Human Nature

The Tablet Computer In Your Head

William Saletan — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:08:00 GMT

The patients couldn't produce physical activity, as you or I would. But they could produce mental activity. They could use the brain as a kind of tablet, writing "tennis" on their supplementary motor area or "navigation" on their parahippocampal gyrus. That's the real genius of the European study: The mind can use the brain as a communication device.

Before brain scans, this was impossible. Nobody could see your brain. Thinking was one thing; doing was another. Scans have abolished that distinction. They have illuminated the paradoxical world of cognitive acts.

More here.

Brain - Cognition - Physical exercise - Motor cortex - Mind

Tim Tebow's Non-Abortion

William Saletan — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:57:00 GMT

Pam Tebow's story certainly is moving. But as a guide to making abortion decisions, it's misleading. Doctors are right to worry about continuing pregnancies like hers. Placental abruption has killed thousands of women and fetuses. No doubt some of these women trusted in God and said no to abortion, as she did. But they didn't end up with Heisman-winning sons. They ended up dead.

More here.

Abortion - Tim Tebow - Heisman Trophy - Placental abruption - God

The Technology Revolution

William Saletan — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:50:00 GMT

In more and more places, machines are running the world. On stock exchanges, high-speed computers armed with trading algorithms and superior pattern recognition are thrashing human competitors. Airline autopilots have become so reliable that human pilots can check out. In cars, software is beginning to assume responsibility for steering, braking, and parking. Drones are patrolling our borders, catching humans who try to sneak in. Computers are telling child-welfare agencies whether to take kids away from parents. Programs are running "virtual call centers," measuring the output of dispersed salespeople and routing customer phone calls to the best performers. Computers don't just work for us anymore. We work for them.

More here.

Web Design and Development - Hosting - HTML - Free - Data Formats

Trumped-up Terrorism

William Saletan — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:39:00 GMT

The bombing of the CIA base, like the November massacre at Fort Hood, Texas, was an act of war. It was also espionage. But it wasn't terrorism. Terrorism targets civilians. The CIA officers killed at the Afghan base, like the soldiers shot down at Fort Hood, were not civilians. They were running a war.

More here.

Fort Hood - Terrorism - Central Intelligence Agency - United States - Espionage

The Drone Bomber

William Saletan — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:58:00 GMT

Now the Taliban seem to have come up with a new strategy: using the drones' human intelligence networks to infiltrate the program and kill the people who run it. Last week, a suicide bomber blew up seven CIA officers at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan near the Pakistan border. It looked like just another insurgent attack. But it was more than that. In separate interviews, representatives of two Taliban factions have claimed that the mission's target was the drone program. "We attacked this base because the team there was organizing drone strikes," a commander allied with the Afghan Taliban told the Wall Street Journal.

Score one for the bad guys. The next move is ours.

More here.

Afghanistan - Pakistan - Taliban - Suicide attack - Central Intelligence Agency

Why We Need To See Your Crotch

William Saletan — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:48:00 GMT

You'll have to start showing your gonads when you go to the airport. You won't have to show them to the people standing next to you. But you'll have to show them to the Transportation Security Administration. You'll stand in front of a machine that sees through your clothes. It will capture every contour of your body and relay this picture to a screen in a nearby room. In that room, somebody who works for TSA will study the picture, including your gonads. They'll study your gonads because that's where bombers hide bombs.

More here.

Transportation Security Administration - Web Design and Development - Security - Business - Fire and Security

How To Find an Underwear Bomb

William Saletan — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:15:00 GMT

According to a photo posted by ABC News, the bomb allegedly smuggled on board Northwest Flight 253 last week was a packet of powder sewn into the bomber's underwear. Note the packet's location: right in the crotch, where a TSA pat-down is least likely to catch you.

How do you find a nonmetallic bomb tucked into such a private place? By looking right through the bomber's clothing with a naked-body scanner. Check out the Washington Post's analysis of the available technologies for spotting a bomb like this one. The far-right column, "whole-body imaging," looks like our best shot.

