Jan
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May 10, 2010
NPR has an interesting interview on the phenomenon of compulsive hoarding where people will be almost unable to throw out used items and will collect mountains of clutter in their houses to the point where they can no longer see the walls.
The discussion is with psychologists and hoarding researchers Randy Frost and Gail Steketee and has lots of novel insights on a recognised but not well-understood behaviour.
I was struck by the bit where the interviewer highlights that lots of hoarders collect newspapers and Frost replies that “we think it’s related to a sense of wanting to acquire and preserve opportunities”. They also discuss the interesting concept of ‘clutter blindness’.
Read in Full:Â http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2010/05/clutter_blindness.html
 
No reason why Pentagon hacker can’t be tried in UK
Posted in Policing, 10th May 2010 09:04Â GMT
The senior former policeman in charge of the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit squad which first arrested Gary McKinnon has described the ongoing US prosecution of the Pentagon hacker as “spiteful”.
Marc Kirby, retired former detective inspector at the NHTCU, was in charge of the team which first arrested McKinnon for cybercrime offences in 2002. US attempts to extradite McKinnon only started three years later in 2005, after the signature of a controversial extradition treaty between the US and UK.
Kirby, who led the successful prosecution of the gang behind the failed $420m cyberheist at Sumitomo in October 2004 and is now a lecturer in computer forensics at Cranfield, told The Register that despite the passage of time a UK prosecution for McKinnon’s admitted crimes was still possible. The former detective joins the growing list of those who want to see McKinnon tried in the UK.
Read in Full:Â http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/10/mckinnon_support/
 
Family of Gary McKinnon urge new Government to halt extradition to US
The mother of Gary McKinnon, the Briton accused of hacking into Pentagon and Nasa computers, has called on the new Government to stop her son’s controversial extradition.
By Ben Leach
Published: 9:43AM BST 13 May 2010
Both David Cameron and Nick Clegg have publicly condemned plans to send Mr McKinnon to the U.S. – where he faces up to 60 years in jail.
Last year, Mr Cameron said that if Mr McKinnon had questions to answer there was “a clear argument to be made that he should answer them in a British courtâ€.
Mr Clegg has said that extraditing Gary would be a “travesty of justice†and that Gordon Brown should give his “personal guarantee†that Mr McKinnon will be tried in Britain.
Now the supporters of Mr McKinnon, who has Asperger’s syndrome, are hoping they will keep their word.
On Wednesday Mr McKinnon’s mother Janis Sharp wrote to Mr Clegg asking the coalition government to intervene.
She told the Daily Mail: “He has been one of Gary’s most passionate and outspoken supporters and always said he would not extradite him.
Read in Full:Â http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7718479/Family-of-Gary-McKinnon-urge-new-Government-to-halt-extradition-to-US.html
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Previous Updates
McKinnon’s Mum Fights For Civil Liberties In Parliamentary Run
Gary McKinnon Updates: Janis Sharp To Battle Straw
Gary McKinnon Updates: New Court Date In Extradition Marathon
Gary McKinnon Updates: Charlie Mckinnon On His Son’s Fight Against US Extradition
Gary McKinnon Updates: Death Threats
Gary McKinnon Updates: Pentagon Hacker Wins Delay Of Extradition To U.S.
Gary McKinnon Updates: New Hope on Extradition
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No reason why Pentagon hacker can’t be tried in UK
Posted in Policing, 10th May 2010 09:04Â GMT
The senior former policeman in charge of the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit squad which first arrested Gary McKinnon has described the ongoing US prosecution of the Pentagon hacker as “spiteful”.
Marc Kirby, retired former detective inspector at the NHTCU, was in charge of the team which first arrested McKinnon for cybercrime offences in 2002. US attempts to extradite McKinnon only started three years later in 2005, after the signature of a controversial extradition treaty between the US and UK.
Kirby, who led the successful prosecution of the gang behind the failed $420m cyberheist at Sumitomo in October 2004 and is now a lecturer in computer forensics at Cranfield, told The Register that despite the passage of time a UK prosecution for McKinnon’s admitted crimes was still possible. The former detective joins the growing list of those who want to see McKinnon tried in the UK.
Read in Full:Â http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/10/mckinnon_support/
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Family of Gary McKinnon urge new Government to halt extradition to US
The mother of Gary McKinnon, the Briton accused of hacking into Pentagon and Nasa computers, has called on the new Government to stop her son’s controversial extradition.
By Ben Leach
Published: 9:43AM BST 13 May 2010
Both David Cameron and Nick Clegg have publicly condemned plans to send Mr McKinnon to the U.S. – where he faces up to 60 years in jail.
Last year, Mr Cameron said that if Mr McKinnon had questions to answer there was “a clear argument to be made that he should answer them in a British courtâ€.
Mr Clegg has said that extraditing Gary would be a “travesty of justice†and that Gordon Brown should give his “personal guarantee†that Mr McKinnon will be tried in Britain.
Now the supporters of Mr McKinnon, who has Asperger’s syndrome, are hoping they will keep their word.
On Wednesday Mr McKinnon’s mother Janis Sharp wrote to Mr Clegg asking the coalition government to intervene.
She told the Daily Mail: “He has been one of Gary’s most passionate and outspoken supporters and always said he would not extradite him.
Read in Full:Â http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7718479/Family-of-Gary-McKinnon-urge-new-Government-to-halt-extradition-to-US.html
Â
Previous Updates
McKinnon’s Mum Fights For Civil Liberties In Parliamentary Run
Gary McKinnon Updates: Janis Sharp To Battle Straw
Gary McKinnon Updates: New Court Date In Extradition Marathon
Gary McKinnon Updates: Charlie Mckinnon On His Son’s Fight Against US Extradition
Gary McKinnon Updates: Death Threats
Gary McKinnon Updates: Pentagon Hacker Wins Delay Of Extradition To U.S.
Gary McKinnon Updates: New Hope on Extradition
 
