davidfcooper

Sweat glands are secret sensory organs (thanks, novapsyche)

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 23:56:36 GMT

updated 12:12 p.m. ET Dec. 8, 2009
The human body may be equipped with a separate sensory system aside from the nerves that gives us the ability to touch and feel, according to a new study.
Most of us have millions of different types of nerve endings just beneath the skin that let us feel our surroundings. However, the once-hidden and recently discovered skin sense, found in two patients, is located throughout the blood vessels and sweat glands, and most of us don't even notice it's there.
"It's almost like hearing the subtle sound of a single instrument in the midst of a symphony," said senior author Frank Rice, a neuroscience professor at Albany Medical College in New York. "It is only when we shift focus away from the nerve endings associated with normal skin sensation that we can appreciate the sensation hidden in the background."

Sensitive skin Our skin, the body's largest organ, seems to have some extraordinary qualities, as another recent study showed skin can hear.
The new finding, detailed in the Dec. 15 issue of the journal Pain, could help scientists to understand mysterious pain conditions such as migraine headaches and fibromyalgia. The study, and others by the team, was supported by the National Institutes of Health and several pharmaceutical companies.
The research team discovered the sensory system when studying two patients who were born with very little ability to feel pain — an extremely rare condition called congenital insensitivity to pain. Other individuals with this condition have excessively dry skin, often mutilate themselves accidentally and usually have severe mental handicaps, the researchers say.
It wasn't their pain-free lives that brought the patients into the lab, but rather excessive sweating.
"Curiously, our conventional tests with sensitive instruments revealed that all their skin sensation was severely impaired, including their response to different temperatures and mechanical contact," said study researcher Dr. David Bowsher, Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool's Pain Research Institute.
"But, for all intents and purposes, they had adequate sensation for daily living and could tell what is warm and cold, what is touching them, and what is rough and smooth."
Surprise results
Bowsher took skin biopsies and sent them to Rice's lab for microscopic analyses of the nerve endings.
"Much to our surprise, the skin we received from England lacked all the nerve endings that we normally associated with skin sensation," Rice said. "So how were these individuals feeling anything?"
The answer: While the patients lacked the usual nerve endings in the skin, Rice and colleagues found sensory nerve endings on the small blood vessels and sweat glands embedded in their skin.
"Apparently, these unique individuals are able to 'feel things' through these remaining nerve endings," Rice said. "For many years, my colleagues and I have detected different types of nerve endings on tiny blood vessels and sweat glands, which we assumed were simply regulating blood flow and sweating."
Rice added, "We didn't think they could contribute to conscious sensation. However, while all the other sensory endings were missing in this unusual skin, the blood vessels and sweat glands still had the normal types of nerve endings."

© 2009 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

word fun (thanks, Kit B)

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 23:36:41 GMT

Here is the Washington Post's Mensa Invitational which once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

Here are the winners:

1.
Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house beyond ability to pay, which renders the subject financially
impotent for an indefinite period of time.

2.
Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

***3.
Intaxicaton: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts
until you realize it was your money to start with.

4.
Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

5.
Bozone ( n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future. (tell me you don't know some these people...)

6.
Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

7.
Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high

8.
Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

9.
Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

10.
Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

11.
Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right?
And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.

12.
Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that
are good for you.

13.
Glibido: All talk and no action.

14.
Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

15.
Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked
through a spider web.

16.
Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in
the morning and cannot be cast out.

17.
Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.

The Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest,
in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words.

And the winners are:

1.
Coffee, n. The person upon whom one coughs.

2.
Flabbergasted, adj. Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.

3.
Abdicate, v. To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

4.
Esplanade, v. To attempt an explanation while drunk.

5.
Willy-nilly, adj. Impotent.

6.
Negligent, adj. Absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.

7.
Lymph, v. To walk with a lisp.

8.
Gargoyle, n. Olive-flavored mouthwash.

9.
Flatulence, n. Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a
steamroller.

10.
Balderdash, n. A rapidly receding hairline..

11.
Testicle, n. A humorous question on an exam.

12.
Oyster, n. A person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.

13.
Frisbeetarianism, n. The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.

14.
Circumvent, n. An opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men

Posted via web from davidfcooper's posterous

LiveScience: Young women prefer "real" men: Geeks Drive Girls Out of Computer Science

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 22:26:03 GMT

The stereotype of computer scientists as geeks who memorize Star Trek lines and never leave the lab may be driving women away from the field, a new study suggests.

