The Flashlight, Oct. 27 to Nov. 2, 2007
THE FLASHLIGHT, October 27--November 2, 2007
The Middle East Peace Conference
NY Review of Books, 11-8, p. 13. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Brent Scowcroft and four other foreign policy experts: Letter to Pres. Bush and Sec. Rice. The conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is scheduled for late November in Annapolis. The letter said that a freeze on the expansion of Israeli settlements should occur by the beginning of the conference. The experts supported the following provisions for a peace settlement:
1. There should be two states, divided by the line of June 4, 1967 (with minor adjustments).
2. Jerusalem should be divided into two parts, containing two capitals, Israeli and Palestinian.
3. The Palestinian refugees should be given financial compensation, reparations and assistance in resettlement.
4. Security provisions should be made for both Palestinians and Israelis.
Argentina
PBS 10-29. Argentina has its own Hilary: the wife of the former president, Nestor Kirchner, a Peronist, has won election to the presidency. Her name is Christina Fernandez de Kirchner. She is a lawyer and a Senator.
US Policy toward Iran: a debate
PBS 10-29. Norman Podhoretz, neocon leader and editor of Commentary, debated with Farid Zakaria, an editor of TIME magazine. Podhoretz wants the US to bomb Iran before they produce a nuclear weapon. Zakaria argued that deterrence worked in the cases of the USSR, China, and No. Korea, who have been deterred from using their nuclear weapons. He argued that deterrence works also for Iran. Podhoretz said that the religious fanaticism of the Iranians may prevent deterrence from working. Zakaria said that the Iranians act in their national interest and that they are deterred by Israel’s 200 nuclear weapons plus second strike submarines.
US Politics
The Mukasy Appointment as Attorney General
NYTimes 10-27, 10-31, and 11-1, CNN 11-1. Judge Michael B. Mukasy (ret.) is being considered for confirmation as AG by the Senate Judiciary Committee. At first it appeared he would easily be confirmed. But two issues have arisen: one is his view on the powers of the executive branch and the other, his hedging on whether or not waterboarding and other harsh measure of interrogation are illegal. He says they are repugnant to him, but he won’t say that under the constitution they are illegal. Senator Spector (R.) says this appointment is now “at risk” of being denied.
In an op-ed piece, NYT 11-1, Jennifer Daskal, senior counsel at Human Rights Watch, said that Mukasy is hedging on the torture issue because he is protecting current and former administration officials from possible prosecution in the US and abroad (Donald Rumsfeld has been accused of authorizing torture in French courts). If President Bush specifically authorized waterboarding even he could be legally liable.
War Protest
San Francisco Chronicle 10-28. About 30,000 protestors against the Iraq War, lay down on the ground in Market St. for three minutes. It was called a “die in,” in honor of the one million Iraqis killed since the spring of 2003. Similar protests occurred in other US cities.
Earthquake
San Francisco Chronicle 10-30. A point nine miles from the center of San Jose in the Calaveras Fault was the epicenter of a 5.6 Richter scale earthquake. This made a quake in the Hayward Fault more likely.
Science: Predictors of Cancer
The Guardian 10-31. The World Cancer Research Fund, in a survey of forty years of cancer research around the world, has announced the strongest predictors of the most common cancers. Smoking remained at the top of the list. But more surprising, obesity was second. It was linked to six types of cancer including breast, bowel, and pancreas. The report advised people to keep their weight as low as possible without being underweight. A third predictor of cancer was alcohol intake. It was linked to mouth, esophagous and breast cancer. Even one drink a day is significant in predicting breast cancer. (However for women one drink can help prevent a heart attack.) A fourth predictor of cancer was the consumption of certain meats. Processed meats, including ham, bacon, franks, etc. are most strongly linked to cancer, with red meat in general next in importance.
Science: Psychology and Superstition
Newsweek 10-5. “The Ghosts We Think We See” by Sharon Begley, from the work of Prof. of Psychology Bruce Hood of the University of Bristol, UK.
Only 7% of Americans are free of superstition. The rest believe in telepathy, déjà vu, ghosts, past lives or other supernatural phenomena. (Supernatural means anything that cannot be explained by the laws of physics and biology). Supernatural beliefs are the result of the normal working of the mind.
1, Neurons have a habit of filling in the blanks. They see patterns where there is mere coincidence, like a stain that reminds people of the Virgin Mary, or the wind in a cave that sounds like a voice.
2. The mind tends to impute consciousness to inanimate objects. It attributes purpose to the motions of these objects.
3. Belief in Mind-Body dualism: the belief that minds are not bound to bodies shows up by the time a child is two years old.
A factor in the explanation for these phenomena is the operation of the neurotransmitter dopamine. When skeptics were given L-dopa, a drug that increases the level of dopamine in the brain, their skeptical threshold fell, and they were more inclined to see patterns even in random noise.
