monkey mind control!!

First things first. Cheers to Andrew Schwartz at the University of Pittsburgh. You engineered mind control in monkeys. New York Times article here, actual Nature paper (which if you can successfully read, you're pretty awesome) here. I agree with those who showed me this article (thanks Annie) that the possibilities for prosthetics now explode and amplify by infinity, give or take.

I'll give credit where credit is due, this makes Hilary seem awfully badass. Maker's Mark, impressive.

David Patterson, you also rock. I think my med school classmates should be pretty amped that he gave the commencement speech.

A recent Radio Lab made me think about Schrodinger's Cat, quantum mechanics, Heisenberg, and the Copenhagen interpretation. (Not think deeply, just think). You guys may have heard of the "wiggle experiment" that tells us that there is no free will (if not, here.) To me, this is kind of a dumb experiment because its asking you to be reactive to an unconscious cue. Better to measure some sort of response that is truly self-generated (so, not really a 'response' at all). But doesn't the setup itself (aka, an experiment, unless the subjects don't know they are the subjects) create responsiveness? I mean, you can't just put people in a room and watch them until they do something. I think they'd notice. Plus, sadly (actually not sadly) they wouldn't all do the same thing, which would make this data kind of difficult to plot. So to do this experiment on free will, we need to be able to monitor subjects (oh, and their brains activity with PET scans!) without soliciting any behavior from them. And the measured behavior needs to be consistent across all of the subjects. So, Jeff Morrow, figure this out.

Slate really killed it this week. Here are some of their awesome links.
1. Is the Wii Fit any good? (Rich, this one is for you). The verdict? Good for the morbidly obese, but not good if you have a resting heart rate under 100.
2. The normalization of oral sex. People preparing to have kids, have your panic attacks in advance.
3. Why Ken Griffey, Jr.'s rookie baseball card is so popular. Just an interesting read.

Finally, an awesome article from the Freakonomics blog on why fears about globalization are vastly overstated from a perspective of language homogeneity. Pretty cool huh? Franklin Foer would agree, though I guess he would be more pessimistic.

Oops, almost forgot about quick music reviews!!

Okkervil River - I think I'm following in my former roommate Joe Shin's footsteps and getting more into bands that aren't all 3-piece stomp. I enjoy Okkervil River's instrumental diversity. Download "Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe"

Raconteurs - Ironically, this is currently my favorite album of the bunch, and it is basically 4-piece stomp, except that its got a more bluesy rock feel mostly because of Jack White's personal style. I think if I could play guitar like anyone (alive) it would be him. Check out "Consolers of the Lonely"

Silversun Pickups - a little late on this one. For some reason I didn't listen to them even though I heard "Well Thought Out Twinkles" on KEXP's podcast. Well, this album is great and diverse, and full of urgency. They're a little into that fuzzy guitar sound, but it makes things sound full, so what the heck. Check out "Future Foe Scenarios"

Tokyo Police Club - Well, this album basically sounds like their last album. But that's not so bad. They're good musicians and their stuff is pretty engaging. Kind of a half-hearted review I know, but there's not really that much to say. The album is good. Listen to "Sixties Remake"

kobe

This is a PHE-nomenal article on Kobe and really touches on the killer instinct thing I blogged about before. That quote, "There's only two real killers in this league" is awesome. Hate him or love him, you kind of finish this article respecting him and people like him who have that sort of borderline-unhealthy fixation on their craft. Hooray for one-dimensional obsessiveness!

grab bag

so much to talk about!!!

1. Liz Trotta. and Fox News. First, kudos on consciously calling Barack Obama a terrorist and calling for him to be killed in the same sentence. Impressive. Second, her fake apology is dripping with contempt. More evidence that Fox News isn't driven by simple misguided patriotism (kind of how I see the president). No, tacit acceptance of behavior such as this shows the absolutely directed racism, xenophobia, and misogyny of this reprehensible network. Too bad that shit isn't working because new polls show Obama ahead of McCain in almost every significant swing state.