Human Nature explained the naked scanners two years ago and again this year. In this year's piece, I worried about the TSA abusing the scanners. Flight 253 is a reminder that we face bigger threats than the TSA.

Washington Post - Transportation Security Administration - American Broadcasting Company - Millimeter wave scanner - Bomb

Abortion Funding: Cool the Hype

William Saletan — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:07:00 GMT

After trillions of dollars, decades of debate, and months of legislative haggling, the fate of health care in the United States is coming down to an old-fashioned moral issue. Pro-lifers and pro-choicers are fighting over insurance coverage of abortions. Each camp seems capable of killing the legislation pending in Congress. Abortion, we're told, is different from other issues caught up in the health care debate. It's a question of ultimate values, impervious to compromise.

Nonsense. Lawmakers on both sides have already agreed on principles for working out the abortion question. The differences among the competing proposals are almost entirely technical. Zealots may care about the details, but most Americans don't. Let's cut a deal and move on.

More here.

United States - Abortion - Health care - Insurance - United States Congress

The Disappearance of Flight 188

William Saletan — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:05:00 GMT

You've heard of planes that vanished into thin air? Here's a truer, scarier story: On Oct. 21, 2009, two pilots flying from San Diego to Minneapolis vanished into cyberspace.

Their plane was fine. Ground controllers tracked it the whole time. The passengers and flight attendants in the main cabin noticed nothing unusual. And the pilots' bodies stayed planted in their seats as though they were flying the aircraft. But they weren't flying it. Their minds had been sucked into a pair of laptops.

More here.

San Diego - Aircraft - Flight attendant - Fixed-wing aircraft - Minneapolis

News Roundup 12/9/09

William Saletan — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:30:00 GMT

Today's highlights in science, medicine, and technology:

1. Adultery and texting. Tiger Woods isn't the first guy to cheat on his wife or get caught by his own text messages. Look at Kwame Kilpatrick and John Ensign. And for poetic value, don't forget Mark Sanford. Wise up, cheaters: Your tryst is soon over, but your text messages are forever.

2. Abortion coverage. The Senate voted down a copy of the Stupak amendment, which would bar abortion coverage under any health plan that covers anyone who is federally subsidized. The even better news for pro-choicers is that the Senate's two most pro-life Democrats, Ben Nelson and Bob Casey, are refusing to declare the defeat of this amendment a deal killer for their votes on the overall health reform bill. So it looks like the Senate can pass the bill without the Stupak restriction.

3. Medical cost controls. Health insurance is expensive in large part because we lack the guts to say no to costly procedures. But it's much cheaper for pets. Why? One big reason is that we don't go to the ends of the earth to prolong Fido's life. Human life is more valuable than pet life, but it isn't priceless. Maybe we should study pet health care and insurance to remind ourselves how and when to say no.

4. Marijuana. The Los Angeles city council is finally moving to rein in the "medical" marijuana dispensaries that have run amok in that city. It's about time. Los Angeles has become a poster child for the hazards of legalizing pot. If you want pot to be legal, you'd better demonstrate to a disgusted and anxious public that it can be regulated and managed responsibly.

5. Drone mission creep. Unmanned aerial vehicles aren't just for killing bad guys in Pakistan anymore. They're now being sent over ocean waters to monitor smuggling of drugs and immigrants. Domestic surveillance won't be far behind, since tireless eyes in the sky are a huge help to law enforcement. But don't worry, the drones won't shoot you. They'll just track you and record your behavior on video.

Speaking of live monitoring: You can get these updates in real time by following the Human Nature Twitter feed.

Los Angeles - Kwame Kilpatrick - Mark Sanford - John Ensign - Los Angeles City Council

Abortion and Precedent

William Saletan — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:16:00 GMT

For the House as a whole, the decision to accept the Stupak amendment against abortion funding wasn't about morality. It was about vote counting. You do what you have to do to get the bill through. And guess what? In the Senate, pro-choice Democrats don't necessarily have to accept the same amendment. The only precedent that really lasts is getting your way if you can.

