Dissident’s Arrest Hints at Olympic Crackdown by Jim Yardley, NYTimes.

Loved this article and the research question asked. The judges will surely squirm, at the very least, when the full article is published next month in the Tulane Law Review!

For those of you curious about what I've been learning at school, this is a cursory but good summary of psychopathy.

* via Scientific American Mind.

People who describe themselves as being politically liberal can better suppress a habitual response when faced with situations in which that response is incorrect, according to research that used a simple cognitive test to compare liberal and conservative thinkers. Tasks that require such “conflict monitoring” also triggered more activity in the liberals’ anterior cingulate cortex, a brain region geared to detect and respond to conflicting information.

The study’s lead author, psychologist David Amodio of New York University, emphasizes that the findings do not mean that political views are predetermined. “There are a lot of steps be­tween conflict monitoring and political ideology, and we don’t know what those steps are,” he says. Although the neurocognitive process his group measured is so basic that it is most likely in place in early childhood, he notes that “the whole brain is very malleable.” Social relation­ships and other environmental factors also shape one’s political leanings.

* via Scientific American Mind January/February 08

* via PsyBlog.

I may have to take a field trip to my high school to learn something!

* Thanks to my MnL for the link!

Ruined lives. Lost fortunes. Federal crimes. Scientology poses as a religion but really is a ruthless global scam -- and aiming for the mainstream.

I just started perusing this story and this autobiography (both available online in their entirety and for free!) sent to Paulette Cooper in solidarity (see below) and they already promise to be like the Jim Jones memoir I devoured: Seductive Poison.

Incredible story.

The book the Scientologists tried to stop: The Scandal of Scientology.

From this article are some snippets - the first of which is my favorite idea in a long time and crossing my fingers it's true!!

Of the bizarre beliefs Morton ascribes to some Scientologists about Cruise's third wife, Katie Holmes, whom the actor married in a whirlwind romance, the author says, incredibly: "Some Sea Org fanatics even wondered if the actress had been impregnated with Hubbard's frozen sperm.

Morton recounts allegations that "auditing" focuses on the subject's sex life. He quotes Hubbard's son, Ronald De Wolf, who fell out with his father, giving a Playboy interview: "You have complete control of someone if you have every detail of his sex life and fantasy life on record. In Scientology the focus is on sex. Sex, sex, sex. "The first thing we wanted to know about someone we were auditing was his sexual deviations. All you've got to do is find a person's kinks, whatever they might be. "Their dreams and their fantasies. Then you can fit a ring through their noses and take them anywhere. You promise to fulfill their fantasies or you threaten to expose them."

* Thanks to Chelsea for the link!

YAY NICK!!!!! YOU MUST WATCH THIS VIDEO.

I am delighted my friend Eric was so right on when he suggested I read this book. It is written by an investigative journalist and delivers a thoughtful glimpse into our criminal court system by shadowing one judge and highlighting the stories of a handful of people that come into contact with this judge and his courtroom. I read it straight through on our flight to California for the holidays and finished it on the flight back. If this book interests you I am certain you will also enjoy another book written from a similar investigative and sociological perspective: Our Guys.

This is a very good article on the struggles of raising rich kids and it begins like this: "America’s burgeoning money culture is producing a record number of heirs—but handing down values is harder than handing down wealth."

Quotes:

Recently, I phoned Andrew Solomon, heir to a substantial pharmaceutical fortune and author of the beautiful depression memoir The Noonday Demon, and asked if he’d discuss the psychological effects of inherited wealth. In the most gracious way, he declined. I pointed out that in his book, he was willing to talk about a depression so profound he attempted to contract HIV in order to have a reason to kill himself; yet he was too shy, on the phone, to talk about his inheritance. Why was that?

“I just met this morning with a very sharp 48-year-old,” says Charles Collier, author of Wealth in Families and senior philanthropic adviser at Harvard University. “And he said to me, ‘I don’t want my children to be entitled, but I want to have a jet. I came from nothing. Haven’t I earned my jet?’” (Family advisers to the megarich say you’d be amazed how often this comes up, this question about private jets. Anxious business executives raise their hands in almost every seminar about it, seeking expiation.) And perhaps this fellow has earned his jet. But his children haven’t. The problem with money, as he doubtless discovered, is that it sets up its own paradox: Hard work may yield it, but growing up with it often discourages hard work.