2. Hilary. Come on dude. Everyone is super amped up about the Robert Kennedy thing. I'm even more amped up about comparisons to elections in Zimbabwe and women's suffrage. Note to HRC: neither of those 2 groups violated the rules. Stop trivializing real problems.

3. RadioLab's Podcast on Sleep. Did you know that freakin dolphins rest half of their brain at a time so that they don't drown? That is INCREDIBLE.

4. Awesome Article on Obama's top aide, Reggie Love (which by the way, is an awesome name). We learn that Obama loves basketball and SportsCenter and hates mayonnaise and salt and vinegar potato chips. In other words, we are made to be best friends and in a posse together.

5. Apparently, accurate prediction of the national election exists! Sadly, it reveals that currently, things are really close.

6. This is a really interesting question about the Prisoner's Dilemma from the freakonomics blog. The dilemma itself is really cool with regards to honesty and deception, and this question is sort of integral to my love of economics. What would you ask to tip the scales most in your favor?

7. Great wine for under 15 dollars? Hell Yes!

8. An interesting article on lunch being mandated for high schoolers. I find this particularly interesting because as a high schooler I never took lunch. You don't want to stop kids from being ambitious but if you don't set some sort of boundary, 8th graders are going to start worrying about their GPA.

I've got a lot of new music on my palette: Raconteurs, The Roots, maybe even the new Tokyo Police Club. Stay tuned!

its true.

http://xkcd.com/242/

this is pretty random.

random thoughts and a rant!

basketball: if the spurs can't win when they hold kobe to less than 10 points in the first half, then its not going to happen. kobe is so weird, man. i heard his post-game interview and he sounds like he has aspergers. like he's given up the pretense. they asked him about his first half and he was like "whatever, it was more important for my teammates. i can basically score whenever i want." kudos.

democratic primaries: im ignoring hilary at this point. how about some vice presidential candidate talk? obviously there's she-who-will-not-currently-be-named, and joe biden. but how about Jim Webb? he seems like a popular choice that would make sense, unify the party, etc etc. im sold, but it doesn't take much with me.

now for something random.

I first saw Underworld when I was 16, at the Electric Factory. They had just come out with Beaucoup Fish (which is why its my sentimental favorite, even though objectively Second Toughest... is probably their best work). I think the reason I love them so much was because theirs was a first in a series of artists I started getting into whose construction was pretty simple. Aka, I felt I could write stuff like this if I wanted. Yet, that simple construction had within it something kind of primal and cathartic (I think this is why people like house in general). So on a day when I dont have much else to add, here are my 4 favorite songs by underworld.

Cups: because the first 9 minutes sounds like music that comes on in a fusion jazz-trance lounge (if those ever existed) after like 2 am. i like the muffled vocals, and the beat just seems to slink along, rather then being abrasive.

Born Slippy: you dont really like underworld if you dont love born slippy. i can still recite all the nonsensical lyrics by heart. nothing like hearing everyone at an underworld concert yell "she said comeover comeover she smiled at you, boy". i also like all the stupid remixes of this song. i should note that this probably one of like 10 songs i like whose tone is predominantly happy.

Push Upstairs: basically the flipside of Cups (kind of cool that they follow each other on beaucoup fish). insistent piano line over a driving, thumping beat. the kind of music you want to play when you're getting ready to be in a race, or a fight, or something. kind of a theme song for obsessive compulsives.

Rez-Cowgirl: mostly because its the best live song they do, with like 5 separate climaxes in the 12 minute song. Rez is mostly upbeat with a really awesome synth line that any true fan knows by heart. cowgirl has a fairly repetitive synth drone and melody that are weirdly addictive despite being kind of robotic until the (i dont think any terms that refer to song structure work with underworld but whatever) "bridge" where you get another awesome stream of consciousness rant. karl hyde, apparently, wants to give you everything, everything, everything.

uh oh.

playoff basketball!!!

have i not talked about RadioLab yet? Yeah, its awesome. It's sort of a mix of sociology and quantitative science. They take subjects like zoos, leadership, laughter, catchiness of pop songs, and then assemble both anecdotal and research-based observations to help deconvolve these macro phenomena. It's totally fascinating. More factually based than malcolm gladwell, yet pursuing more rewarding topics than steven levitt.