More here.

Pro-choice - United States Senate - Democratic - Abortion - Senate

The Drone Surge

William Saletan — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:40:00 GMT

The public part of President Obama's new war strategy is to put more soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan.

The not-so-public part is to expand our use of drones in Pakistan. In this morning's New York Times, Scott Shane reports that Obama "has authorized an expansion of the C.I.A.'s drone program in Pakistan's lawless tribal area" to parallel our Afghan surge.

Human Nature has been updating you on this trend for a while. Drones make it easier for us to fight in Pakistan and Afghanistan. They enable us to kill our enemies from a distance, without putting our troops in harm's way.

But does that distance deaden us to the significance of collateral damage? Do drones turn war into a video game? Do they increase the risk of civilian casualties? An Amnesty International official makes that argument to the Times: "Anything that dehumanizes the process makes it easier to pull the trigger."

The argument makes sense. But by insulating their operators from danger, drones do more than dehumanize the killing process. They can hover over their targets, give their operators time to study the scene, plan, and think before firing. As Shane points out, "Operators at C.I.A. headquarters can use the drones' video feed to study a militant's identity and follow fighters to training areas or weapons caches, officials say. Targeters often can see where wives and children are located in a compound or wait until fighters drive away from a house or village before they are hit."

Which effect is greater: dehumanization or hover time? That's an empirical question. And the best way to answer it is by monitoring civilian casualties.

But that isn't an easy thing to do. Do you count only the dead you can verify as civilians from the drone's video feed? In areas controlled by the Taliban, do you wait for official investigations? There's no CSI Waziristan. Alternatively, do you trust whatever some local honcho tells the Pakistani press? Do you believe the eight guys who died in the targeted building were farmers? The former methods are likely to undercount civilian deaths; the latter is likely to exaggerate them.

Based on media reports, the New American Foundation credits the drones with an ugly 2-1 ratio of militant to civilian casualties. The Long War Journal reports a much more heartening ratio of 9-to-1. And a government official offers Shane an estimate of 20-to-1, claiming the drones have killed only about 20 civilians.

I'm skeptical of the high count. If the 2-1 ratio were correct, I'd expect more outrage from the Pakistani countryside than we've seen. On the contrary, Shane notes that in a recent survey of Pakistani professionals in the targeted areas, half of them said the drone strikes were accurate, and most said they strikes didn't foment anger at the United States.

But I don't buy the low count, either. Never trust killers to report their death tolls. That's a good rule even when the killers work for your government and are fighting bad guys. Casualty counts, especially of civilians, must be independently checked.

I'd like to think that drones, because of their video technology and hover time, are making it easier to kill the enemy without killing civilians. If so, we should make them a bigger part of our strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They could even police the area once the surge is over and our troops are coming home.

So let's figure out an internationally credible way to check their performance in sorting the good guys from the bad. If this is a better way to fight insurgencies, let's prove it.

Afghanistan - Pakistan - Taliban - War in Afghanistan - Central Intelligence Agency

Tweets 12/3/09

William Saletan — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:42:00 GMT

Human Nature has been away on a project and will be back soon with articles and blog posts. Until then, here are some of the short takes I've been posting on the news. To get them in real time, subscribe to the HN Twitter feed.

1. Next Internet wave underway: redesigning the Web for phones. http://bit.ly/8UGBMg The phone is devouring the universe. http://bit.ly/3Qe1MM

2. Black resistance to gay/black analogy lingers: http://bit.ly/5uVEYl But is being gay more of a choice than being black? http://bit.ly/5ZzIah

3. If you like the investigation of Tiger Woods' health records http://bit.ly/8XasdH you'll love prosecuting abortion laws. http://bit.ly/53CVzP

4. Get ready for restrictions on heating & A/C: http://bit.ly/53pOz9 Spain is banning A/C below 79 degrees. Prediction: This will sweep Europe.

