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Martin Amis takes a novel look at science:

The writer will be joined by high profile psychotherapist Adam Philips and philosopher and academic John Gray for the evening event in the University’s Whitworth Hall. The speakers will ask if science has overtaken literature as a way of making sense of the world. They will also discuss topics including the role of imaginative writing in chronicling and critiquing “scientific’ activities, and how literature can and should respond to recent controversies in bio-technology and genetic engineering.

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Burgess produced journalism in British, Italian, French and American newspapers and magazines regularly–even compulsively–and in prodigious quantities. Martin Amis quipped in The Observer (London) in 1987: “…on top of writing regularly for every known newspaper and magazine, Anthony Burgess writes regularly for every unknown one, too. Pick up a Hungarian quarterly or a Portuguese tabloid–and there is a Burgess, discoursing on goulash or test-driving the new Fiat 500.

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Cultural references

* Karen tells Hank her favorite authors are Virginia Woolf, Martin Amis, and Charles Bukowski. Karen can later be seen reading Bukowski’s book, Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, The Line, The Way: New Poems. Hank Moody, Duchovny’s character, is based on Charles Bukowski’s autobiographical alias Henry Chinaski. Henry “Hank” Chinaski is the subject of Bukowski’s novels, from which the subject matter of the series is largely based upon.

* Charlie says that after his spin job, the public won’t be able to tell whether Hank’s next book is a piece of shit or “a heartbreaking work of staggering genius,” which is the name of a Dave Eggers book. To this, Hank replies “There’s a difference?”

kjrbuilders.com » Blog Archive » Filthy Lucre (Californication episode)

Dr. Patrick J. Kelly, the head of neurosurgery at New York University, folded his arms hard against his chest, radiating skepticism.

“I have a neurological problem that I’ve never told anyone about — not a soul,” he recalls saying to his colleague Dr. Rodolfo Llinás before an auditorium packed with neurosurgeons. “You listen to my brain and tell me what it is. If you do, I will believe you.”

So it was that Dr. Kelly allowed his brain to be scanned in a MEG machine, a device that measures tiny magnetic signals reflecting changes in brain rhythms.

After analyzing his colleague’s brain activity, Dr. Llinás announced: “You have tinnitus. Right brain. The phantom sound ringing in your ears must be very loud. It is low frequency, a rumbling noise.”

Dr. Kelly was stunned, he said later. He had been hearing that noise ever since he served at a station hospital in Danang during the Vietnam War. The roar of helicopters dropping off casualties had permanently warped his hearing.

Dr. Llinás, the chairman of neuroscience and physiology at the N.Y.U. School of Medicine, believes that abnormal brain rhythms help account for a variety of serious disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, tinnitus and depression. His theory may explain why the technique called deep brain stimulation — implanting electrodes into particular regions of the brain — often alleviates the symptoms of movement disorders like Parkinson’s.

The theory is far from widely accepted, and most neurosurgeons say the mechanisms behind deep brain stimulation remain a mystery. Still, surgeons like Dr. Kelly are excited about the research, saying it suggests new targets for treating a variety of disorders.

Scientist at Work - Rodolfo Llinás - In a Host of Ailments, Seeing a Brain Out of Rhythm - Biography - NYTimes.com

Israeli Opera’s new musical director says ‘No’ to Wagner

By Haggai Hitron

Richard Wagner and his works will remain a sensitive topic in Israel for many years, the Israeli Opera’s new musical director, conductor David Stern, told reporters yesterday.

“I don’t think it’s such a great loss to Israeli audiences. I still conduct Wagner in other places around the world, but there are many other things that are worthwhile to conduct here,” he said.

Stern takes the podium for the first time this week.

Under Stern’s baton, the opera will return to performing Georgian-born Israeli composer Yosef Bardanashvili’s “A Journey to the End of the Millennium,” based on the novel by author A.B. Yehoshua and directed by Omri Nitzan.

Stern added that he is a fan of the French repertoire and would be happy to emphasize those works in the Opera’s future performances.

Israeli Opera’s new musical director says ‘No’ to Wagner - Haaretz - Israel News

For Three Years, Every Bite Organic

Fruits, vegetables and animals can be 100 percent organic. What about people?

In a fascinating experiment — on himself — Dr. Alan Greene, a pediatrician and author in Danville, Calif., decided to find out. For the last three years, Dr. Greene has eaten nothing but organic foods, whether he’s cooking at home, dining out or snacking on the road.

He chose three years as a goal because that was the amount of time it took to have a breeding animal certified organic by the Department of Agriculture. While food growers comply with organic regulations every day, Dr. Greene wondered whether a person could meet the same standards.

It hasn’t been easy.

“This isn’t a way of eating I could recommend to anybody else because it’s so far off the beaten food grid,” said Dr. Greene, 49, the founder of a popular Web site about children’s health, drgreene.com. “It was much more challenging than I thought it would be, and I thought it would be tough. There were definitely days where there was nothing I could find that was organic.”

Other writers have ventured off the traditional food grid, notably Barbara Kingsolver in “Animal, Vegetable, Mineral” and Michael Pollan in “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.” But what makes Dr. Greene’s experiment remarkable is the length of time he devoted to it, and his effort to incorporate organic eating into the routines of everyday living. His findings offer new insight into the challenges facing the organic food industry and those of us who want to patronize it.