New topic. I love playoff basketball. I love playoff football and baseball too, which I'll talk about when the time comes, but basketball is the first sport I loved. I don't think I'll ever get over the athleticism. The pace is just so much faster than other sports, and the individual athleticism amplified in a cooperative team structure...no other sport gives you more "holy crap did you just see that" moments. And now, a few thoughts on the best player on each team remaining in the playoffs, with nickname in parentheses.

Chauncey Billups, Pistons (Mr. Big Shot): I'm sorry but what exactly is the obsession with this guy? Shoots a terrible percentage, and this whole "mr. big shot"...who has earned their nickname less? He killed them the last 2 years in the playoffs and is basically a corpse now. Forget you.

Lebron James, Cavaliers (King James): Obviously the most overall physically talented, and probably does the most plays that truly stun me. Maybe because he's built like a freaking linebacker. I know its tough for him because he's on a crappy team, but I don't see the playoff assassin in him that I want to. Here's hoping that in game 7 in the first minute he takes it to the hole, eviscerates Rajon Rondo and puts the world on notice.

Kevin Garnett, Celtics (KG/The Big Ticket): I like KG. He's a team player who truly seems to care about winning. I dont think you have to be that guy who takes the big shot (he's clearly tentative) if you do all the little things that help your team win. I think that can still make you great. If he had a true alpha dog on his team, they'd win like 40 championships in a row. Just a fearless guy at the end of the game (like Manu Ginobili).

Kobe Bryant, Lakers (Black Mamba): First of all, GREATEST NICKNAME OF ALL TIME. Who doesn't want to be freakin Black Mamba? And it fits him perfectly. Kobe is one of those weird dudes who grew up in Italy, probably had no peers, came to high school where he was too good for everyone, and went straight to the emerging Laker Dynasty. No wonder he's a recluse. I used to hate him, now I love him. I would love to see a standoff either between him and Lebron (where despite inferior skills at this point he would win just by force of will) or Chris Paul (a guy cut out of his mold at a different position).

Tim Duncan, Spurs (The Big Fundamental): Worst nickname of all time. Almost every basketball fan I'm friends with hates this guy. And now I'm going to sacrifice all of my friends by saying how much I disagree. Yeah, he might be a little boring, but this guy competes. He's not as fast as he used to be, but he still wins by being smarter than everyone else and picking his spots. Anyone notice him dismantling the Suns at the end of every game? I don't care that he doesn't throw down thunderous dunks. Right on with your 8 foot bank shots, big fundamental. Anyone who doesn't think he's the greatest power forward of all time is an idiot and not a real sports fan, and has to be stopped.

Chris Paul, Hornets (CP3, pictured): I'm sorry but that's it???? CP3? for the transcendent player of this year's playoffs? I LOVE this guy. Insanely competitive, but doesn't need to score a million points to do it. The guy took Psych classes in college to try and understand his teammates better. Check out this story if you don't think he's awesome. Plus, in the playoffs, he's taken it to a new, even more insane level. This guy is going to leave Isiah, Stockton, and other awesome point guards in the dust. And with the exception of Deron Williams, there's nobody who can do anything close to guarding him. So he just wreaks havoc on every defense. It's crazy, like watching Barry Sanders on the basketball court. Awesome.

I'd be happy with almost any of these guys matching up in the finals. Maybe not Spurs-Pistons or Spurs-Cavs, but Spurs-Celtics, Cavs-Lakers, Cavs-Hornets, Cavs-Spurs, Celtics-Lakers, Celtics-Hornets....it's all gravy. Playoffs.

appease this, asshat.

on a day that the california supreme court became much awesomer, i should be optimistic about social progress.

