The Human Element

The Dow Chemical company has been running TV image ads for years on the human element. About a month ago, they were rescripted with this (audio here):

We have only to look into each other's eyes to see the story of our planet. A few simple truths -- the way hydrogen bonds with oxygen, the cadence and order of things -- have lived there from the beginning. But if we move a little to the left, change perspective, and consider the notion of adding the human element to the periodic table of the elements, we see the world for the first time. And it is world which responds to touch. We worked the new chemistry element by element, and in turn we learn the secret to a better life; the story of a planet where chemistry embraces humanity.

At first I thought that it was some sort of left-wing Obama propaganda.

Apparently people must have complained, because Dow Chemical has dropped "move a little to the left" from the script. It still shows a dark-skinned person turning a huge mask to the left, but leaves in a gap in the audio at that point. It also omits the line about seeing the world for the first time, and responding to touch.

I am really surprised that no one has commented on this. The ads are very well done, but I can do without the leftist propaganda.

Dow Chemical is also running a similar ad that says this:

For as long as there was memory, the world was seen as man against the elements. That carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen are the very same elements from which we are made. They are the bond btween us all. And when our view of the world includes the human element, chemistry is suddenly found on the same page with humanity, and climate change relinquishes to change more fundamental.

It still sounds like leftist propaganda to me.

All Americans could be getting fat

Research news:

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - If the trends of the past three decades continue, it's possible that every American adult could be overweight 40 years from now, a government-funded study projects.

The figure might sound alarming, or impossible, but researchers say that even if the actual rate never reaches the 100-percent mark, any upward movement is worrying; two-thirds of the population is already overweight. ...

Already, she and her colleagues point out, some groups of U.S. adults have extremely high rates of overweight and obesity; among African- American women, for instance, 78 percent are currently overweight or obese.

The new projections, published in the journal Obesity, are based on government survey data collected between the 1970s and 2004.

If the trends of those years continue, the researchers estimate that 86 percent of American adults will be overweight by 2030, with an obesity rate of 51 percent. By 2048, all U.S. adults could be at least mildly overweight.

Weight problems will be most acute among African-Americans and Mexican- Americans, the study projects. All black women could be overweight by 2034, according to the researchers, as could more than 90 percent of Mexican-American men.

This could spell the end of our civilization.

Watch out for lesbian assumptions

The Santa Cruz Sentinel newspaper reports:

SANTA CRUZ - In the days prior to her suicide, late-UC Santa Cruz Chancellor Denice Denton was making plans to move to Texas where her mother and three siblings live.

Denton also hadn't lived with her partner, Gretchen Kalonji, since the couple moved from Washington state to Santa Cruz in 2005 and their relationship was "tumultuous," according to Denton's mother, Carolyn Mabee.

Mabee, the executor of Denton's estate, made the statements in court documents filed last week in preparation for a hearing Monday about the $2.25 million lawsuit Kalonji filed against the estate in January 2007.

Denton left nothing to Kalonji, who was her partner for more than a decade, according to legal documents.

Kalonji has stated in court documents that she did her best to support Denton in the months leading up to her suicide. Denton died after she jumped from Kalonji's high-rise San Francisco condo on June 24, 2006. ...

Kalonji, who was hired by the UC Office of the President when Denton was named chancellor, claims the couple had made oral agreements to care for the other should something happen to one of them, however, Denton's will, signed in 1985 before she met Kalonji, left most of her assets to her three siblings.

"Assuming such agreement or agreements existed, neither Denice nor Kalonji did anything to implement it or them," Mabee stated in a court document signed July 23. "Kalonji never made Denice the beneficiary of any life insurance or retirements benefits, nor made her the beneficiary of any will or trust."

According to Kalonji, it was assumed the women would care for one another. ...

The couple did not register as domestic partners when they moved to California.

Denton got UCSC to give Kalonji a cushy $200k job. That should be enough for her. They did not even live together or have sexual relations. Kalonji's claim has no merit, but Denton's estate will have to pay $250k to fight the case in court. UCSC never should have had an affirmative action program for crazy lesbians in the first place.

Cohabitation not necessarily a divorce risk

USA Today reports:

Teachman's analysis of federal data on 6,577 women whose first marriages occurred between 1970 and 1995 found that a woman who has lived only with her future spouse has no greater risk of divorce. But for women who lived with someone else in addition to the eventual husband, there is a greater risk of divorce, found the study, published in 2003.

Those aren't the only studies reflecting changes — researchers across the country, including at the University of Wisconsin, the University of Minnesota, Pennsylvania State University, Cornell University and others, are studying cohabiting couples. Among other recent findings:

• The odds of divorce among women who married their only cohabiting partner were 28% lower than among women who never cohabited before marriage, according to sociologist Daniel Lichter of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

• Divorce rates for those who cohabit more than once are more than twice as high as for women who cohabited only with their eventual husbands, says Lichter's study, to be published in the Journal of Marriage and Family in December.

I have heard Michael Medved and others say that cohabitation before marriage increases the risk of divorce. Apparently there are big differences among female cohabitators.

Fast food ban

LA news:

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Los Angeles City Council has approved a one-year moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in a low-income area of the city. The moratorium unanimously approved Tuesday is a bid to attract restaurants that offer healthier food choices to residents in a 32-square-mile area of South Los Angeles. Councilwoman Jan Perry says residents at five public meetings expressed concern with the proliferation of fast-food outlets in a community plagued by above-average rates of obesity. Nearly three-quarters of the restaurants in South L.A. serve fast food. That’s a higher percentage than other parts of the city but the restaurant industry says the moratorium won’t help bring in alternatives.

This will not reduce obesity.

Ballot description changed

California is going to have this Proposition 8 on the Nov. ballot:

Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.

It was scheduled to have this official ballot description:

Amends the California Constitution to provide that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: The measure would have no fiscal effect on state or local governments. This is because there would be no change to the manner in which marriages are currently recognized by the state.

Now AG Jerry Brown wants to change it to this:

Changes California Constitution to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry. Provides that oOnly marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California. Fiscal Impact: Over the next few years, potential revenue loss, mainly sales taxes, totaling in the several tens of millions of dollars, to state and local governments. In the long run, likely little fiscal impact on state and local governments.

The LA Times reports:

Gareth Lacy, a spokesman for the attorney general, denied that there was any political motivation for the move.

Instead, he said, the change was necessary because of the dramatic turn of events that have taken place since the petitions were circulated: namely that the California Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage and thousands of gay couples have since wed.

Of course it is political. The new description makes it sound like the California Constitution had a clause saying that same-sex couples had a right to marry. In fact Prop. 8 just affirms the existing law, before the California Supreme Court meddled with it in May.

Prop. 8 will not affect the ability of same-sex couples to form domestic partnerships and file joint state tax returns, adopt children, and enjoy the other state benefits of marriage. It only affects whether the partnership will be called "marriage" by the state.

Larry Summers was wrong, or maybe right

Janet Shibley Hyde claims that boys and girls are just the same in almost everything, and published some research on math test scores. As a statistician blogger points out, the NY Times reported this as disproving Larry Summers, and the Wall Street Journal said that it confirmed what Summers said.

Update: Heather Mac Donald makes similar points.

Hitler did not snub Jesse Owens

The lead story on Page 1 of the San Jose Mercury News says:

John Lysak, the Bay Area's oldest former U.S. Olympic athlete, ... you can shake the affable 93-year-old hand that once shook the hand of Jesse Owens - unlike, say, the hand of Adolf Hitler, who snubbed Owens, the great American sprinter. It happened at the 1936 Games in Berlin.

Hey, you can read about it in the history books. Or you can talk to Lysak, who was there in the stadium. He was taking a break from his kayak competition to watch some track and field.

"I saw it happen," Lysak said of the infamous Olympic moment.

Hitler walked down from his seat to participate in the ceremony after Owens had won the first of his four gold medals. But after Hitler warmly greeted the German athletes, he ignored the African-American who was the finest runner on the planet.

"Afterward," Lysak said, "I ended up on the same ship back to the United States as Owens. I asked him about it. He told me that the snub didn't hurt his feelings because as a black man, that kind of thing had been going on his whole life. He'd gotten used to it."

The story is false. Adolf Hitler shook a few hands on the first day of track and field competition, and none after that, at the request of Olympic officials. Owens won his first medal on the second day, and was treated as warmly as any other athelete. You can read about it here or many other places.

