Why I haven't been writing about ELQIS

ELQIS is very important, and it is also very interesting. Unfortunately it is only tangentially related to my real job, the one that buys food for the cats.* And that real job has been interfering with my ability to spend several hours at a time watching meetings on my computer, even multitasking (which, incidentally, I'm not nearly as good at as I used to be), and there's no way I could go to Sacramento for one.

I try to keep up by reading things on the website, but frankly it's hard, after a day at work, to come  home and read sort-of-work-related material, instead of watching the Daily Show and So You Think You Can Dance with the rest of the family. So I'm afraid you're going to have to find your ELQIS news somewhere else.

*When I was an undergraduate, I was friends with a Kenyan student, who said to me one day, "Did you know that there are people in America who buy special food just for their dogs?" Yes, Oki, I knew that.

Voting Republican is a character fault

I was just reading some comments by some sitting legislators about how they plan to obstruct everything, and I've come to a conclusion. Voting Republican now is a character fault. Voting Republican enthusiastically is a personality disorder.

Who gets traumatized by witnessing family violence?

I sense a confluence of ideas. Or maybe it's just carrying things too far.

 It has long been one of my rules of life that people vary. Two kids grow up in an abusive household. One grows up to be a social worker and a fine parent, and the other is in and out of jail for spouse and child-abuse.

This study showed that the difference in whether kids who had seen family fights had symptoms of trauma ("(b)ad dreams or nightmares about their mom's and dad's arguments or fights; if thoughts of the arguments or fights ever just pop into their mind; if they ever try to forget all about the arguments and fights; and if they ever wish they could turn off feelings that remind them of the arguments and fights") was how concerned they were that "a family member might be harmed, the stability of the family is threatened, or a parent won't be able to care for them."

I've said recently that I'm beginning to think that a genetic difference between conservatives and liberals causes them to sense threats differently and to react to them differently. If this is the case, one's natural speculation after the study about who gets traumatized is that maybe it's the kids who grow up to be conservative who are more traumatized by seeing family violence. Maybe liberal, touchie-feelie, I-have-control-of-my-life-and-it's-all-going-to-turn-out-okay optimism protects against trauma after witnessing family violence.

Quote: Mencken

This is from memory, and I haven't been able to trace it down to where I read it, so it isn't likely to be word for word.

"Never believe anything you read or hear from a man who would be fired if he said the opposite."  H.L. Mencken.

Remember this when reading newspaper editorials or listening to politicians.

Infant game theorists

It as been shown in the past that babies and toddlers are eager to help, for example by picking up something someone has dropped, if they can't reach it, and handing it back to them. This research showed that 21-month olds would spontaneously help someone who had, the day before, tried to give the baby a toy but hadn't been able to, but they would not help someone who had showed them the toy but not given it to them. Kids help people who previously acted kindly toward them.

This is basic game theory, and it has been found, for example, in lots of birds. The first time you interact with someone (or some bird), you cooperate. The next time, you act however the other person or bird acted toward you the previous time. It seems to come naturally to babies.

Yup, attachment to mom is good.

A meta-analysis says kids, especially boys, who have insecure attachment to their moms as little kids have more behavior problems when they are older.

This is confirmation of what we have always thought. If there are any policy implications, they would be that we could save money (and lost kids) at the older end if we could find a way to increase attachment at the younger end.

I wish I had confidence that there is such a way. Maybe we could give new moms inhalers of oxytocin, one with a mom-size dose and one baby-size. Maybe we need to test all new moms for depression and treat all those with signs of it. Maybe we could take stem cells from a kid with great attachment and put them somewhere in the brain of a kid with poor attachment. Maybe we can change this aspect of human nature with genetic engineering. And maybe the dish will run away with the spoon.

Who gets bullied, and why?

This research concludes that an elementary-school-age bully's motivation is status, gained by domination of a victim, but at the same time, they value affection of others of the same sex. It's not the motivation of the bullying, but it is something a bully has to take into account. They need to get their bully fix without alienating their buddies.

So they pick on kids other kids of the same sex don't like. Nobody cares what kids of the opposite sex think about it. The reason they pick on weak kids is that if they picked on popular kids, the bullies would become outcasts from their group.

Parrot on man porn

I found this here.

There's rules, and then there's rules

A researcher says kids distinguish between general moral rules (you shouldn't hit; you shouldn't steal) and specific-to-the-kid rules (you can't wear that outside; you can't play with Kevin anymore; you can't watch that program), and between 4 and 7 they increasingly feel bad about breaking moral rules but not personal rules. Sounds right to me. General rules are fine, but don't impede my personal freedom.

Friday follies

This is a bird's nest I found in our back yard a couple of days ago. The interior is wound fibers from palm fronds, and the exterior is cotton from our back-yard Pima cotton plant. I think this may be a bush tit nest. Humming bird nests we've found in the past have been essentially the same construction, except more cotton in the interior and a sling to hang it from a twig.

Words create categories for babies

When they showed babies pictures of fish with either an adult saying "Look at the toma," a made-up word for fish, or a series of beeps matched for tone and length with the words, the babies who heard the words formed the category of fish, but the ones who heard the beeps did not, as measured by then showing them pictures of a fish and a dinosaur side by side and measuring how long they looked at each.

There's something special about the human voice. I heard something on NPR yesterday about exposing babies to different sounds, including words in a language the baby has never heard before, they early on develop a preference for the human voice.