Apparently not. A few days ago, we had to deal with implications that because a member of the Hamas spoke favorably about Barack Obama, that the reverse was also true. Now, apparently, he's also a Nazi appeaser! I feel like I'm taking crazy pills when I read this stuff. What position exactly is being supported with regards to this situation? Mahmoud Ahmadinejad isn't the only power-hungry troll skulking around with aspirations of sending the world up in flames. If we don't attempt diplomacy, what course does that leave us with, exactly? Maybe we should just bring back manifest destiny. Or maybe President Bush is an asshat, and John McCain, my brief "I guess it wouldn't be so bad" affair with you is quite over. Ass.

On Thursday, Mr. McCain jumped into the fray over Mr. Bush’s remarks and wholeheartedly endorsed the president. “I think that Barack Obama needs to explain why he wants to sit down and talk with a man who is the head of a government that is a state sponsor of terrorism."

Well! Prepare for a slew of new occupancies during the McCain regime! But don't worry, with troops withdrawing 'by 2013' under the McCain 'plan', we should have plenty to spare. Oh, apparently, this is the voice of treason:

“I constantly reject this notion that any hint of strategies involving diplomacy are somehow soft or indicate surrender or means that you are not going to crack down on terrorism.”

On the other hand, cheers to Nancy Pelosi for coming out strongly in support of California's supreme court decision.

ha!

http://xkcd.com

the hills, american gangster

for reasons i won't get into, i ended up watching a bit of the hills this weekend. (fine, i will get into it. it was on TV at the gym in the hotel i was staying at.) so, are reality tv shows kind of like sports?

• you basically choose randomly to root for certain characters.
  
• you follow their behavior, which is seemingly of no consequence whatsoever.
  
• despite their mundane behavior, you not only watch them, but you read articles that speculate about more of their mundane behavior.
  

im as big a sports nut as you'll find, but this i don't get. even weirder, it was somewhat addictive despite being the mental equivalent of an anesthetic. also, congrats on making me hate every single character on a tv show. impressive.

what i do know is how awesome american gangster is (jay-z's album, not the movie, which i sadly have not yet seen). man, i hope nobody is reading this, because this album is like a year old. especially the jay-z/nas duet "success". you gotta give hov credit for being a good storyteller, he's one of the few whose lyrics i'll actually pay attention to. also, its redemption for him after the shameful kingdom come, which followed the awesome black album, which was kind of a silly mimicking of the metallica album, whose nickname was the black album, but whose real name was metallica.

finally, an angry diatribe about MORE ROVE-IAN NONSENSE COURTESY OF YOUR LOCAL GOP. for those of you who don't know, apparently Ahmed Yousef, a political advisor to the Hamas group, basically said that he likes Obama and would be happy if he turned out to be president. Apparently in John McCain's mind, having someone think favorably of you obviously means that you think favorably of them. I didn't know that republican nominees could co-opt the reflexive property so...liberally. in my book, this is on par with trying to denigrate Obama for having Hussein as his middle name. NY Times notes:

“I think it is very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president of the United States,” Mr. McCain said to the bloggers. “If Senator Obama is favored by Hamas, I think people can make judgments accordingly.”

But important nuances appear to have been lost in the partisan salvos, particularly on Mr. McCain’s side. An examination of Mr. Obama’s numerous public statements on the subjects indicates that he has consistently condemned Hamas as a “terrorist organization,” has not sought the group’s support and does not advocate immediate, direct or unconditional negotiations with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president.

