The neurobheavioral effects of beta blockers and other medications

Economist.com | Memory and emotion

Previous work had established that emotion-associated enhancement of memory is caused, at least in part, by the action of stress hormones, in particular norepinephrine, on a part of the brain called the amygdala. He wondered if a similar mechanism was at work in the emotion-associated memory loss the team discovered.

The action of norepinephrine on the amygdala can be blocked by a drug called propranolol. When the researchers repeated their experiments on volunteers who had been dosed with this drug, they found, as expected, that those volunteers did not remember emotional words any better than neutral ones. In addition, however, they found that memory for neutral words which preceded emotional ones improved.

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This comment, a small aside in an article on memory and emotion, woke me up. Beta blockers (propranolol, atenolol, etc) are very widely used medications. I'd never heard that they blocked norepinephrine action on the amygdala. I'd expect that to have an intriguing range of longterm neuropsychiatric actions. I'd love to see the full list.

On the other hand propranolol is an older beta blocker. The more common modern versions do not cross the blood-brain barrier as readily and might not have the same effects.

This is a good reminder, however, that the body uses the same substances and receptors to do very different things. The interpretations of the same substance/receptor combination depend on location (gut, brain, heart, etc). Actions on the brain may be the most subtle least appreciated of these. ACE inhibitors, for example, seem to have antidepressant or pro-euphoric activity, as well as inducing coughing in many people. I've long wondered what the longterm neurobehavioral effects of oral contraceptives have been...

War: It's not inevitable (NYT)

Is War Our Biological Destiny?

Admittedly, war making will be a hard habit to shake. "There have been very few times in the history of civilization when there hasn't been a war going on somewhere," said Victor Davis Hanson, a military historian and classicist at California State University in Fresno. He cites a brief period between A.D. 100 and A.D. 200 as perhaps the only time of world peace, the result of the Roman Empire's having everyone, fleetingly, in its thrall.

Archaeologists and anthropologists have found evidence of militarism in perhaps 95 percent of the cultures they have examined or unearthed. Time and again groups initially lauded as gentle and peace-loving — the Mayas, the !Kung of the Kalahari, Margaret Mead's Samoans, — eventually were outed as being no less bestial than the rest of us. A few isolated cultures have managed to avoid war for long stretches. The ancient Minoans, for example, who populated Crete and the surrounding Aegean Islands, went 1,500 years battle-free; it didn't hurt that they had a strong navy to deter would-be conquerors.

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This article by Natalie Angier is one of the most uplifting I've read in some time. Viewed across the span of our brief history, it seems one can make a convincing case that we're getting more civilized with time. (Considering that some believe our ancestors were a band of rapacious psychotics who ate their cousins, we're arguably MUCH nicer than we were 150,000 years ago.) The race between our civilizing tendencies and the power of our weaponry might be a good focus for large bets -- by anyone not residing on earth!

U.S. Aides Acknowledge String of Missteps With Turkey (NYT)

U.S. Aides Acknowledge String of Missteps With TurkeyIronically this was a good blunder. Rumsfeld has made so many mistakes in post-war Iraq that some of them have to have a bright side. Turkey got the benefits of volunteering to help, but didn't have to deliver -- thereby not offending the Turkish people. So it was really a win for Turkey.

Laptops for Less: batteries, accessories, etc. Interesting vendor!

Laptop batteries, AC adapters, CD Roms, modems, keyboards, chargers for Compaq, Toshiba, IBM, Dell, Sony, NEC, HP and other laptops, PDA's, digital camerasIncludes iPod batteries and chargers.

Don't Buy Belkin Products: Adware in your Hardware

The Register

The marketing geniuses at Belkin, the consumer networking vendor, have dreamed up a new form of spam - ads served to your desktop, by way of its wireless router...

In response criticism, a Belkin product manager came forward this week to confirm the behaviour was designed into the products as a way to make it easier for consumers to sign up to a free trial of its parental control software.

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Wow. This is so 21st. The invasion of the droids continues. Advertising has been used for a long time to offset the costs of web sites, now it will offset the costs of hardware. I remember advertising sponsored PCs in the 90s, but an adware sponsored router is novel.

