Sense of the Senate

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Keith's note: What's the sense of the Senate with regard to the President's space policy? Well, according to Jeff Bingham, minority staffer on the Senate Commerce Science and Transportation Committee's Subcommittee on Science and Space posting on nasaspaceflight.com as "Mascot 51D": "In addition, of course, the authorizers--often referred to as "policy and oversight committees" have the power to direct NASA policies and programs, and can point NASA in directions different than those recommended by the President, if they can pass their bills doing so and over-ride any presidential veto. This year, the exercise of that power will be especially interesting to watch, as there is still a considerable difference between many Members of Congress' views on the proposed NASA budget and the new direction proposed by the President."

Blessing

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Grace Parnaby says hello to our breeding birds
On show - a nesting Shag on nest with egg
Our first Razorbill eggs
Wednesday 21st April comments:
It’s been all go as the hectic pace of island life continues. The rapid start to the season continues as the first Razorbill eggs were discovered yesterday – the earliest ever in Farnes history and another record broken. Despite the quick start we’re still waiting the arrival of some birds, most noticeably the Arctic Tern, although it’s only a matter of time.

The number of pairs of Puffins and Guillemots on eggs has increased again and as the Sandwich Terns settle in the main colony, it may be only a matter of days before we report those! On a sad note, the Ringed Plover nest was predated, with the chief suspect being an Oystercatcher, but thankfully (and as expected) the Plovers are having another go.

Monday proved to be a proud day for one ex-warden of the islands as St.Cuthbert’s Chapel on Inner Farne welcomed some special guests, as friends and family of David (ex-Farne warden from 2003-04) and Susannah Parnaby visited the islands for a blessing of their daughter; Grace. The short service, delivered by local vicar Jane Wood, was well received and although we do have several services a year, its only our second blessing in modern history. Following the service, Grace was introduced to the breeding seabirds of the islands and I’m sure she’ll be back with her family in future years.

On a personal note, a well-known BBC politics show phoned me asking for comments on the Liberal Democrats chances at the up-and-coming general election. Slightly confused, I inquired why they wanted comments from the head warden of the Farne Islands – before they realised I wasn’t Lord David Steel…..not yet anyway.

House Passes Bill to Care for Women Veterans and Provide Support for Veteran … – Imperial Valley News

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VA Watchdog dot Org (blog)
House Passes Bill to Care for Women Veterans and Provide Support for Veteran ...
Imperial Valley News
... veteran at a medical facility. Veterans who served in Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) are eligible to select a caregiver to ...
US House Passes Perriello Bill Expanding Health Benefits for Veterans' CaregiversRealEstateRama

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NYT and CBS conduct national poll of Tea Party Supporters

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A national survey of tea party supporters conducted by the New York Times and CBS News has yielded some interesting results.  Despite the overarching narrative that the Tea Party Movement is a predominantly male movement, the survey found that the Tea Party actually only split 59%/41% in favor of males.  Additional findings of note included that your [...]

Puerto Balandra near La Paz, Mexico is a Beach Lover’s Paradise

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Just a short distance north of La Paz, Mexico lies Puerto Balandra, a saltwater lagoon that boasts eight unspoiled bays with spectacular beaches. The waters in the bays are shallow enough to walk around the right-hand cliff to Playa Balandra, also known as Playa El Hongo (Mushroom Beach) for its famous rock formation that resembles a giant mushroom. Once you have seen the formation, the mystery of the fountain in La Paz’s central plaza is solved – the strange looking lump in its center is a replica of this mushroom-shaped rock.

Mushroom rock formation at Balandra Beach, La Paz, Mexico

While most come to Balandra Beach to see the balancing rock that is featured on so many postcards, they stay for the pristine white beaches and powdery sand. However, unlike many other beaches in and around La Paz, services are limited at Puerto Balandra. Although food and beverage vendors usually appear on the weekends, there are no established restaurants or palapas on site, so it is best bring a box lunch or food to cook at the BBQ pits at the south end of the beach.