But Obama has his own shameful secret, apparently:

Mr. Obama believes “that engagement at the presidential level, at the appropriate time and with the appropriate preparation, can be used to leverage the change we need”

He doesnt want us to go guns blazing into Iran? BLASPHEMY!!! ugh.

listen to sharpton!

that's you, mrs. clinton. swan song time.

many things to talk about, just no time to do it now. but quickly:
1. if you go to great adventure, ride kingda ka and el toro. theyre awesome.
2. gop's "can we ask?" trying to co-opt obama's "yes we can" refrain is awesome. check it out at the times or something. i wish i were in on the marketing meeting that ended up with "can we ask?"
3. myanmar situation is just one more indictment of the UN's best-intentioned shortcomings.
4. turns out the patriots have been cheating for years. somewhere, donovan mcnabb is almost choking on his campbell's chunky soup.
5. slate's political gabfest: good podcast.
6. one of the reasons i love baseball is how fun (i guess this is subjective) it is to quantify player abilities.

iron man, primaries, the slip

First, Iron Man. Sweet! I get to be a unabashed fanboy.

The movie focused much more on the construction of a superhero than how awesome Iron Man is once he fully takes shape. I think this is what was also heavily behind the success of the Batman franchise as well as The Incredibles. I think we are highly interested in the mental makeup that either a) creates a superhero (like Batman or Iron Man) or b) results from having to be a superhero (like Spiderman 2 or The Watchmen). I say this despite the fact that the big-time robot fight at the end of Iron Man is bad-ass. It's also fun to see superhero movies with liberal slants (like this or X-Men) rather than semi-conservative slants (like Transformers or Spiderman).

Speaking of movies, here's an amazing article about the dearth of female leads in summer movies. I'm not always a huge fan, but this time you killed it, Dargis.

Big-time primaries today! More NYTimes for you on economic policy. It was reassuring because I was starting to wonder how secure I was in my (not too well-informed) opinions. But now I'm back to being unreasonable! Clinton and McCain, you earn 4/5 condescending shakes of the head from me.

Finally, NIN released an album for FREE (http://theslip.nin.com). I like about half of the stuff and am ok with the other half. I wish they had stuck with the dance-punk stylings of the Discipline single, instead of spending 30% of the album doing vaguely halfhearted instrumental retreads. Still, the good tracks are a lot of fun, and I'm willing to bet they'll play well live.

internet singles, food crisis

First: internet singles!

I love NIN. I thought I would outgrow it, but I never did. I think deep down I'm kind of a goth kid who wants to party (but still feel deep). One of the great things about NIN is as Trent Reznor has gotten older, he's shifted away from the doom and gloom industrial stomp and really embraced his Depeche Mode/New Order love. Which is great, because I've kind of gone in that direction, too. So, the new single, Discipline, is (in my opinion) alot of fun. Just a simple synth line with an unpretentious melody, and even a little cheekiness (intentional or not). Their other song, Echoplex, was released via a Facebook application (weird.) Initially I was pretty down on it, but since im a giant NIN fanboy, eventually its hypnotic beat + deliberately strange harmonies won me over. Kind of.

Now, Coldplay. I so want to hate them, but honestly, I don't. I liked Parachutes and A Sudden Rush... but didn't like their latest album. My biggest beef was probably how forgettable alot of their music sounds, (see: previous gripes about my hatred of 'background' music) and I wanted a little more urgency. They started getting into it a little with X&Y (which I inherently didnt like because that is the dumbest title for an album, ever. If I were you, Chris, I wouldn't showcase my inability to understand basic algebra.) They really only accomplished it with the fantastic "White Shadows" especially with that booming bridge-into-chorus and the whole "everything you've ever wanted, in a permanent state" awesomeness. But the rest of the album was their usual soppy foot dragging pityfest. Barf.

Violet Hill, their new single, is great. It's great. I love that he starts with a little piano and then throws down an extra fuzzy guitar stomp that takes you awesomely by surprise. I think the lyrics are genius (When the future's architectured/By a carnival of idiots on show/You'd better lie low) and I like that they seem to have a little snarl to them. It's about time.

Food Crisis Time! This is definitely an article worth reading. It's always depressing to see severe crises like these that resonate very little with us (or our presidential candidates!) because of the gap in how seriously we are affected versus how seriously Ukranians and Argentinians are affected. But if nothing else, it should motivate everyone to dismiss this stupid biofuel stuff as inefficient voter-pandering garbage until we can feed everyone. (Maybe that's laying it on thick, but whatever). It's really well written. Thoughts on this?

