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POPSPharmaceutical Love Potion: Not Yet... In humans, brain regions associated with dopamine are activated in mothers looking at pictures of their children, and lovers at each other — and, perhaps instructively, in drug addicts taking heroin or cocaine. To Young, all this means that science may soon treat lovelessness as easily as it now treats depression and anxiety. "Drugs that manipulate brain systems at whim to enhance or diminish our love for another may not be far away," he writes. Not so fast, said Fisher. The alterations required to manipulate love, she said, are likely so complex and far-reaching as to be unattainable in a pill. "There are cognitive processes and limbic reactions associated with basic emotions," said Fisher. "And you can change brain chemistry, but you're still not going to change memories and experiences in a human being."
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POPSCreature Comforts "They’re all showing up in stores and in restaurants, which is perfectly legal because the Americans With Disabilities Act (A.D.A.) requires that service animals be allowed wherever their owners want to go. This has resulted in a growing debate over how to handle these animals, as well as widespread suspicion that people are abusing the law to get special privileges for their pets."
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POPSLess Fear, More Faith My hope is that a religious consciousness will begin to rise, one based on enhancing humanity.... Bishop John Shelby Spong
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POPScontinuatin hedges interview I really like what he said here using the term 'anxiety.' To have an open mind is to live in uncertainty--to embrace 'not knowing.' The anxiety--the pressure to adopt a stance is always there, but I think we must strive to emulate the truth and 'rightness' that is constantly changing!
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POPSOut of Sight Mr. Obama will soon face the same awful choices that confronted George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and he could well be forced to accept a central feature of their anti-terrorist methods: extraordinary rendition. If the choice is between non-deniable aggressive questioning conducted by Americans and deniable torturous interrogations by foreigners acting on behalf of the United States, it is almost certain that as president Mr. Obama will choose the latter. He and his senior officials seem to believe now that they don’t have to make this choice. For them there is a better way to combat terrorism, by using physically non-coercive questioning of suspects and civilian courts. But this third way, which is essentially where America was before the Clinton administration embraced rendition, is plausible only if Mr. Obama is lucky. He might be. If there is no “ticking time bomb” situation —— then there is neither need for the C.I.A.’s exceptional methods.
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POPSMourning a Way of Life Why “survival panic” is good. The greater opportunity of the downturn, Vaccaro said, is that it represents a chance to move away from “irrational” and “careless” consumerism toward “a more discerning consumer.”
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POPSEven Masters of the Universe Get the Blues Fascinating essay from a shrink who treats hedge fund managers from Wall Street. "Each of these patients experienced a sudden loss of the sense of mastery in the face of the financial meltdown and could not gauge their success or failure without the only benchmark they knew: a financial profit."
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POPSWe could be able to soon view our dreams on a screen This sounds like we may finally be able to 'see' those parts of a dream you can't remember. Although, you may find out that you don't want to. Dream interpretations just might reveal what a sick freak you really are. Soon scientists will be able to project images your brain picked up but you forget. Great help for police investigations that depend on an eyewitness account.
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POPSRepublic Workers Sit-In Ends in a Win The piece goes on: The resolution came after six days of negotiations among the bank, company owners and union leaders. The workers voted to end their sit-in on Wednesday evening, emerging from their factory chanting, “Yes we did!” “The occupation is over,” said Armando Robles, a factory worker and president of Local 1110, of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, which represented the workers. “We have achieved a victory.” Of course, they're still out of work in this job market , but a win's a win.
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POPSAsylum: A Touchstone for Human Rights The UK government stands accused by many lawyers, faith groups and human rights advocates of pursuing policies on asylum which are ineffective, lacking in humanity and dignity, and driven by scaremongering and electoral anxiety rather than social justice and democratic accountability.
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POPSFirst 'placebo gene' discovered 
To see if there were genetic differences between responders and non-responders, Furmark screened them for a variant of the gene for tryptophan hydroxylase-2, which makes the brain chemical, serotonin. Previous studies suggested that people with two copies of a particular "G" variant are less anxious in standard "fear" tests. Sure enough 8 of the 10 responders had two copies, while none of the non-responders did (Journal of Neuroscience (DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2534-08.2008). Furmark believes the effect of the gene may extend to other conditions where the amygdala is involved, such as phobias, pain disorders and even depression. However, he cautions that only further studies will reveal whether the gene influences the placebo effect more generally. Echoing Furmark's caution is Fabrizio Benedetti of the University of Turin, Italy. "We know that there's not a single placebo effect but many." Some may work through genetics, he adds, others through the expectation of a reward.
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POPSThe Case Against Pre-Testing For Online Courses Too often, online courses begin with pre-tests. Are pre-tests anything more than learner abuse? Under the best of circumstances, quizzes can be tedious and even anxiety-inducing. Putting tests before your content casts a negative shadow over a course before it has even begun. Let's examine the two major arguments for pre-tests and see how they hold up under scrutiny.
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