Brain Farts

Many of us have these moments during the day where we simply lose track of what we are doing, what we were supposed to remember, or just make bone-head decisions. These temporary lapses of our normal perfect selves are called, humorously, "brain farts".

New evidence from studies done by psychologists suggest some common interactions in our daily lives that may actually cause these brain farts. Many of these causes are typically things that annoy, cause illusions, or are things where we simply have brains that did not evolve to perceive such things.

So here we go:

Photos

In the evolutionary history of our brains, we simply did not develop the subconscious aspect of separating objects or people from what is in the picture. We can consciously see or understand what the photo is, but what is hard for us is the separating aspect. For example, studies done on people throwing darts demonstrate that people are much less accurate when throwing darts at pictures of people they like (babies, family, etc) but the opposite comes true when throwing at those they do not (Hitler for example). Our brains, while great, fail to separate appearance from reality. 

Beeps


Irritating and annoying as they are, beeps are everywhere in our modern world. Just like photos, our brains did not evolve to handle beeps. Thus we struggle to grasp them and find them less than pleasant (think alarms). We enjoy and easily handle natural sounds. Natural sounds are made up of transfers of energy, one object coming into contact with another, and then gradually dissipating. The perceptual system evolved for this, but not for beeps. Beeps are loud and then stop quickly, with no change over time or fading away. Because of this difference it confuses the brain and thus causes a form of brain fart.

Phones

If you are like me, I bet you get constant updates (push notifications to techies) on your iPhone or like device. Texts, news, sports, new make your move on Words with Friends... whatever, we are constantly attached to our phones. For our brains, we are constantly bombarding them with sensory data, filtering out useless noise and detecting important signals. Because we get so many vibrations on our phones, we develop "phantom vibrations", over time we miss-associate daily life sounds as getting an update, text, or phone call. This causes a form of brain fart.





Wheels

Ever looked at a wheel going around? It appears to be going backwards right? A theory on this phenomenon, called the "continuous wage wheel illusion", where in which the brain's motion perception system takes samples of its inputs as a series of discrete snapshots (think of how a movie camera works, assembling individuals frames into a movie like projection). Our brains are not always fast enough to interpret the frame rate of individual pictures, and thus make things look backwards as in the car wheel example. This overworking of the brain, causes a brain fart once again.

Doors

Finally, and this one came to me as a surprise, entering a new room through a doorway causes a brain fart.  Passing through a door triggers an "event boundary" in the mind. This separates one set of thoughts and memories from the next. Like walking through a door, our brains create a new blank slate walking through, thus we forget what was previously on our minds. Typically mental event boundaries help us organize our thoughts and memories as we travel through a dynamic world, but when trying to remember what we came in the room for in the first place, well you know... we forget.




There are of course many more ways to have a brain fart, these are just some of the interesting ways, ways we may not think of in our daily lives. What it does allude to is, finding that nice, quiet, room with little distractions can really help us in our trains of thought.

Share your brain fart stories in the comment section below. For me, I have them all the time when retrieving something for my mom, as I am constantly reminded of...

For more, visit both the link below and the original article posted on Live Science.
http://news.yahoo.com/top-5-things-cause-brain-farts-154851714.html     

Veterans and Post War Suicide May Be Linked to Brain Disease

As many soldiers return as heros from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, a troubling and saddening phenomenon is occurring. According to a study authored by Dr. Margaret C. Harrell and Nancy Berglass and published through the Center for a New American Security have concluded that one U.S. veteran attempts suicide every 80 minutes. The report also reveals that 1,868 veterans made suicide attempts in 2009 alone. Much of what to make of these staggering numbers is understood through post-traumatic stress disorder (P.T.S.D.) along with the emotions of high unemployment and loss of military camaraderie.

It's not just returning veterans that are attempting suicide, it's also current service personnel. The study goes on to point out that between 2005 to 2010, approximately one service member would attempt suicide every 36 hours. Nearly as many American troops both at home and abroad have committed suicide in 2010 as were killed in combat while fighting in Afghanistan.  Many are citing a lack of mental health programs in the U.S. military system, both for current members of the military and as citizens when they come back home.

