2008.11.13
Their idea is, in broad outline, straightforward. Dr. Crespi and Dr. Badcock propose that an evolutionary tug of war between genes from the father’s sperm and the mother's egg can, in effect, tip brain development in one of two ways. A strong bias toward the father pushes a developing brain along the autistic spectrum, toward a fascination with objects, patterns, mechanical systems, at the expense of social development. A bias toward the mother moves the growing brain along what the researchers call the psychotic spectrum, toward hypersensitivity to mood, their own and others'. This, according to the theory, increases a child’s risk of developing schizophrenia later on, as well as mood problems like bipolar disorder and depression.There is something intuitive about this kind of analysis, which worries me, because it might way too facile -- it certainly jives with certain stereotypes of men and logic and women and emotion, maybe to too great an extent to be trusted.
Video of the Moment
--"Pork and Beans" by Weezer is kind of an interesting survey of popular viral videos. This page embeds most of the references, a few of which I had missed.
Envy of the Moment
"Capable," for sure. Mrs. Post racked up truly startling accomplishments—along with her best-selling guide, Etiquette (1922), she wrote six novels, scads of journalism, and a 500-page book on architecture; had a long career in radio; designed her own high-fashion clothes; endorsed everything from cigarettes to gingerbread; and built a 15-story apartment house that still stands at the corner of Madison Avenue and 79th Street in Manhattan. She lived in 9B, and her friends filled the rest of the building.I am filled with envy; an apartment building filled with friends is my ideal living arrangement, the balance between personal spaces and communal merriment.
It's weird when I try to relocate my place browsing slashdot's front page; I realize stories that I decided to skip don't register AT ALL
Increasingly aware of how my brain prefers lots of shallow concepts over fewer deeper ones. I even see it in my OO programming preferences.
How much of the October downturn in consumer stuff is folks getting the bejeebers scared outta them by Wall St? (Spend it if you got it...)
Every few days my work laptop goes nuts and remaps most punctuation to foreign characters, so I switch the kbd to to "English(Zimbabwe)"