No one's depressed when doing a polka

Should I be concerned that I spend two or three hours at a time perfectly still, then move for a moment or two before going back to stasis? Glad there's a power law governing the way I move. "In this week's Physical Review Letters, Yoshiharu Yamamoto of the University of Tokyo and his colleagues explain how the movements of people suffering from clinical depression can be described by a power law—and how this law is so different from that of healthy people that it looks truly diagnostic."

The curves produced by plotting the lengths of low-activity periods against their frequency were strikingly different in healthy and depressed people. This reflects not inactivity by the depressed (though they were, indeed, less active) but a difference in the way that the healthy and the depressed spread their resting periods over the day. Depressed people experience longer resting periods more frequently and shorter ones less frequently than healthy people do.

So...if this is correct than what would happen flipping this on its head? Let's assume for a moment that the depression and movement curves are merely correlated. Is it a one-way street, or is it a feedback loop that can be affected by changing resting periods. Suppose a therapy, the sole purpose of which is to force the patient to move/rest in accordance with the "healthy" power law curve. Would that be efficacious?

Or, there is a purely causal relationship, in which case the altered movement curve is solely useful for objective diagnosis. If that's the case, it's at least a huge leap forward in diagnosis.

Personally, I don't believe in many purely causal relationships in biology. The systems are so complex that the interactions tend to feedback, either directly or through related channels. Given that, I hope someone takes this research in hand and tries studying the effects of my proposed treatment.

Here's a link to the paper.

Also, via MindHacks

Alzheimer's = Type 3 Diabetes?

An interesting study out of Northwestern raises the possibility that Alzheimer's is a third type of diabetes. PhysOrg has a summary:

Now scientists at Northwestern University have discovered why brain insulin signaling -- crucial for memory formation -- would stop working in Alzheimer’s disease. They have shown that a toxic protein found in the brains of individuals with Alzheimer’s removes insulin receptors from nerve cells, rendering those neurons insulin resistant. (The protein, known to attack memory-forming synapses, is called an ADDL for “amyloid ß-derived diffusible ligand.”)

With other research showing that levels of brain insulin and its related receptors are lower in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, the Northwestern study sheds light on the emerging idea of Alzheimer’s being a “type 3” diabetes.

This leads me to suggest that the same dietary changes that seem to fend off insulin resistance - decrease in overall carbohydrate intake, slight reduction in snacking, total caloric reduction - would have a prophylactic benefit for Alzheimer's as well.

This is quite possibly why calorie restriction seems to reduce the prevalence of Alzheimer's. This study published back in '06 "found that 30% CR resulted in reduced contents of Abeta1-40 and Abeta1-42 peptides in the temporal cortex of Squirrel monkeys, relative to control (CON) fed monkeys." To de-geek that just a little bit, there was less amyloid-beta (Abeta), which means less of the neuropathology it causes in Alzheimer's patients.

This is all relatively fresh research and as such should be taken with several grains of salt (unless you have high blood pressure;) however, since my few readers are at the age where they can still positively impact their lives with dietary changes I thought I'd pass it along. Not that I'm likely to improve my diet, good benefits near-term and far- notwithstanding.

via MindHacks

I will have vengeance!

Click this link!!!

I promise that not only will you not be Rickrolled, but that you be thrilled. At least I'd imagine anyone who'd bother coming here would be. It doesn't look perfect, but it looks a LOT better than I'd feared. I'm now, get this, excited!

via Tosy and Cosh

Lap dance research heats up: fertile ground for study

I'm not the strip club type. I've been about a half-dozen times in my life and only enjoyed it once. When I was 18, a friend of mine (who was obsessed with "straightening" out a mutual friend, so I never could get beyond the friend stage with her) stripped to pay her way through school. Since she eventually got her PhD and now teaches music theory at some uni in the flyovers, it seemed to work out for her. Anyway, I had fun the first time I went to see her dance, as a large group of us went and hung out. It was quite a social time.

The other few times I've gone have not been so much fun: a co-worker's going-away party with me sitting around watching others get lap dances and wishing I could just leave; the one time I went to an empty, skeezy bar by myself to watch my aforementioned friend strip; a couple of other times lost in the mists of time. I love women. I have NO problem objectifying women (I'm a pig.) I love porn (did I mention I'm a pig?) I don't like strip clubs.

