. In it, a young black woman delivers an impassioned and contentious response to pop singer Beyonce's song "Girls Who Run The World". As Ebert notes, this young woman has clarity and conviction .... and as I note, we need many more like her.