Neural Connections In the Human Brain

Two-dimensional brain Researchers at Brown University have created a computer program to advance analysis of the neural connections in the human brain.

Radu Jianu/Brown University

NASA Puts Alternative Jet Fuels Put to the Test

NASA and 11 other research groups are testing two non-petroleum-based jet fuels in the pursuit of alternative fuels that can power commercial jets and address rising oil costs.

Read the article at NASA Puts Alternative Jet Fuels Put to the Test (NASA).

Creating Biofuel with Algae

University of Nevada, Reno has a demonstration project that turns algae into biofuel. It is being done to show that the process is economical.

Read the article at Nevada conducts algae-to-biofuel research project (UNR).

Auroras on Other Planets

A guest (Maurice Cotterell?, Walter Cruttenden?, someone else?) on the show a month or so back was asked by a caller if northern lights occurred on other planets. The guest said no.

However, auroras do occur on most of the other planets. Auroras have been observed on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Venus, and Mars. That leaves only Mercury as the lone planet where an aurora has never been observed. In addition, Jupiter’s moons, Io, Europa, and Ganymede, have been observed with auroras.

This is a composite of three images showing auroras on Jupiter, Saturn, and Io.

Yellowstone Caldera Size Is Overstated

On the Sunday, January 4, 2009 Coast To Coast AM With George Noory, Mitch Battros, a self-proclaimed “expert” on earth changes (Whatever that means.) and self-published author of the book “Solar Rain” stated the eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera would be 10,000 times that of the Mount St. Helens eruption[20090117].

A quick factcheck reveals that:
the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens ejected 0.3 cubic miles (1.2 cubic km) of material,
the Yellowstone Caldera eruption occurred 640,000 years ago and produced 240 cubic miles (1,000 cubic km) of material.

Some quick math reveals 240 / 0.3 = 800 (1000 / 1.2 = 833). That’s an error that is off by roughly a magnitude.

What’s a magnitude between friends? Who cares about an error of a magnitude? It’s like driving 8 miles over the speed limit and having the police officer giving you a ticket for driving 100 miles over the speed limit.

Toba Caldera Size Is Overstated

Mitch Battros said that Toba, an Indonesian volcano that erupted about 75,000 years ago, was about 10,000 times the size of Mount St. Helens.
Wrong again. It is estimated that Toba released about 2,800 cubic km of material. Again doing the arithmatic we have 2800 / 1.2 for about 2333 times the size of Mount St. Helens. Closer then before but still not even close to the 10,000 figure Mitch Battros gave on the show. And he knew he was going onto the show to talk about volcanos.

Mitch caldera description

Mitch describing a caldera said, “Imagine a volcano that is unside down. That really does help describes how a caldera actually works. The top of the volcano does not have a typically cone that we would imagine such as volcano Taupo (?) Mount St. Helens or any number of volcanoes that have this high rise that comes to a peak. A caldera is underground. So really from a visually point of view, if we were to stand there, such as Yellowstone, and looked across, we wouldn’t notice anything other then the geophysical events that are occuring, the thermal events. So the vast portion of a caldera is below the surface and it goes down, tunnels down to magma chambers. [Editor note: This is true of all volcanoes when you include the magma chamber.]“

The Glossary of Geology defines a caldera as “a large, basin-shaped volanic depression, more or less circular or cirquelike in form, the diameter of which is many times greater than that of the included vent or vents, no matter what the steepness of the walls or form of the floor.” [1]

Ritter says caldera depressions are formed when “eruption spews forth large quantities of material, creating an empty space in the underlying magma chamber. This results in an inward collapse of the upper part of the volcanic cone, often along fractures that develop following the eruption.” [2]

Ritter goes on to clarify that the primary distinction between a normal volcanic crater and a caldera is one of size with one mile (1.6 km) diameter being the dividing size.

In other words, a caldera is simply the remains of a supervolcano. What a crater is to a normal volcano, a caldera is to a super-volcano.

Stratovolcano

The cross-sections above show a stratovolcano during eruption and afterwards. The general profile of the volcano remains the same — steep sides with a distinct crater on top.

Supervolcano and its Caldera

The images below show the sequence of forming a caldera

Because of the large size of the vacated space* in the magma chamber, the chamber collapses under the weight of the overlying rock. This causes an enlarge crater called a caldera to form. Often a lake will form within the caldera.

In the left image at very top of the page the Yellowstone caldera rim can be seen in the distance. The image is of the northeastern part of the Yellowstone Caldera with the Yellowstone River flowing through Hayden Valley in the interior of the caldera.

*Technically the chamber isn’t really empty. The expelled materials causes the magma chamber to have less interior pressure. With the lower pressure, the chamber can no longer support the overlying rock load.

References

[1] Bates, Robert L. and Jackson, Julia A., Editors; Glossary of Geology, 3 rd Edition; American Geological Institute; Alexandria, Virginia; 1987.

[2] Dale F Ritter; Process Geomorphology; Wm. C. Brown Publishers, College Division; Dubuque, Iowa; 1978, 1986; Page 50.