Now, I think I know why. I think I've always had the misfortune of going when the strippers weren't in estrus.

A study shortly to be published in the journal Evolution and Human Behaviour found that lap dancers in their most fertile phase of the menstrual cycle earned much more than dancers in the least fertile phase. In contrast, dancers who took the contraceptive pill, which 'flattens' the hormone cycle, earned much the same throughout the month.

Forget it Jake, it's America

Jake Halpern's new book is Fame Junkies: The Hidden Truths Behind America's Favorite Addictionwhich "examines why Americans are so obsessed with celebrities and probes some of the more troubling ramifications of this obsession." He was scheduled to talk about it on CNN earlier this week, but...

So it was certainly a delightful irony when, upon my arrival, I was told that my segment had been canceled due to breaking news. "Oh," I said, "What happened?" The technician replied, "Didn't you hear, Britney Spears just lost custody of her kids?"

Hoe down, aroma's up

If I cared enough to grow my own herbs (read: if I didn't live in a damn desert and could grow my own herbs) I would definitely be heading to the health food store for some chitosan.

They [Dr. Hyun-Jin Kim and Professor Feng Chen] soaked basil seeds for 30 minutes in a chitosan solution, then soaked the roots again when they transferred the seedlings to larger pots. After 45 days, they compared the chemical composition of leaves from treated and untreated plants. They found that at the optimum chitosan concentration, the antioxidant activity in treated plants was greater by more than three times. The overall production of aroma compounds was up by nearly 50 percent, and the levels of clove-like and flowery components doubled.

Squirrels Have No Souls!

"Sugarshock" issue 3 is up and it's a doozy.

For the song is indescribably sad. It's sort of like Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings" if it was written by Leonard Cohen and Paul Westerberg for Emmylou Harris, with a hint of the theme from that French film Diva in the underscoring and a bridge that feels a bit like The Dead breaking into "Morning Dew"...

Stupid is as Stupid does

Jesus. You'd think I'd learn. I let myself get dragged into a discussion online (on a right-wing blog, no less) with a criminally stupid person. It started out simple enough. During one of the commenter's idiotic assaults on global warming science (debating the current state of the research and the current analysis of said research is not per se stupid...this guy? stupid) he said that it was warmer in the summer because the Earth is closer to the sun. I'd had enough of his ID-like comments, so I jumped in to explain why the Earth is warmer and point out that it was a coincidence that perihelion occurs during the summer. In the southern hemisphere's summer, aphelion occurs.

That should have been that. No debate. No argument. No getting dragged along into a "discussion" with said moron. Instead I broke my own rules and let myself "debate" with the Special Ed dropout.

Unfortunately, society frowns on killing the criminally stupid. Someday, though. Someday we'll live in a world where...well some of us will live there...a world where all the stupid people have done us the favor of using their hair dryers in the shower, or choking on the wheels from their Thomas the Tank, or hiring Blackwater for personal security. Until that day, the rest of us must suffer.

I "quiver" with anticipation

Holy Crap!!! This puts me in a much better mood. I was reading Sepinwall this morning (as I do every day) and saw this. He says it's the best news he's heard all day, but for me it's the best news of the month (it's the morning of the 3rd, give me a break.)

Variety is reporting that Rob Thomas is going to be re-imagining Cupid for ABC!

Definitely follow the link to Alan's blog, because he took the time to travel the twisting paths of YouTube to find someone archived all 15 original episodes.

Ken Levine's Comedy Conference Call

Ken Levine cracks me up. I'm sitting on his conference call right now and he's killing. I honestly can't believe the amount he does for aspiring writers.

Right now he's discussing a valuable comedy lesson he and partner David Isaacs learned early in their career. They'd written a series of one-act comedies in different styles, including a farce. On the opening Friday, the audience laughed uproariously throughout most of the play, but near the end just stopped. Concerned, they tried to figure out what might have been the cause but couldn't find anything. During Saturday night's performance, the crowd laughed all the way through. Ken and David decided it was a fluke.

