Who, me?

I've heard of body dysmorphic disorder, where people who are anorexics see themselves as much larger than they really are. But it turns out, it's not just that. Anorexics couldn't sketch a simple object they had felt but not seen. They couldn't approximate the shape of the object while blindfolded. They couldn't estimate the size of an object using calipers. Apparently, their right parietal cortex, which helps to integrate the various senses was active, but not able to adequately process the information coming from the hand they couldn't see, according to this article.

This cries out for a real study.

Indiana lawyer Tony Zirkle is making a run for the Republican nomination for a congressional seat. There is a general rule for political candidates that involves not being photographed in front of Hitler's portrait. Apparently, Zirkle missed that one.

But wait, It gets better. Read about the porn dragon for yourself.

This article discusses the reality of why women "opt out" of the workforce when they have children. It's quite long, but worth a read.

This is basically link spam, but I thought it was something I want to remember as a rhetorical device: http://pjammer.livejournal.com/172181.html

Anyone think this would work well for a presentation instead of a series of lectures?

Saw this on boingboing, and had to share:

The Century Project (NSFW) by photographer Frank Cordelle shows images of women, nude, between the ages of zero and 100. They're real women, not idealized models. They have scars and bellies. He includes a short statement from or about each of the women as well. Apparently the East Bay Express newspaper has an article about this project. In any case, I thought it was fascinating, and very unlikely what we see normally in media.

So we've been meaning to donate some more money to Democratic candidates. I've been using Electoral Vote to track how the election is going. Their current results show that the Senate will be 51-49 for the Republicans. So I decided to give a little contribution to those races that were quite close (handily color coded). But I couldn't find a single page to do so. Then someone pointed me at Act Blue, which allows you to set up your pages for contributions, and does it with no fees or any BS.

Of course, this meant that I had to set up my very own page, Close Senate Races, focusing on the races that were less than 5 points apart. Act Blue has tons of other "fundraising pages" ranging from NetRoots to pages focusing on particular states. If you want to set up your own page, you can. If you want to contribute to the closest 7 Senate races, you can do it from my page.

I love the Internet. It gives me information, and solves some inconveniences. Of course, it took me longer to create that page than it would have to go to the individual pages for each of the candidates. But that's mostly because I would so fail Social Studies if I were taking it now. I couldn't figure out which state was which. I'm just glad Miss Baran can't see me now.

thanks for the link japlady

For folks like me, who like to stay up all night sometimes, this study is rather frightening. Maybe it's time to start taking melatonin supplements when I stay up late into the night.

Brent R. Wilkes, the CEO of a company that primarily lives off federal contracts summarizes how it works:

Mr. Wilkes described the appropriations process as little more than a shakedown. He said that lobbyists close to the committee members unceasingly demanded campaign contributions from entrepreneurs like him. Mr. Wilkes and his associates have given more than $706,000 to federal campaigns since 1997, according to public records, and he said he had brought in more as a fund-raiser. Since 2000, Mr. Wilkes’s principal company has received about $100 million in federal contracts.

Mr. Wilkes described the system bluntly: “Lowery would always say, ‘It is a two-part deal,’ ” he recalled. “ ‘Jerry will make the request. Jerry will carry the vote. Jerry will have plenty of time for this. If you don’t want to make the contributions, chair the fund-raising event, you will get left behind.’ ”

How is this not illegal?

It appears that Rolling Stone is doing the most in depth political reporting these days. I find this stunning, and somewhat depressing. In this very well sourced article about the 2004 election Rolling Stone documents in great detail the level of election fraud that turned Ohio to Bush. I knew there was fraud, but this level of documention is impressive.

Of course, once you no longer have elections, democracy is an empty term. It makes me truly wonder about America's future. We can electioneer and register voters until the cows come home, but if those voters are not permitted to vote, or their votes are changed...

How to Spot a Baby Conservative. Short summary: the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints, s/he grew up to be a conservative. The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals.

The study was a 20-year follow-up for 95 kids from Berkeley.