Organic farmers don’t use conventional methods to fertilize the soil, control weeds and pests, or prevent disease in livestock.

Organic methods often lead to higher costs, and consumers can pay twice as much for organic foods as for conventional products. Last week, the financial advice Web site SmartMoney.com reported that to feed eight people an organic meal of traditional Thanksgiving foods, a shopper would pay $295.36 — a premium of $126.35, or 75 percent, over a nonorganic holiday spread.

To cut back on the cost of an organic diet, Dr. Greene said he had to cut back on meat. “Whenever you go up the food chain, the costs pile up,” he said. “If you don’t eat meat at every meal, if meat becomes more of a side dish than a centerpiece, you can fill the plate with healthy organic food for about the same price.”

Questions remain about whether organic foods are really better for you. The data are mixed. This fall, researchers from the University of Copenhagen reported on a two-year experiment in which they grew carrots, kale, peas, potatoes and apples using both organic and conventional growing methods. The researchers found that the growing methods made no difference in the nutrients in the crops or the levels of nutrients retained by rats that ate them, according to the study, published in The Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.

But other research suggests that organic foods do contain more of certain nutrients — almost twice as many, in the case of organic tomatoes studied for a 2007 report in The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Dr. Greene said he was inspired to go all-organic after talking to a dairy farmer who noted that livestock got sick less after a switch to organic practices. He wondered if becoming 100 percent organic might improve his own health.

Three years later, he says he has more energy and wakes up earlier. As a pediatrician regularly exposed to sick children, he was accustomed to several illnesses a year. Now, he says, he is rarely ill. His urine is a brighter yellow, a sign that he is ingesting more vitamins and nutrients.

At home, he said, the organic routine was relatively easy. Organic food is widely available, not just at stores like Whole Foods but at traditional supermarkets. He also shopped at farmer’s markets and joined a local community-supported agriculture group, or C.S.A. Because he bought less meat, the costs tended to balance out. And his family (two of his four children still live at home) largely went along with the experiment.

On the road, though, life was more challenging. In corporate cafeterias and convenience stores, he looked for stickers that began with the number 9 to signify organic; stickers on conventionally grown produce begin with 4.

When dining out, he called ahead; high-end restaurants were willing to accommodate his all-organic request. He also found a few lines of organic backpacking food that he could carry with him.

Dr. Greene reached the three-year milestone in October, but his diet is still organic. He hasn’t decided whether to keep going full tilt or to ease up in the interest of cost and convenience. In his latest book, “Raising Baby Green: The Earth-Friendly Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth and Baby Care” (Jossey-Bass), he advocates a “strategic” approach, urging parents to insist on organic versions of a few main foods, like milk, potatoes, apples and baby food.

The biggest surprise of the whole experience, he says, was that many people still don’t know what “organic” means.

“It’s surprising to me how few people know that organic means without pesticides, antibiotics or hormones,” he said. “In stores or restaurants around the country, I would ask, ‘Do you have anything organic?’ Half the time they would say, ‘Do you mean vegetarian?’ ”

The New York Times

A vigorous hand wash or shower could cause a person to be less judgmental.

A new study, set for publication in the December issue of the journal Psychological Science, reveals that when a person feels physically clean, he or she cuts others more moral slack.

The findings add to past research that has shown a link between physical warmth and generosity as well as physical chill and social isolation. Other past research has shown that sins seem to nudge people to clean themselves, a phenomenon the researchers dubbed the “Macbeth effect” after the dramatized murderess who tried scrubbing her hands to clean off imaginary blood.

“When we exercise moral judgment, we believe we are making a conscious, rational decision, but this research shows that we are subconsciously influenced by how clean or ‘pure’ we feel,” said lead researcher of the new study Simone Schnall, a psychologist at the University of Plymouth in England. “Take for example the situation of a jury member or voting in an election — if the jury member had washed their hands prior to delivering their verdict, they may judge the crime less harshly.”

She added, “Similarly, someone may find it easier to overlook a political misdemeanor had they performed an action that made them feel ‘clean’ prior to casting their vote.”

Clean People Are Less Judgmental | LiveScience

“We thought we knew something we didn’t,” said T. Mark Harrison, a professor of geochemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles. In hindsight the evidence was just not there. And new evidence has suggested a new view of the early Earth.

Over the last decade, the mineralogical analysis of small hardy crystals known as zircons embedded in old Australian rocks has painted a picture of the Hadean period “completely inconsistent with this myth we made up,” Dr. Harrison said.

Geologists now almost universally agree that by 4.2 billion years ago, the Earth was a pretty placid place, with both land and oceans. Instead of hellishly hot, it may have frozen over. Because the young Sun put out 30 percent less energy than it does today, temperatures on Earth might have been cold enough for parts of the surface to have been covered by expanses of ice.

A New View of the Early Earth, Thanks to Australian Rocks - NYTimes.com

Last year, 800,000 Americans were arrested on pot charges, 90 percent for possession. In Virginia, where George Washington grew hemp, two plants can get you up to 30 years in prison.

Now that’s really dopey.

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