About a week ago, the newspaper announced on Page 1 that Microsoft was definitely going to take over Yahoo. The paper needs some fact checkers.

Save the males

A UK paper reports:

American author Kathleen Parker's courageous thesis is that initially, through extreme feminism, then via its craven implementation into society, women have demonised men and trivialised their contribution, especially to family life. ...

She argues: 'As long as men feel marginalised by the women whose favour and approval they seek, as long as they are alienated from their children and treated as criminals by family courts, as long as they are disrespected by a culture that no longer values masculinity tied to honour, as long as boys are bereft of strong fathers and our young men and women wage sexual war, then we risk cultural suicide.'

It's enough to set a feminist's hair on end.

UK schools ban cheese

A UK newspaper reports:

Schools in Plymouth banned from putting cheese on jacket potatoes

Thousands of schoolchildren were yesterday stopped from eating cheese on jacket potatoes for lunch.

Education chiefs ordered all 17 primary school canteens in Plymouth not to put the topping on baked spuds in a bid to improve pupil health.

The city council claimed it had been forced into the ban in an bid to meet new Government nutrition standards.

Cheese is one of the healthiest foods you can eat. I don't know what they are trying to do.

Local eccentrics

The local paper reports:

Walking in the buff down Pacific Avenue

SANTA CRUZ -- Fresh off a flight from North Carolina, Gwen Baine and her family were enjoying the warm Santa Cruz sun Wednesday afternoon when she couldn't believe what she was seeing -- a woman sauntering down Pacific Avenue wearing nothing but a smile. ...

The woman, who appeared to be in her mid-30s and may have been wearing a wig, walked very "ladylike" past Kianti's outdoor patio where Baine's granddaughter Sophie said, "Oh my goodness that woman doesn't have any clothes on." ...

But Santa Cruz police spokesman Zach Friend said, "If we gave a citation for every one of Santa Cruz's idiosyncrasies, we'd be swimming in an ocean of citations."

I'd like to say that the locals here are very tolerant, but they are not. More later.

Female preacher wants same-sex marriage

The letter to the San Jose paper complains about the California ballot initiative to restore the definition of marriage to being between a man and a woman:

Proposition 8 would deny the civil freedom to marry to many of our residents. I can speak for many local clergy, who have done extensive research into the biblical witness and know that the Bible does not even address our current situation: same-gender adults who freely choose a lifelong commitment to love and care for each other. Jesus says nothing about these relationships, but he certainly does support fidelity. I think most of us do. We should vote accordingly.

Rev. Margo Tenold
Co-director Council of Churches of Santa Clara County

No, that is not the current situation. California marriage is not a lifelong commitment; either party can bail out unilaterally. Maybe Jesus supported fidelity, but California law does not. Adultery is entirely legal in California, and the same-sex marriage debate won't change that. It would be nice if the same-sex marriage nuts would actually address the current ballot situation.

Embarrassing to women and rappers

The LA Times reports:

Social stigma drives some women to remove tattoos

Tattoo It appears sexism is alive and well when it comes to tattoos. Although just about as many women as men get tattoos nowadays, a new study shows that women seek removal of tattoos more than men because of negative social fallout.

About 25% of people ages 18 to 30 have tattoos, and that number is expected to rise to about 40% in the next few years, according to the study, published today in the Archives of Dermatology. Previous studies have shown that about 20% of people end up dissatisfied with their tattoos, and about 6% seek tattoo removal using laser treatment. ...

But in the 2006 survey, women also reported that they felt stigmatized by the tattoos. For example, 93% said having to hide the tattoos on occasion was a factor in the removal compared with 20% of men. About 40% of women endured negative comments at work, in public or in school compared with 5% of men.

Gosh, who would have guessed?

Meanwhile, rapper Rick Ross is embarrassed by just the opposite. Despite his denials, it has not been proved that he once worked in law enforcement.

Frustrated parents have to teach math to their kids

CNN reports:

NEW YORK (AP) -- On an occasional evening at the kitchen table in Brooklyn, New York, Victoria Morey has been known to sit down with her 9-year-old son and do something she's not supposed to.

"I am a rebel," confessed this mother of two.

And just what is this subversive act in which Morey engages -- with a child, yet?

Long division.

The schools are unlikely to teach math properly to your kids.

Psycho drug cartoon

Healthy to add fat to diet

Yet another study shows that a high-fat diet is better than a low-fat diet:

The Atkins diet may have proved itself after all: A low-carb diet and a Mediterranean-style regimen helped people lose more weight than a traditional low-fat diet in one of the longest and largest studies to compare the dueling weight-loss techniques.

A bigger surprise: The low-carb diet improved cholesterol more than the other two. Some critics had predicted the opposite.

There are many studies like this. Physicians who say that fat is bad for you just don't know what they are talking about.

Here is another:

ScienceDaily (July 20, 2008) — Scientists have long been puzzled by how the Masai can avoid cardiovascular disease despite having a diet rich in animal fats. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet believe that their secret is in their regular walking.

There is strong evidence that the high consumption of animal fats increases the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Many scientists have therefore been surprised that the nomadic Masai of Kenya and Tanzania are seldom afflicted by the disease, despite having a diet that is rich in animal fats and deficient in carbohydrates.

Maybe the Masai have more energy because they have healthier diets.

Update: Tierney and Taubes at the NY Times point out that this study showed that eating a lot of saturated fat leads to better cholesterol profiles. Conventional medical wisdom says that saturated fat is unhealthy. It appears that physicians are wrong about saturated fat being harmful.

21 Reasons Why Gender Matters

Here is a good essay on the importance of fathers and mothers.

Global warming causes kidney stones

SciAm magazine reports:

Add kidney stones to the growing list of possible consequences of global warming. A new study warns that as many as 2.3 million more people may develop these mineral deposits in their kidneys by the year 2050 as the result of a warming world. The reason? There's a greater risk that they will be subject to dehydration in more sultry climes, which is believed to be a major contributor to stone formation, according to research published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.

They are really getting desperate to find scare stories about global warming. It is more likely that people will drink a little extra water, if they get too hot.

Study claims fat folks don't know they are fat

A BMJ study (criticized here) found that, among people with a BMI of 26, 60% said that they were overweight in 1999, but only 40% said so in 2007. The study concluded that millions of people were too stupid to know that they were fat. Official charts say that anyone with a BMI over 25 is overweight.

A 2005 JAMA study found that folks with a BMI of 27 live the longest. Maybe 20% of the population has wised up to current research, and it is the official BMI tables that are out of date.

Apes now have rights in Spain

The cartoonist is an animal rights freak who explains his beliefs:

I don't personally believe that cruelty to any species of animal is less immoral than cruelty to our fellow humans. To me, we are all the same in our desire to be pain free, happy, and alive. I don't believe this because I am vegan, I am vegan because I believe this.

Spain has just granted animal rights to great apes:

Ingrid Newkirk, a founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, considers Spain’s vote “a great start at breaking down the species barriers, under which humans are regarded as godlike and the rest of the animal kingdom, whether chimpanzees or clams, are treated like dirt.”

Other commentators are aghast. Scientists, for example, would like to keep using chimpanzees to study the AIDS virus, which is believed to have come from apes.

Mr. Singer responded by noting that humans are a better study model, and yet scientists don’t deliberately infect them with AIDS.

“They’d need to justify not doing that,” he said. “Why apes?”

Because apes are less valuable than humans, and the medical research could save a lot of human lives. This should be obvious.

Use it or lose it

Here is some obvious research. A new study in the American Journal of Medicine has thisabstract:

Regular Intercourse Protects Against Erectile Dysfunction: Tampere Aging Male Urologic Study

Background
Erectile dysfunction is common among men aged more than 60 years. Its cause involves both physiologic and psychosocial factors.

Methods
To evaluate the effects of coital frequency on subsequent risk of erectile dysfunction, data were analyzed from a population-based 5-year follow-up study that was conducted in Pirkanmaa, Finland, using postal questionnaires. ...

Results
The overall incidence of moderate or complete erectile dysfunction was 32 cases per 1000 person-years ... The risk of erectile dysfunction was inversely related to the frequency of intercourse. ...

Conclusion
Regular intercourse protects against the development of erectile dysfunction among men aged 55 to 75 years. This may have an impact on general health and quality of life; therefore, doctors should support patients' sexual activity.