Zimbabwe, Gnarls Barkley

I don't really know what to say about Zimbabwe. Clearly, Mugabe is destroying the country and its residents. Slow, economic death with no efforts to reverse it isn't any less contemptible than any other form of oppression. Of course, we can't just march into a sovereign state and tell it how to run its elections. (hint.) We ALSO can't keep tiptoeing around Zimbabwe and Sudan and everywhere else, exposing our hypocrisy over our post-WWII "Never again!" posturing. A Problem from Hell, indeed. I guess the UN is supposed to save us from these urges to reconstruct regimes, Geneva-Convention-Violating-Style, right? right? Wrong.

"when the United Nations Security Council considered Zimbabwe, South Africa, the region’s most powerful nation and president of the council at the time, opposed sending an envoy to Zimbabwe, saying the situation there was not a threat to international peace." Bureaucracy at work! Answers, anybody?

Also, an outbreak of enterovirus is sweeping across China.

But, the new Gnarls Barkley album is a lot of fun. I guess its not that new, like a month old, but because they didnt have some infectious single like "Crazy" i barely heard about it. But that's stupid, because "Run" and Going On" are perfectly single-worthy. Meanwhile the album is cohesive and progressive, which is a credit to Cee-Lo's fantastic (and soulful) voice, Dangermouse's production (much more subtle than the last album and less reliant on the "cut-up" sounds that were previously a stamp of his work) as well as their combined weirdo sci-fi-esque sensibilities. My one complaint about most r&b/soul stuff is its monotony, and frankly, lack of fun, and this album proudly suffers from neither of those problems. Buy it for your next house party.

transatlantic boserk health care discussion, sort of transcribed

robin argues from india:
"Large employers are far more likely to provide some health care coverage; small ones do not, because health care premiums are very high and because they don't have the bargaining power of the larger firms who can provide volume to health insurance companies in return for lower premiums. So your plan doesn't address the crux of the problem, and it will also drive premiums up even further, since cost of coverage is linked to how much coverage is purchased."

USA Today article on above: http://www.usatoday.com/money/smallbusiness/2006-10-08-employ-usat_x.htm

santosh: mandate large business, government subsidize small businesses. exemptions provide loopholes.

robin: "I feel very strongly, on the other hand, that the 40 million Americans who are unemployed, or are employed but without health insurance, should recieve coverage, mandated by the federal government. I assume there is no daylight between us on that aspect. Our difference comes in WHAT is covered. If ALL procedures are covered for ALL illnesses for ALL people who have no incentive to take care of themselves, people will keep coming into point-of-care with late-stage problems, and either the taxpayer or corporations have to foot the bill. There isn't enough money for that."

santosh: obviously rather than the above i support a single payer system, but im thinking realistically. expanding coverage doesn't mean providing coverage for anything. in fact, covering more people may mean not covering more elective procedures for anyone, but that's a good tradeoff.

robin: if you favor expanded coverage, then why are you hating on things like MinuteClinics in CVS and Walmart type stores for screening, and on online doctors?

santosh: the issue here is quality of health care. internet doctor guy doesnt take insurance so he's just exploiting rich people in a hurry. those people would be better off if they saw a doctor in person, and we shouldnt enable people to get riskier healthcare if they can get less risky healthcare. i have no problem with things like minuteclinics for large-scale screenings, ESPECIALLY for people with no insurance. the issue is for people who do have insurance, is this a time-saving strategy? Again, that makes these people take on a risk by not seeing an actual doctor, and currently i dont think its difficult enough to see a doctor (if you DO have insurance) to validate that. i would much MUCH rather just pay for the uninsured to have insurance so everyone can have healthcare without some people that have less time or money shouldering increased risk.

robin, you rock dude.