The Middle East Peace Conference
NY Review of Books, 11-8, p. 13. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Brent Scowcroft and four other foreign policy experts: Letter to Pres. Bush and Sec. Rice. The conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is scheduled for late November in Annapolis. The letter said that a freeze on the expansion of Israeli settlements should occur by the beginning of the conference. The experts supported the following provisions for a peace settlement:
1. There should be two states, divided by the line of June 4, 1967 (with minor adjustments).
2. Jerusalem should be divided into two parts, containing two capitals, Israeli and Palestinian.
3. The Palestinian refugees should be given financial compensation, reparations and assistance in resettlement.
4. Security provisions should be made for both Palestinians and Israelis.
Argentina
PBS 10-29. Argentina has its own Hilary: the wife of the former president, Nestor Kirchner, a Peronist, has won election to the presidency. Her name is Christina Fernandez de Kirchner. She is a lawyer and a Senator.
US Policy toward Iran: a debate
PBS 10-29. Norman Podhoretz, neocon leader and editor of Commentary, debated with Farid Zakaria, an editor of TIME magazine. Podhoretz wants the US to bomb Iran before they produce a nuclear weapon. Zakaria argued that deterrence worked in the cases of the USSR, China, and No. Korea, who have been deterred from using their nuclear weapons. He argued that deterrence works also for Iran. Podhoretz said that the religious fanaticism of the Iranians may prevent deterrence from working. Zakaria said that the Iranians act in their national interest and that they are deterred by Israel’s 200 nuclear weapons plus second strike submarines.
US Politics
The Mukasy Appointment as Attorney General
NYTimes 10-27, 10-31, and 11-1, CNN 11-1. Judge Michael B. Mukasy (ret.) is being considered for confirmation as AG by the Senate Judiciary Committee. At first it appeared he would easily be confirmed. But two issues have arisen: one is his view on the powers of the executive branch and the other, his hedging on whether or not waterboarding and other harsh measure of interrogation are illegal. He says they are repugnant to him, but he won’t say that under the constitution they are illegal. Senator Spector (R.) says this appointment is now “at risk” of being denied.
In an op-ed piece, NYT 11-1, Jennifer Daskal, senior counsel at Human Rights Watch, said that Mukasy is hedging on the torture issue because he is protecting current and former administration officials from possible prosecution in the US and abroad (Donald Rumsfeld has been accused of authorizing torture in French courts). If President Bush specifically authorized waterboarding even he could be legally liable.
War Protest
San Francisco Chronicle 10-28. About 30,000 protestors against the Iraq War, lay down on the ground in Market St. for three minutes. It was called a “die in,” in honor of the one million Iraqis killed since the spring of 2003. Similar protests occurred in other US cities.
Earthquake
San Francisco Chronicle 10-30. A point nine miles from the center of San Jose in the Calaveras Fault was the epicenter of a 5.6 Richter scale earthquake. This made a quake in the Hayward Fault more likely.
Science: Predictors of Cancer
The Guardian 10-31. The World Cancer Research Fund, in a survey of forty years of cancer research around the world, has announced the strongest predictors of the most common cancers. Smoking remained at the top of the list. But more surprising, obesity was second. It was linked to six types of cancer including breast, bowel, and pancreas. The report advised people to keep their weight as low as possible without being underweight. A third predictor of cancer was alcohol intake. It was linked to mouth, esophagous and breast cancer. Even one drink a day is significant in predicting breast cancer. (However for women one drink can help prevent a heart attack.) A fourth predictor of cancer was the consumption of certain meats. Processed meats, including ham, bacon, franks, etc. are most strongly linked to cancer, with red meat in general next in importance.
Science: Psychology and Superstition
Newsweek 10-5. “The Ghosts We Think We See” by Sharon Begley, from the work of Prof. of Psychology Bruce Hood of the University of Bristol, UK.
Only 7% of Americans are free of superstition. The rest believe in telepathy, déjà vu, ghosts, past lives or other supernatural phenomena. (Supernatural means anything that cannot be explained by the laws of physics and biology). Supernatural beliefs are the result of the normal working of the mind.
1, Neurons have a habit of filling in the blanks. They see patterns where there is mere coincidence, like a stain that reminds people of the Virgin Mary, or the wind in a cave that sounds like a voice.
2. The mind tends to impute consciousness to inanimate objects. It attributes purpose to the motions of these objects.
3. Belief in Mind-Body dualism: the belief that minds are not bound to bodies shows up by the time a child is two years old.
A factor in the explanation for these phenomena is the operation of the neurotransmitter dopamine. When skeptics were given L-dopa, a drug that increases the level of dopamine in the brain, their skeptical threshold fell, and they were more inclined to see patterns even in random noise.
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