"The rates per 100,000 people of suicide among active duty personnel in the Army, Marines, Navy and Air Force. The statistics show an increase in suicide rates since 2001, compared with the relatively steady rate of suicide among the U.S. civilian population" - Source: NPR 

The trend seems to be on the rise over the past decade. In 2008, 197 Army suicides were accounted for, both of active and non-active-duty personell. In 2009, this number rose tragically to 245, and through May of 2010, had already been at 163.

To combat this rising trend, the Pentagon has been implementing new programs targeted at reducing these suicides and to better take care of the needs of military personel. Former military psychiatrist Stephen Zenakis, who is a retired brigadier general believes much more is needed to be done. "There's a whole culture change that would need to occur at the bases here in the United States before we really felt that effect. It may not really be for two to three years until we really recognize that" (NPR).

New evidence from an autopsy of a 27-year old former Marine who committed suicide recently may have shed an important new light on why suicide rates are so high. Doctors performing the autopsy discovered that his brain had been physically changed by a disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (C.T.E.), which is a degenerative condition known for affecting boxers, football players, and other athletes who participate in activities that involve repeated blows to the head. People with C.T.E. have an abnormal form of protein that accumulates and eventually destroys cells throughout the brain, including notably, the frontal and temporal lobes. These areas of the brain regulate impulse control, judgement, multitasking, memory, and emotions.

Following on this discovery, doctors performed autopsies on more than a dozen more veterans who committed suicide. They found the same results over and over. This begs the question as Nicholas Kristof writes in his Op-Ed column in the 4/26/12 New York Times, "could blasts from bombs or grenades have a catastrophic impact similar to those of repeated concussions in sports, and could the rash of suicides among young veterans be a result?"

As Kristof points out, because this condition is considered permanent and not able to be cured with therapy, do military families want to here this ominous news? As one military mother states in his article, it is at least a way to know why.

Let's hope that those returning from the battlefield get the proper care they deserve, and bring more attention to the affects of C.T.E. to find ways of reducing its impacts.


Sources:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2057061/One-U-S-veteran-attempts-suicide-80-minutes-Hidden-tragedy-Afghanistan-Iraq-wars.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/26/opinion/kristof-veterans-and-brain-disease.html


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127860466

UPDATE: Tragically, former New England Patriots Linebacker Junior Seau was found dead this morning after an apparent suicide. It is speculated that Seau suffered from C.T.E. as did former Chicago Bears defensive back Dave Duerson, who also committed suicide on Feb. 17th.


http://www.boston.com/sports/blogs/thebuzz/2012/05/report_junior_s.html

Higher Education In America: Special Series

Over the next few weeks, I will be producing a series of blog posts about the state of the higher education system in United States. Prompted by my soon to be graduation (fall 2012) and a sign on the campus of the University of Oregon that stated "College Debt Reaches 1,000,000,000,000" (yes, that is 1 trillion), I have decided to look into just what is the student debt in America, what does it mean for our future, and what will need to happen to make these issues less of a burden in the future.

I will also be researching and writing about financial aid, how education pays off, and the pricing / cost of attending college. In addition, I will be looking at and blogging about a study I received from a mentoring economics professor here at the U of O about the costs of skipping classes.

I personally have invested interest in this topic being a current student, even without college debt (thanks to my parents), but I think it's really an issue that has many more affects than just for students and their families. Affects are present in our federal and state budgets, personal wealth, overal competitiveness as a 21st century nation among many others.


Stay tuned for more posts and if you have any thoughts or comments about the subject, or a personal anecdote about your college experience, please drop a comment.

Climate Change In The American Mind with Anthony Leiserowitz

Anthony Leiserowitz

Last night I attended a guest lecture titled Climate Change in the American Mind, with Director of the Yale Project on Climate Change, Anthony Leiserowitz, Ph. D. The event housed here at the University of Oregon in the very environmentally friendly building, the Many Nations Longhouse. The U of O is a familiar place for Leiserowitz, a few years back he received his Masters and Ph. D here. Among many, he is recognized as an expert on climate change and public opinion, both American and internationally and has been an adviser to many public policy officials.