You can also find the abstract here, and the full article here. It is not a joke.

The authors claim to have found a cause-and-effect relationship, and not just a correlation. That is, lack of intercourse causes ED, and not the other way around.

Maybe next someone will do research to show that people who do regular push-ups are less likely to lose the ability to do push-ups.

US Census Bureau won't count same-sex couples as being married

The lead story on Page 1 of the San Jose newspaper reports:

Tens of thousands of same-sex couples are expected to marry legally in California by 2010, if a constitutional ban on gay marriage doesn't pass at the polls in November.

But no matter what the voters decide, the official government count of the number of married same-sex couples in California is not in doubt. It will be zero. ...

Critics say the census plan will mask the records of legal, same-sex, married couples and therefore degrade the quality of the government's demographic data.

No, it is just true (in this context) that we'll have thousands of legally married same-sex couples. The California Supreme Court said that same-sex couples could register and call themselves married under California law, but everyone agrees that they will not be married under federal law or under the laws of nearly all the other states.

It is incorrect to call a couple "legally married" unless there is a marriage that is recognized under the applicable laws. In the USA, a California same-sex couple can have a marriage recognized under some laws, but not others. The US Census is doing the correct thing.

Pediatricians push more harmful guidelines

Here is another attempt to get your kids on drugs:

The nation’s pediatricians are recommending wider cholesterol screening for children and more aggressive use of cholesterol-lowering drugs starting as early as the age of 8 in hopes of preventing adult heart problems.

The advice is debunked here. The advice is bad for adults, and untested on kids.

Why German is less offensive than Spanish

Ruben Navarrette Jr. writes in a newspaper op-ed:

Twenty-three years ago, on the night I graduated from high school, one of my co-valedictorians wrote into his speech a single sentence welcoming his grandparents, who had traveled to the United States to attend the ceremony. The sentence was in his grandparents' native language.

The night before, at the eighth-grade graduation across town, a young girl, another valedictorian, did something similar. She included a single sentence thanking her parents - in their native language - for their support.

The line in the high school speech was in German; the one in the speech for the junior high school was in Spanish. Guess which speech caused a fuss?

I think that there is a big difference. No one is forcing anyone to learn German. Germans come to this country and learn English. They don't complain about they would have controlled part of the USA if only they had won the war.

The law requires my ballots to be printed in English and Spanish. The same law prohibits ballots being printed in German. Speaking Spanish is a threat to Americanism, and speaking German is not.

The right to say Yuck

UK news:

Toddlers who say "yuck" when given flavorful foreign food may be exhibiting racist behavior, a British government-sponsored organization says. The London-based National Children's Bureau released a 366-page guide counseling adults on recognizing racist behavior in young children, The Telegraph reported Monday.

The guide, titled Young Children and Racial Justice, warns adults that babies must also be included in the effort to eliminate racism because they have the ability to "recognize different people in their lives."The bureau says to be aware of children who "react negatively to a culinary tradition other than their own by saying "yuck".

We grown-ups also want the right to occasionally say "yuck".

Obama is embarrassed that Americans speak English

Here is Backtrack Obama, giving yet another reason why he is embarrassed to be an American:

You know, I don't understand when people are going around worrying about, "We need to have English- only." They want to pass a law, "We want English-only."

Now, I agree that immigrants should learn English. I agree with that. But understand this. Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English -- they'll learn English -- you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about, how can your child become bilingual? We should have every child speaking more than one language.

You know, it's embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe, and all we can say [is], "Merci beaucoup." Right?

You know, no, I'm serious about this.

I want a President who is not embarrassed to be an American. I also want one who will do something about the immigration problems, and not just tell me that my kids will need to learn Spanish.

Update: Another columnist addresses the issue.

Professor badmouths hot dogs

The San Jose Mercury News reports:

[Joey] Chestnut, who clocked in at 210 pounds before the contest, downplayed his win, which carries a $10,000 prize.

"I'm just a normal guy eating hot dogs on the Fourth," he said. "You can't overcomplicate it."

Then he burped. He was clearly tired. The hot dogs had staggered him. No doubt he'll need recovery time, said Dr. Marc Siegel, a professor at the New York University School of Medicine.

"Hot dogs are extremely unhealthy, especially when eaten at high volume. They're really processed. They have high cholesterol and too much salt," he said.

And thanks to the quantities the competitors ate, they'll likely suffer nausea, bloat, headache and possibly high blood pressure for several days as the body slowly digests the food.

"One is bad for you, five's worse and 50 is terrible," he said.

You would think that the newspaper could find a medical professor who knows more about food than the clerk in a natural food store. Food does not become unhealthy just because it is processed, or contains cholesterol and salt.

Letting kids have their own way

The UK Sunday Times newspaper reports:

As the mother of two young daughters, Ruth Appleton is used to doling out praise for almost everything they do. Even she was taken aback, however, when her younger daughter, Rachel, now 5, arrived home from nursery clutching a certificate for “sitting nicely on the carpet”.

“It made me wonder what she was doing the rest of the time,” said Appleton, from Porthcawl, Wales. “I thought it was a bit over the top rewarding her for something so routine. But it’s part of a whole culture of stickers and smiley faces and ‘celebration assemblies’.”

Anyone with children at primary school will instantly get the picture: no child’s existence is complete without “circle time”, or “show and tell” sessions at which they are encouraged to parade their achievements and examine their feelings. The received wisdom on child-rearing says nothing should be allowed to damage a child’s sense of self-worth: just last week the Football Association (FA) decided to ban teams including children under eight from publishing their results, for fear of putting the kids under too much pressure if they lost a match.

As parents, we are encouraged to nurture our children’s sense of “self”, but are we unwittingly doing them more harm than good? ...

It is becoming a worldwide trend. A recent production of Snow White at a primary school in Japan featured 25 Snow Whites, no dwarfs and no wicked witch, as parents objected to one child being picked out for the title role. In Sweden a boy was prevented from handing out invitations to his birthday party at school because he was “discriminating” against the two classmates he did not invite.

This nonsense has infected American schools also.

Obama flip-flops on same-sex marriage

The San Jose Mercury News prints this editorial:

John McCain's support for the initiative to ban gay marriage in California - Proposition 8 - was predictable, ...

Obama and McCain both have said they believe marriage should be between a man and woman. They part company on the impulse to legislate their personal belief ...

Make no mistake. This is a civil rights issue. Under law, only marriage confers certain legal rights of inheritance, medical decision-making and child custody.

The newspaper is mistaken. Same sex couples can get all of those "legal rights" under California law, regardless of whether Proposition 8 passes or not. All they have to do is to register as domestic partners. The editorial is as wrong as it can be.

Obama is trying to be both for and against same-sex marriage at the same time. He has flip-flopped on many other issues as well, ranging from the Iraq War to wearing a flag lapel pin.

Hot dog-eating champ heads for Coney Island

Not me. I finished in second place.

Eating hot dogs

I just took second place today in the Nathan's Famous 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Contest Qualifier in San Francisco. If I had won, then I would be at the national championship at Coney Island next week.

I previously complained that I was unable to sign up, but I complained and they let me in yesterday.

Your Brain Lies to You

Neuroscientists Sam Wang and Sandra Aamodt write in the NY Times:

False beliefs are everywhere. Eighteen percent of Americans think the sun revolves around the earth, one poll has found. Thus it seems slightly less egregious that, according to another poll, 10 percent of us think that Senator Barack Obama, a Christian, is instead a Muslim. The Obama campaign has created a Web site to dispel misinformation.

There are some good reasons for confusion on that last point. Barack Obama has a Mohammedan name. His father and step-father were both Mohammedans. His mother was an atheist. He spent some of his formative years in Indonesia, a Mohammedan country. Mohammedan doctrine is that once he is a Mohammedan, he is always a Mohammedan.

Obama claims to have converted to Christianity as an adult, but he did it by joining a racist and anti-American church that seems foreign to American Christians. He is reluctant to criticize Mohammedan terrorists, and he fails to support American efforts to contain violent Mohammedan jihadists. He seems insincere as he panders to his political constituents. There is no way to know for sure what his beliefs are. I don't think that poll is so wrong because Obama certainly does have some peculiar Mohammedan sympathies.

Women Have Not Adapted To Casual Sex

Science Daily reports:

The sexual and feminist revolutions were supposed to free women to enjoy casual sex just as men always had. Yet according to Professor Anne Campbell from Durham University in the UK, the negative feelings reported by women after one-night stands suggest that they are not well adapted to fleeting sexual encounters.