The following Friday, it happened again. Apparently, audiences are just too tired after a full week's work. So, when they reached the point in their careers where they had enough juice to demand it, they insisted on Tuesday tapings before studio audiences. Remember that: you want a fresh audience, especially if you're showing farce.

I'll leave it to others to discuss the difficult actors Ken's worked with. I will say that he said Shelly Long was not difficult at all, but that her process was time-consuming.

Whoa! Cue cards!

Reason #37 to live in a real city^* as opposed to this waystation in the frackin' desert: Point Break LIVE!

The Brechtian blockbuster, which garnered a "Seattle P-I Best of Seattle 2004" award during its run in the Northwest, features armed robbery, big-wave surfing, car chases, explosions, and no less than two extended skydiving sequences. Best of all, you could be the next Johnny Utah... the starring role of Keanu will be selected at random from the audience each night, and will read their entire script off of cue-cards.

It's playing in LA starting 12 October.
via Deadspin, of all places.

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^* I know. I'm stretching the concept "real city" by including LA, but it does have an awful lot of cultural advantages to the senior citizen sandbox.

New Miserables Experience

There's video above, FeedReader!
This week's HIMYM was not well-loved. I am personally shocked by this, as I think it was funnier than the season premiere (then again, I despise Mandy Moore.) On Sepinwall's blog, it got pretty well beat up, first by Alan and then by most of the commenters. Opined I, early on, that I liked it a lot, because the cold open was so smooth, with a perfect rule-of-3 gag for Ted that paid off in spades.

One other commenter had much love for the episode and I followed links to her blog and wouldn't you know it, she's a spec monkey. Shoulda guessed! Anyway, taking a look over her archives, I found the great clip above. I can't believe I'd never seen it before. I just wish they'd done a three-part harmony instead so Megan could have joined in on top. Ah, Rosemary.

Damn that Batman!

I haven't been forced to take a Myers-Briggs in years. And that wasn't even my fault, I swear. Some people had trouble dealing with my manager, so we had to do some group dynamics crap for two or three days. Mind you, I got along great with my manager. He was a competent, brash, insensitive MIT grad. That team need much more brutality from above, crying from below.

Anyway, I believe the last time I took the M-B I came out as an INTP. I retook one online this morning to see if I've changed. I haven't. Then I checked my results against The REAL Myers-Briggs Personality Types Made Relevant:

The Egghead

The typical INTP is a logical, abstract thinker whose intellect is ideally suited to understanding pure mathematics, linguistics, formal logic theory, and other pursuits unsuited to making a real living. The INTP can often understand even the most subtle nuances of lattice quantum chromodynamics, but cannot perform more concrete tasks such as dressing himself, operating a motor vehicle, or opening a door. An INTP may be able to tell you how to construct a nuclear reactor from a coconut and two pieces of string, but may be completely incapable of fixing a hole in a boat.

While I'm pretty strongly typed as INT, I only weakly express a preference between Perceiving/Judging. So if one more of you bastids pisses me off, I'm likely to become the outside contractor and build that damn Death Star.

via Mind Hacks

Should have written, didn't write. Must be Monday.

Another evening without writing. Very depressing. Especially since I'd started to mentally outline a short pulp story on my drive home from the shit-job. I've been meaning to repurpose a character I created a while back into something frothy and fun to submit to Astonishing Adventures and was making some real headway into the story, but then there was dinner and afterwards I got caught up watching tv instead. Since there's only a half-hour I care about on Mondays (HIMYM) and an extra half tonight to try the pilot of Aliens in America, it should have been easy to put in a few hours. Instead, there was a lot of junk watched for no good reason.

Maybe tomorrow.

Who knows? Maybe I'll work on that AND the bible for the web cartoon AND the pilot spec that needs refinement AND that DAMN 30 Rock spec I keep putting off. Or I'll download porn. You know, for research.

They really should play more Bjork here!

There's video above, FeedReader.

Brian's right. I have been blogging way more about tv than anything else. So in honor of the politics I've been leaving off the blog for awhile (I'm just too tired to focus on it most of the time) here's a little tribute to Iceland's lonely coalition troop, going home.