Fair enough if the consumer is warned. In this case there was no such warning.

We are still at the beginning ... My slide rule looks better all the time ...

The secret of great 10th grade school test scores

Math Problems in an Education 'Miracle' (washingtonpost.com)

According to Robert Kimball, a former Sharpstown High assistant principal who provided KHOU with much of its information, that is common practice in Houston. 'The secret of doing well in the 10th-grade tests is not to let the problem kids get to the 10th grade,' he said.

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This guy is an American hero.

The secret of good test scores in elementary school is to get the special needs children out of the school.

The secret of good employment numbers (other than enabling a healthy economy) is getting people to stop looking.

No Child Left Behind: The Potemkin Plan for Education

School Violence Data Under a Cloud in Houston

In the last four school years, the Houston district's own police, who patrol its 80 middle and high schools, have entered 3,091 assaults into a database that is shared with the Houston city police but not with the Texas Education Agency in Austin.

In the same period, the Houston district itself has listed just 761 schoolhouse assaults on its annual disciplinary summaries sent to Austin. That means that the school authorities either have not reported or have reclassified 2,330 incidents described as assaults by the district's police.

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This is only one in quite a series of similar NYT articles. Principals and other school administrators are no different from physicians, pilots, police and marines. If you punish them for bad outcomes, but don't provide incentive or means or tools to really improve outcomes, then the inevitable outcome is bad data showing good outcomes.

The Houston program is particularly pernicious. It removes principals from schools with bad outcomes. This is a wonderful way to select for dishonesty. You eliminate the honest and conscientious, so only the dishonest remain. Perfect.

The national "No Child Left Behind" program is based on this Houston program.

As goes Houston, so goes America. Thank you again Mr. Bush.

Staying the course in Iraq - NOT

Exit strategy now on table | csmonitor.com, Daniel Schorr

Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations on Wednesday, warned the Bush administration against creating the impression that 'our ultimate goal in Iraq is leaving as soon as possible, not meeting our strategic objective of building a free and democratic country in the heart of the Arab world.

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It's now widely believed, based on troop deployment schedules and other real world measures, that the Bush administration plans to exit Iraq by early next year.

The more Bush says that "American will stay the course" the more many observers are convinced he intends to exit. He's got a reputation now for saying one thing loudly while doing another under the table.

Ironically, given the incompetence of the Bush Administration and the Pentagon's post-war plans (see prior postings!) an early exit may actually be the least bad of our very bad options.

The Spam Protection Act of 2004

Congressional Spam Filter: NYT Editorial Nov 3, 2003

Members of Congress would like to score points back home by passing an antispam law. But it would be a cruel trick if the bill pre-empted the roughly 30 state laws with weak federal rules.

One indication Congress may end up being too lenient is that some industry lobbyists, who usually fight any antispam law, are now saying they want Congress to act. And some consumer lobbyists are now hoping Congress does nothing. The Internet, which knows no borders, is best regulated at the national level. But it must be done in a way that puts the public's interest ahead of the spammers'.

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Our legislature never fails to demonstrate loyalty to its paymasters and post-legislative support system. I suppose this is a form of integrity, which we should extend by making every congressperson a publicly owned corporation.

Geeks will not be bothered, they know that the only solutions to spam are technical (such as filtering based on the managed reputation of the sending service). This may be naive, however. The Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) should have proved the danger of bad law to even the most naive geek. If Congress keeps to recent form, some perverse combination of the DMCA and this new law will somehow make it illegal to interfere with the transmission, delivery and receipt of spam.

NYT Magazine: Disastrous misplanning for Iraq

Blueprint for a MessAn extensive dissection of the failures of the Pentagon and Bush Administration. A number of powerful people appear to have been delusional, probably including Bush himself.

If Powell was the man many thought he was, he ought to have resigned over this. Heck, Bush should be impeached for incompetence. (Alas, probably not an impeachable offense? I'm sure we could find others.)

Given where we are now, what should our goals be? We cannot leave our forces pinned down in Iraq indefinitely -- we don't have that big an army. At this point, we probably can't "win" anyway.

