[via Erehwon Notebook]
9:58:31 PM    please comment []

In the Jack Daniel's experiments, the researchers distilled away all of the alcohol and other components that could evaporate away and separated the rest into two parts: one water soluble, the other not. They then spiked each into young, one-year-old Jack Daniel's and asked a panel of trained tasters their opinions of the taste.

If you like Old No. 7, you'll want to read this NY Times article.
8:44:43 PM    please comment []

Humans are born with temperaments arising from genetic variations in brain chemicals called neuromodulators, Dr. Quartz said. These differences may lead one baby to avoid novelty and another to seek it. But the experiences that result help construct the growing brain.

Humans are also born with a very large prefrontal cortex, a higher brain region involved in planning that taps into an ancient system for predicting what is rewarding and making decisions to maximize rewards and avoid punishments.

Neuroscientists are finding that this circuit, which fully matures in late adolescence, is an internal guidance system that fills each person's world with values, meaning and emotional tone, taking shape according to a person's culture.

In other words, culture contributes not just to the brain's contents but to its wiring as well, Dr. Quartz said.

8:34:48 PM    please comment []

I don't know exactly what's going on, but it's not bad. I think some of it has to do with being more available to feel touched by things, because of the difficult but valuable decisions I've made recently. Some of it is probably the odd combined sensation of stress and release from stress than I'm experiencing. And perhaps some of it has to do with the gradual disappearance from my bloodstream of the medication I'd been taking for over a year.

I served at the Healing Rite this past Sunday. It was a wonderful All Saint's service, replete with smells and bells and well-known scripture. There were more people than usual presenting themselves for the Rite, and it seemed to me that the Holy Spirit was especially available. I was, as always, deeply moved by the profession of faith demonstrated by those who come to the chapel. It's a difficult thing to ask for help, to acknowledge the limits of one's own abilities or control, and to entrust one's concerns to God. Of all the things I do in my life, none makes me feel as privileged and as grateful as does serving as a minister of healing.

[Update: This happens sometimes. I just received a telephone call from one of the people I prayed with Sunday, who wanted to thank me and tell me about the happy outcome of her medical tests. She sounded apologetic about "dumping all her worries on me." I assured her that she hadn't dumped anything on me, but rather that she had brought her fears and anxieties before the throne of grace. I thanked her for sharing her good news with me and added "Thanks be to God." I know very well how little this has to do with me, and without pushing her away, I wanted to shift the gratitude away from me and direct it where it belongs.]
8:20:41 PM    please comment []

The work of the past half-century in psychology and neuroscience has been to downplay the role of unconscious universal drives, focusing instead on rational processes in conscious life. Meanwhile, dreams were downgraded to a kind of mental static, random scraps of memory flickering through the sleeping brain. But researchers have found evidence that Freud's drives really do exist, and they have their roots in the limbic system, a primitive part of the brain that operates mostly below the horizon of consciousness. Now more commonly referred to as emotions, the modern suite of drives comprises five: rage, panic, separation distress, lust and a variation on libido sometimes called seeking. Freud presaged this finding in 1915, when he wrote that drives originate "from within the organism" in response to demands placed on the mind "in consequence of its connection with the body." Drives, in other words, are primitive brain circuits that control how we respond to our environment ~ foraging when we're hungry, running when we're scared and lusting for a mate.

In particular, the "seeking" drive is proving especially interesting:

Since the 1970s, neurologists have known that dreaming takes place during a particular form of sleep known as REM ~ rapid eye movement ~ which is associated with a primitive part of the brain known as the pons. Accordingly, they regarded dreaming as a low-level phenomenon of no great psychological interest. When Solms looked into it, though, it turned out that the key structure involved in dreaming was actually the ventral tegmental, the same structure that Panksepp had identified as the seat of the "seeking" emotion. Dreams, it seemed, originate with the libido ~ which is just what Freud had believed.

Read the whole Newsweek article.

[via MyAppleMenu]
1:53:05 PM    please comment []

I think we can agree that, even if their version 1.0 software often leaves a bit to be desired, Apple ultimately does a great job with bundled basic consumer software (iTunes, iPhoto, even iCal). So what would get people to sign up in droves for the somewhat pricey .Mac service?

Really good weblogging software. (iBlog, anyone?)

Think about it: it's a natural. Everyone wants a blog. Everyone wants nice spiffy templates designed by some of the best in the business. Everyone wants to have an excuse to use all those megabytes of webserver space.

Apple currently provides pagemaking facilities for .Mac, but they could be so much better. How cool would it be to have all this stuff available in a nice intuitive weblog package right "out of the box," as it were? Integrated with iPhoto and iCal as a bonus, it could be a knockout.

So, those of you who subscribe to .Mac, won't you please go and add your $.02 in the suggestion area?
1:34:56 PM    please comment []

I was talking to a friend the other day, and during the course of our conversation, he admitted to me that he doesn't vote. My reply to him was that my estimation of him immediately tumbled a substantial amount. This is a smart person in a lot of ways, but for some reason has decided to take himself out of the process. I just told him that in future discussions, his opinion of any political issues didn't matter to me, as they obviously didn't matter to him enough for him to express them.

Don't sit on the sidelines and complain. Participate, and then complain ~ at least your complaints will have some standing.
2:40:47 AM    please comment []

But I'm still cranking it out anyway: another Dennis chunk hits the web.
2:12:02 AM    please comment []