5. Latest plan to fight global warming: sheep eugenics. http://bit.ly/8pTtLQ To reduce methane burps. I kid you not. A tree-hugger's dilemma.

6. Comfort food as antidepressant: http://bit.ly/8eXSUt It's getting harder to sustain the old idea that "food" is natural but "drugs" aren't.

7. Fight HIV with Muslim extremism? http://bit.ly/5fiza4 In case you blamed Jesse Helms on Christianity. BTW, I hear beheadings are unsanitary.

8. 80% of US corn comes from GM seeds controlled by a Monsanto patent: http://bit.ly/4y3mOU Goodbye nature, hello intellectual property.

9. Psychopathic genes can make you a psychopath... unless you're aware of them. http://bit.ly/7TvLMY Reflection is a glitch in bio-determinism.

10. Latest virtual-reality breakthrough: Web porn synchronized with real sensations. http://bit.ly/5ngrAZ Hat tip to Jason Chen via @jackshafer.

11. 70%-80% of 2009 U.S. casualties in Afghanistan have been caused by IEDs, not weapons fire: http://bit.ly/8bIsUb So much for "shooting wars."

12. Illusion of muscles created by spray-tan art: http://bit.ly/5yEJoK Forget Photoshop, the new visual fraud is standing right in front of you.

13. Pro-lifers are for scripted informed consent http://bit.ly/4vBlkJ except when it applies to them. http://bit.ly/5G3PUd (Ditto pro-choicers?)

14. We could save women more abortion $ via birth control http://slate.com/id/2223661/ than via a zero-sum insurance fight. http://bit.ly/7vHvug

15. Teaching computers idioms via feedback: http://bit.ly/5MedPD This is the path to AI: Machines must learn by observation & modeling, as we do.

16. Horrifying story of a guy misdiagnosed as comatose, unable to speak the truth: http://bit.ly/6o8kEz How many more cases don't we know about?

17. Child molesters turning to cyberspace: http://bit.ly/6EozoM Looks like a net gain: 1) can bypass touching and 2) easier to track/catch them.

18. Next-generation surveillance: Acoustic sensor networks triangulate gunshot locations & swivel/zoom cameras to catch you. http://bit.ly/7Y5Zp8

19. If molesters can't can't be with kids, shouldn't people who kill in their sleep be barred from sleeping with others? http://bit.ly/6XDEIZ

20. If your kindergarten "aptitude" test can be outsmarted by test prep http://bit.ly/8qO24D, then it doesn't really measure aptitude, does it?

21. Old wives' tale: Pot is bad for you in 100 ways. New wives' tale: Pot is good for you in 100 ways. That'll be $100. http://bit.ly/5hP03O

Tiger Woods - Jesse Helms - US - HIV - Intellectual property

Tweets 11/20/09

William Saletan — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:42:00 GMT

Here are some of this week's Human Nature short takes on the news. To get them in real time, subscribe to the HN Twitter feed.

1. Mayor on Chicago's surveillance network: "cameras are the next best thing" to cops. http://bit.ly/syCfU Prediction: Domestic drones are next.

2. Latest totalitarian hubris: central weather planning http://bit.ly/47M3a6 Didn't work for shamans, won't work for China, Cuba, or Venezuela.

3. GPS tracking is being extended from felons to old folks: http://bit.ly/1ufgAa And that's good for both of them. http://slate.com/id/2118117/

4. Penis-numbing spray prevents premature ejaculation: http://bit.ly/3bsu8i Overdose might have saved Bill Clinton, John Edwards, Mark Foley...

5. If Pistorius' artificial legs aren't faster than real ones (http://bit.ly/10eGGM), the next generation will be. http://slate.com/id/2191801/

6. Dispersed insurgents force US to disperse surveillance & communications to soldiers: http://bit.ly/4sspv2 Infantry is becoming white-collar.

7. "Data does not tell us what to do" in medicine; we must consult "values." GOP on stem cells? No, Dems on breast cancer: http://bit.ly/2axkNH

8. Stupak consolation: No abortion coverage, but contraceptive coverage would cut your risk of having to pay for abortion. http://bit.ly/3nUFke

9. Latest female arousal drug: http://bit.ly/1YjUYL I've seen such hype before. But at least they're targeting the brain now, not the vagina.