More from the Theresa Duncan - Jeremy Blake tragedy:

Poor forgotten animals...

Unnoticed and unappreciated for five decades, a large female turtle with a stained, leathery shell is now a precious commodity in this city’s decaying zoo. She is fed a special diet of raw meat. Her small pool has been encased with bulletproof glass. A surveillance camera monitors her movements. A guard is posted at night.

For many Chinese, turtles symbolize health and longevity, but the saga of the last two Yangtze giant soft-shells is more symbolic of the threatened state of wildlife and biodiversity in China. Pollution, hunting and rampant development are destroying natural habitats, and also endangering plant and animal populations. Continue reading...

I have my very own definition of perfectionism you may like: Self-abuse. Plain and simple, it's an awful affliction and I am working towards rehabilitation!

Just about any sports movie, airport paperback or motivational tape delivers a few boilerplate rules for success. Believe in yourself. Don’t take no for an answer. Never quit. Don’t accept second best.

“It’s natural for people to want to be perfect in a few things, say in their job — being a good editor or surgeon depends on not making mistakes,” said Gordon L. Flett, a psychology professor at York University and an author of many of the studies. “It’s when it generalizes to other areas of life, home life, appearance, hobbies, that you begin to see real problems.” Continue reading...

This is a very sad and very lonely story.

For the last years of her life, Christina Copeman kept to herself.

Ms. Copeman had died of heart disease, the medical examiner said yesterday. The police said she had been dead between a year and 18 months. Continue reading...

Tokyo is truly home to the yummiest food on the entire planet - and not just Japanese food but every other type of food as well - AND from cheap to fancy and everything in between, you can't go wrong!! There are several reasons why this is the case - read ahead!

A national passion speaks volumes about a country’s collective psyche. Consider the English love of soccer, India’s of cricket, Australia’s mania for just about any sport, and Italy’s and France’s worship of food, wine and fashion.

More than one third of Japanese commercial television is devoted to food-related themes, from wacky eating competitions to earnest cooking programmes. On a per-capita basis, inner Tokyo (population 8.5m) boasts the highest concentration of eateries among the world’s major cities – just under 200,000, according to the Tokyo government, compared with about 20,000 restaurants for Paris and 23,000 for New York City. Japan now draws more Michelin-starred chefs than any country apart from France. Continue reading...

A nice piece about what we can learn from Norman Mailer's approach to life and work.

For more good links on Norman Mailer click here.

Interesting article on criminal profiling and how unreliable it is. Reminds me of the first day of my Criminal Behavior class when Professor Kirschner said firmly, "this is not a profiling case. If you've watched Silence of the Lambs and now want to be a profiler, become a cop. Cops are the best profilers." The best part of the article in my opinion, comes at the end when he compares profiling techniques to those used by magicians, psychics and other swindlers.

* via KO.

I haven't loved a New Yorker article this much in a while. It is absolutely fascinating if you love The Wire but even if you don't know The Wire but have a sociological interest in cities and institutions you will be taken by David Simon's take on his show and America.

On a muggy August afternoon in Baltimore, trash scuttled down Guilford Avenue, the breeze smelling like rain and asphalt. It was the last week of shooting for the fifth and final season of the HBO drama “The Wire,” and the crew was filming a scene in front of a boarded-up elementary school. Cast members had been joined by forty or so day players—mostly kids from the neighborhood. Earlier, the episode’s director, Clark Johnson, had been giving some of the kids the chance to say “Cut!,” and they’d bellowed it like drunks at a surprise party. Now, when Johnson yelled “Cut,” the kids swarmed around a video monitor to look at themselves in the last shot, pointing and laughing. “He just said it was good,” one kid complained. “Why we gotta do it again?” Johnson, who was wearing what he called his “lucky cowboy hat,” stepped away to talk to one of the professional actors. Another man—a bald white guy, unprepossessing in jeans and a T-shirt—remained by the monitor, and he answered the kids: “Hey. He’s the director. You don’t believe him? He kinda, sorta knows what he’s doin’.” The bald guy was David Simon, the show’s creator: a former Baltimore Sun reporter who figured that he’d spend his life at a newspaper, a print journalist who has forged an improbable career in television without ever leaving Baltimore. The kids listened politely to Simon and ran back to their places.