My guess is that this is no surprise to non-feminists.

A Beautiful Mind

When the movie A Beautiful Mind came out in 2001, there were many complaints about its accuracy. Most of the complaints had to do with omitting embarrassing details of his life. But many of those details were just unverified rumors that did not belong in the movie anyway. I found it odd that this mostly-accurate movie was so criticized, when other supposedly-factual movies like the recent 21 are gross fabrications that are horribly misleading in every scene.

The biggest fiction in the movie was the display of visual hallunications, when Nash actually heard non-visual voices.

But here is a distortion that is deliberately misleading. A Beautiful Mind shows the hero recovering from his mental illness, and saying, "I take the newer medications." In fact he hated the forced psychiatric drugs that he had to take in the 1960s, and he never took any after that. The director said that he wanted to promote psychiatric drugs. What most people don't know is that the drugs are really not very effective.

Is Tiger Woods juicing?

I think that athletes like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Mark McGwire should be considered innocent until proven guilty, but I am wondering why no one is accusing Tiger Woods of taking steroids. His muscles are now huge, he has gotten a series of improbable injuries, and he took the year off rather than submit to the new PGA drug tests.

How to nap

The Boston Globe explains. I recommend afternoon naps.

Harm caused by same-sex marriage

Some people have asked how same-sex marriage could possibly harm non-homosexuals.

Harm to regular marriage is just one reason to oppose the recent California court decision mandating same-sex marriage. There are other reasons for wanting marriage law to reflect the popular will on how marriage ought to be defined, and for opposing supremacist judges who want to impose their values on us.

One of the main functions of traditional marriage law was to provide a way for a couple to make a binding agreement to be jointly responsible for any resulting children. For thousands of years, civilized societies have depended on the family unit, with each child being the responsibility of one father and one mother.

But marriage law has evolved. Divorces are granted unilaterally. Non-married fathers can gain child custody rights, and married fathers often lose them. Civil marriage has been reduced to a financial contract, and judges assume authority over the kids in case of divorce.

Same-sex marriage is one more unfortunate step in the long list of legal changes that separate children from marriage. The harm from same-sex marriage is slight, because few gays will marry anyway. But there is harm when it convinces people that nothing else matters as long as two people are in love and committed, as an LA Times poll just reported. The next generation may not even realize that marriage was once a way to take responsibility for children.

Proposal would change rules for bicyclists at stop signs

The local newspaper reports:

SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - Bicyclists, who often raise the ire of drivers and pedestrians for their loose interpretation of traffic laws, could be allowed to roll through stop signs and travel through red lights after halting.

The “stop and roll” proposal is patterned after a state law in Idaho in which bicyclists are legally able to treat stop signs as yield signs, and interpret red stoplights as stop signs. Currently, California bicyclists must stop and put one foot on the ground at stop signs, and follow the same stoplight rules as drivers. ...

Bicyclists said they were in favor of the idea, especially because it is difficult to start pedaling from a dead stop and stoplights occasionally do not recognize bikers because of their size.

“Bicyclists are already perceived as outlaws who never stop at stop signs,” said Andy Thornley, program director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, who added that bicyclists see drivers as aggressive and pushy.

About a month ago, I was riding my bicycle and had to make a left turn at a stop light. There was a local cop who stopped on the shoulder and watching the intersection. A left turn requires a left turn arrow, and I happened to know that the intersection has a car detector in the left turn lane. It was not going to turn green for me. It was a lightly-travelled intersection, and I could have waited as long as 20 minutes for a car to enter the left turn lane and trigger the green left arrow.

So I just did a stop and roll, and the cop did not say anything. It would be nice if the bicycle stop and roll were actually recognized in the Vehicle Code, because it is a practical necessity.

Why organic milk tastes different

Sci Am magazine explains:

Organic milk lasts longer because producers use a different process to preserve it. According to the Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance, the milk needs to stay fresh longer because organic products often have to travel farther to reach store shelves since it is not produced throughout the country.

The process that gives the milk a longer shelf life is called ultrahigh temperature (UHT) processing or treatment, in which milk is heated to 280 degrees Fahrenheit (138 degrees Celsius) for two to four seconds, killing any bacteria in it. ...

So why isn’t all milk produced using UHT?

One reason is that UHT-treated milk tastes different. UHT sweetens the flavor of milk by burning some of its sugars (caramelization). A lot of Americans find this offensive ...

UHT also destroys some of the milk’s vitamin content—not a significant amount—and affects some proteins, making it unusable for cheese.

In other words, organic milk has been cooked to completely sterilize it. It tastes different because it is sterile.

I thought that organic milk was marketed to the kind of people who believe in fresher foods, because fresher foods were tastier and more natural, and because processing destroys nutrients. I would think that those folks would hate UHT-treated organic milk. It is like buying canned vegetables instead of fresh vegetables, just because the can says "organic" on it.

News: kids sometimes annoy other kids

Ms. Magazine reports:

A study released this month reports that 90 percent of girls between the ages of 12 and 18 reported experiencing sexual harassment. The study found that girls who had a better understanding of feminism from the media, their parents, or teachers were more likely to recognize sexual harassment. ... The most commonly reported forms of sexual harassment were unwanted romantic attention, demeaning gender-related comments, teasing based on their appearance, and unwanted physical contact.

I am wondering where they ever found kids who had not been harassed, according to that definition.

Indiana supreme court approves spanking

From an Indiana court case:

Sophia Willis is a single mother raising her eleven-year-old son, J.J., who has a history of untruthfulness and taking property belonging to others. ... Willis warned that if he did not tell the truth he would be punished. J.J. again gave the same story. In response Willis instructed J.J. to remove his pants and place his hands on the upper bunk bed. J.J. complied, and Willis proceeded to strike him five to seven times with either a belt or an extension cord. ...

Willis was tried in a bench trial for felony child battery; ... The Indiana Supreme Court reversed the conviction.

She should not have had to go all the way to the supreme court to justify giving the little stinker a whooping.

A rolling stone

I was watching the great 1975 movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and there is a scene in which some shrinks are trying to decides whether Jack Nicholson is crazy. One shrink asks:

Have you ever heard the old saying, A rolling stone gathers no moss? ... Does that mean something to you?

Jack responds:

It's the same as don't wash your dirty underwear in public. ... It's hard for something to grow on something that's moving.

The question is one that shrinks really use to test for mental illness. The idea is that schizophrenics will not grasp the abstract thinking that is required to understand a simple proverb.

The advantage of this particular proverb is that no one knows what it really means. It dates back to some Roman slave 2000 years ago. The rolling stone appears to be some sort of metaphor for someone who moves around a lot, but it is not clear whether growing moss is supposed to be good or bad. Jack's answer is brilliant because he not only answers the question, but also throws back his own abstract and meaningless analogy.

High IQ correlated with atheism

A UK newspaper reports:

Professor Richard Lynn, emeritus professor of psychology at Ulster University, said many more members of the "intellectual elite" considered themselves atheists than the national average.

A decline in religious observance over the last century was directly linked to a rise in average intelligence, he claimed.

Professor Lynn said most primary school children believed in God, but as they entered adolescence - and their intelligence increased - many started to have doubts.

He told Times Higher Education magazine: "Why should fewer academics believe in God than the general population? I believe it is simply a matter of the IQ. Academics have higher IQs than the general population. Several Gallup poll studies of the general population have shown that those with higher IQs tend not to believe in God."

He said religious belief had declined across 137 developed nations in the 20th century at the same time as people became more intelligent.

Or maybe atheism is causing people to be more intelligent.

How to fly without ID

John Glimore once sued because he refused to show ID and was not allowed on an airplane flight. Now the secret policy has bee revealed:

Beginning Saturday, June 21, 2008 passengers that willfully refuse to provide identification at security checkpoint will be denied access to the secure area of airports. This change will apply exclusively to individuals that simply refuse to provide any identification or assist transportation security officers in ascertaining their identity.

This new procedure will not affect passengers that may have misplaced, lost or otherwise do not have ID but are cooperative with officers. Cooperative passengers without ID may be subjected to additional screening protocols, including enhanced physical screening, enhanced carry-on and/or checked baggage screening, interviews with behavior detection or law enforcement officers and other measures.