10. Palin denies we evolved from "monkeys who ...swung down from the trees." http://bit.ly/3h6VMc So do scientists, dingbat! http://bit.ly/N8k1N

11. As smokers decline to 20% or 15% of population, it becomes economically logical to ban them from apartment buildings. http://bit.ly/4hPmjk

12. "The IED has now replaced direct-fire weapons as the enemy's weapon of choice." http://bit.ly/31auLJ Surveillance, not combat, is the future.

13. God bless this effort to teach mullahs contraception: http://bit.ly/1JcRXf But the surest way to control population is to empower women.

14. 26 gallons of water from a single moon probe impact: http://bit.ly/4pxXSK That's a lot of water. Moon habitation is looking more plausible.

15. Scary theory: By boosting your impression of alertness, caffeine dangerously masks the intoxicating effects of alcohol. http://bit.ly/1ofV83

16. The Vatican may burn a heretic now & then, but the arc of Catholic science bends toward curiosity: http://bit.ly/2HeIZp Also best lede ever.

17. Regrowing penises http://bit.ly/3b83l0 and breasts http://bit.ly/2KDjGT: Will it become possible to alter (or double) your sex "naturally"?

18. Laptop porn-viewing in public: http://bit.ly/2CrSyH Another sign we're mentally drifting out of physical/social reality and into cyberspace.

John Edwards - Bill Clinton - Chicago - Mark Foley - Cuba

Tweets 11/11/09

William Saletan — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:18:00 GMT

Here are some of this week's Human Nature short takes on the news. To get them in real time, subscribe to the HN Twitter feed.

1. Is youth a kind of wealth? Should you pay more for health insurance so old folks can pay less, in the name of equality? http://bit.ly/EE2pl

2. Runaway Toyotas http://bit.ly/143rMA don't help us get comfortable with automated cars. Expect more such oops stories as we delegate driving.

3. Now that we can test for genetic susceptibility to harm from vices http://bit.ly/TeDi0, we'll use this to find out what we can get away with.

4. Cell phones as microscopes: http://bit.ly/2zZWRj Another step in the relentless consolidation of gadgets to 1 handheld (http://bit.ly/3Qe1MM).

5. Fascinating challenge to Judaism as inherited trait: http://bit.ly/2mI1dg Is racial self-definition of who's a Jew religious discrimination?

6. US kids too fat/unfit for military? http://bit.ly/20pyQX Bah. More jobs are automated or remotely operated, e.g. drones (http://bit.ly/2ScJzO).

7. Fruit juice is as bad as soda: http://bit.ly/1kMCzt Just as I feared. "Natural" isn't a sure guide to morality—or to healthy eating.

8. War against the machines, traffic-cam version: http://bit.ly/1zJKV2 Humans will win these elections ... till machines get the right to vote.

9. Experts using "panda viagra, panda porn and pelvic-thrust exercises" to make pandas mate. http://bit.ly/DBqhZ Pathetic. Let this species die.

10. Using pot munchies to sell sushi: http://bit.ly/1W43xn Commercial integration will legitimate marijuana more effectively than politics can.

11. Uproar over doctors group letting Coke fund its education site: http://bit.ly/45lzcW Are soda makers heading toward tobacco's pariah status?

12. The fierce urgency of now can blind you: http://bit.ly/2O3JQi Gay marriage backers should delay such showdowns till old folks have died off.

13. Dog-scent lineups: http://bit.ly/38Gtza Like polygraphs (http://bit.ly/3E4i7e), a device to make you think you've been caught and confess.

14. Muslim creationism more flexible than Christian version: http://bit.ly/4669dR More evidence that creationism is mostly attitude, not theory.

15. Reframing of mental disorders from either/or to spectra: http://bit.ly/43PYsy Good move. The brain is hugely complex with lots of gray area.

