The
News in Brain and Behavioural Sciences Newsletter
is full of fun stuff this week:

• The fraction of left-handed people today
  is about the same as it was during the Ice Age
• People with a history of the digestive
  disorder celiac disease are three times more
  likely to develop schizophrenia than those without the disease
• The ability to appreciate other people’s agony
  is achieved by the same parts of the brain
  that we use to experience pain for ourselves
• Just missing breakfast makes you more
  sensitive to sweet and salty tastes
• Changes in hormone levels cause many women to be
  more critical of other women, according to a recent study
  
  [this is one of those "duh" things -- women, and
  the men who live with them, have known this for
  years. --MB]
  
• Human beings are the only animals
  that have asymmetrical brains
• A new study of young mothers by researchers at
  University College London (UCL) has shown that
  romantic and maternal love activate many of the
  same specific regions of the brain, and lead to a
  suppression of neural activity associated with critical
  social assessment of other people and negative emotions.
  The findings suggest that once one is closely familiar
  with a person, the need to assess the character and
  personality of that person is reduced,
  and bring us closer to explaining why,
  in neurological terms, ‘love is blind.’
• Researchers have identified areas of the brain
  where what we’re actually doing (reality) and what
  we think we’re doing (illusion, or perception) are processed.

The always interesting
News in Brain and Behavioural Sciences Newsletter
this week pointed to an
Edmonton Journal article
where an McMaster University evolutionary psychologist
claims to have found that the length ratio of a woman’s ring to
index finger points to her sexual behaviour –
from fantasies to the number of partners she might have.

It has been known for a century (really?!) that the ratio between the
length of the second finger (2D) and the ring finger (4D)
varies between men and women and that a shorter 2D is the
more masculine characteristic.
Put your right hand flat on a table as see whether your
ring finger (4D) is longer then your index finger (2D).

Well, the finding is that shorter 2D (more male’ish) is
coorelated with higher prenatal testosterone levels and
that more male-like 2D:4D ratios on the
right hand were linked to higher SOI scores –
standard seven-item questionnaire called the
Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI),
which measures “a person’s” willingness to engage in
casual, uncommitted sex.
That is, high prenatal testosterone levels
lead to ‘male-like’ short-term mating tactics.
These tests were given to woman — shorter 2D indicated
a woman engages in more
“short-term mating tactics”.

So ladies, is your 2D shorter than your 4D?

Having been raised an Episcipalian
(which is essentually a Catholic without the Pope and with no Latin)
I missed most of the odd corners of Christian beliefs.
Everything from Kabalistic numerology to speaking in tongues
has been outside my upbringing.

Now, all of a sudden, the
rapture
is showing up.
A few days ago I was looking for something to listen too while driving.
Our city library had
Left Behind by Tim Lahaye and Jerry B. Jenkins –
the first in the series of novels that hypothesize what happens after
the rapture.

And then I was reading Amy’s
Living Reflection of a Dream
blog
and
she mentions
a Pentagon report that predicts catastrophic weather
changes in the next 20 years (a report supressed by the American
admintration and only finally

).

There are four boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order.

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.

Well, the doctor says I’m healed enough to return to work,
so, starting on Monday, I will be getting back to the real world.
It seems so odd to have such a major thing happen in my life
and then just return to the normal, everyday routine like
nothing happened.

One of the few advantages of being on medical leave is
the ability to stay in bed late into the morning.
In fact, I just spent two very enjoyable mornings in
bed — lying late under the warm covers,
window open with the cool air coming in over me,
rain falling outside
and a
good book
in my hands.
A soft bed with 400 count sheets is a nice place
to read.

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Since the
operation
,
they haven’t been letting me drive.
Well, next week I’ll be an American again. In the mean time,
I’ve been discovering the city’s
bus system.

Monday I went downtown to do some Valentine’s Day shopping.
On Wednesday, I took the bus to one side of town for a
doctor appointment and then I took the bus and train to the
other side of town to pick up a book where I work.
That’s two errands in one day.
People with cars think they can get 10 errands done
in one day.
That’s not a human pace of life.
Buses are much more casual.

There are a few
pictures
of my travels.

As I have

reported


before

,
the local, small town paper reports the last week’s police business.
Some of the entries from last week were:

• A woman was bitten by a dog at Palisades Market,
  which was probably only fair since she’d just
  hit him with her car.
• You, the woman who walks the blond lab at Westlake
  on weekday mornings –
  someone is going to call the police the next time
  she sees you with the dog off leash.
• A house was doused with shaving cream and toilet paper.
  Tis is apparently the second time this has happened,
  and presumably has something to do with the
  teenage daughter living there.
• A woman was reported driving around First Addition,
  yelling as she drove, “Does anyone want to buy a car?”.
  Police located the woman, who does indeed have
  a car for sale.
• A resident of Pointe apartments — who had apparently
  been drinking — reported that the coffee man
  has placed a bomb in her apartment.
• An individual was cited for excessive noise
  emanating from his drums.

And, as always, this is exactly as it appreared in the paper.

And, very saddly, two of the reports were of young women
(12 and 14) attempting suicide.
Very sad.

Happy


Valentine’s


Day

to everyone!!
I hope you have someone to love you and, if not, I hope this next year brings
someone into your life.
What the world needs now is love, sweet love.

I’m constantly amazed by what can be found on the web

At
Slashdot,
there is the mention of the not well publisized (at least in the US)

Russian Rovers on the Moon (including a rover that lasted 11 months and sent back TV pictures from the surface).
This lead to articles on the

Soviet
exploration
of Venus (with pictures taken from the Venus surface)
and eventually to people who
worry about the

color of the planets
.

Yes, that’s right, the color of the planets.
It seems that the cameras we sent out into the universe have many
limitations (they take multiple filtered images that are merged together
or they use reference colors that are effected by the planetary conditions)
so there is some controversy on what the images really look like.
There are those that think that Mars is

not the bright red
most of us have seen.
And the colors of Saturn or Pluto — that’s a whole different discussion.

Like I said, I’m amazed by what I can learn on the web.
It’s not all drek.

Living Reflections On a Dream lead me to another quiz:

I’m not sure it could figure out what I was since all the questions are the same (do you prefer sex, nature, work, friends, …). If you don’t answer consistantly, it must say ‘yellow’.

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On the front page of the October 26, 1908 Oregonian
(which also had the
article
about the sudden death of my great-great-grandfather)
is this article decrying the drop in marriage certificates issued in Boston.
Clergymen were interviewed and they were sure that the phenomenon was due to “the girl of today liked her independence too much to marry”.
This is enforced by “the prospective husband might not be able to furnish
er with the latest-cut gown and newest creation from the modiste shop”.

Boy, if this trend started in 1908, things must be really messed up today .

While my family has been driving me around, I’ve noticed several houses that haven’t taken down their Christmas lights.
Not that they have just not taken them down, but they still turn them on.

Is this happening in your neighborhood?
Are your neighbors still enjoying their lights and still being festive into the new year?