It is a common myth that photo ID is required. People fly without photo ID all the time.

Tech analyst fears Apple Computer

The LA Times reports that Steve Jobs has lost weight:

After his keynote address, investors and Apple fans scrutinized Jobs' appearance almost as closely as they did the new iPhone. One tech analyst (who declined to be named out of fear of angering Apple) told me that after seeing photos of Jobs from the event, his clients were so worried that they searched the Web for old pictures of him. Their conclusion: If he were a boxer, he'd be fighting in a lower weight class.

Wow, he fears angering Apple? Just what does he think that the lean-and-mean Steve Jobs is going to do to him for mentioning the weight loss?

Hot dog contest is a scam

The biggest food eating competition is Nathan's Famous 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Contest. They have 13 qualifier contests in the preceding 2 months. But I tried to sign up for one about a month ago, and discovered that they are by invitation only!

I emailed someone in the company, and was told that all the contests were booked up, and I could only get on the waiting list. It seems to me that they ought to be able to accommodate anyone who wants to enter the contest. Is there some shortage of hot dogs?

Whoever wins is not really the champ. He will only have beaten those who were allowed to compete.

Learning from gay unions

The NY Times pretends that research supports same-sex marriage:

A growing body of evidence shows that same-sex couples have a great deal to teach everyone else about marriage and relationships. ...

Notably, same-sex relationships, whether between men or women, were far more egalitarian than heterosexual ones. In heterosexual couples, women did far more of the housework; ... With same-sex couples, ... the partners tended to share the burdens far more equally.

So what exactly does this teach us? That wives should adopt the same interest (or lack of interest) as their husbands? That same-sex marriages are better because they are more egalitarian? If they find that same-sex couples often wear each other's clothes, will they say that regular husbands and wives should do the same? This is wacky stuff.

18 million cracks

I am still waiting for the wise-cracks about Hillary Clinton saying:

Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it.

I guess that she is saying that she got 18M primary votes, but only about half of them were women.

California ballot measure could ban same-sex marriage

A long article in the Wash Post about legal uncertainty in California same-sex marriages says:

The language of the measure does not seem to suggest revoking marriages that take place between June and November, legal experts say. But such a move would depend on the courts' interpretation of the proposed amendment.

Experts say that if the measure passes, the state may choose to recognize the marriages, creating a pocket of married same-sex couples.

What the article does not include is the actual text of the Nov. ballot measure:

Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.

So how do they find legal experts to say that this requires recognizing same-sex marriages? If the measure passes, the plain language says that no same-sex marriages can be recognized in California.

No California same-sex couples will be inconvenenced, no matter what happens. They can always register as domestic partners, and still be effectively married even if the ballot measure passes.

The mindreading astronomer

The Bad Astronomer blogger has this tirade against a proposed Oklahoma law:

Let’s be very clear here: this legislation is not well-intended. It is intended to undermine the Constitution. It’s that simple. These people want religion taught in the classroom, and they want to do it at the expense of science and of reality. For them to say anything else is dissembling at the very least. Do you really think they want kids ...

It is amazing how unscientific these scientists are once they stray from their core expertise.

He bases his whole attack on his supposed ability to infer the intentions of the bill's sponsors. But his readers are scientists who are unlikely to believe that he has any mindreading skills. Why not simply explain the harmful effects of the law?

Better to repress feelings

Physorg reports:

It's okay to keep those feelings inside, new study suggests

Contrary to popular notions about what is normal or healthy, new research has found that it is okay not to express one's thoughts and feelings after experiencing a collective trauma, such as a school shooting or terrorist attack.

In fact, people who choose not to express their feelings after such an event may be better off than those who do talk about their feelings, according to University at Buffalo psychologist Mark Seery, Ph.D., lead author of a study to appear in the June issue of Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

The study investigated the mental and physical effects of collective traumas on people who are exposed to a tragedy but who do not experience a direct loss of a friend or family member. It focused on people's responses to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but the results may generalize to include responses to other collective traumas.

If the assumption about the necessity of expression is correct -- that failing to express one's feelings indicates some harmful repression or other pathology -- then people who chose not to express should have been more likely to experience negative mental and physical health symptoms over time, the researchers point out.

"However, we found exactly the opposite: people who chose not to express were better off than people who did choose to express," Seery says.

Moreover, when the researchers looked only at people who chose to express their thoughts and feelings, and tested the length of their responses, they found a similar pattern. People who expressed more were worse off than people who expressed less.

Freudians promote the idea that repressing feelings causes them to smolder in the unconscious mind, causing neurosis many years ago. Research shows the opposite. The Freudian view is wrong.

Sales tax measure had misleading description

My local county just passed a sales tax measure with this ballot description:

Countywide Library Improvement/Continuation Measure.To support and maintain local public libraries and library services through acquiring books, children’s educational materials, computers and technology; increase and improve children’s reading, adult literacy, senior and other educational programs; and upgrade local library facilities, shall Ordinance No. 1 of the Santa Cruz County Public Library Authority be amended to continue the existing ¼ cent sales tax for libraries with no increase?

The official pdf is here.

I think that voters were deceived. It was really a measure to make a temporary tax permanent. Ten years ago, we passed a sales tax increase to support libraries, instead of supporting them out of general funds. The tax was scheduled to expire in fifteen years. The vote this week was to prevent the expiration five years from now.

I guess that it is debatable whether to call this a tax increase or not. My real problem with the description is that it claims that the measure will increase library services and upgrade facilities, and do it at no increase in taxes. It makes it sound like we are getting something for nothing, and only a fool would oppose it.

It uses the word "increase" to have two opposite meanings. We are only going to get that increase in library funding five years from now, when we get the tax increase. Meanwhile, we get neither the increased funding nor the increased taxes. The deception is that the measure brags about increased funding that only happens five years from now, and then brags that there is no tax increase, hiding the fact that the tax increase kicks in after five years.

The libraries must have bribed whoever wrote the ballot summary. Someone should sue to void the election.

What did you do to provoke him?

Here is the latest from a bad advice column:

DEAR ABBY: My children and I were living with a maniac who threatened to kill me if I took the kids and ran. We reached out to his family, ...

His father said, "What did you do to provoke him?"

That was a fair question. The writer did provoke her husband by threatening to kidnap his kids. It sounds like she wanted her father-in-law to do something without hearing the whole story.

Men are slobs unless they are gay

The main character in the first episode of the new TV show In Plain Sight gives this inspirational speech:

Okay, look. Here's the thing. Men lie, they cheat, they start wars, they're slobs unless they're gay, and there are precious few of them walking the planet that are worth putting on lipstick for.

I guess that is why Hollywood likes gays so much -- they are the only men who are not slobs!

Why boys do better at math

For decades, researchers and educators have debated why boys tend to perform better than girls in math. ... Girls living in countries where there is more gender equality perform better in math, sometimes outpacing boys, than girls who live in countries with more male-dominated societies. ...

According to Sapienza, she and her colleagues were somewhat surprised by the findings.

"At some level, we were looking for it," she said. "We were surprised at how strong the correlation was."

What she is trying to say is that she was hoping that the points in the above chart would fall in a straight line, and she was surprised at how close it is to being a line. Does it look like a line to you?

A comment says:

"In Turkey, which scored low in gender gap equality, girls performed the worst: on average, 22.6 fewer points than boys." Maybe there really is a big disparity between the genders in mathematics. What else could explain the researcher being unable to interpret her chart correctly (hint: Brazil has a bigger gap than Turkey)?

Dietary fat does not cause cancer

More reseach debunks another myth about fat causing cancer:

There were no statistically significant associations between intakes of total fat, the subtypes of fat, of the P:S ratio [polyunsaturated to saturated] and risk of prostate cancer.

Thus, the totality of the evidence indicates that a higher intake of dietary fat is not a risk factor for prostate cancer.

Texas tries to justify its raid

Here is how the Texas CPS justifies seizing kids from the FLDS YZR. In its own brief before the Texas Supreme Court, it cites its own experts:

Angie Voss, supervisory investigator of the Department... The girls refused to answer questions ... The children gave no explanation ...

Ms. Voss testified it would not be safe for "any child to return to the ranch" because the adults on the ranch expressed that they "aren't doing anything harmful to their children", and that the "practice of children being united and having children is part of their culture and belief system".