Each season of “The Wire” has focussed, with sociological precision, on a different facet of Baltimore. continued...

The first baseball team I loved was the Yomiuri Giants in Japan. My 11 year old BFF and I lived near Hara Tatsunori, one of the top players and borderline stalked his house one fun summer. One summer in CA in my teens I went to an As game and enjoyed a brief love affair with the As and Canseco. In my adult life I am wiser and my heart has been with the lovable Red Sox. This world series I particularly loved watching the relentlessly fierce Okajima and Papelbon!

Here's a funny photo taken by Katy at a Red Sox Rolling Rally:

While I study for midterms you should be reading this book. It especially tickles me and touches my heart because it centers around a little girl with an Asian mother and that's its own thing as we, in the club, know! Nonetheless there's something for everybody in this cutely drawn book of little girls with 'tude.

Here's an image compliments of Kenyatta and Tricia that looks like it lives on a bag:

* En route to ride the yurikamome, buying our 2000th bottle of water or iced tea from a convenience store.

Part of last week's reading assignment for my Social Psychology & The Legal System class is this article about the infamous Kitty Genovese murder over 40 years ago in Queens during which there were supposedly more than 30 witnesses, none of which stopped the crime.

Kew Gardens does not look much like the setting of an urban horror story. Nestled along the tracks of the Long Island Rail Road, 16 minutes by train from Pennsylvania Station, the Queens neighborhood is quiet and well kept, its streets shaded by tall oaks and bordered by handsome red-brick and wood-frame houses. At first glance, the surroundings appear as remote from big-city clamor as a far-flung Westchester suburb.

Forty years ago, on March 13, 1964, the picturesque tranquillity of Kew Gardens was shattered by the murder of 28-year-old Catherine Genovese, known as Kitty. The murder was grisly, but it wasn't the particulars of the killing that became the focus of the case. It was the response of her neighbors. As Ms. Genovese screamed -- ''Please help me! Please help me!'' -- 38 witnesses did nothing to intervene, according to reports; nobody even bothered to call the police. One witness later explained himself with a phrase that has passed into infamy: ''I didn't want to get involved.''continued...

* Thanks to the New York Times for opening up their archives!!

Oh wait, that's me! How did Andrea Harner finagle that, you ask??!! Answer is I was fortunate enough to be asked to join the photo shoot (wearing my favorite color!) so now you know what the mystery event was! And here's the accompanying article!

Nothing makes me wish I were a fly on the wall more than some good old fashioned polygamy.

Amber Clark, 28, an Army veteran who moved here from California about two months ago and who described herself as an active Mormon, said she thought polygamists should be left alone, so long as no one was under age or coerced into marriage.

“I’m liberal in that respect,” Ms. Clark said. “If it’s legal in some states for people of the same sex to get married, why is it not legal to marry more than one wife?” continued...

Still as intriguing as ever, here's New York Magazine's take.

Well of course it does! This is my favorite kind of science - that which supports what I intuitively know!

In the first season of the television drama “Nip/Tuck,” two plastic surgeons named Dr. Sean McNamara and Dr. Christian Troy hire a staff psychologist to determine whether their patients are psychologically equipped to handle cosmetic procedures. In one episode, the psychologist denies treatment to a severely depressed patient who later commits suicide.

In real life, although plastic surgeons sometimes refer patients for counseling, they typically do not have a psychologist on staff. But new research may prompt doctors to consider it. Continued...

* Thanks to Annie Maxwell for having a google alert on 'Hello Kitty'! LOLOLOL.

Interesting comments and post.

Saw this modern day application of physiognomy and had to tear it off the shelves and purchase it aesop. Check out an example - it gets more silly and racist - fun reading and an excellent coffee table book!

The most revealing article thus far which paints not such a nice picture of Theresa but feels like a more whole picture than has been reported thus far. Interesting quotes, the first of which makes one suspect mental illness in the family:

“She claimed [her father] had serious mental-health problems and was notorious around town for doing bizarre things,” recalls Gesue.

