The Mono

"Positive thinking's negative results: For some people, optimistic thoughts can do more harm than good."

Apparently, the advice from a whole load of self-help books -- to use positive thinking and affirmations to increase low self-esteem -- can actually drive down self-esteem levels in people who already have trouble thinking good things about themselves. It's a phenomenon I've observed before, but the explanation these people have for it makes a great deal of sense.

It still leaves me wondering "well, what should people do about increasing self-esteem, then?"... but I suspect that rather depends on the individual. I know what worked for me, and there are other things which work for others -- but just willing yourself to have a better self-image may actually backfire.

Making decisions tires your brain.

When CFS gives me brainfog and it's hard to focus, it gets much, much harder to make even small decisions (like what I want to eat). This links the lack of concentration issue with the difficulty in making even brief, simple decisions.

Hell, I should contemplate how this affects me even when I'm not crashy.

NPR's "Marketplace" had a segment today on the UC Berkeley team working on creating a synthetic version of the surface of a gecko's foot. After poking around a little, I found an article from January suggesting that we are not terribly far away from having real gecko tape.

He is, however, telling his fans (quietly) that he has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's.

He says that it's early yet, they're optimistic, and there's time for at least a few more books if not lots more... but yeah. Sucky.

I remember when I saw him at ConJose in 2000... quite a quirky and likeable guy. Sharp.

Everyone's posting this link, but (having gotten through half of it so far) I feel compelled to post it myself as well.

The effect of praising kids

Anyone who knows me well won't be surprised to hear that I'm not interested in most aspects of raising kids. What caught me on this one was that, like tenacious_snail and akienm, I could see my own childhood in it. What finally took my breath away was this:

According to Meyer’s findings, by the age of 12, children believe that earning praise from a teacher is not a sign you did well—it’s actually a sign you lack ability and the teacher thinks you need extra encouragement. And teens, Meyer found, discounted praise to such an extent that they believed it’s a teacher’s criticism—not praise at all—that really conveys a positive belief in a student’s aptitude.

That managed to put into words something I've observed in myself for years, and goes on to provide possible explanations for such a seemingly contradictory reaction.

All through this article I've been nodding my head. If you were brought up with teachers and parents always telling you you're smart, go read it.

British researchers uncover DNA variations in seven common ailments

The seven common diseases are bipolar disorder, coronary artery disease, Crohn's disease, hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis, and Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.

It doesn't give us a straight out-of-the-box solution, not by far... but it does provide a lot more information about the diseases in question, and about the roles of these genes. It's exactly what people were hoping for when the human genome was sequenced.

Edit: joedecker linked to a post at In The Pipeline, reminding us that media reports that this is "a locked chest full of the secret keys to health" are way off the mark. I had generally tried to avoid giving that impression with this LJ post, but it's a good thing to really bring attention to. This is a significant piece to the puzzle, but we aren't much further than pulling the pieces out of the box and putting them on the table yet. Getting the full picture is a long way off.

State cuts off Delta pumps

This whole situation pisses me off to no end.

( The most recent victims in the water wars are the fish. )

I've always liked Leonard Nimoy. Now I have another reason to.

VA adds pentacle to list of accepted symbols for grave-markers.

Several families will be allowed to have the symbol added to their family member's headstone before Memorial Day.

FDA moving to ban chemical used to make Teflon

From what I gather from three different articles on ABC news, the chemical is called zonyl. It breaks down in the body into ammonium perfluorooctanoate, known as C-8 or PFOA, which causes cancer and other organ damage in lab animals. It's found in everyone's blood now.

Other sources of PFOA
It's used in the coatings on pans, but also in candy wrappers, microwave popcorn bags, and fast food wrappings, to keep the oil from soaking through the paper. And it gets ingested with the food, to bioaccumulate in the body.

DuPont is being sued, on allegations that they covered up the fact that the chemical is ingested in far higher amounts than they predicted and stays in the body, which they hadn't expected.

Google refuses to release data to Feds.

The Justice Department isn't after it for national security reasons -- they just want Google to do their research for an attempt to resurrect a law restricting access to porn by minors. The law was struck down in 2004.

Other, unnamed search engines have complied with the subpoenas, but Google will fight the government's effort "vigorously", claiming that handing over the data would compromise customer privacy and their own trade secrets.