And women can be turned off by just the physical environment, say, of a computer-science classroom or office that's strewn with objects considered "masculine geeky," such as video games and science-fiction stuff.

"When people think of computer science, the image that immediately pops into many of their minds is of the computer geek surrounded by such things as computer games, science-fiction memorabilia and junk food," said lead researcher Sapna Cheryan, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Washington. "That stereotype doesn't appeal to many women who don't like the portrait of masculinity that it evokes."

The upshot: Women don't feel they would fit in and so steer clear of computer-science majors and jobs, the researchers say. Such avoidance could help to explain why just 22 percent of computer-science graduates are women, a percentage that has been steadily decreasing, according to 2008 data from the National Science Foundation.

Not only are women missing out on some of the "best career opportunities, but computer science is missing out on female perspectives," Cheryan and her colleagues wrote in a recent issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Geeky objects�

The results come from four studies with more than 250 students who weren't studying computer science.

In the first experiment, about 40 male and female students entered a small classroom that either contained objects stereotypically associated with computer science, such as Star Trek posters, video game boxes and Coke cans, or non-stereotypical items such as nature posters, art, a dictionary and coffee mugs. (The students were told to ignore these objects because the room was being shared with another class.)

Then, the students filled out questionnaires about their attitudes toward computer science.

In the geeky environment, women were significantly�less interested than men in computer science, while there was no gender difference for the non-stereotypical classroom. Female students in the stereotypical environment said they felt less similar to computer-science majors than did those in the classroom that wasn't geeked out.

In three other experiments, two of which involved about 90 students each, participants were told to imagine stereotypical and non-stereotypical objects in various environments. Here are some of the results:

When women were given the choice of joining one of two all-female teams at a company, with the only difference between the teams being the objects found in respective workrooms, 82 percent of the women picked the team with the non-stereotypical workroom.

Male and female participants were given the choice between similar jobs at one of two companies with the only difference being the description of objects (either nerdy or generic) for each company. Both genders preferred the job in the non-stereotypical work environment, but women's preferences for the non-geeky environment were significantly stronger than men's.

In another similar job-position experiment, women were more likely to accept an offer with a neutral Web-design company while men had the opposite preference, choosing the stereotypically nerdy company. The more women perceived the stereotypical environment as masculine, the less interested they were in that company.

Changing computer science�

There was a subset of women in the study who didn't view the stereotypical objects as masculine and geeky and aren't turned off by the associated office or classroom.

"That tells me that it's a cultural phenomenon," Cheryan told LiveScience.�"These objects are not inherently masculine or geeky; they've been constructed that way. That means to me we can reconstruct the objects or more importantly the whole field."

Cheryan added one way to change the lopsided field would be, "broadening the image of computer science to make it so that other people feel a connection to the field."

Top 5 Myths About Girls, Math and Science

10 Things You Didn't Know About You

The Biggest Popular Myths

via livescience.com

An interesting example of stereotyping and prejudice. Read the comments as well as the article.

Posted via web from davidfcooper's posterous

personal update

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:27:17 GMT

Had a lovely lunch at the restaurant in Fairway with our friend Suzanna today. The conversation was engaging and an hour flew by quickly. Foodwise I had a yogurt with granola, which was not sufficiently filling by itself, but afterward I stopped at various tasting stations while doing the grocery shopping, and that made up the difference.

I got my blood work back from my annual physical, and all the numbers are normal. My cholesterol is still very low, but my PSA (prostate serum antogen) score jumped a point, though it's still within the normal range. Because my dad is a prostate cancer survivor I pay particular attention to my PSA result; anything below 4 is considered normal, but the amount of change from year to year is also significant. In the winter of 2004-2005 my PSA was 1.5. A year later (winter 2005-2006) it jumped to 2.5. In the next three years it stayed in the same range (2.1 to 2.27), but this year it jumped up to 3.3. I'm trying to think what has changed in my lifestyle the past year, and one change was that I switched from making my breakfast oatmeal with soy milk to cows milk; starting tomorrow I'm going back to soy milk. I'll see a urologist in two and a half weeks, and in addition to the finger exam I'll discuss getting an ultra-sound of the prostate.

