29 May 2008

In the news this morning

Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan releases a book highlighting the stench oozing off American politics. People who are outraged by his 'disloyalty' need a lecture on the concept of 'enabling' (or the Nuremberg trials).

A large review in Nature describe four groups that have spent the last eight years using deep brain stimulation to treat, successfully, obsessive compulsive disorder (ht: Laura). Their target, the ventral striatum, also called nucleus accumbens, is of course where rewarwding brain stimulation was first demonstrated over half a century ago in rats (Olds & Milner, 1954). Only the current differs.

The US Democratic party is getting ready to reconsider it's rules and rulings. One option: instead of stripping Florida and Michigan of their delegates' votes at the party's convention in August, let's "deny them passes to the convention for friends and spouses, and put them in sorry hotels"..

Finally, monkey uses brain implant controlled robotic arm (BICRA?) to feed itself (ht: Brandon). Poor monkey.

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