16. Sleeping while your copilot minds the instruments is banned by airlines "but is allowed on military planes." http://bit.ly/2hEhkF Why?

Health - Mobile phone - Health insurance - Cannabis - Twitter

Abortion, Socialism, and Health Reform

William Saletan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:20:00 GMT

There's something poignant about the last-minute outrage of the pro-choice groups. The complaints they're leveling—that people had more choices in the private market, that the House bill radically upsets this market, and that it violates Obama's promise not to deprive anyone of their existing coverage—are hardly novel. Republicans have issued such warnings all year. But liberals didn't pay attention until the coverage in jeopardy was abortion.

More here.

Pro-choice - Republican Party - Abortion - Democratic - Pro-Life

Women, Combat, and Fort Hood

William Saletan — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:38:00 GMT

Fort Hood, Texas, hosts tens of thousands of men who are trained to fight for their country. But none of them stopped Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan as he blew away 13 of their colleagues Thursday afternoon. It was a civilian police officer, Sgt. Kimberly Munley, who confronted and shot him in an exchange of gunfire. For her trouble, Munley took bullets in both legs and an arm. Maybe the president will pin a medal on her.

Here's a better way to honor Munley: End the ban on women in combat.

More here.

Fort Hood - Police officer - United States - Texas - Military

Genes, Murder, and Bad Driving

William Saletan — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:56:00 GMT

Can crimes and crashes be blamed on bad genes?

On Friday, Nature reported details of an Italian case in which a court, for the first time in Europe, reduced a criminal sentence based on a genetic theory of behavior. According to the report:

Pietro Pietrini, a molecular neuroscientist at Italy's University of Pisa, and Giuseppe Sartori, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Padova, conducted a series of tests [on the defendant] and found abnormalities in brain-imaging scans and in five genes that have been linked to violent behaviour—including the gene encoding the neurotransmitter-metabolizing enzyme monoamine oxidase A (MAOA). A 2002 study ... had found low levels of MAOA expression to be associated with aggressiveness and criminal conduct of young boys raised in abusive environments. In the report, Pietrini and Sartori concluded that [the defendant's] genes would make him more prone to behaving violently if provoked. ... On the basis of the genetic tests, Judge Reinotti docked a further year off the defendant's sentence, arguing that the defendant's genes "would make him particularly aggressive in stressful situations". Giving his verdict, Reinotti said he had found the MAOA evidence particularly compelling.

Scientists interviewed by Nature say this kind of genetic determinism is too crude and tenuous to justify sentence reductions. Genes operate in relation to each other, not independently, and they produce different effects depending on environmental factors and population differences such as ethnicity. My colleague Dan Engber, who alerted me to the Nature report, has made similar points about brain scans and neuro-determinism. I'm highly sympathetic to his indictment of the field.

Despite these criticisms and the skepticism of judges, Nature reports that according to a database maintained by Nita Farahany of Vanderbilt law school,

in the past five years there have been at least 200 [U.S.] cases where lawyers have attempted to use genetic evidence to support the idea their clients' were predisposed to violent behaviour, depression or drug or alcohol abuse. In Britain, there have been at least 20 such cases in the past five years.

And don't be surprised if the next target of genetic determinists is car crashes. Neuroscientists from the University of California at Irvine have just laid out the case in a paper in Cerebral Cortex, accompanied by a catchy press release. The release is titled, "Bad driving may have genetic basis, UCI study finds." It reports:

People with a particular gene variant performed more than 20 percent worse on a driving test than people without it—and a follow-up test a few days later yielded similar results. About 30 percent of Americans have the variant. ... The driving test was taken by 29 people-22 without the gene variant and seven with it. They were asked to drive 15 laps on a simulator that required them to learn the nuances of a track programmed to have difficult curves and turns. Researchers recorded how well they stayed on the course over time. Four days later, the test was repeated. Results showed that people with the variant did worse on both tests than the other participants, and they remembered less the second time.