Work wise I have more ideas for examiner stories than I have time to research and write. I last posted a week ago, but illness was also a factor this week. After having I Am My Beloved's rejected by all the coffee table book and Jewish publishers I'm thinking about publishing the interviews as a website instead of a book (which would probably reach more readers), and seeing if Jewish non-profits dealing with issues of continuity would be interested in participating. For example, three of the couples I've interviewed so far met at their college Hillel; I could offer Hillel the opportunity to use those interviews for fund raising purposes if they would help defray IAMB's expenses.

Tomorrow (well actually today since it's now after sundown) is Shabbat, the last day of Hanukkah, and my Jewish birthday (which is the one I celebrate). Snow is in the forecast. I'm dreaming of a white Shabbat, last day of Hanukkah, and Jewish birthday! Maybe I'll wear my new boots.

Posted via web from davidfcooper's posterous

Christmas for Jews. - By David Greenberg - Slate Magazine

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:28:04 GMT

via slate.com

Slate article on the history of how Hanukkah and Christmas came to be celebrated in these United States

Posted via web from davidfcooper's posterous

quote of the day (thanks, David Shapiro)

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:34:10 GMT

Pamuk: "The Museum of Innocence will be open always to lovers who can't find another place to kiss in Istanbul."

Posted via web from davidfcooper's posterous

Happy Hanukkah!

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:26:28 GMT

Our new oil hanukkiah

Posted via web from davidfcooper's posterous

Impermanence

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 01:43:02 GMT

Jay Michaelson views mutability with equanimity in his beautiful essay Impermanence

Posted via web from davidfcooper's posterous

Maariv editor: Settler terrorists and their rabbis are Neonazis « Coteret

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 01:08:11 GMT

The past two days have witnessed some Israeli reaction to settler fundamentalism. On Sunday (December 13 2009) evening, Defense Minister Ehud Barak finally stood up to a mutiny-inciting IDF-affiliated rabbi. This morning (December 15 2009) Haaretz published a scathing exposé of how Israeli and US taxes fund Yitzhar’s Od Yosef Hai yeshiva, publisher of Baruch Hagever, an ode to Cave of Patriarchs murderer Baruch Goldstein, and, more recently, the “Handbook for the Killing of Gentiles.”

Most startling, however, is an op-ed by Ben Dror Yemini, a senior editor at Maariv, known as a leading crusader against anti-Israeli propaganda and ‘Islamofascism.’ Enraged at the damage done to his efforts by Friday’s (December 11 2009) torching of a mosque in the West Bank village of Yasuf, he penned a full frontal assault on the attackers, the rabbis sanctioning them and the government’s of Israel lack of action on the issue (full text after the jump.)

Israel-haters worldwide were quick to celebrate the pictures of the burned mosque in the village of Yasuf…The hooligans who desecrated a mosque are the enemy because they contributed the most to the delegitimization campaign of the international radical left, led by Ahmadinezhad and Hugo Chavez. In their acts, they actually helped bolstering those who want to turn Israel into an illegitimate, leper state. Healthy states know how to curb such phenomena, but here, it seems, we refuse to get the point. We exercise forgiveness instead. Sure, the prime minister and the defense minister condemned the act, but where are their acts? What happened to the basic understanding that the arsonists who torched the mosque are terrorists, and that the harm they inflict on Israel is as grave as terror attacks by Hamas members? Why do we fail to realize that this is a Jewish mutation of Neo-Nazism? Why do we not see that they are the enemy, dangerous warriors in the battle against the legitimacy of the State of Israel?…We must not refer to them as a small and marginal minority. These people are supported by the highest echelons. Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, the spiritual leader of the religious-Zionists, issued an edict that practically allows Jews to pick olives in plantations that belong to Arabs.

Note that Yemini neglects to address the fact that the some of the Rabbis inciting these actions are recipients of generous government funding. This is not surprising, however, because a frequent source of his, Israel’s premier expert on NGO funding, Prof. Gerald Steinberg of NGO Monitor, contends that the practice is just a fact of life in Israel, as normal as the funding of youth movements, and does not warrant any extraordinary action. Responding to a direct question on Od Yosef Hai, he tells the Jerusalem Post’s Shmuel Rosner that

the state is used to funnel large sums of money to various sectors and institutions related to political parties – from kibbuzim to youth movements and yeshivot — with numerous stops in between.

