Neurological Correlates

“Man shoots“
Man shoots wife, child and himself
Independent Online, South Africa - May 27, 2008
“It was alleged at the scene that the man had shot his family before turning the gun on himself.” said Dollman. Police were not immediately available for …
Augusta Man Shoots Neighbor During Dog Dispute
NBC Augusta, South Carolina - May 28, 2008
Investigators tell [...]

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So far, lorcaserin is the only weight loss drug in the near future that makes commercial sense to me, not to say it is the most wonderful drug in the world and the science is, imo, sort of a yawner.
I keep an eye out for better weight loss drugs on the horizon — so here’s [...]

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Fragile X premutation, schizophrenia, biopolar and major psychosis are all related to mistakes in DNA processing complicated by failure of DNA repair mechanisms to correct it.

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So, what possesses anyone to show their genitals to a stranger in public? Research on exhibitionism discussed.

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Henry Darger, “Storm Brewing” via Ovation TV (Outsider Art)
Child molester news and pedophile research discussed.
It used to be, if you were a father raping your daughter, or a priest raping your alter boy, you could pretty much stay anonymous; the community would turn a blind eye, the church would cover for you, and you [...]

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OK, time to close the book on adolescent self-indulgent angst-like introspection: on blogging.
After the Research Bloggers complained that I wasn’t research-y enough, (although they did backtrack a bit), I thought about it and concluded they were correct, in that I’m really not interested in the “gee-whiz” science so much as “what can this science do [...]

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Further to the report on murder-suicides (26 stories):
Man shoots . . .
Gunman shoots 3 at church festival- LOS ANGELES, May 17 (UPI) — . . . .Los [...]

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Brain Scans as Mind Readers? Dont Believe the Hype
This is just a link to a terrific article in Wired magazine by Dr. Daniel Carlat. Dr. Carlat goes through various types of brain scanning and meets with different neuroimaging experts. He concludes that his own neuroimaging, in its present state, is useless for [...]

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The anti-smoking drug Chantix is in the news for having significant side-effects — which brings up a conundrum: which is worse, the drug or the addiction?
New research shows the nature and the environment: (a) some people are clearly genetically loaded to smoke; and (b)  when people quit, they quit in groups of three.
Which brings up [...]

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Senator Kennedy has a brain tumor — I just heard. I felt sad, like it was my “Uncle Teddy”. No matter that I always personally blamed Sen. Kennedy for totally spending the jillions for the gorgeous and expensive Federal District Court in Boston as well as the Big Dig (I was always just [...]

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What’s the latest research on narcissism? Three studies  discussed:
1. Narcissists are motivated to achieve a desired outcome (probably further personal glory) but not that motivated to avoid a negative outcome.
2. Depressive symptoms induce paranoid symptoms in narcissistic personalities (but not narcissistic symptoms in paranoid personalities).
3. On-line gamers are reported to be high on the [...]

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Ok, this is strictly a pharma-geek post, but this is why there is science: combining chemistry, protein structure, medicine, computer science, and third world social sciences, scientists from Cleveland and Chicago made a mini-revolution: uber-insulin that doesn’t need refrigeration. How great is that?

Maybe a little back story: One of my side projects is working with [...]

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A new feature, probably on Fridays, dysfunction in the news:
Woodbury man charged with starting fire on NWA flight. If you are unhappy with your working conditions, go burn down your employer — especially if you work on an airplane.
Missouri Woman Accused of Driving Girl to Suicide Is Indicted in California From the NYT summary: [...]

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It seems like every day the news has another story about some guy who guns down the wife and kids, optionally committing suicide. The question, “why?” is too small to ponder in view of the enormity of the evil shown by these types of mass murderers. Lately these guys who kill their kids and [...]

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Nevermind that I haven’t read the book I’m about to review — this post is about white-shoe whistleblowers.

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Lawyer, n.: One skilled in circumvention of the law.
Bierce, Ambrose The Devil’s Dictionary, (1881-1906, serial)

Here’s the same old story: company hits hard times and has to make some cuts. So, they trump up reasons to force a little attrition of the more expensive employees. Of course, you start by culling the weak — the ones [...]

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When this happens, we are all touched by evil.

Josef Fritzl, Vincent Filyaw, and Hans Reiser. Three monsters, who committed atrocities as instrumentalities — as the means to an end, not as the end in and of themselves. One, to shut up his daughter so she wouldn’t rat him out for incest. Two, [...]

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There were some articles lately about blogger burnout — not sure if that’s what happened or what, but my mind totally was not on blogging here. Real life and all.
I’ve also had time to think — the Research Bloggers organization said my blog was not analytical enough, and they’re probably right. I generally write [...]

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