Many Nations Longhouse at the University of Oregon

Opening his talk, he illustrated the issue of misunderstanding of climate science and the question of why some people are very interested about the issue and why others are much less so. Basing off three major pillars of consumer behavior, social norms, and political behaviors he continued to explain his process of research, and from that research over many years, a model of outreach. Highlights of outreach including the media, individual journalists, weather-casters, and regular folk perspectives.

Looking back over the past decade or so, there has been a generally moderate level of belief that climate change has occurred and is continuing, but then a sudden drop in 2010, and since then belief has still not been back up to periods prior. Leiserowitz likens this to the proceedings of the tobacco debates many years ago and that many Americans feel climate change is less about themselves as Americans, but much more as a distant issue. This phenomenon he mentions is a key point; that there is a disassociation of the issue between every day Americans and the effects along with solutions of climate change.

In 2010, Leiserowitz points to a perfect storm of issues that caused this sudden decline in public opinion towards climate change. The five major sources coming from the 1) economic recession, 2) declining media coverage, 3) unusually cold weather, 4) an effective denial industry, 5) "climategate" (wikipedia article). Many of these issues were propagated through a very strong message of denial through the rise of the Tea Party and Republican control of the House of Representatives.

Leiserowitz Speaking at the U of O

The next point he wanted to make is that there are multiple forms of nay-sayers. All of which have different reasons. Further that he describes there are Six Types of Americans with respect to climate change. First there are the alarmed, people who are very nervous about the potential affects of climate change who represent 12% of the population. Next, there are the concerned, people who are concerned but not very nervous, 27% of people. Then the cautious, representing 25%. The next three personifying the deniers, with disengaged (10%), doubtful (15%), and dismissive (10%). What is key here to note Leiserowitz says, is that while there are more people towards the attentive side, the firmly convinced minority of dismissive individuals are very loud "soap boxers" and are well representing in congress along with the media.

When he asked the crowd, which was almost bursting outside of the medium sized room, what the first image was when they heard the term climate change or global warming, overwhelmingly (including  myself) pictured ice melting. From his research, he has found that this is the most common image in the American mind and it is one that creates a problem. "How many people here live or have been to Antartica?" he asked us. No one had raised their hands. "There is the problem, this reinforces the distant association of the issue. Americans don't associate the positive feedback effects or the connections of the issues." 

O-Zone Hole Model

Much of this he claims are due to the progression of climate and environmental issues in the American mindset. For example, over the three past decades, Americans and the world have looked at solving the O-Zone Layer Depletion as a being a first step in global environmental preservation. People have been subjected to new problem after another, with little time in between. Thus they are collected and blend together each of these different issues. For example, many people incorrectly associate O-Zone depletion with climate change, even though they are separate issues. Furthermore, O-Zone Depletion has a simple mental model that comes along with it.  Something that climate change does not have is this simple mental model. It is a hard system to depict in the mind. There are the shocking aspects of seeing a polar bear on a single piece of ice, but it is harder to connect the systems of a warming planet to increases in disease around the world. Interestingly, very few, to almost no one associates the connection climate change has to the impact of human health. Instead, simply put, most people do not connect the dots and have a very just about polar bears mindset.

Shocking Image of Climate Change

Leiserowitz points to how there is a significant difference between the egalitarian mindset, one that favors the equality among living entities, and the individualism present in American culture. Interestingly enough, the most important issue to the individualism mindset is the demand for freedom and independence of fossil fuels and of foreign based energy sources. When asked if this mindset is present in other nations around the world, Leiserowitz cites that the four most common places, Canada, the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, all have two things in common; all are of ruggard frontier mindsets (minus the U.K.) and are English speaking. Does this translate perfectly, he was not willing to say definitively, but merely suggested some link in ideology.