One of the many beaches to discover in Puerto Balandra's shallow bay

Visitors who prefer more services would do well to travel a bit further north to Playa Tecolote, which is more developed with a couple of restaurants, picnic tables, and an improved parking lot, but if peace and serenity are what you seek, Balandra Beach is the spot.

Photo Credit: Barbara Weibel
Article by Barbara Weibel of Hole In The Donut Travels

German Greens: Men need no longer be Macho

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End of the Road for Macho Camacho?

From Eric Dondero:

Now this whacky news out of Germany...

The German Green Party has just gone hardline feminist. From Der Spiegel "New Man Manifesto":

Even if some male party members think the Greens tend to exaggerate a bit on this issue, they do not dare say so publicly. Instead a new group of young party members has come up with an even stronger gender message, this time shining the spotlight on men: "We no longer need to be macho!" is the title of their manifesto which deals with "equality and male feminism."

The signatories include several Green politicians from the European parliament, the German Bundestag as well as local Green leaders. "We no longer want to be macho," it declares, "we want to be people. You are not born a man, you are turned into one."

The men's manifesto makes two main points. First, men need to break out of their traditional gender roles. "We need a new awareness of a new masculinity," write its co-authors Sven Lehmann and Jan Philipp Albrecht. Second, they argue that their fellow men need to realize that real equality will not happen without their participation.

"We want to live differently!" writes Lehmann, a senior member of the North Rhine-Westphalia branch of the party, and the European parliamentarian Albrecht. They appeal for a slower pace of life, less focus on profit and more health consciousness. They want to start holding "Boys' Days and gender-sensitive career-guidance sessions."

There's been no word yet from US Greens on whether they agree with the plan.

Note - Greens have infiltrated the Libertarian Party in the past. New Jersey Green activist Robert Milnes, a frequent commenter at Independent Political Report, has been pushing for a Green-Libertarian alliance for years. He even briefly declared for the Libertarian Presidential nomination in 2008. At present, in California, prominent Ralph Nader former campaign staffer Christina Tobin is seeking the Libertarian nomination for Sec. of State.

Sioux Falls, SD Mayor’s race: Libertarian-Republican goes after Democrat’s party affiliation

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"Big 'L' Libertarian" could win Mayorship of South Dakota's largest city

In the Sioux Falls mayoral race, party affiliation has become one of the biggest issues. In what may be a sign of the times, the Democrat candidate is seeking to downplay his party. The Republican candidate is talking up his affiliation, and even listing his "Libertarian" views prominently on his website.
From the Argus Leader, April 21:

On the first question at the Good Morning Sioux Falls event at the Holiday Inn City Centre, candidate Kermit Staggers pointed out to the audience where he and candidate Mike Huether stand politically.

"There seems to be some confusion," he said. "Once again, I am the Republican, Mike's the Democrat."

Although the race is considered nonpartisan, Huether's decision to hire a Democratic consulting firm, coupled with donations from labor unions, had the state GOP ready to offer some support to Staggers, who said he was considering the offer.

On the "Kermit Staggers for Mayor" Facebook page, Staggers' political views are listed as Libertarian. Huether does not list his political views on his campaign Facebook page.

Staggers went on to say that he's "not hiding from his record," like Huether.

Continuing:

Staggers focused on lower taxes, more government transparency and less regulation. He said regulations place costs on business "and of course cost means less prosperity for businesses."

Staggers is a city councilman and former state senator. On his Facebook page, under Detailed Info, his Political Views are prominently listed as simply "Libertarian."

South Dacola, which bills itself as South Dakota's "Snarkiest Political Blog," commented:

It is no secret that Kermit isn’t your typical Republican, and it shows in who votes for him. He has wide support amongst all parties, but how does his party feel about him? Do Republicans want a true fiscal conservative with Libertarian beliefs, such as civil liberties, representing their party as mayor of Sioux Falls? Who knows? It was clear that Pat Costello was their dog in the race. Are they willing to look past Kermit’s big ‘L’ behind his name just to pull off a win for their party, or more importantly stopping Huether?

Brain-Training Products Useless in Study

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The health marketplace has a life of its own, mostly separated from science and evidence. Generally the marketplace gets a hold of an idea and runs with it, before the science is carefully worked out. Since most new ideas in science turn out to be wrong, that means most products will eventually be found to be worthless.

