There is no "God Spot" in the human brain.

Mix_lazy/overworked/undereducated science reporters with the sensationalism that keeps profit-driven publications alive and you're bound to get ridiculous reports on solve-all "science" that has "solved" humanity's greatest mysteries with a few well-designed double-blinds.

Recently, it's been reports that neuroscientists have found a spot in the human brain responsible for religious intensity. A God Spot, of course.

I declare, "bull," and so does the blogger at Reuters' "Faith World."

"There is no one place in the brain responsible for religion, just as there is no single location in the brain for love or language or identity. Most popular articles these days actually say that, but the headline writers continue to speak of a single spot.

“There isn’t a separate religious area of the brain, from what we can tell from the data,” said Dr. Andrew Newberg, an associate professor of radiology and psychiatry at the Penn university hospital and author of several books on neuroscience and religion. “It’s not like there’s a little spiritual spot that lights up every time somebody thinks of God."

The blogger is finding out about this at Penn's "Neuroscience Bootcamp," a conference designed to explain neuroscience to people outside of the field- an effort that people in the media, ethicists, religious thinkers, and policy makers could/are benefit/ting from enormously. Science needs to remember how many important people would believe its case if it just spoke up in a more broadly thrown voice. This conference is awesome. Maybe I will go next year.

I Have to Post This: Unexplained Photo

BoingBoing says this is "Unexplained space phenomena captured in Saturn's rings."

I don't believe in UFO's since there is no real evidence, but I love, love LOVE the unexplained, the new things that humans are still learning about.

If I had to guess, it's a comet, a beautifully weirdly-moving comet. But I do love not knowing some things, still having some mysteries to solve.

What's Holding Green Power Back?

Money.

This Forbes article, explains.

I love Iceland. Not just because of Bjork, or a pity over how their country imploded with a cold "squish" sound. I really love their famous geothermal energy usage.

So why don't we do it here?

It's too expensive for a profit-based model, this article says.

Excerpt of Forbes article:

"Unlike with wind or solar, geothermal power developers have to raise money just to see if there's a power source to be exploited. According to Mark Taylor, a geothermal analyst at New Energy Finance, it can cost $10 million to $15 million to drill two or three holes to prove there's enough heat there to spin a turbine. "You need resources just to prove your resources," he says."

Damn.

Cleaning Arteries, Oceans

Probably the most notorious disease of affluence, other than simple obesity itself, is the epidemic of heart disease in the US. What the American white man needs is a way to reduce their risk that doesn't involve things like, you know, diet change, or vigorous and tedious exercise.

Enter: Fish Oil.

"There is mounting evidence that omega-3 fatty acids from fish or fish oil supplements not only help prevent cardiovascular diseases in healthy individuals, but also reduce the incidence of cardiac events and mortality in patients with existing heart disease. A new study, published in the August 11, 2009, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, extensively reviews data from a broad range of studies in tens of thousands of patients and sets forth suggested daily targets for omega-3 consumption.

"This isn't just hype; we now have tremendous and compelling evidence from very large studies, some dating back 20 and 30 years, that demonstrate the protective benefits of omega-3 fish oil in multiple aspects of preventive cardiology," said Carl Lavie, M.D., F.A.C.C., medical director of Cardiac Rehabilitation and Prevention, Ochsner Medical Center, New Orleans, LA, and lead author of the article. " From this new article.

So now all we need is to down a translucent flax-colored pill with every one of our Pepperoni Mozzarella Crispy Crust P'zones, to protect our critical little life-pump.

We must obviously see a huge fish oil extraction increase, if this health strategy catches on. But what about overfishing? Peru, for example, is one of the top fish oil producers in the world, and they've already overfished their anchovies to near-depletion. According to the documentary The End of the Line, all of the world's oceans are being overfished, and the problem is only going to become more severe as time goes on.



Fish is probably not going to go away, though. It will probably just become much more expensive. Perhaps too expensive to eat in a pill every day.

It's probably cheaper, for both you and the overused oceans, to just not eat that deep-fried twinky.

That sandwich is patented

I just want you to know, before you bite into it, that that sandwich is patented.

A Repurposing: This Blog is now Sciencey

If you love the word "kludge" as much as I do, then you can call this a "kludge."

A summer of researching what it would be like to do nonfiction film and how interesting other hobbies resulted in a re-realization that I really, really should stop this year-long (almost exactly) break from Journalism and go back to it, my money-free, difficult, addictive medium. I must continue writing real things about things that happen in the real world, again, since it needs to happen, and since I was actually good at it. Oh, it's fun, too.

But, since this is the 00's, and I can not count on being the next Mencken or Thompson, I must choose a specific subject and STICK WITH IT, and that specific subject, for THIS BLOG, for NOW, is SCIENCE.

I use that in the broadest term. I will basically write original articles on and link to readings about

Psychology
Sociology
Statistics in general (many news stories use them HORRIBLY, a pet peeve of mine.)
Environmental science
Technology
Gadgets
Zoology
A little bit of medicine but mostly COOL medicine like cybernetics and all the awesome things we are currently learning about the brain.

I might touch on economics, too, though that is the conservative, suit-wearing bastard of the generally humanitarian-minded social science family, and I often get into unpleasant arguments with its self-interested mouthpieces.

This blog will be a resource then, for people who like the interesting side of what is happening in a culture rife with conflict centered on science. Personally, it will be a collection of bookmarks found in the process of researching original stories and essays.

"Here we go." I hope it becomes enjoyable.

Slideshow of Disturbing Med Student Photos

These photos are from medical students fooling around with cadavers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. To modern people,they are downright wrong. But damn, they look cool. If anyone on here was looking for an album cover for their dark metal band's next album, your welcome.