On the 8 Spot

I’m seeing how people enter to this cycle where traumatic experiences start someone to the path of loneliness and the debilitating effects of loneliness to the brain functions produces a feedback effect that may be the reason why people become more lonly/non-lonely later on in life. read the whole thing!

Researchers found that the ventral striatum—a region of the brain associated with rewards—is much more activated in non-lonely people than in the lonely when they view pictures of people in pleasant settings. In contrast, the temporoparietal junction—a region associated with taking the perspective of another person—is much less activated among lonely than in the non-lonely when viewing pictures of people in unpleasant settings.

“Given their feelings of social isolation, lonely individuals may be left to find relative comfort in nonsocial rewards,” said John Cacioppo, the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Professor in Psychology at the University. He spoke at the briefing along with Jean Decety, the Irving B. Harris Professor in Psychology and Psychiatry at the University.

The ventral striatum, which is critical to learning, is a key portion of the brain and is activated through primary rewards such as food and secondary rewards such as money. Social rewards and feelings of love also may activate the region.

Cacioppo, one of the nation’s leading scholars on loneliness, has shown that loneliness undermines health and can be as detrimental as smoking. About one in five Americans experience loneliness, he said. Decety is one of the nation’s leading researchers to use fMRI scans to explore empathy.

Loneliness Affects How The Brain Operates.

lyrics from here.

I stood stone-like at midnight suspended in my masquerade
I combed my hair till it was just right and commanded the night brigade
I was open to pain and crossed by the rain and I walked on a crooked crutch
I strolled all alone through a fallout zone and come out with my soul untouched
I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd but when they said “Sit down,” I stood up.

Ooh… growin’ up

The flag of piracy flew from my mast, my sails were set wing to wing
I had a jukebox graduate for first mate, she couldn’t sail but she sure could sing,
I pushed B-52 and bombed ’em with the blues with my gear set stubborn on standing
I broke all the rules, strafed my old high school, never once gave thought to landing,
I hid in the clouded warmth of the crowd but when they said, “Come down,” I threw up,

Ooh… growin’ up.

I took month-long vacations in the stratosphere and you know it’s really hard to hold your breath.
I swear I lost everything I ever loved or feared, I was the cosmic kid in full costume dress,
Well, my feet they finally took root in the earth but I got me a nice little place in the stars
And I swear I found the key to the universe in the engine of an old parked car
I hid in the mother breast of the crowd but when they said, “Pull down,” I pulled up

Ooh… growin’ up.
Ooh… growin’ up

Read the quoted page, hope I can get a copy of that rolling stones issue.

The machines will capture everything: the piggyback ride to the grocery store, the bedtime reading of Tom Swift, the moment he and his father rejoiced when the letter of acceptance from MIT arrived.

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr’s Blog: The avatar of my father.

Saudi Arabia appoints female minister

Mon, 02/16/2009 – 9:44am

Encouraging news from the kingdom:

An expert on girls’ education became Saudi Arabia’s first woman minister on Saturday as part of a wide-ranging cabinet reshuffle by King Abdullah that swept aside several bastions of ultra-conservatism.

Nora bint Abdullah al-Fayez, a US-educated former teacher, was made deputy education minister in charge of a new department for female students, a significant breakthrough in a country where women are not allowed to drive.

Saudi Arabia appoints female minister | FP Passport.

Got this from the packing of a Dove heart shaped milk chocolate . Thanks to olive from LA for the chocolates.

Hold hands firmly,

hearts gently.

I have a friend , probably an aquaintance is a closer description who has an undergraduate degree in Education. That person is working in a Contact/Call center right now. I don’t have any problem with people working in call centers, heck I work in a call center. My problem is that my usual topic wihen meeting someone in school why are they studying what they were studying ang I was convinced that being an educator what the person wanted to be. I feel I’m stepping in zones I shouldn’t be in. Just call me nosy.

When I tell people back home in the US that I’m teaching in Thailand, they usually assume I teach English to Thai children. When I try to explain by saying “no, I teach at an international school”, I’m often met with a blank stare.

Understandable enough – before moving overseas, I never realized that there was a network of English-speaking American (or Canadian, Australian/New Zealand or British) curriculum schools all around the world. I have now worked at three international schools in three countries – Germany, Malaysia, and Thailand – and I often receive questions about where I work and how to start working overseas.

So, I thought I’d share some very basic information about this type of school for those who aren’t familiar with them.

The World of International Schools « Follow That Elephant!.

I’m 25, turning 26 in about 6 months. Why am I having thoughts on dreading old age?

My first reaction was indignation: Et tu, Who? But that was an old reflex, grown feeble with the passing years. It’s been a while since I could yell “Sellout” with any real conviction. Anyway, The Who’s days of overt rebellion are long gone. Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey were Kennedy Center honorees last month, standing alongside Barbra Streisand, George Jones, and George W. Bush, among others.

My second reaction was a suspicion that maybe Townshend hasn’t completely lost his subversive touch after all. Maybe he’s just redirected it inward. “Hope I die before I get old” a line included in the sixty-second version has a certain ironic, shamefaced piquancy now that the spokesmusicians for the sixties are in their sixties. That hope for a quick, Hendrix-like demise has been dashed, along with The Who’s retirement portfolio, if theirs is like everybody else’s. But renting out an antique anthem of rebellion isn’t just a way to ensure that the money will be there to pay for an assisted living facility, it’s also a subtly devastating comment on where and how our g-g-generation ended up. Good one, Pete

Who Knew?: Hendrik Hertzberg: Online Only: The New Yorker.