Supervolcano images modified from:
Williams, Howell; Crater lake: the story of its origin; University of California Press; Berkeley, California, USA; 97 Pages; 1941.

What is a psychopath?

Let me start off by saying the terms psychopathy and sociopathy are non-clinical terms that are not defined within the DSM-IV. Without medically defined meanings, there really isn’t any ability to define differences in between the terms. In the UK, the tendency is away from the use of the term psychopathy to avoid confusion with ‘psychosis’ (symptom or feature of mental illness).[1] In the United States the move to replacing the term psychopathy with sociopathy was driven by change of thought on caused the condition (internal vs. external).[2]

The term psychopath comes to us via way of German researchers who in the 1880s used it to imply that the condition is from an “internal sickness.” In the mid-twentieth century came the new liberal social thought which sought to find external causes for social deviancy. The psychologist G. E. Partridge coined the term “sociopath,” in 1930 to reflect this change of view.[2] The recent use of fMRIs has swung views on the underlying cause of psychopathy back to an internal origin.

Thus the terms psychopathy and sociopathy describe the same condition but from different viewpoints.

The American Psychiatric Association’s "DSM-IV" refers to psychopathy, sociopathy, and dissocial personality disorder as synonyms for 301.7 Antisocial Personality Disorder. [3, page 702]

Again, without any primary medical definitions for these terms, it is the author’s call on how to use the terms to express his ideas.

Shortest Definition of a Psychopath

The shortest, simplest definition of a psychopath is

          A psychopath is a person who is sane but amoral.

It is a character defect not a mental illness.

An Expanded Definition of a Psychopath

Hervey Cleckley, a American psychiatrist, in his 1941 groundbreaking book, “The Mask of Sanity,” describe the psychopath as someone who has only a very superficial sense of beauty/ugliness and only the most elementary understanding of the basic concepts of goodness, evil, love, horror, and humor.[4]

Cleckley says the psychopath functions by mimicking the normal behavior of those around him hiding “a grossly disabled and irresponsible personality.” He, psychopathy is rare in women, is “brilliant and charming” and talks “entertainingly” all the while carrying “disaster lightly in each hand.”

Hervey Cleckley’s “The Mask of Sanity,” (1941) is a must read for anyone wanting to or needing to have an understanding about psychopaths and how they function. The book describes the clinical interviews he had with incarcerated criminals. The book has been out of print for a number of years.

But a private printing for non-profit educational use is available as a free PDF download at The Cassiopaean Experiment or in the Scitechlab Library: The Mask of Sanity (with a fancy cover).

Dr. Robert D. Hare, professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia and creator of the Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) has written two books for the general public on psychopathly — Without Conscience (1999) and Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work (2007).

	Dr. Robert D. Hare		APA
	Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us	Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work	Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV-TR Fourth Edition (Text Revision)
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In ‘Without Conscience,’ Prof. Hare describes psychopaths by saying “psychopaths are social predators who charm, manipulate, and ruthlessly plow their way through life, leaving a broad trail of broken hearts, shattered expectations, and empty wallets. Completely lacking in conscience and in feelings for other, they selfishly take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without the slightest sense of guilt or regret.” [5, page xi]

Just pickup any newspaper and you will read about the “serial killers, rapists, thieves, swindlers, con men, wife beaters, white-collar criminals, hype-prone stock promoters and “boiler-room” operators, child abusers, gang members, disbarred lawyers, drug barons, professional gamblers, members of organized crime, doctors who’ve lost their licenses, terrorists, cult leaders, mercenaries, and unscrupulous businesspeople.”[5, page 3]

Psychopaths, even those who are “psychopathic killers, however, are not mad, according to accepted legal and psychiatric standards. Their acts result not from a deranged mind but from a cold, calculating rationality combined with a chilling inability to treat others as thinking, feeling human beings.” [5, page 5]

What happens when you Interact with Psychopaths

Prof. Hare emphasizes “on a more personal level, it is likely that at some time in your life you will come into painful contact with a psychopath. For your own physical, psychological, and financial well-being it is crucial that you know how to identify the psychopath, how to protect yourself and how to minimize the harm done to you.” [5, page xii]

Hare explains, “Everybody has met these people, been deceived and manipulated by them, and forced to live with or repair the damage they have wrought. [5, page 1]

He goes o to say that they use “their charm and chameleonlike abilities to cut a wide swath through society and leaving a wake of ruined lives behind them.” [5, page 2]

A 1992 FBI report reached the conclusion that almost half of the killers of law enforcement officers matched the profile for psychopathly. [times] At least two million psychopaths live in North America [5, page 2]

The Researcher’s Definition of Psychopathy: Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R)

Robert D. Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) isn’t available for public sale.

Researchers do however use the term psychopathy. Clinically psychopathy doesn’t fall neatly into any particular DSM-IV disorder but could be considered, in this author’s opinion, as a ‘super disorder’ in that it contains components of multiple orders.