Art dealer and gallery owner Christine Nichols, who had known the couple for years, told the Weekly that Duncan sometimes found it hard to see Blake working with anyone but her. Their relationship was so intertwined, Nichols says, “You were either in complete agreement with everything they said or you were an enemy.”

Jeremy, having met Theresa when he was only 23 (she was 28 at the time - note the emotionally significant ages and the vast difference in maturity between them) embodied the younger man looking up to the older woman dynamic. Theresa's career was firmly established and on the rise. Undoubtedly she taught him, supported him and was a crucial ingredient to Jeremy's success. Over the years however while Jeremy's career took off, Theresa's was flailing and she increasingly lost touch with reality as she saw conspiracies as reasons for her failed projects . Her despair and fears permeated Jeremy the way any close couple shares their pain but this situation was insidious because her mental problems went largely unchecked because she was an artist and a writer and they say and do wacky things and it's extremely difficult for people on the outside to know when there's a real problem. In this atmosphere Jeremy was the younger guy taking the lead from his older woman - whatever she said portrayed as reality was his reality. Their paranoia became a self-fulfilling prophecy - the more skeptical friends and family grew of their accusations, the more they felt misunderstood and even attacked by their surroundings and reinforced the belief that they could only trust each other. Jeremy's mother is quoted saying Jeremy was a loyal caretaker - how incredibly apt. That statement plus Jeremy, seemingly out of left field, accusing a colleague of trying to ruin Theresa's reputation all point to him as an impressionable guy so wrapped up in Theresa's perspective it became his and he was doing all that he could to protect her and ultimately them. He wasn't able to step out of the dynamic and see things differently than she did. In terms of his art and whether he was able to conceive of going on in life without her, she was his one worthwhile audience member and critic. His critique of the art world was growing as was her/their paranoia and the two of them became sealed as each others trustworthy muse and critic. In the end he couldn't go on without either. To the core, Jeremy was influenced by Theresa and until the end lived and died by her perspective. As his suicide note simply says, he wanted to be reunited with her. After all, the only adult life he knew was with her and in the last few years of their lives, insulating and endangering themselves in the 'us against them' cocoon they built.

Another article with a little more info.

Wow. The most comprehensive reporting to date on the deaths of Jeremy Blake and Theresa Duncan.

Two snippets:
In a 27-page "chronology" written by Blake in October in preparation for a lawsuit against the church that was never filed, he alleges the couple was "methodically defamed, harassed, followed and threatened" by Scientologists. The document lists Tom Cruise, filmmaker-artist-author Miranda July, writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson, former Viacom Chief Executive Tom Freston, alternative rocker Beck and Art Forum Editor Tim Griffin, among others, as players in the dispute. In addition, a number of Hollywood talent agents and major league art collectors were accused of being in on the conspiracy.

"I think Theresa, in one of her rare moments of self-reflection, recognized she had burned all of these bridges in Jeremy's career with the paranoia," Schlei said. "Jeremy was her creation. And she was killing the thing she created, this great, terrific artist. She realized what she had done. To let him live, she had to go. But in a symbiotic relationship, one couldn't last without the other."

An interesting article about a very unsolved murder messily intertwined in politics:

In light of Jeremy Blake's body having been discovered and the possibility that he and Theresa Duncan's deaths were instigated by Scientology harassments, here is some more Scientology madness for you:

* Dlisted via Katy.

This is a fantastically apt birthday present from Sally! Once in a while your friends really get you and know that all you really want is a poo book as a long-waited excuse to talk about poo till you're blue brown in the face.

Here's a sampling of the goods:

Can you guess which doo-doo this one is??!! If so, you can join my Poopoori Club!

Update: Jeremy Blake's body identified. RIP.

I am obsessed with this case of apparent double-suicide. Journalists are suggesting that harassment by the Church of Scientology and other seemingly paranoid thoughts as detailed in Theresa Duncan's blog post from May feuled this tragedy. I can't stop scouring the internet for updates because there are so so many unanswered questions and it's plain creepy.