In conclusion, Leiserowitz suggests a few ideas towards the future with climate change. First, a diverse support of the population is needed, not just from a few politicians, concerned citizens, and scientists, but that many more people need to form a silent majority of sorts, that support their electorate to make decisions that will be rewarded. Next, to recognize that many people who are very strongly in support of addressing the issue live in bubbles. Noting that here in Eugene, we are a sub-culture of super green fanatics, and that this is not something seen in other places around the United States. For example, when I was in New Orleans working on a post hurricane Katrina service project, I never came across recycling stations or really anything of the concept. Finally, that knowledge is necessary but insufficient, rather that we need societal demands and actions of change rather than individual ones.

If you would like to learn more about Anthony Leiserowitz and his work surrounding climate change and public opinion, please follow the link below to his profile at Yale and his web-site. Also, be sure to watch the video below, where Leiserowitz explains the Six Types of Americans. 

Leiserowitz on the Six Types of Americans: 





Additional Links:

Profile:
http://environment.yale.edu/profile/leiserowitz/

Yale Project on Climate Change Communication Homepage:
http://environment.yale.edu/climate/

Possible 'Universal' Cancer Vaccine Developed in Israel

For millions of people around the world affected by cancer, there is some good news coming out of Tel Aviv, Israel this past week. Researchers working on a collaboration project between the drug company Vaxil Biotheraputics and Tel Aviv University have developed a new therapy that targets a molecule found in 90% of all cancers. This therapy, done through a universal injection would allow patient's immune system to fight off common cancers, such as breast and prostate cancer.

Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide and accounted for 7.6 million deaths (around 13% of total deaths) in 2008 according to the World Health Organization. The types of cancers most affecting people around the world include lung (1.37 m deaths), stomach (736,000), liver (695,000), colorectal (608,000), breast (458,000), and cervical cancer (275,000). A majority of these deaths, 70%, occurred in low and middle income countries, where treatment is less available and of lower quality. By 2030, if the current rate continues, the WHO projects over 13.1 million people will die of cancer worldwide. This new therapy out of Israel could significantly lower these numbers if it successful.

Within the United States, almost 12 million people currently have been diagnosed with a form of cancer as of 2008 according to the American Cancer Society. This total is roughy split between males with 5.5 million and women with 6.5 million patients. The highest prevalence being with breast cancer in women, which constitutes more than a sixth of all cancer patients. 

Cancer arrises out of one single cell. Under certain conditions, the cell with undergo a transformation from a normal cell into a tumor cell through a multistage process. This progression from a pre-cancerous lesion to malignant tumor can be the result of the interaction of a person's genetic make up and three major external agents. The external agents being categorized as 1) physical carcinogens, 2) chemical carcinogens, and 3) biological carcinogens. Furthermore, cancer development incidence can rise dramatically with age, and is likely attributable to the build up of risk factors.

For all the environmental and genetic risk factors, and the increasing prevalence of cancer, a discovery of this nature is remarkable. Preliminary results from clinical trails have shown the vaccine can trigger an immune response in patients, subsequently reducing the levels of cancer. Researchers believe the vaccine could be used to combat small tumors if detected early enough and also help prevent the return or spread of disease in patients who have undergone alternative forms of treatment, such as surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation treatment.

Tel Aviv University

Typically, the human immune system fails to detect cancer cells or perceive them as a threat. While the immune system is excellent at attacking foreign cells such as bacteria, tumors are formed by the patients own cells that have malfunctioned, making it harder to detect. What researchers have discovered, is that a molecule called MUC1, typically found in higher amounts on the surface of cancer cells can be used to aid the immune system in the detection of tumors. The molecule MUC1 is found both on cancer cells, as well as in healthy human cells. What the difference is in is by what amount is present. Higher levels are found on cancer cell surfaces, where as significantly lower levels are found on healthy cells. The vaccine recognizes this difference between cells and works to identify cancerous cells for the immune system. MUC1 is found in 90% of all cancers, thus it can combat the growth and spread of a wide range of cancers.

This research is promising and let's hope that with further trials and further research, this vaccine will be able to come to market in the near future.


For more on the topic, please visit the following sources:

American Cancer Society:
http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/CancerBasics/cancer-prevalence

World Health Organization:
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs297/en/

The Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9191848/Universal-cancer-vaccine-developed.html

1 in 2 New College Graduates are Jobless or Underemployed

As college seniors come into spring, many of us are preparing to graduate. As we do, we will be facing a weak labor market that could make finding a job of our dreams really difficult. About 1.5 million or 53.6% of graduates under the age of 25 were jobless or underemployed in 2011. This was the highest rate in more than a decade. Going back to the year 2000, this rate was just 41%.