In a more practical sense, there's something special about talking to babies. One reason richer kids start off preschool ahead of poorer kids is that they have heard more words, more total words and more different words. This study shows it also helps kids cognitively.

Books that have influenced me

People on some political blogs I read have been listing the books that influenced their thinking the most, and I'll join in. My list has almost nothing in common with theirs.

New theory of Down Syndrome cause

We have always assumed that, since Down Syndrome occurs in people with an extra chromosome 21, the disorder should occur because there is too much of some protein coded for on that chromosome. A recent study suggests it may be due to little of a protein. It looks like what happens is a chunk of RNA gets over-expressed, which causes this protein* to be under-expressed.

In rats, they were able to increase the protein level by doing something to the RNA, but it couldn't fix damage that had already occurred. I predict in a few years we will have an in utero treatment after an early blood test for Down.

Of course, this doesn't mean that none of the characteristics of Down Syndrome are caused by over-production of some proteins, just that the under-production of one is involved. No doubt researchers will be busily looking at it all.

*MeCP2, if you must know. It's a transcription factor. 

Meth is worse than coke

A couple of weeks ago, I posted that the in utero effects of cocaine use by pregnant women were not as bad as feared. Now researchers have found the particular brain structures damaged by methamphetamine use, and it looks worse than alcohol by itself, and since most pregnant women who use meth also drink, it makes a real mess.

Babies like to keep time

Researchers filmed a bunch of babies and toddlers listening to music and concluded that babies respond to rhythm more than do to human speech. They say the findings, "suggest that babies may be born with a predisposition to move rhythmically in response to music."

Ya think?

The best music ever for preschoolers is The Hall of the Mountain King, from Peer Gynt, by Grieg. Kids love to stomp around the room in time to the music.

Guys show off for girls if sun rises in east

Who knew? It seems skateboarders take bigger risks if an attractive young woman is watching than if another guy is watching. And their testosterone is higher when they're done.

When skateboarders attempt tricks, they make a split-second decision about whether to abort the trick or try to land it, based on a mid-air evaluation of the likelihood of success and on the physical costs that failure might bring. It was that moment the researchers sought to examine because it resembles the type of risky decisions that young men make when behind the steering wheel of a car or when in physical confrontations with each other.

I'm sorry. I'm sure it's valuable to have measured the testosterone increase* in this kind of situation. It might help people think about risk reduction.

But really. Didn't we know that guys show off for chicks? It's part of our standard literature. Tom Sawyer walked the picket fence when Becky Thatcher was watching, not when he was hanging out with Huck Finn. James Dean raced his car toward the cliff because Natalie Wood was watching, not Sal Mineo. This is almost Ignobel-class research.

Although what would be interesting would be to compare this with gay men and straight and lesbian women, to see how each reacts to various other types. Do straight guys show off for women they know to be lesbians as well as for straights? If they know the guy watching is gay, does that change the testosterone level up or down compared with being watched by a straight guy? Do straight women care at all? I have my guesses how it would all sort out, but it would be fun to see if it is true.

I take back my comment about the Ignobels. It's just unfinished research, as isn't it all?

*I first wrote "testosterone poisoning," but that's rude.

Why some people have asthma

The observed fact that poor people and minorities have more asthma than richer people could be due to the social environment as well as the physical one. Researchers have found that a stressful environment during pregnancy causes increased production of cord blood cytokine, and this seems to be related to increased risk of asthma.

The stress in the study was measured by a detailed questionnaire about stressors in their homes, finances, and neighborhoods, including domestic and community violence.

Another factor is lack of vitamin D.

On the other hand, family mealtimes seem to ease asthma, maybe because it lowers separation anxiety.

Too much or too little of so many things causes such bad stuff.

Offline for a few days

I won't be posting for a few days. Something has come up.

Alice in Wonderland

I saw Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland last night. It was Tim Burton doing Disney. It had all the details of a Tim Burton movie but not the gestalt. Characters were either good or bad (except maybe the white queen; she might have something hidden in there), and nothing really bad happened except to bad creatures and people. And even if you were as evil as the bandersnatch, you become all good after Alice befriends you.

Visually it was spectacular. I understand it was filmed in 2D and changed by computer into 3D, but it impressed me. I saw it in Imax.

What mostly made it a Disney movie more than a Burton movie was the plot, which is a years-later sequel to  the first Alice. I don't mean to give it away, but it's predictable from the time you see the Disney logo. It even ends with frolicking puppies rescued from the evil Red Queen's clutches.

The lesser characters and details are typically wonderful. We all liked the Cheshire Cat and Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee, and we thought the March Hare was appropriately gonzo. People with me thought the Doormouse was over the top, but I liked her.

Depp was Depp. I sighed once or twice.

All in all, I'm glad I went. I'll see his next one, too. But it's not his best.

Worst provider nominee: drugging the kids to sleep better

Two "former" workers at Covenant Apostolic Church Day Care in Cincinnati day care gave over-the-counter melatonin to kids to help them sleep at naptime. They put it in candy. "Parents had told investigators their children often seemed groggy after leaving the day care."  A co-worker told police. They have been charged with misdemeanor child endangering and misrepresentation by a child care provider, which is apparently the worst thing they can find on the books to cover the situation. They face a maximum 18 months in jail.