Years ago, when I first became politically active, I liked to speak of reformists in general and the Democrats in particular as rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. It was a nice, vivid metaphor, and I was young and a sucker for anything that sounded clever. Alas, I can no longer use that metaphor, because I’m older now, and unwilling to grab simple sounding answers. And also because the Democrats are no longer trying to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic, they’re just arguing with the Republicans over who gets to sit in them.
Category: Steve
Bad Science Writing Gene found in people
What if you could tell if someone could write about science just by peering at his genes? There has been speculation about the role of the hormone verbopressin in humans ever since we discovered that variations in where receptors for the hormone are expressed makes California neocons make up facts about presidents, but East Coast Fundamentalists write about Intelligent Design; verbopressin is related to the “giggle chemical” oreillytocin. Now it seems variations in a section of the gene coding for a verbopressin receptor in people help to determine whether a writer misrepresents scientific discoveries, or just makes things up.
Wasse Halum at the Geroginska Institute in Bucharest, Romania, and colleagues looked at the various forms of the gene coding for verbopressin receptor in 3 Romanian people, who were all bad writers. The researchers also investigated their spelling. They found that variation in a section of the gene called “IMl33t” were more likely to use insufficiently large samples, confuse their research, and make uncalled-for generalizations.
Not only that, men with two copies of IMl33t were more likely to pull random facts out of actual research and completely misinterpret them.
Given that everyone surveyed had been writing about science for at least a week, the team suggests that having multiple copies somehow contributes to writing problems anywhere near the Black Sea. Because the results were collected for a different study, the team couldn’t quiz the writers on whether they were actually familiar with their native language, says Halum.
It is not clear exactly how multiple copies of IMl33t affect expression of the verbopressin receptor, and our most confused syntax. And yet that’s the most interesting question, says someone I spoke with near the Xerox machine.
In some writers, the theory is that the brain has two “sensational” systems: one for writing for the mass media, and one for grant applications. In neocons and fundamentalists, receptors for the two systems sit at adjacent desks, so grant applications get a lot of attention, leading to government funded research into why the government shouldn’t fund research. To see if the same mechanism is at work in liberals will mean using deleted passages from editorials, to see if variations are linked to the number of copies of IMl33t.
IMl33t’s writing effects extend beyond writing about science. Earlier this year, the same gene section was shown to affect Fox News Broadcasts, linked to income from commercials. Another study found people with tin ears, linked to media tie-in novels, often have multiple copies of IMl33t.
Halum’s colleague Lich Paulenstein says the team’s next task is to test how a verbopressin suppository effects writer’s desires for long lunch breaks.
References: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14641-monogamy-gene-found-in-people.html
Murder Mystery Published
The murder mystery I wrote with my poker teacher Don Hill is being serialized on an online poker magazine called Blind Straddle. The sample can be found here.
It’s a subscription site: you have to pay a fee to get access to the story. I think it’s like $15.00 a year or so. They have writers like Bob Ciaffone and Lou Krieger, as well as Adam Stemple and Chris Fox, so, while it may not be worth it just for my story, for any serious poker player it’s an easy call.
Done!
Just finished the first draft of Your Itch. Starting revisions tomorrow, I think. I have no idea what I think of this one; have to wait until the revisions to see how it feels.
Follow-up on health stuff and money stuff
I’m pretty much okay now, assuming nothing else goes wrong. A bunch of you sent me money, which helped more than I can say. When we posted a while ago asking for a loan, Matthew Fischer said, “I think you are very likely to get 150 fans to donate $100 in exchange for exclusive access to some signature graphic design element, audiobook, podcast or piece of prose.”
Since then, I’ve been thinking over what sort of cool thing to do to say thank you. This post is just to say I’ve got an idea, and it’ll take about a month or so to put together. So hang on, and watch this space for breaking news.
And, really, no shit, thank you all again. Thank you very much.