One such idea is that “brain training” can improve overall cognitive function – so of course now there is an industry of products which claim to train your brain. Lumosity (just to pick a random example served up by Google) claims on their website:

Brain Train
SCIENTIFICALLY DESIGNED

* Improve memory and attention
* Shown to improve cognitive function
* Neuroscience based brain training
* Train your brain today

I always enjoy the phrase “scientifically designed” or “scientifically formulated” – they are wonderful marketing phrases that invoke “science” without making any specific claims.

The notion of improving brain function by practicing certain tasks or playing cognitively demanding games is an attractive one. I certainly would like this to be true: get smarter while playing video games – I’ll buy that for a dollar.

It also may or may not be plausible, depending upon how you look at it. What is uncontroversial is that the brain learns, and practice does improve function – no question. But, the evidence also suggests that genetics is a dominant determining factor of overall cognitive function – we all eventually seek our maximum potential. (This does not apply to knowledge or skills, but raw brain power in specific areas.)

Prior studies, both observational and experimental, have shown a correlation with playing certain kinds of games and cognitive ability. For example, one study showed that playing Half Life (a first-person shooter featuring physicist Dr. Gordon Freeman) significantly improved surgical skill performing virtual reality endoscopy.

Another study showed improvement in “executive control functions, such as task switching, working memory, visual short-term memory, and reasoning,” from strategy video game playing. And yet another study showed improvements in visual processing from playing action video games.

But questions remain. For example, how transferable are the skills learned from video games? Do subjects improve only in their ability to play the specific video game and closely related tasks, or does brain function improve in more abstract ways not directly tied to the video game?

Also, how much game playing is necessary? Does benefit come only from playing hours a week, and over months and years, or can more modest “training” be beneficial? And further, is self-selection bias primarily responsible for some of the positive results? In other words, are people who are already superior at certain tasks playing video games because they are good at them and therefore enjoy them more?

With this in mind, Adrian Owen et al. set out to conduct a large study of specific brain training products (not video games optimized for fun) on four standard measures of cognitive function: grammatical reasoning, verbal short-term memory, spatial working memory, and paired associates learning. They randomized 4,678 subjects to three arms – one group was trained on programs designed to enhance reasoning, planning, and problem solving. The second group was trained on memory, attention, visuospatial processing, and mathematical calculations. The third group, the control, was given five obscure knowledge questions and asked to use the internet to find the answers.

Each group was tested at baseline and after six weeks, regardless of how many training sessions they completed, but on average the first “treatment” group completed 28.39 training sessions, compared with 23.86 in experimental group 2 and 18.66 in the control group. At the end of the study there were no statistically significant differences among the three groups – all improved slightly in all four measures.

The mild improvement is almost certainly due to the training effect – this is seen generally in studies of cognitive function or studies that use performance on a task as an outcome – subjects get better just from experience. That is why control groups are always needed.

The study showed that the subjects improved in the tasks on which they were training, but that these improvements did not generalize or translate to the benchmarks of cognitive function. This is a fairly solid study with a clearly negative outcome.

Conclusion

This one study, of course, is not definitive. It is possible that more training is needed before significant benefits are seen. Perhaps video games are more effective because they are more engaging and players will spend more time playing.What this study shows, however, is that products sold as brain training games had no documented benefits after six weeks of use.

Putting this study into the context of the overall research, it does make us more cautious about concluding that there are general cognitive benefits to brain training games or entertainment video games. Benefits are likely to be closely related to the specific tasks involved in training, and not transfer to unrelated tasks.

But there is already enough published evidence showing visual tracking, multitasking, and executive function benefits from action and strategic video games respectively that this study will not be the final word. When there is conflicting research, more study is needed.

This study is most applicable to brain training products, and shows that the marketing claims for these products are not justified. There is very unlikely to be any benefit, or any specific advantage, to “scientifically designed” brain training applications. For now, you are better off just playing a video game.

Long live Gordon Freeman.


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AAARRRRGGGGHHHH!