Here is the Rabbi Eliyahu ruling referenced in the op-ed (quoted by Haaretz on October 25 2002)

Since the land is the inheritance of the People of Israel, planting on this land by gentiles is planting on land that does not belong to them. If someone plants a tree on my land, both the tree and the fruit it yields belong to me.

Neo-Nazis among us

The mosque desecraters are dangerous enemies who defeat Israel in its struggle for legitimacy. They are not alone. Their ideology comes from the top. Rabbi Mordechai Eliahu allowed Jews to pick the Olives of Arabs. Those who authorize olive thefts may be comfortable when mosques are desecrated

Op-ed, Ben-Dror Yemini, Maariv, December 15 2009

They are “our boys.” They are pioneers, salt of the earth, our own flesh and blood. They sacrificed a life of convenience just to be out there, first in the field. Yes, they are sometimes naughty and step out line here and there, but this no reason to make a fuss. After all, they are on our side.

Too many among us maintain this view. We may find it hard to conceive of the threat they post, but we are looking at a cancer. People who act like Skinheads, Neo-Nazis, or Jihadists are just that, regardless of their faith. There are such Christians, there are such Muslims and, in case we have not yet realized – and we should – there are such Jews too.

People like that exist in every nation. In Hungary, France, and Ukraine we witnessed sickening phenomena where swastikas were painted on walls, synagogues were torched, and cemeteries desecrated. These acts were perpetrated by racists, and there are such racists among us too. Are they a small and marginal minority? Possibly, but it does not take more than a small minority to start a fire. They are not “ours” and they are no pioneers. They are our enemies. Israel-haters worldwide were quick to celebrate the pictures of the burned mosque in the village of Yasuf. We have no idea how these pictures are viewed worldwide. Anti-Semites, left and right, had a field day. In case we did not yet realize that, the war for the State of Israel is not waged just against Qassam and Katyusha rockets. The most important ring is where we fight for our legitimacy.

The hooligans who desecrated a mosque are the enemy because they contributed the most to the delegitimization campaign of the international radical left, led by Ahmadinezhad and Hugo Chavez. In their acts, they actually helped bolstering those who want to turn Israel into an illegitimate, leper state. Healthy states know how to curb such phenomena, but here, it seems, we refuse to get the point. We exercise forgiveness instead. Sure, the prime minister and the defense minister condemned the act, but where are their acts? What happened to the basic understanding that the arsonists who torched the mosque are terrorists, and that the harm they inflict on Israel is as grave as terror attacks by Hamas members? Why do we fail to realize that this is a Jewish mutation of Neo-Nazism? Why do we not see that they are the enemy, dangerous warriors in the battle against the legitimacy of the State of Israel?

We must not refer to them as a small and marginal minority. These people are supported by the highest echelons. Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, the spiritual leader of the religious-Zionists, issued an edict that practically allows Jews to pick olives in plantations that belong to Arabs. Though many among us deny that Jews cause damage to Palestinian plantations, claiming that this is leftist provocation, the religious ruling sets the tone. Rabbi Eliahu did not say a word about mosques, but those who authorize olive thefts may be comfortable when mosques are desecrated.

Rabbi Eliyahu is not yet another rabbi. He is the spiritual leader and guide of the religious-Zionist movement. In the 1950’s, Eliahu was a member of the Pact of the Zealots, an underground movement that wanted to violently impose the rules of the Bible on the State of Israel. I fail to see how such a person could ever be appointed a chief rabbi, but it happened. His ruling, which approves of theft, shows that this spiritual leader did not really change much.

When will the State of Israel wake up and realize that it is facing a real threat from an enemy within? When will the national Zionist camp rise from its slumber and see that lethal cancer nests in our midst? When will we all see that these Jihadist- and Neo-Nazi-compatible hooligans must be stopped while they are still small? Let us pray this happens before it is too late.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
Yediot links Yitzhar Rabbi to torching of mosque [link to new primary docum…
Israel Harel, Zionist Strategist
Breaking the silence on US criticism of religious freedom in Israel
‘Jews Against Israel’ Visit Iran

via coteret.com

The comparison to neo-Nazis and skinheads is not hyperbole. Internal terrorists pose as great a danger as external ones, and that applies to all countries.