Many college graduates are increasingly turning to lower-wage jobs such as waitering, bar-tending, retail; jobs that do not utilize the investment of four years or more of higher education. This is confounded by higher tuition and the increasing levels of student loans. According to Harvard economist Richard Freeman, student loan debt has surpassed $1 trillion.

While their knowledge and abilities are important to our society, demand for the arts and humanities have simply not been producing any form of market for jobs. This is contrasted with high demand from employers in science, education, and health care. Even within those categories, specific positions and majors vary on demand.

A lot of the decrease in demand for college graduates is attributed to technological changes and the macro economic downturn of recent years. By region, the hardest areas to find jobs were in Mountain West, where about 3 in 5 graduates are underemployed or jobless. Following in their footsteps were Southern states Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee, along with Pacific region states Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington. On the opposite end, Texas demonstrated strong higher skilled jobs among graduates attributed to clusters in high tech industries.

The middle level workers seem to be the worse hit, with job gains coming from top and bottom of the wage scale. Up to 95% of positions lost during the economic recovery occurred in middle-income occupations.

This poses a serious problem as college graduates are fresh out of college, with their skills at hand only to be faced with the burden of losing that competitive edge to future generations of college graduates. It's an affect that hampers the economy today and in the near future.

It is said the most successful people find what they are good at, and stick with that career path through the thick and thin, but at this point, just how thin can we go before we starve?

Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/1-2-graduates-jobless-underemployed-140300522.html

Gender Wage Gap in America

Following a report by the Institute for Women's Policy Research, the Economist published an article today illustrating the affect of the gender wage gap in America. To this day, women still earn significantly less than men in almost all forms of occupations.

In the previous year, 2011, full-time working women in America earned just 82.2% of the male median weekly earnings. This phenomenon was common across almost all occupations, only subtracting the fields of "stock clerks and order fillers" and "bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks" where women made just slightly more than their male counterpart.

The gender wage gap is developed as a percentage of earnings women have against those of males. The gap was most obvious in CEOs and financial managers where female executives earned just 69% of what male's earned. In total this was nearly $658 less in median weekly earnings.

For more visit the Economist online: http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2012/04/focus-3?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/bl/americasgenderwagegap

The Existence of The Penny

I am willing to bet you have a few pieces of change in your pocket rattling around as you walk down the street. I will also bet you'll be pretty likely to have a few pennies in there causing that ruckus. But here's the question: how often do those pennies make it out of your pocket to no long be noise makers, and actually go towards purchasing anything? Further, how many of those pennies are just wasted money, either lost or never used?

I doubt its very often. The only time I can actually remember someone paying or using pennies was in this Seinfeld episode where Kramer tries to pay for Calzones in pennies.

There have been many calls for the U.S. Government to dispand the penny. Up north in Canada the calls have been heard. The penny will soon be out of circulation. Due to rising prices of the metals the penny is made of in Canada, it actually costs 1.6 cents to produce the 1 cent penny, a loss of .6 cents. The cost and output is nearly identical back here in the United States. In total the Canadian Government claims to lose nearly $11 million a year producing and distributing the penny, not to mention the costs borne onto business and consumers who deal with pennies.

A 2008 report by a Quebec based bank, Desjardins, suggests the penny's existence had cost the Canadian economy nearly $150 million for year 2006. For example, Canada's big banks handle more than 9 billion pennies a year, which in amount to $20 million annually for processing.

The Bank of Canada also concluded in a 2005 study, that the pennies disbandment would not lead to any showings of inflation. This concept also cites the past examples of Norway, Australia, and New Zealand along with other nations who have not seen any systemic price increases.

Nevertheless, we still have our old friend, the penny. So what do you think? Should the penny stay?


For more:
http://www.freakonomics.com/2012/03/30/canada-kills-its-penny-can-we-please-be-next/