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Marian at work

Okay, I got wa-a-a-a-a-ay behind today, and looking over my post (intended for this evening), I think I’ll hold it until tomorrow.  It still needs work.  Since I’ll be up most of tonight trying to catch up on “things”, I should be able to work on it all night.

I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once.

Rats.

Discovery Stays in Orbit

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The shuttle Discovery and crew will remain is orbit for another 24 hours.  The clouds at KSC just would not cooperate, just as we got to the Go/No Go decision, they decided not to land today and hope for better conditions tomorrow.

The NOAA weather forecast:

Tonight: A 20 percent chance of showers before midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 61. Northeast wind between 5 and 10 mph.

Tuesday: A 30 percent chance of showers after 2pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 75. East wind around 10 mph.

NCBI ROFL: It’s dogs…it’s dogs in tights (TIGHT tights!) | Discoblog

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subadogEffects of a whole-body spandex garment on rectal temperature and oxygen consumption in healthy dogs.

“OBJECTIVE: To determine whether a full-body spandex garment would alter rectal temperatures of healthy dogs at rest in cool and warm environments… …PROCEDURES: Each dog was evaluated at a low (20 degrees to 25 degrees C [68 degrees to 77 degrees F]) or high (30 degrees to 35 degrees C [86 degrees to 95 degrees F]) ambient temperature while wearing or not wearing a commercially available whole-body spandex garment designed for dogs. Oxygen consumption was measured by placing dogs in a flow-through indirect calorimeter for 90 to 120 minutes. Rectal temperature was measured before dogs were placed in the calorimeter and after they were removed. RESULTS: Rectal temperature increased significantly more at the higher ambient temperature than at the lower temperature and when dogs were not wearing the garment than when they were wearing it. The specific rate of oxygen consumption was significantly higher at the lower ambient temperature than at the higher temperature. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Results suggest that wearing a snug spandex body garment does not increase the possibility that dogs will overheat while in moderate ambient temperatures. Instead, wearing such a garment may enable dogs to better maintain body temperature during moderate heat loading. These results suggest that such garments might be used for purposes such as wound or suture protection without causing dogs to overheat.”

spandex

Photo: flickr/zebedee.zebedee

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Spring Cleaning in Everest’s “Death Zone” to Sweep up Oxygen Bottles & Corpses | Discoblog

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STS058-101-12_2The next time someone asks you to take the trash out, don’t make a big deal about it. Because, as Namgyal Sherpa will tell you, at least you don’t have to climb a mountain to take out the garbage. Namgyal is leading a team of 20 sherpas who, come May 1st, will be climbing up to the world’s highest garbage dump–on Mount Everest.

The Nepalese mountain climbers will trek to above 26,000 feet to an area known as the “death zone” due to its lack of oxygen, Reuters reports. Once there, they’ll gather up the trash left behind by previous expeditions.

The Mount Everest spring cleaning trip is expected to yield tons of garbage like food wrappings, torn tents, and discarded oxygen bottles left between an area called South Col at 26,000 feet and the summit at 29,035 feet. The sherpas also hope to bring back the dead bodies of three mountaineers who were killed in the death zone, and plan to cremate them near the base camp.

Namgyal Sherpa has already scaled the summit seven times and will be with a team comprised of equally expert mountaineers, including one teammate who has made the trip up Everest 14 times. They’ll all be toting empty sacks to haul the trash back in.

Namgyal, who goes by one name only, says some of the rubbish has been lying around since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first scaled the world’s highest peak in 1953; he says that the trash creates problems for other climbers as they trek through the treacherous terrain. He told Reuters:

“This is the first time we are cleaning at that height, the death zone. It is very difficult and dangerous…. The garbage was buried under snow in the past. But now it has come out on the surface because of the melting of snow due to global warming.”

Many climbers leave their gear and trash behind as they descend due to exhaustion and lack of oxygen, Reuters adds. And garbage left behind on the mountain has become a source of environmental concern for the Nepalese government, which started imposing strict rules 15 years ago requiring climbers to bring back all their trash. But there are still no estimates on how much trash remains on the mountain.

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Image: Wikimedia