Posted via web from davidfcooper's posterous

CNN: Loneliness spreads in social networks (thanks, Brian)

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:43:29 GMT

Loneliness is defined as perceived social isolation, and it's not based on the number of people around you.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Study: Loneliness spreads more quickly among friends than family
Like happiness, loneliness can spread out three degrees of separation
Loneliness spreads much more easily among women than among men
RELATED TOPICS

Psychology

Facebook Inc.

University of Chicago

(CNN) -- Have you ever felt cut off from other people, even if there are plenty around you? Maybe you felt all alone in the world, but you were making other people feel lonely without even realizing it.

New research suggests loneliness can actually travel from person to person, spreading up to three degrees of separation. That means if your neighbor's cousin's friend is lonely, you may have a good chance of being lonely, too.

The results, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, were also mentioned in the recent book "Connected" by Dr. Nicholas Christakis at Harvard University and James Fowler at the University of California, San Diego. The book explores how happiness, obesity, smoking and a slew of other behaviors and habits are contagious among groups of people who know one another.

Read more about the book

John Cacioppo, a psychologist at the University of Chicago who has written a book called "Loneliness," teamed up with Christakis and Fowler to study the effect of this phenomenon in social networks.

The authors focused on data from the Framingham Heart Study, which has followed thousands of people in Framingham, Massachusetts, since 1948. The loneliness research looked at the second generation in the study, which includes 5,124 people.

In the heart study, researchers kept in touch with participants every two to four years, asking them about depression, loneliness and other issues. They also kept a record of their friends. This allowed Christakis, Fowler and Cacioppo to look at the subjects' social networks over time.

If a direct connection in your social network is lonely, you are 52 percent more likely to be lonely, the researchers found. At two degrees of separation -- a friend of a friend -- it's 25 percent. At three degrees, someone who knows your friend's friend, it's 15 percent.

By helping lonely people on the periphery of a social network, "We can create a protective barrier against loneliness that will keep the whole network from unraveling," Christakis and Fowler wrote in "Connected."

The results are surprising because "we think of loneliness as something that affects a person who is by himself or herself," Ed Diener, professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said in an e-mail. He was not involved in the study.

But it makes sense that the way a lonely person behaves could influence others, and those people could respond in kind to more friends, social scientists say.

"If lonely people act out behaviors that alienate others, some others will learn to enact those same behaviors, sometimes in reaction against the lonely person," Diener said.

Loneliness is defined as perceived social isolation, and it's not based on the number of people around you, Cacioppo said. Evolutionarily, it was important for early humans to know how many peers they could count on, work with and survive with, as well as who would betray them, he said.

"That's why the quality, not the quantity, of relationships is what's related to whether someone feels isolated or feels satisfied with their relationships," he said.

Cacioppo's earlier research says people have different baseline levels of loneliness, meaning some people have a greater need than others for social connection. From that perspective, it follows that someone who is highly sensitive to disconnection would more strongly promote lonely feelings in the network, he said.

Both lonely and nonlonely people prefer nonlonely people, and sometimes the lonely are even harsher to others who feel disconnected than the nonlonely people. This helps leave the lonely people with fewer friends, Cacioppo said.

In the social network study, mood did not affect how loneliness was transmitted, he said. Participants were asked how depressed they were, and this did not seem to affect whether they passed loneliness along the network.

The study also found that loneliness spreads much more easily among women than among men, citing the idea that women may be more likely to express and share emotions, as well as the observation that there may be greater stigma associated with loneliness among men. Happiness, by contrast, does not seem to have gender distinctions in the way it spreads, according to Christakis and Fowler's research.

People who are lonely may be motivated to seek social connection, increasing the likelihood that others around that person will be exposed to loneliness, the authors said.

Loneliness spreads more quickly among friends than family, but this finding may be limited to older people, as the average age in the sample was 64 years old, the authors said. Cacioppo, though, said the pattern generally makes sense because the cost of leaving a friendship is less than cutting off a family member, so people are more likely to isolate themselves from friends than close relatives or spouses.

Although these effects are stronger in person, they also have implications for online social interactions, he said.