Under Robert D. Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), psychopathy falls roughly over three DSM-IV Cluster B Personality disorders — antisocial personality disorder, histrionic personality disorder, and narcissistic personality disorder.[6]

Hare’s fundamental psycho-diagnostic tool list 20 traits that are measured on a scale of 0 to 2 to determine a diagnosis —

Factor1: “Aggressive narcissism”

• Glibness/superficial charm
• Grandiose sense of self-worth
• Pathological lying
• Cunning/manipulative
• Lack of remorse or guilt
• Shallow affect
• Callous/lack of empathy
• Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
• Promiscuous sexual behavior

Factor2: “Socially deviant lifestyle”

• Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom
• Parasitic lifestyle
• Poor behavioral control
• Lack of realistic, long-term goals
• Impulsivity
• Irresponsibility
• Juvenile delinquency
• Early behavior problems
• Revocation of conditional release

Traits not correlated with either factor

• Many short-term marital relationships
• Criminal versatility

The score is obtained from file information and a semi-structured interview. A score of 30 is needed for a research diagnosis of psychopathy. Incarcerated offenders have a mean score of about 22 while noncriminals typically score around 5.

Hare believes the DSM’s use of antisocial personality disorder as a catchall diagnosis that includes psychopathly is wrong.[2]

Hare said, “it’s like having pneumonia versus having a cold. They share some common symptoms, but one is much more virulent.”[2]

References

1. No author; Madness or Badness; Mind in Manchester; Webpage; No date. Accessed December 2, 2008 @ http://www.mind-in-manchester.org.uk/campaigning/comscare/personality_order_madness_or_badness.php.
2. Seabrook, John; Suffering Souls: The search for the roots of psychopathy, The New Yorker; Online; November 10, 2008. Accessed December 2, 2008 @ http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/10/081110fa_fact_seabrook?currentPage=allhttp://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/10/081110fa_fact_seabrook?printable=true (print version).
3. American Psychiatric Association Task Force on DSM-IV; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV-TR; American Psychiatric Pub.; 2000.
4. Cleckley, Hervey M.; The Mask of Sanity ~An attempt to reinterpret the so-called psychopathic personality; The C. V. Mosby company; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; 1941.
   Available as a free non-profit educational PDF download at The Cassiopaean Experiment or with a fancy cover in the Scitechlab Library: The Mask of Sanity.

5. Hare, Robert D.; Without Conscience; The Guilford Press; NewYork; 1999.
6. Hare, Robert D.; Manual for the Revised Psychopathy Checklist (2nd ed.); Multi-Health Systems, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; 2003.

• Hare, Robert D.; Psychopathy and Antisocial Personality Disorder: A Case of Diagnostic Confusion; Online; Psychiatric Times; Volume 13 No. 2; February 1, 1996. Accessed December 1, 2008 @ http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/54831#.

• Hare, Robert D.; Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work; HarperCollins Publishers; New York, NY, USA; 2007.

Crab Nebula Heart

The Crab Nebula seems to have most of what’s in the celestial bestiary. It is one of the most spectacular nebulas in the sky. It’s a supernova remnant. It has a pulsar that emits in radio, visible, ultraviolet, and X-ray wavelengths. It even has a well-established pedigree since it was sighted by royal Chinese astronomers when light from the supernova arrived here in 1054.

“The Crab Nebula and the star at the center of it are the Rosetta Stone of modern astrophysics,” said Dr. Martin Weisskopf, Project Scientist for the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Chandra Science Center @ NASA

Read more about the Crab Nebula at Science at NASA.

Los Alamos observatory fingers cosmic ray ‘hot spots’

Milagro Observatory unveils something never before seen from Earth

“A Laboratory cosmic-ray observatory has seen for the first time two distinct hot spots that appear to be bombarding Earth with an excess of cosmic rays. The research calls into question nearly a century of understanding about galactic magnetic fields near our solar system….

John Pretz

Read the full story at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The humble fruitfly sheds light on another genetic question

It is unknown why females mate with multiple males when mating is frequently costly and a single copulation often provides enough sperm to fertilize all a female’s eggs. One possibility is that remating increases the fitness of offspring, because fertilization success is biased toward the sperm of high-fitness males. We show that female Drosophila pseudoobscura evolved increased remating rates when exposed to the risk of mating with males carrying a deleterious sex ratio–distorting gene that also reduces sperm competitive ability. Because selfish genetic elements that reduce sperm competitive ability are generally associated with low genetic fitness, they may represent a common driver of the evolution of polyandry.

Read more at Science – Selfish Genetic Elements Promote Polyandry in a Fly.

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Discovers Tucked-in Glaciers

Image credit: NASA/JPL   Artist concept of glacier on Mars.

NASA scientists believe they have a solution to how the gently sloping areas that occur at the bases of taller geographical features formed. These aprons consist of blankets of rocky debris protecting massive glaciers of water ice.

John W. Holt of the University of Texas at Austin, who is lead author of the report said, “altogether, these glaciers almost certainly represent the largest reservoir of water ice on Mars that is not in the polar caps. Just one of the features we examined is three times larger than the city of Los Angeles and up to one-half-mile thick. And there are many more. In addition to their scientific value, they could be a source of water to support future exploration of Mars.”

Read more at NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter “NASA Space Craft Detects Buried Glaciers on Mars.”