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Behavioral science shows that demanding short-term change activates the brain’s fear centers

Taking a cue from my boss, I just finished this article on behavioral economics -- a growing field that explores how, and why, flesh-and-blood humans don't behave like the "rational" profit-maximizers that underpin most economic models. It seems to me there are some lessons here for the theory and practice of social change.

In a nutshell: calling for immediate action to address a long-term problem may prompt resistance from the emotional and fearful sides of our brains; but calling for delayed action may put emotional reactions on hold, and allow for a more sober (and potentially more favorable) response to the issue.

Goshute in the Foot

Interior Department blocks interim nuke-waste site in Utah The Interior Department has blocked an interim nuclear-waste storage plant on a Native reservation in appropriately named Skull Valley, Utah. The department denied a lease and transportation plan for the site, which was to hold 44,000 tons of nuclear waste in above-ground casks about an hour’s drive […]

I Found My Thrill on News-Bury Hill

EPA proposes easing air-pollution rules for oil refineries and other plants The Bush administration EPA has had some trouble with the whole protecting-the-environment thing, but it has mastered one important skill: burying news. Latest exhibit: On Friday, just before a weekend that everyone knew would be saturated with 9/11 remembrances, the EPA proposed easing air-pollution […]

Nothing to Fear But Air Itself

Government fails to tend to the many left sick by the 9/11 attacks The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, left behind a grim legacy. No, we’re not talking about the violent imperial fantasies and paranoia that have gripped much of the nation, but the lingering ill health of those who worked in lower Manhattan to […]

A prescient speech

Kevin Drum reprints an extraordinary speech from Al Gore in 2002 that makes, among many others, the point I tried to make here.

He says:

Food can comfort and heal us in times of grief and despair

"Enjoy every sandwich." -- Warren Zevon

As is true for so many people, 9/11 is on my mind this week. I'm thinking of the people who perished on that day in the towers: those I knew from college and high school, friends, coworkers, and of course all the strangers whose families' lives are forever altered.

I'll always remember the breathtaking beauty of that day -- an impossibly blue sky -- and how all my calls to editors in NYC suddenly stopped going through. "All the circuits to New York are busy." It was only when a friend called late in the morning that I learned about what had happened. It seemed as though everything around me was disappearing, as if I might disappear myself.

Once I had gotten through to friends and family in New York, I turned on the TV. The footage of the towers coming down over and over again made me numb, but two things caught my eye.

The first was how quickly people were able to print up and post signs asking after the fate of their loved ones. They must have been carrying pictures in their wallets.

The other was how many of the pictures were of family celebrations around food.

Abnormal fish found in Potomac River

Scientists say abnormal "intersex" fish, with both male and female characteristics, have been discovered in the Potomac River and its tributaries across the Capitol Region. Although scientists are not sure of the source of the problem, they suspect Felicity Huffman is to blame.

Ginormous earthworm discovered, may get federal protection

Here's the deal: there's a three-foot-long pink earthworm living in the Palouse region of Idaho and Washington and nowhere else on the planet. It can burrow 15 feet underground and it was re-discovered last year after scientists believed it had gone extinct. Also, it smells like a lily.

At the risk of sounding unserious: awesome!

If a mock warhead is destroyed in space and there’s no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?

In case you were wondering about the latest potentially world-ending technology, Campus Progress has a great article this week on our Ballistic Missile Defense System, its "successes," and our government's apparent failure to think practically about the future.

Last week, the Pentagon announced they had launched a rocket interceptor that successfully destroyed a mock warhead in space. This was their first successful test run in nearly four years, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

A proposed bill would double fines on certain businesses in the state

Yesterday I got a press release from the Sen. James Inhofe (R-Mongo) Senate Environment Committee Crap Factory© (SJISECCF) touting a new bill Inhofe is pushing that would amend the Clean Air Act "to strengthen penalties on major emission sources in the most polluted areas of the country that fail to meet clean air standards by the attainment deadlines under the current Clean Air Act."

"Hm," I thought, "that actually sounds worthwhile."

"Hm," I then thought, "what am I missing?"