"If you have an important friend and they are really grumpy and say nasty things on email, you may walk into the next room and be grumpy to someone else," he said.

The findings have implications for communities, Cacioppo said. City planners and policymakers should consider interventions such as sidewalks that allow neighborhood residents to interact more in public spaces, so that if someone is feeling down, others can help bring that person out of it.

In terms of therapy, it's important for lonely people to understand the condition and what it does to the brain, he said. Those who are lonely tend to view things as more threatening, and if they understand that, they can help themselves temper such strong reactions.

"We can correct our tendency to want to act grumpy to others," he said.

Diener said the research is important, building off of the "Connected" authors' earlier work on social networks.

"This series of studies shows us that we don't just live in individual worlds, but are influenced often in unconscious ways of which we are not aware," he said.

479 shares | 163 comments
-->

Share this on:

Mixx Facebook Twitter Digg delicious reddit MySpace StumbleUpon

FOLLOW THIS TOPIC

More Health

Extreme diets: Life on 800 calories a day

Gaps found in young people's sex knowledge

Rape victims offer advice to today's college women

via cnn.com

Posted via web from davidfcooper's posterous

Haredi joke

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 06:12:15 GMT

Mark Ginsburg's comment on my examiner.com article NY Jewish events: sex, Tamiflu, and Sephardic music: A young couple go to their rabbi for instruction. The young man addresses the rabbi: ‘Well, Rabbi, I know that in our sect, after the ceremony when there is music and dancing, it is customary for the men to dance with the men, and the women to dance with the women. But this, after all, the 21st century — a new, enlightened age — and I would like your permission to be able to dance with my wife.” The rabbi responds: “No, no, no! It is immodest for the man to dance with a woman.” So he asks the rabbi, hesitantly, “Well, I suppose that after marriage is it okay have sex?” The rabbi quickly respondis: “Of course! It is a mitsvah (a blessing). To have children.” The young man asks “Any position?” The rabbi responds: “Yes!” The young man asks: “And can we use whips and chains?" The rabbi answers: “Of course!" "Can we do it standing up?” “NO!” says the rabbi, "it might lead to dancing!"

Posted via web from davidfcooper's posterous

Judaism 101: What Hanukkah is and what it isn't

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:48:18 GMT

via examiner.com

Judaism 101: What Hanukkah is and what it isn't

Posted via web from davidfcooper's posterous

Jacques Derrida on the whom vs. the what one loves (thanks, KK)

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 01:17:07 GMT

You Tube: Jacques Derrida On Love and Being

Derrida makes the distinction between the 'who' one loves - their singularity - and the 'what' - the specific qualities of the beloved; then, he states that philosophy's most basic question - 'What is ...

Sounds similar to Buber's "I Thou" vs. "I It."

Posted via web from davidfcooper's posterous

Reuters Health: Birth weight, early weight gain may hasten puberty (tx, novapsyche)

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:52:39 GMT

A relatively low birth weight and early-age weight gain may increase the likelihood of early puberty, hint findings from a German study. Earlier onset of puberty has been linked to certain cancers, high blood sugar and obesity.

I reached puberty relatively late. Overall the onset age of puberty in the USA is trending younger.

Posted via web from davidfcooper's posterous

Louisiana property title

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 20:07:57 GMT

NOLA property records were among the casualties of Katrina, and the FHA requires title documents to approve mortgage refinances necessary to rebuild and repair damaged homes. NOLA lawyer's correspondence with the FHA

Posted via web from davidfcooper's posterous

Rate My Life Quiz (thanks, @beckyzoole )

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:28:28 GMT

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	8
Mind:	8.1
Body:	7.5
Spirit:	8.4
Friends/Family:	5.6
Love:	7.3
Finance:	6.6
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

Your Life Analysis:

Life: Your life rating is a score of the sum total of your life, and accounts for how satisfied, successful, balanced, capable, valuable, and happy you are. The quiz attempts to put a number on the summation of all of these things, based on your answers. Your life score is reasonably high. This means that you are on a good path. Continue doing what is working and set about to improve in areas which continue to lag. Do this starting today and you will begin to reap the benefits immediately.

