It's not just a popular expression, it is an actual fact: A study launched by Dr Andreas Bartels and Professor Semir Zeki from the Wellcome Department of Neuroimaging at University College London concludes that when we fall in love, our brains deactivate the parts of itself crucial for social judgment:
However the key result was that it's not just that certain shared areas of the brain are reliably activated in both romantic and maternal love, but also particular locations are deactivated and it's the deactivation which is perhaps most revealing about love.
Among other areas, parts of the pre-frontal cortex – a bit of the brain towards the front and implicated in social judgment – seems to get switched off when we are in love and when we love our children, as do areas linked with the experience of negative emotions such as aggression and fear as well as planning. The parts of the brain deactivated form a network which are implicated in the evaluation of trustworthiness of others and basically critical social assessment.
Stephen F. Hayes takes the media to task for grossly misrepresenting the 9/11 commission's statement on relations between Iraq and al-Qaeda. Like its vice chairman, former Democratic congressman Lee Hamilton, said:
I must say I have trouble understanding the flak over this. The Vice President is saying, I think, that there were connections between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's government. We don't disagree with that. What we have said is just what [Republican co-chairman Tom Kean] just said: We don't have any evidence of a cooperative or collaborative relationship between Saddam Hussein's government and al Qaeda with regard to the attacks on the United States. So it seems to me that sharp differences that the press has drawn, that the media has drawn, are not that apparent to me.
Even this, Hayes argues, is not correct, but it is sufficient to indict quite a few media outlets. For example, the NYT is grossly dishonest when it says:
... the commission studying the 9/11 terrorist attacks refuted the Bush administration's claims of a connection between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden ... Mr. Bush said the 9/11 panel had actually confirmed his contention that there were "ties" between Iraq and Al Qaeda. He said his administration had never connected Saddam Hussein to 9/11. Both statements are wrong.
That is, to use popular leftist rhetoric, a flat out lie.
PS: Another, different, example here. How does the headline compare to the actual exchange? Journalists know what part people will remember.
The report seem to be damaged by overall bad intelligence, the failure of the members to do their homework properly, bad understanding of al-Qaeda, a desire by some to come to certain conclusions to harm the current administration, and a desire to not damage relations to "allies" in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
Iran plans to test the world community's resolve by threatening to resume uranium enrichment after receiving a censure from the IAEA, saying it will "reconsider" its decision to voluntarily halt the program. As always, Iran is blaming everybody else.
I was quite surprised to see a Amedeo Modigliani nude on the front page of Slate ("Funny - she doesn't look Jewish"), but Mario Naves' rather critical slide show essay gets so much coverage because the editors obviously think he says something very, very important.
That means you'll have to read it several times, since Naves writes in the official obtuse style most art writers use. Whatever he really means, it is not nice to the perspective offered by Manhattan's Jewish Museum, and neither to Modigliani himself, for that matter.
To boldly go where no private money has gone before
SpaceShipOne will launch on Monday, trying to become the first privately funded space craft to reach suborbital space at 100 km. If successful, the team will no doubt try to claim the $10 million Ansari X prize for carrying three people into space twice within two weeks.
Saudi security forces killed the kingdom's top al Qaeda leader Abdulaziz al-Muqrin and two other militants on Friday shortly after the group beheaded U.S. engineer Paul Johnson, a senior security source said.
"Yes it is correct, he (Muqrin) was killed with two other senior militants," the source told Reuters. He said Muqrin was one of three militants killed in the al-Malazz area of the capital, Riyadh, in a shootout.
That would be an amazing accomplishment, considering the apparent importance of al-Muqrin's leadership, which is why I have a very hard time believing it. I'd love to be proved wrong. As tragic as Johnson's death is, his murderers immediate killing at least provides some hope for the future.
Federal prosecutor issues UNSCAM subpoenas to oil giants
Oil giants Exxon and ChevronTexaco have received subpoenas from the office of the U.S. federal Attorney for the Southern District of New York, requesting documents related to the UN oil-for-food programme.
The state attorney refuses to comment on whether it has opened an UNSCAM probe, and the oil companies have refused to acknowledge anything beyond having recived the subpoenas and are "responding appropriately."
Obviously, UNSCAM doesn't only implicate Saddam and the UN. If these and other oil companies willingly paid massive kickbacks to Saddam's regime, some real legal trouble may be coming their way. As it should. (Yes, I realise that these companies receiving subpoenas doesn't mean they are the ones being investigated. The "southern district of NY" sounds like the area that happens to house the UN headquarters.)