The release explains how the gene works:

This gene variant limits the availability of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor during activity. BDNF keeps memory strong by supporting communication among brain cells and keeping them functioning optimally. When a person is engaged in a particular task, BDNF is secreted in the brain area connected with that activity to help the body respond.

The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, will surely become fodder for defense attorneys in civil and criminal cases involving crashes or dangerous driving. And these lawyers won't be alone in their interest. In the press release, Steven Cramer, the neuroscientist who led the study, says, "I'd be curious to know the genetics of people who get into car crashes. I wonder if the accident rate is higher for drivers with the variant."

I bet every auto insurer would like to know the same thing.

I'm counting on Engber to pick apart the study and the press release. Let's hope the authors are oversimplifying the impact of genes on behavior. Because if the link between genes and driving performance is solid enough to justify reduced sentences and damage awards, it's hard to see why insurances shouldn't be allowed to test and charge you accordingly.

University of California Irvine - National Institutes of Health - Brain-derived neurotrophic factor - Traffic collision - United States

Tweets 10/30/09

William Saletan — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:01:00 GMT

Here are some of this week's Human Nature short takes on the news. To get them in real time, subscribe to the HN Twitter feed.

1. "Abortion addict" http://bit.ly/VRJHr says she "abused her rights." Bingo: Abuse doesn't invalidate rights, and rights don't validate abuse.

2. IEDs spreading across south Asia & Africa: http://bit.ly/vSb9l Huge problem for the future. See http://bit.ly/2beWk7 and http://bit.ly/7ABuJ

3. GPS RIP: http://bit.ly/NF0U0 The reduction of gizmos to smartphone apps continues. Better figure out how to sell your hardware as software.

4. Using gene therapy ... to repair somebody's organs ... to give to somebody else. http://bit.ly/2k8uZ8 Another step in human parts technology

5. Agassi admits he used meth and lied after being caught: http://bit.ly/3NnF1B Remind me why we test athletes for drugs that don't help them?

6. Dad's absence alters brain growth in rodents: http://bit.ly/Q2d1N Lesson: Brain & environment aren't alternative explanations for behavior.

7. No more simulated sex while dancing: http://bit.ly/yp8as Regulation hasn't been this interesting since Sonny Bono "cracked down" on bikinis.

8. Baby Einstein? Not: http://bit.ly/KoOL6 Here's a tip: Your kid does not need more IQ. Just give her the mental health to use the IQ she has.

9. Requiring RX for cold meds? To stop meth production? (http://bit.ly/bLHgB) Good luck putting the home chemistry genie back in the bottle.

10. "Screaming is the new spanking," http://bit.ly/33SsYl. Yes, and representative democracy with executive power is the new fascism. Please.

Sponsored Topics: Sonny Bono - Global Positioning System - Improvised explosive device - Intelligence quotient - Africa

Freeway Autopilots

William Saletan — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:42:00 GMT

Maybe one lesson of Northwest Flight 188 is that driving should be more like flying. There are tricky parts that require close attention and adjustment—takeoff and landing for planes, local navigation for cars—and then there are parts that can be automated: cruising altitude for planes, freeway driving for cars. A freeway autopilot would have to keep you in your lane until your exit. It wouldn't zip around from lane to lane like a jerk. But I'm guessing most of us could live with that.

More here.

Sponsored Topics: Freeway - Altitude - Recreation - Roads and Highways - Autopilot

Human Nature

The Tablet Computer In Your Head

Tim Tebow's Non-Abortion

The Technology Revolution

Trumped-up Terrorism

The Drone Bomber

Why We Need To See Your Crotch

How To Find an Underwear Bomb

Abortion Funding: Cool the Hype

The Disappearance of Flight 188

News Roundup 12/9/09

Abortion and Precedent

The Drone Surge

Tweets 12/3/09

Tweets 11/20/09

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Tweets 11/11/09

Abortion, Socialism, and Health Reform

Women, Combat, and Fort Hood

Genes, Murder, and Bad Driving

Tweets 10/30/09

Freeway Autopilots