Mind: Your mind rating is a score of your mind's clarity, ability, and health. Higher scores indicate an advancement in knowledge, clear and capable thinking, high mental health, and pure thought free of interference. Your mind score is within a healthy zone. This means you have achieved a level of mental balance and harmony consistent with living a healthy, happy life. Continue doing what works, and keep your focus. In our fast-paced world, mental clutter is all too common. Be vigilant in maintaining healthy mental function.

Body: Your body rating measures your body's health, fitness, and general wellness. A healthy body contributes to a happy life, however many of us are lacking in this area. You have a rather good body score, which is an indication that you take care of yourself. There is room for improvement, however. Please keep doing what works. Eat right, exercise, reduce your stress, treat any illness. Doing these things will help ensure your body will be in good working order for a long time to come.

Spirit: Your spirit rating seeks to capture in a number that elusive quality which is found in your faith, your attitude, and your philosophy on life. A higher score indicates a greater sense of inner peace and balance. Your spirit score is relatively high, which means you are rewarded by your beliefs. Spirituality is clearly important to do. Never let it slip, and continue to learn and grow.

Friends/Family: Your friends and family rating measures your relationships with those around you, and is based on how large, healthy, and dependable your social network is. Your friends and family score is not bad but can be improved. Maintain your current social net, while you try to expand it. Try new things and form new friendships. You will be rewarded greatly.

Love: Your love rating is a measure of your current romantic situation. Sharing your heart with another person is one of life's most glorious, terrifying, rewarding experiences. Your love score is in good shape, meaning that things are going well. Do all you can to maintain it, and continue to grow and move ahead.

Finance: Your finance rating is a score that rates your current financial health and stability. Your finances are somewhat in the middle, neither bad or exceptional. Keep doing what works for you, and improve what doesn't. Focus on long-term financial stability as your goal.

Posted via web from davidfcooper's posterous

I'm test browsing Google Chrome for Mac

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:28:33 GMT

I'm test browsing Google Chrome for Mac. So far so good.

Posted via web from davidfcooper's posterous

NYTimes: Interactive Immigration Map of USA 1880-2000

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:17:18 GMT

Immigration Explorer

Posted via web from davidfcooper's posterous

Elie Mystal: Tiger Woods and the White Women

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:41:08 GMT

Would the tone of public disapproval of Tiger Woods be less harsh had he married a black woman and cheated on her with other black women?

Posted via web from davidfcooper's posterous

The Militarization of Sex | Foreign Policy

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:25:24 GMT

Mohammad, a 40-year old Lebanese Shiite who lives in Hezbollah's stronghold in Beirut's southern suburbs, was holding forth on the virtues of resistance, loyalty, and sex. "You could create the most loyal army by providing political power, social services and fulfilling the desires of your men -- namely, sexual ones," he declared.

"And Hezbollah has been very successful in this regard," Mohammad continued. It is hard to disagree. Hezbollah liberated South Lebanon from Israeli occupation, expanded the Shiite community's political power within the country, and has provided social services, such as health care and education, to its constituency since the 1980s. Today, it is also working to fulfill the sexual needs of its supporters, though a practice known as mutaa marriage.

COMMENTS (25) RSS FEED--> SHARE:

Digg
Facebook
Reddit

More...

Mutaa is a form of "temporary marriage" only acceptable within Shiite communities, one that allows couples to have religiously sanctioned sex for a limited period of time, without any commitments, and without the obligatory involvement of religious figures. In conservative Muslim societies known for their strict sense of propriety, mutaa offers an escape clause. The contract is very simple. The woman says: "I marry myself to you for [a specific period of time] and for [a specified dowry]" and the man says: "I accept." The period can range between one hour and a year, and is subject to renewal. A Muslim woman can only marry a Muslim man, but a Muslim man can temporarily marry a Muslim, Christian, or Jewish woman, as long as she is a divorcée or a widow. However, those interviewed for this article confirmed that Hezbollah-the "Party of God"-has allowed the practice to spread to virgins or girls who have never married before, as long as the permission of her guardian (father or paternal grandfather) is obtained.