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on May 11, 2010
A new small study has discovered treating clinical depression via the telephone is nearly as effective as face-to-face consultations.
Brigham Young University scientists followed 30 people newly diagnosed with major depression.
Instead of eight scheduled visits to the clinic, the participants covered the same material during a series of phone calls with the therapist. Calls varied in length, ranging from 21 to 52 minutes.
The patients did not receive antidepressant medication.
At a six month followup, 42 percent of participants had recovered from depression. For comparison, similar therapy conducted in person has a 50 percent recovery rate.
“Offering a phone or webcam option for psychotherapy does appear warranted from an efficacy point of view,†said Diane Spangler, a BYU psychology professor and a coauthor on the study.
“It’s more user-friendly – no commutes, more flexibility of place and time – and has no side effects.â€
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/05/11/telephonic-therapy-effective-for-depression/13701.html
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on May 11, 2010
A new small study has discovered treating clinical depression via the telephone is nearly as effective as face-to-face consultations.
Brigham Young University scientists followed 30 people newly diagnosed with major depression.
Instead of eight scheduled visits to the clinic, the participants covered the same material during a series of phone calls with the therapist. Calls varied in length, ranging from 21 to 52 minutes.
The patients did not receive antidepressant medication.
At a six month followup, 42 percent of participants had recovered from depression. For comparison, similar therapy conducted in person has a 50 percent recovery rate.
“Offering a phone or webcam option for psychotherapy does appear warranted from an efficacy point of view,†said Diane Spangler, a BYU psychology professor and a coauthor on the study.
“It’s more user-friendly – no commutes, more flexibility of place and time – and has no side effects.”
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/05/11/telephonic-therapy-effective-for-depression/13701.html
 