Did she really kill herself? Her blog doesn't seem like the blog of someone who would kill herself - obviously one can beguile their readers but still...she didn't seem in the depths of despair. If so, then why? There must have been a trigger. Did she have a history of depression? Pills and booze found next to her body plus the conspiracy stuff...conjures up a little Marilyn...A long suicide note? What does it say?

As a romantic it fits in my world view that Jeremy Blake was unable to fathom living without her so he took his own life. I can get that. Or...he faked his death for an art piece about death and fame. It's his final act in resignation from the art world. He killed her. He broke up with her and his guilt overwhelmed him. The body that washed up onshore that they're suspecting is his probably is...otherwise, is he sipping on a pina colada on a remote beach?

Who knows but why aren't more people talking about this online? It is because the art world is snooty and insular and private? Or is this all a hoax?

Update: Caroline Knapp died in 2002 of lung cancer. She was a heavy smoker. Very, very sad.

I had my eye on this book for years so it was perfect timing that it is recommended reading for one of my fall classes. I read it straight through in a few sittings which meant it was a bit overwhelming and redundant at times but as a whole it is a well-written and profoundly insightful memoir about drinking and alcoholism. What most resonated with me is the idea that there are phases of alcoholism from having alcoholic tendencies to full-blown homeless alcoholic. If this is true there are many, many more people with alcohol problems than meets the eye. I believe this and the idea that there are not a lot of people who truly have a healthy relationship with alcohol. I definitely have a love-hate-horrific-ecstatic relationship with alcohol which is far from healthy! The painful experiences and hard lessons Knapp details holds true for all addictive behaviors so if you're interested in addiction, I highly recommend this book.

Two passages I particularly liked:

One of the first things you hear in AA - one of the first things that makes core, gut-level sense - is that in some deep and important personal respects you stop growing when you start drinking alcoholically. The drink stunts you, prevents you from walking through the kinds of fearful life experiences that bring you from point A to point B on the maturity scale. When you drink in order to transform yourself, when you drink and become someone you're not, when you do this over and over and over, your relationship to the world becomes muddied and unclear. You lose your bearings, the ground underneath you begins to feel shaky. After a while you don't know even the most basic things about yourself - what you're afraid of, what feels good and bad, what you need in order to feel comforted and calm-because you've never given yourself a chance, a clear, sober chance to find out. p. 75

Essentially, drinking artificially "activates" the brain's reward system: you have a martini or two and the alcohol acts upon the brain's circuitry that makes you feel good, increasing the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is central to feelings of pleasure and reward. Over time (and given the right combination of vulnerability to alcohol and alcohol abuse), the brain develops what are known as "compensatory adaptations" to all that artificial revving up: in an effort to bring its own chemistry back into its natural equilibrium, it works overtime to decrease dopamine release, ultimately leaving those same pleasure/reward circuits depleted. p. 126

My search for a good psychology magazine to subscribe to was surprisingly difficult. I quickly realized there is a dearth of mainstream psych mags. Of the slim pickings Psychology Today was hugely disappointing and highly irritating. Thank goodness I then discovered Scientific American Mind which I love and highly recommend!

I adored this book as if it were that old, soft blanket that lives on the corner of your couch, just waiting to do its job of warming you up as you snuggle up to your book and cup of tea. I rarely read fiction but I never miss an installment of Smith's 44 Scotland Street series nor the Isabel Dalhousie mysteries. If you're an AMS fan and haven't read 44 Scotland Street, I highly recommend you start on that and look forward to its worthy successor Espresso Tales!

It's great when people truly in need of antidepressants take them but I have a sneaking suspicion that many people are simply too emotionally lazy to do the necessary hard work of examining and changing their lives. I also think American society is to blame given that it's f-%^ed in so many ways - Americans eat disgusting, harmful crap for food, It would behoove us as a society to think a little more from the 'we' perspective than the 'I', don't you think?! How about a crazy little thing called universal health care?? Of all doctors psychiatrists take the most money from drug companies? Sweet! - it's not surprising that so many people want to numb themselves.

Dr. Ronald Dworkin tells the story of a woman who didn't like the way her husband was handling the family finances. She wanted to start keeping the books herself but didn't want to insult her husband.