Temporary marriage has long been practiced by Shiites around the world. However, it has recently become more commonplace in Lebanon, notably within Hezbollah strongholds in Beirut's southern suburbs and in southern Lebanon after the 2006 war with Israel,

Hezbollah's recent encouragement of this phenomenon highlights the compromises it had been required to make in order to remain the preeminent force among its domestic Shiite constituency. As the party gained strength due to its effectiveness in fighting Israel, it was forced to cope with the reality that many Lebanese Shiites did not share the Iranian-inspired religious beliefs of Hezbollah's leaders. They came to dominate a community that was shaped by the secular leftist trends of the 1970s and 1980s, and the cosmopolitan culture embodied by Beirut. Today, Lebanese Shiites are exposed to pop icons such as sexpot singer Haifa Wehbe, countless Western advertisements and programs, and technological innovations such as online dating. Allowing these Shia to balance their sexual desires with their support for the "Resistance" against the "Zionist entity" is a vital ingredient to Hezbollah's staying power.

According to Shiite writer and activist Lokman Slim, Hezbollah party members are not allowed to practice temporary marriage for security reasons, unless assigned by the party to do so. "We should make a clear distinction between Hezbollah as an organization and Hezbollah as it runs the community's culture and social affairs," Slim said.

But for everyone else, Hezbollah apparently decided to expand its support for this practice after the 2006 war, to maintain its support base and keep the Shiites in Lebanon under its control. "After the 2006 war, Iranian money came to Lebanon in abundance, and money opened the door to sexual luxury that could not be ignored or controlled," noted Slim. "Therefore, Hezbollah decided it is easier to allow sex under certain religious titles in order to keep the control over the community."

The havoc wreaked by the 2006 war and a more difficult domestic political situation also encouraged Hezbollah to shift its position in order to consolidate support. Sheikh Mohammad Ali Hajj, imam of the Imam Ali Mosque in the Sad Bouchrieh district of Beirut, remarked that after 2006, Hezbollah had to strengthen its support among its communities. "They created a military group, The Resistance Saraya, which took in anyone ready to join, religiously and ideologically committed or not," he said. "They had to contain the Shiite community around it with all its aspects, the good and the bad, and found measures to control it, including the temporary marriage," he added.

Hezbollah is in charge of enforcing resolution in the event unpleasant scenarios arise, such as pregnancy or disagreements between couples. "It is only a matter of more control rather than being tolerant," Slim explained.
12NEXT

Save over 50% when you subscribe to FP.

via foreignpolicy.com

How Lebanese Shiites use temporary marriage for casual hook-ups

Posted via web from davidfcooper's posterous

NY Jewish events: sex, Tamiflu, and Sephardic music

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:24:55 GMT

via examiner.com

Read the examiner.com article

Posted via web from davidfcooper's posterous

President Obama honors Mel Brooks

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:43:21 GMT

Obama Jokes About Having A “Fake ID” At Kennedy Center Honors

Posted via web from davidfcooper's posterous

creative signage

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:14:18 GMT

gender descriptive lavatory signs

Posted via web from davidfcooper's posterous

Susie Bright on Tiger Woods' cuckold fantasy

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 01:00:38 GMT

Tiger's Cuckold Fantasies -- What Do They Mean?

My comment:
In Elizabeth Weil's cover article in today's NY Times Sunday Magazine she writes: "In psychoanalytic thought, the template for monogamy is forged in infancy, a baby with its mother. Marriage is considered to be a mainline back to this relationship, its direct heir. But there is a crucial problem: as infants we are monogamous with our mothers, but our mothers are not monogamous with us. That first monogamy — that template — is much less pure than we allow." Perhaps the origin of the cuckold's fantasy/fetish is a vestigial memory of a primal relationship in which his fidelity was not reciprocated.

This Weekend: International Symposium to Focus on the Sephardic Experience: Spain and Its Jews

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:36:24 GMT

This Weekend: International Symposium to Focus on the Sephardic Experience: Spain and Its Jews

December 3, 5:19 PMNY Jewish Culture ExaminerDavid Cooper

RSS
Subscribe

Paco Diez
American Sephardi Federation

Most of the events I cover in this column reflect the culture of American Jewry's majority Ashkenazi Jews. This weekend American Sephardi Federation/Sephardic House(ASF/SH) will host a symposium that will highlight the culture and history of Sephardi Jews. The program will begin with a concert Saturday night at 8:00 PM and will continue with the symposium on Sunday and Monday. To read the rest of this article click here.

For more info: http://davidfcooper.com

via examiner.com

Posted via web from davidfcooper's posterous