Dr. Bruce Duncan Perry is a child psychiatrist who specializes in child maltreatment and child development. ... Dr. Perry testified that when you are raised in an environment where it is a blessing to have children and to be compliant to your father and the prophet, free choice is not really possible.

I think that it is clear that the authorities want to shut down the cult for its beliefs. If they could prove criminal charges, then they would do so, and skip these other bogus arguments.

Texas cult kids to be released

USA Today reports:

Children removed from the polygamous sect in West Texas will start going home Monday, under an agreement reached today.

An attorney for Texas Child Protective Services said parents will need to show identification, pledged to take parenting classes and stay in the state, according to the San Antonio Express-News. The agency is to be allowed access to the children 12 hours a day.

Okay, but the Texas Supreme Court ruled that it was illegal to seize the kids. Why haven't they been returned immediately? Why are there any conditions? The parents should not have to attend classes to assert their constitutional rights.

School reports mom as abuser for missing a meeting

The NY Post reports:

May 25, 2008 -- Bronx HS of Science senior Michel Dussack has a "B" average, an 1890 SAT score and an almost full college scholarship for the fall.

But Dussack's mother was accused of "educational neglect" two weeks ago and was reported to the city's child-services agency - because she missed a scheduled meeting to discuss her son possibly failing gym.

Karen Dussack, 40, is now under investigation by the Administration for Children's Services, the city's welfare agency that protects kids from neglect and abuse.

These agencies are out of control. There is no law requiring attendance at parent-teacher conferences.

Silly gripes about an honorary degree

Chancellor Mark Wrighton of Washington University, St. Louis has put out this lame statement:

I apologize for the anguish this decision has caused to many members of our community.

In bestowing this degree, the University is not endorsing Mrs. Schlafly's views or opinions; rather, it is recognizing an alumna of the University whose life and work have had a broad impact on American life and have sparked widespread debate and controversies that in many cases have helped people better formulate and articulate their own views about the values they hold....

One student complains about the voting:

The committee's recommendation of Ms. Schlafly was based on a complicated voting system. Voting occurred in two stages. In our first meeting, we ranked our preferences from approximately thirty names. The nominees were ranked based on the first balloting, and the top five were collected in a slate. We voted yes or no on the entire slate. An objection by one student was met with hostile opposition. The block of five names was then approved unanimously.

This list of protest letters includes these gems:

First, let us state clearly and firmly that our opposition to the selection of Mrs. Schlafly is not based on a rejection of her political, social, and ideological opinions. ...

When Mrs. Schlafly writes in her nationally syndicated column in 2006 that "Boys [sic] do not want to go to a college that eliminates the macho sports," she insults so many in our community: members of presumably non-macho male sports teams, ...

Mrs. Schlafly writes in a 2004 column that "For years, the universities have sanctimoniously proclaimed the sanctified value of diversity, but they define diversity to mean only giving space to radical leftwingers and feminists." ...

(Signed by 40 faculty, staff, and students in Arts & Sciences and the GWB School of Social Work)

Here is a bitter female writing prof who is mad at the world:

I hope I'm not telling your something you don't already know when I say that Washington University is not an ideal climate for women, although it is not unlike the world at large. The discontent that women academics feel here is chronic and grating.

Mary Jo Bang, Professor of English and Director of the Creative Writing Program

This engineering prof is worried that he'll lose grant money if Wash. U. loses its left-wing reputation:

Finally, let me mention a concern near to my heart as an active, federally funded researcher. Every grant application that I submit to the National Science Foundation must address the broader impacts of my work, including how it supports the education of women and underrepresented minorities. ... I shudder to think of how our actions today may bias the reviewers of future grant proposals from Washington University.

Jeremy Buhler, Associate Professor, Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering

The Social Work profs say that different opinions are encouraged, as long as no one disparages college profs:

She routinely disparages whole groups of people, such as ... college professors ... Universities are places where people are invited to voice opinions across the political spectrum.

The Art profs don't like her style of art:

Moreover, she has brought zeal to her denunciations and often mocks those with contrasting views. We know a performance artist when we see one, and Ms. Schlafly qualifies as such.

The English dept. chairman took offense to this column:

What was the motive behind 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui's killing of 32 students and teachers at Virginia Tech? Why was he consumed with hate, resentment and bitterness?

Cho was an English Department major and senior. As a frequent lecturer on college campuses, I have discovered that the English Departments are often the weirdest and/or the most leftwing.

He complains that her opinion is "unnuanced" and disrespectful of opposing views:

have raised my voice in part because graduating English Majors, and others among our students, expressed their shock at Mrs Schlafly's comment about the Virginia Tech murderer (I presume I don't need to repeat it here), and bewilderment that the university can be honoring one who can write such things. I cannot think of anything more offensive directed at my professional discipline and my students throughout my career. I do not believe that the expression of that opinion, which is corrosively irresponsible, assists any process of rational civic discourse whatsoever. What complicates the free speech defense is that opinion is sometimes the enemy of truth; and manufacturing such opinion, unnuanced and polarizing, has been Mrs Schlafly's work. Her disrespect for opposing views is unhappily evident even from today's newspaper. I doubt that she would share your value of diversity; but thank you sincerely for restating it.

David Lawton, Executive Director, New Chaucer Society, Professor and Chair, Department of English

A law prof's main objection is that she criticized the protesters:

Ms. Schlafly's principles are antithetical to the values for which Washington University purports to stand.

Indeed, Phyllis Schlafly's recent statements referring to the protesters - hundreds of faculty and students - as "a bunch of bitter women," "a bunch of losers," who need "to get a life" only highlights how antithetical her views are to those of rational discourse that should prevail in a great university.

Richard Kuhns, Professor of Law

Mary-Jean Cowell complains about her not support female college sports enough:

Moreover, considering that much of the WU achievement in collegiate sports in recent years has been the gift of our female athletes, we certainly do not show them respect in honoring a woman who is far from a supporter of equal participation for women in sports.

There are more wacky letters. They just prove how narrow-minded leftist academics can be.

New study says some girls don't like math

The Boston Globe reports:

Now two new studies by economists and social scientists have reached a perhaps startling conclusion: An important part of the explanation for the gender gap, they are finding, are the preferences of women themselves. When it comes to certain math- and science-related jobs, substantial numbers of women - highly qualified for the work - stay out of those careers because they would simply rather do something else.

One study of information-technology workers found that women’s own preferences are the single most important factor in that field’s dramatic gender imbalance. Another study followed 5,000 mathematically gifted students and found that qualified women are significantly more likely to avoid physics and the other “hard” sciences in favor of work in medicine and biosciences.

Is this really "startling"? What else did people think?

Salt is good for you

ScienceDaily reports:

Contrary to long-held assumptions, high-salt diets may not increase the risk of death, according to investigators from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. They reached their conclusion after examining dietary intake among a nationally representative sample of adults in the U.S. The Einstein researchers actually observed a significantly increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease (CVD) associated with lower sodium diets. ...

After adjusting for known CVD risk factors, such as smoking, diabetes and blood pressure, the one-fourth of the sample who reported consuming the lowest amount of sodium were found to be 80% more likely to die from CVD compared to the one-fourth of the sample consuming the highest level of sodium.

It is a big myth that table salt is unhealthy. The only known adverse effect is on those with high blood pressure, and they can compensate by taking high-blood pressure drugs.

Man-hating advice columnist

The Minneapolis newspaper has this Ask Amy column:

Dear Amy: My boyfriend and I were watching my 5-year-old niece. She came to me and told me that my boyfriend said he was going to punch her in the nose. I know that when my boyfriend is playing with the kids he plays around and says things, but he is adamant that he didn't say that.

I spoke with my niece's parents, and we chalked it up as a misunderstanding.

But now my boyfriend does not want her playing with him, and he refuses to watch her unless someone is with him every minute.

He is in law enforcement and says he sees things like this all the time, ...

Amy says: Most of what young children say has some basis in reality. ... this incident highlights his own immaturity.

I do agree with him about this one thing, however: He should not be alone with your niece because he can't be trusted to treat her well.

Amy's advice justifies the boyfriend's paranoia. If adults are going to automatically believe the false and petty accusations of a 5-year-old with an overactive imagination, then he has good reason to be cautious.

Update: Amy Dickinson is also criticized by Glenn Sacks.