Dingell's Hilarious reply to the RNCs attempt to censor the Reagan story

Dingell's Letter (pdf)Dingell is a veteran house democrat. He urges CBS to present a "fair and balanced" view of the Reagan years, and lists some examples. Like White House astrologers. A wonderful riposte, with a nice dig at FOX news.

Controlling the Media: The Republican National Committee flexes muscle

CNN.com - RNC asks to review 'The Reagans' - Oct. 31, 2003

The Republican National Committee Friday asked CBS to allow a team of historians and friends of former President Ronald Reagan and his wife to review a miniseries about the couple before it airs.

Republicans have expressed concern that the miniseries, titled 'The Reagans,' may inaccurately portray the couple.

...Gillespie said that if CBS denies the request, he will ask the network to run a note across the bottom of the screen every 10 minutes during the program's presentation informing viewers that the miniseries is not accurate.

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Fascinating. CBS must wonder how it got into such a pickle. FOX would never be in this position -- on the wrong side of the RNC.

CBS can cave, and get some flack from the NYT. Or they can resist and earn the emnity of the Wall Street Journal, the RNC, the Bush administration and the Church of Reagan. No contest. They have to cave.

On the other hand, these biographic miniseries on commercial TV do not have a reputation for accuracy. They're often at the honesty level of a Bush press briefing. So, without having seen it, I suspect the RNC may have a point. Unfortunately their credibility is even lower than that of commercial TV, and their reputation for vengeance is most unseemly.

Starving Children in Plain Sight: A letter to the NY Times

Starving Children in Plain Sight

Obviously, far more scrutiny is needed of caseworkers, of the lack of auditing of adoption subsidies and of the failure to mandate annual medical checkups for adopted children. The cause of abused youngsters needs far more from New Jersey than more emaciated poster children.

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The NY Times editorial page responds to a horrific story of child neglect by advocating annual medical exams for adoptive children, presumably to detect abuse. A reasonable proposal, but inconsistent. The call should be for annual state sponsored exams of all children to detect abuse, neglect, and poor parenting. Certainly NYT editorial writers are very busy parents, and may be prone to leave the children with sitters. They may deserve particular attention. If one wishes to conserve resources, perhaps the exams should be limited to children at a higher risk of abuse or neglect. Poverty, poor character (politicians), two income families -- all possible leading indicators for neglected children. Let us brook no delay in implementing this proposal.

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John Faughnan MD, MS
parent of three adoptive children

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I rather doubt the NY Times will print my emailed letter, they never have before.

DeLong on Health Care Economic Policy

Semi-Daily Journal

My two years spent working part time on health while at the Treasury convinced me that being a health economics policy guru was like being trapped in the 11th circle of Dante's hell. The problems are just too complex. The uncertainties just too great. And I do not have any of the answers.

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Now that's honesty. There's been a recent jump in payor (insurance) company mergers recently, allegedly because the pool of insured people continues to shrink. As the pool shrinks, costs and risk sharing push mergers. Somewhere the train jumps the tracks, but I don't know what year it will be.

In a somewhat related vein, Dr. Lagace had this to say about a shortlived double residency in psychiatry and family practice: "It's like playing Russian Roulette with two bullets". Dr. Lagace is a family physician (so am I). As physicians respond to economic incentives by bailing out of both family practice and psychiatry, look for the next event to be a "crisis" of health care delivery in primary care and mental health. (Actually mental health services have been in the dumps for years, but Republicans figure the madhouses will handle those problems.)
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Bush Nazi Connection: Irrelevant and distracting

Conason on "Bush-Nazi" story

There are many unflattering terms that can and should be used to describe George W. Bush. He is, among other things, a truly bad President. But neither his offenses, nor the Republican Party's politics of personal destruction, can justify using such tactics against him. Imputing Nazi sympathies to the President or his family ought to be beneath his adversaries.

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Odd that this has gotten traction. There's nothing here -- GWB's grandfather made some dirty money and was a good senator later on. Makes The Shrub seem more Kennedy like I suppose.

My dark suspicion is that Karl Rove wants to keep this story alive because it's silly, and it lets Bush act aggrieved. Time to forget it and talk about Bush's real failings.