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on May 10, 2010Â
Wisdom may be the most valuable virtue associated with life and the aging process.
Knowledge, judgment, compassion, and common sense are words that describe some of the universal traits attributed to wisdom, each of them broadly recognized and valued.
In fact, there is no enduring, consistent definition of what it means exactly to be wise. It is a virtue widely treasured but essentially unexplained, a timeless subject only now attracting rigorous, scientific scrutiny.
In 2009, Dilip V. Jeste, MD, and Thomas W. Meeks, MD, both professors in the department of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego and researchers at the Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging, published a paper proposing that sagacity might have a neurobiological basis.
In other words, that wisdom is wired.
In the June issue of The Gerontologist and currently online, Jeste and Meeks go further, attempting to identify the central, unifying elements that define wisdom.
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/05/10/researchers-look-to-define-wisdom/13658.html
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Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on May 10, 2010Â
Wisdom may be the most valuable virtue associated with life and the aging process.
Knowledge, judgment, compassion, and common sense are words that describe some of the universal traits attributed to wisdom, each of them broadly recognized and valued.
In fact, there is no enduring, consistent definition of what it means exactly to be wise. It is a virtue widely treasured but essentially unexplained, a timeless subject only now attracting rigorous, scientific scrutiny.
In 2009, Dilip V. Jeste, MD, and Thomas W. Meeks, MD, both professors in the department of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego and researchers at the Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging, published a paper proposing that sagacity might have a neurobiological basis.
In other words, that wisdom is wired.
In the June issue of The Gerontologist and currently online, Jeste and Meeks go further, attempting to identify the central, unifying elements that define wisdom.
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/05/10/researchers-look-to-define-wisdom/13658.html
May 9, 2010, Evolutionary Psychology
Some people are night owls, and others are morning larks. What makes the difference may be their levels of general intelligence.
Virtually all species in nature, from single-cell organisms to mammals, including humans, exhibit a daily cycle of activity called circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm in mammals is regulated by two clusters of nerve cells called the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) in the anterior hypothalamus.  Geneticists have by now identified a set of genes that regulate the SCN and thus the circadian rhythm among mammals.
However, humans, unlike other mammalian species, have the unique ability, consciously and cognitively, to override their internal biological clock and its rhythmic outputs. In other words, at least for humans, circadian rhythm is not entirely a matter of genetics. Within broad genetic constraints, humans can choose what time to go to bed and get up. Humans can choose to be night owls or morning larks.
While there are some individual differences in the circadian rhythm, where some individuals are more nocturnal than others, humans are basically a diurnal (day-living) species. Humans rely very heavily on vision for navigation but, unlike genuinely nocturnal species, cannot see in the dark or under little lighting, and our ancestors did not have artificial lighting during the night until the domestication of fire. Any human in the ancestral environment up and about during the night would have been at risk of predation by nocturnal predators.
Read in Full:Â http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/201005/why-night-owls-are-more-intelligent-morning-larks
May 9, 2010, Evolutionary Psychology
Some people are night owls, and others are morning larks. What makes the difference may be their levels of general intelligence.
Virtually all species in nature, from single-cell organisms to mammals, including humans, exhibit a daily cycle of activity called circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm in mammals is regulated by two clusters of nerve cells called the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) in the anterior hypothalamus.  Geneticists have by now identified a set of genes that regulate the SCN and thus the circadian rhythm among mammals.
However, humans, unlike other mammalian species, have the unique ability, consciously and cognitively, to override their internal biological clock and its rhythmic outputs. In other words, at least for humans, circadian rhythm is not entirely a matter of genetics. Within broad genetic constraints, humans can choose what time to go to bed and get up. Humans can choose to be night owls or morning larks.
While there are some individual differences in the circadian rhythm, where some individuals are more nocturnal than others, humans are basically a diurnal (day-living) species. Humans rely very heavily on vision for navigation but, unlike genuinely nocturnal species, cannot see in the dark or under little lighting, and our ancestors did not have artificial lighting during the night until the domestication of fire. Any human in the ancestral environment up and about during the night would have been at risk of predation by nocturnal predators.
Read in Full:Â http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/201005/why-night-owls-are-more-intelligent-morning-larks
 
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on May 11, 2010Â
Dyslexia is a relatively common learning disability characterized by problems in reading, writing and spelling.
Children with dyslexia often struggle despite getting an appropriate education and demonstrating intellectual ability in other areas.
New neurological research has found that these children’s difficulties with written language may be linked to structural differences within an important information highway in the brain known to play a role in oral language.
Vanderbilt University researchers Sheryl Rimrodt and Laurie Cutting used an emerging MRI technique, called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), to discover evidence linking dyslexia to structural differences in an important bundle of white matter in the left-hemisphere language network.
White matter is made up of fibers that can be thought of as the wiring that allows communication between brain cells; the left-hemisphere language network is made up of bundles of these fibers and contains branches that extend from the back of the brain (including vision cells) to the front parts that are responsible for articulation and speech.
“When you are reading, you are essentially saying things out loud in your head,†said Cutting.
“If you have decreased integrity of white matter in this area, the front and back part of your brain are not talking to one another. This would affect reading, because you need both to act as a cohesive unit.â€
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/05/11/brain-differences-linked-to-dyslexia/13706.html