Bernie Ward was caught in the act

KGO radio host Bernie Ward was recently convicted on child pornography, and today Brian Copeland, one of his fellow hosts, revealed on KGO that Ward was once caught masturbating while doing his Sunday morning "God Talk" religion show! He was on the air talking to callers, and doing perverted sex chat at the same time.

Ward is an Angry Left Bush-hater, and his story is that he was distributing child pornography as part of his research into right-wing hypocrisy.

People have stereotypical beliefs

Scientific American magazine reports:

"There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life,” Jesse Jackson once told an audience, “than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery -- then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.”

Jackson’s remark illustrates a basic fact of our social existence, one that even a committed black civil-rights leader cannot escape: ideas that we may not endorse -- for example, that a black stranger might harm us but a white one probably would not -- can nonetheless lodge themselves in our minds and, without our permission or awareness, color our perceptions, expectations and judgments.

Using a variety of sophisticated methods, psychologists have established that people unwittingly hold an astounding assortment of stereotypical beliefs and attitudes about social groups: ...

Now researchers are probing deeper. They want to know: Where exactly do such biases come from?

One of the themes of this blog is that when researchers attempt mindreading, they often devise overly complex theories when simple ones suffice. In this case, there is a simple explanation for why someone might fear being robbed by a black man more than a white man.

Requiring photo id

A reader writes to favor photo ID for voting, and claims that her bank requires photo ID just to make a deposit. But after a couple of questions, she admitted that she had never tried making a deposit without photo ID, and does not really know what the bank policy is!

I think that a lot of people probably like to present photo ID. It is their way of saying, "I am not an illegal alien." They also like to show off their major credit card, as a way of saying, "I am not a deadbeat with a low credit score." California is crawling with illegal aliens and deadbeats. You have to show off your status however you can, I guess.

Update: The reader writes to say that the bank teller told her that it is bank policy to ask for photo ID or an ATM card. She does not know what the bank would do if no such card were presented.

Mohammedan man kills daughter

Here is news from Iraq:

For Abdel-Qader Ali there is only one regret: that he did not kill his daughter at birth. ‘If I had realised then what she would become, I would have killed her the instant her mother delivered her,’ he said with no trace of remorse.

Two weeks after The Observer revealed the shocking story of Rand Abdel-Qader, 17, murdered because of her infatuation with a British solider in Basra, southern Iraq, her father is defiant. Sitting in the front garden of his well-kept home in the city’s Al-Fursi district, he remains a free man, despite having stamped on, suffocated and then stabbed his student daughter to death.

Abdel-Qader, 46, a government employee, was initially arrested but released after two hours. Astonishingly, he said, police congratulated him on what he had done. ‘They are men and know what honour is,’ he said. ...

‘Death was the least she deserved,’ said Abdel-Qader. ‘I don’t regret it. I had the support of all my friends who are fathers, like me, and know what she did was unacceptable to any Muslim that honours his religion,’ he said. […] ‘That girl was a mistake in my life. I know God is blessing me for what I did,’ he said, his voice swelling with pride.

These folks are not going to be civilized any time soon.

How girls get knee injuries

The NY Times explains how Title IX has led to thousands of girls getting seriouns knee injuries:

Title IX, the federal law enacted in 1972 mandating equal opportunity in sports, has helped to shape a couple of generations of girls who believe they are as capable and as tough as any boy. With a mix of resignation and pride, Rich Pierson said to me: "We've raised these girls to be headstrong and independent. ...

By Janelle's and her mother's count, her club team, with 18 players, had suffered eight A.C.L. tears — eight — during her high-school years: Janelle's two, another player's two and four other girls with one each. A high-school teammate one class above Janelle endured chronic ankle problems and, according to a Miami Herald article, six ankle operations — three in each leg — over the course of her four years on the varsity soccer team.

This casualty rate was not due to some random spike in South Florida. It is part of a national trend in the wake of Title IX and the explosion of sports participation among girls and young women. From travel teams up through some of the signature programs in women's college sports, women are suffering injuries that take them off the field for weeks or seasons at a time, or sometimes forever.

Girls and boys diverge in their physical abilities as they enter puberty and move through adolescence. Higher levels of testosterone allow boys to add muscle and, even without much effort on their part, get stronger. In turn, they become less flexible. Girls, as their estrogen levels increase, tend to add fat rather than muscle. They must train rigorously to get significantly stronger. The influence of estrogen makes girls' ligaments lax, and they outperform boys in tests of overall body flexibility — a performance advantage in many sports, but also an injury risk when not accompanied by sufficient muscle to keep joints in stable, safe positions. Girls tend to run differently than boys — in a less-flexed, more-upright posture — which may put them at greater risk when changing directions and landing from jumps. Because of their wider hips, they are more likely to be knock-kneed — yet another suspected risk factor.

This divergence between the sexes occurs just at the moment when we increasingly ask more of young athletes, especially if they show talent: play longer, play harder, play faster, play for higher stakes. And we ask this of boys and girls equally — unmindful of physical differences.

Phyllis Schlafly warned about this five years ago.

People like cheap wines that are labeled expensive

Here is wine research:

The researchers scanned the brains of 21 volunteer wine novices as they administered tiny tastes of wine, measuring sensations in the medial orbitofrontal cortex, the part of the brain where flavor responses apparently register. The subjects were told only the price of the wines. Without their knowledge, they tasted one wine twice, and were given two different prices for that wine. Invariably they preferred the one they thought was more expensive.

The best wines are the cheap wines that have been relabeled as expensive wines.

Michael McClish to be charged with murder

I commented previously that Michael McClish was tried and convicted of rape on some very flimsy evidence. He did not get a fair trial. It appeared to me that he was framed because the authorities suspect him of murder, and could not prove it.

Now he is being charged with murder:

SANTA CRUZ - The only person ever publicly named a suspect in the 2006 murder of a pregnant Ben Lomond woman was arrested on two counts of murder Tuesday.

Michael Patrick McClish, 38, will be charged with the slaying of Joanna "Asha" Veil, 28, and her unborn child, Anina, today, according to authorities at the Wednesday afternoon press conference at the District Attorney's Office.

I hope he gets a fair trial. The authorities have finally revealed that the father of the unborn baby was the victim's estranged husband, not McLish. No motive or murder weapon has been reported.

I will be waiting to see the actual evidence. I know that there are a lot of local folks who think that McLish must be guilty because he has shifty eyes, or because he was once rude to a customer, or some similar reason. I hope that someone has better evidence than that.

No American science grad shortage

A new Nature mag article addresses the myth that the USA has a shortage of skilled scientists and engineers:

In absolute numbers, the U.S. has more top-scoring kids in math and science than any other country studied–by far. ...

The answer, of course, is that the groups that stand to benefit from a public perception of an S&E shortage–the tech industry (who want an expanded H-1B work visa program for its cheap labor), the immigration lawyers (who want an expanded H-1B for obvious reasons), the education lobby (”Give us more money so we can remedy the shortage”) and so on hire the slickest PR people money can buy. They’ve been at it for years, to the point at which many people in Congress, the press and the public at large simply take it for granted that “Johnnie can’t do math.”

We are producing as many college grads in science and engineering as we can use. We do not need to import cheap labor from elsewhere.

Phyllis gets honorary degree

Some people are complaining that Wash. U. (St. Louis) is giving Phyllis Schlafly an honorary degree. The quote that seems to bug people the most is:

By getting married, the woman has consented to sex, and I don’t think you can call it rape.

Until about 30 years ago, the word "rape" was used for serious crimes other than marital sexual relations. Even today, many people do not accept the notion that marital rape is comparable to stranger rape, Eg, this article says:

Today there is considerable evidence that marital rape is still perceived as a lesser crime than other forms of rape within our culture and some studies have found a significant number of participants still question whether it is possible to rape one’s wife (Whatley, 2005; Kirkwood & Cecil, 2001). In a recent study of attitudes among college students, Monson, Byrd and Langhinrichsen-Rohling (1996) found that marital rape was perceived as less serious than rape perpetuated by a stranger and only 50% of the male students thought that it was possible for a husband to rape his wife.

There are some feminists who argue that marital rape is worse than stranger rape. Most people disagree.

Fast food and liver damage

Here is a science scare story about fast food:

Diets high in fast food can be highly toxic to the liver and other internal organs, but that damage can be reversed, says one of the country’s leading experts on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, who offers four steps to undo the effects of a 'super-size me' diet.

Late in the story we learn:

etri is quick to emphasize that fast food per se doesn’t causes liver damage. Rather, he says, the harm comes from eating too many calories and ... “The big issue here is caloric content,” says Tetri.

Yes, calorie content. If you go on a super-size movie diet where you double your calories eaten and avoid all exercise, then you will gain weight and have other health problems. The mice is the study displayed an increase in liver enzymes.

The article suggests avoiding fast food, but the research doesn't really show that fast food is any worse than any other food with the same calories.

Here is a funny cartoon about bacon being bad for your health. In reality, bacon is good for you.

Fat is good for you

Men's Health magazine reports:

What if Bad Fat is Actually Good for You?

For decades, Americans have been told that saturated fat clogs arteries and causes heart disease. But there's just one problem: No one's ever proved it

The article traces efforts since 1953 to prove that eating saturated fats causes heart disease. I suspect that millions of people have died younger because of this bad advice.

Smarter ladies have worse sex

The UK Sun newspaper reports:

BRAINY babes find it harder to have an orgasm – because they are too busy thinking, a study claims.

The German survey found that the more educated a woman was, the less likely it was that she would be satisfied by sex.

In the study 62 per cent of women who had completed their education said they often had problems achieving orgasm.

Only 38 per cent of women with a lower educational qualification said they had such problems.

The study conducted by a German lifestyle website surveyed over 2,000 women between the ages of 18 and 49.

I always thought that the brainy women are able to complete their education because they have fewer sexual distractions.

Detecting liars by facial expressions

Here is some new mindreading research:

How can we tell who’s lying, who’s not? New research out of Stephen Porter’s Forensic Psychology Lab at Dalhousie University determines the face will betray the deceiver’s true emotion, but not in the stereotypical ways we think. It’s not the shifty eyes or sweaty brow or an elongated nose (à la Pinocchio) the lie detector should look for. Instead, other elements of a liar’s face will give them away – “cracking” briefly and allowing displays of true emotion to leak on to the face. In fact, when Porter and his team analyzed White’s plea frame by frame, they found hints of anger and disgust in his face, not noticed by most of the supportive public.

Others have reported similar results. I am not sure if I believe it or not.

Why we have lousy math teachers

The left-wing San Jose Mercury News newspaper has this editorial:

California faces a shortage of math and science teachers, ...

Paying these teachers more makes sense under the law of supply and demand. College graduates with math and science majors can choose from many lines of work - accountant, researcher, financial analyst - more lucrative than teaching. And if they do want to teach, they gravitate toward higher-performing schools.

But what would seem an obvious solution in the private sector is prohibited in K-12 schools in California. Under a standard union contract, teachers in all subjects must be paid on the same salary scale. ...

The CTA believes that all teachers, like assembly-line workers, should be paid the same wage. It argues that a "two-tier pay structure" will "corrode the morale and overall effectiveness of all the teachers at the site." That view ignores the needs of struggling children and the competition in the job market for math and science majors.

The result is that we have overpaid teachers who do not know how to teach math and science.

New definition of rape

News from Baltimore MD:

The state's highest court ruled yesterday that a man can be charged with rape if he ignores a woman's calls to stop - even if she had previously consented to sex.

With this expansion of the legal definition of rape, Maryland joins seven other states whose courts have determined that a woman can revoke her consent after intercourse begins. ...

The victim testified in Montgomery County court that she agreed to sex "as long as he stops when I tell him to." As he began, she told him to stop because he was hurting her, but he kept going for five or 10 seconds, she said.

When a boy is a victim of statutory rape, he gets punished by a special tax that makes him pay 25% of his income to the state for the next 18 years:

A 12-year-old kid has sex with 16-year-old girl ..., the girl gets pregnant, goes on welfare, and the state welfare agency sues the father (now 13 years old) for reimbursement of the welfare money paid to the girl.

The Supreme Court of Kansas upheld the judgment against the 13-year-old kid. The Court wrote that the State's interest in requiring minor parents to support their children overrode its interest in protecting juveniles from their improvident acts, even when such acts might include criminal activity. ... many states have followed this decision.

These laws seem crazy to me. The next time that you hear that some guy is paying child support, remember that he might have been a statutory rape victim. The next time you hear some man is a rape, remember that his only crime may have been that he took five seconds to do what the girl asked.

Reason to fear the outside world

ABC News reports:

Bruce Perry, a child psychologist, testified that the traditional foster care system could be destructive to children taken from the sect's ranch. But he also testified that the children could be at risk if they are returned to the ranch.

Perry said the raid of the compound is a "very unique situation" and that the foster care system would be "destructive" to the children. ...

"So much of what they do out there is wonderful. But there is a part of what they do that is very destructive," Perry testified. He said he wished the sect's leaders wouldn't teach their children to be so fearful of the outside world.

After 416 kids were seized, I'd say that their fears were well-grounded.

Letting rich people use their money

Freakonomics blogger Daniel Hamermesh writes:

On the demand side, however, allowing people to bid for organs seems repugnant to me. (I do not want livers — except perhaps foie gras — on eBay!) Ethically, it seems wrong to let richer people move to the front of queues for scarce organs (to let the market implicitly value their lives more than those of poorer people).

Wrong? The rich people move to the front of every other line. I think that it is a little strange when people say that rich people can use their wealth to buy almost all goods and services, but not certain others.

Decisions take time

Here is some new mindreading research:

In a study published Sunday in Nature Neuroscience, researchers using brain scanners could predict people's decisions seven seconds before the test subjects were even aware of making them. ...

Haynes updated a classic experiment by the late Benjamin Libet, who showed that a brain region involved in coordinating motor activity fired a fraction of a second before test subjects chose to push a button. Later studies supported Libet's theory that subconscious activity preceded and determined conscious choice -- but none found such a vast gap between a decision and the experience of making it as Haynes' study has.

In the seven seconds before Haynes' test subjects chose to push a button, activity shifted in their frontopolar cortex, a brain region associated with high-level planning. Soon afterwards, activity moved to the parietal cortex, a region of sensory integration. Haynes' team monitored these shifting neural patterns using a functional MRI machine. ...

Hallett doubts that free will exists as a separate, independent force.

This is consistent with previous research, but it does not cast any doubt on free will. It just shows that it takes a few seconds to make a conscious decision.

I have noticed this myself while riding my bike. If I see a hazard in the road, I can slam on the brakes as fast as my reaction time will allow. Reaction time is usually a tenth of a second or so. But if I see something interesting on the side of the road and have to make a deliberate decision on whether to stop, then the decision takes a few seconds. I can only make a decision faster than a second if I had already prepared a programmed response.

Reading faces for lust

Here is some new UK mindreading research:

A new study by U.K. researchers found that you can tell just by looking at someone’s face whether they’re interested in casual sex or long-term commitment. ...

Both men and women who participated in the study thought that the more attractive women would be interested in something short-term, and they were right ...

If you’re more attractive, people might expect you to have more partners. And more often than not, we fulfill those expectations people have of us. ...

Because of the effect those expectations have on our behavior, our first impressions about people turn out to be right, says Keating.

“Physical appearance cues tell us more about people than we’re even consciously aware of,” Keating says. “So in fact, we do judge a book by its cover. And the funny thing is, it often works for us.”

There is no unconscious assessments or mindreading. I think that people are conscious of who is attractive and who is not.

Boys Will Be Boys, Even Among Monkeys

The Discovery Channel reports:

The notion that children's taste in toys might somehow be genetically determined has long been disparaged by psychologists -- pooh-poohed as unscientific, sexist or both.

But a study by researchers in the United States suggests that when it comes to choosing between trucks and cuddly stuffed animals, chromosomes could make a difference. ...

So a team of scientists led by Kim Wallen of the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta, Georgia decided to offer typical "male" and "female" toys to rhesus monkeys to see if preferences aligned with sex.

Much to their surprise, they did. The 11 male monkeys headed straight for the wheeled toys, such as dump trucks, leaving the plush toys more-or-less unmolested. The 23 females were more curious, and played with both.

"They are not subject to advertising. They are not subject to parental encouragement, they are not subject to peer chastisement," said Wallen.

This should not be a surprise to anyone with small kids.

CD is digital

The NY Times reports:

People with a history of buying alternative rock music on Amazon, for example, may find the site pitching them the new R.E.M. album, “Accelerate,” in both CD and digital form.

Both? Anything in CD form is also in digital form. All CDs are digital.