Category: The Dish

Well, of course they are:

Just like any other art form, a bad cocktail leaves one shaken, while a great cocktail leaves one stirred.

A reader writes:

Your post on "blindsight" was interesting and reminded me of Dan Simons’ (formerly at Harvard, now at the Beckman Institute at Illinois) work on inattentional blindness (a more accurate term; blindsight typically refers to some neurobiological or physical damage to the visual system where the brain ‘sees’ something of which we are not consciously aware).

The Paris scene you posted is interesting but I think you and your viewers would agree that the car position and pants change of color are relatively minor and require vigilance and attention. Simons’ work showed how blatant the change could be and still be missed.

In two videos that you can see on his website (and the other link below too), people are moving in a circle and passing a basketball around. When experimental subjects are shown these videos, they are instructed to count the number of times one team passes the basketball. However in the middle of the videos either a man with an umbrella or a person in a gorilla suite walks through the scene. Interestingly, most people don’t notice this ‘dynamic event.’ Thus, when actively monitoring something, we may fail to notice or pay attention to something that otherwise would seem very obvious.

You can find an overview of Simon’s work here (with link to videos). And Simons’ Illinois website is here.

He gets it on tonight’s Larry King Live:

"Well, first of all, I think we ought to recognize that this is a very traumatic time for him and his family. And whatever happens or doesn’t, most of his political career was behind him. So whatever your party, we should be hoping that he and his family can work through this in a way that leaves them as whole as possible.

I think that that is more important than the politics of this. The politics of this will have to be resolved by him and the Republicans in the Senate."

Stockholm, Sweden, 9 pm.

He has some, it seems. It remains the case that Craig stands accused of obscure code in a bathroom stall. No one is saying he exposed himself; no one is saying he spoke a word; no other person apart from a cop is involved. Levin has a point. David Bernstein has one too:

OK, so he was caught soliciting sex in a public restroom. Not so good. But compare that with behavior by other Senators that is not leading to any resignations: (1) Violating their oath to uphold the Constitution, by voting for legislation they believe to be unconstitutional, but arguing that they will let the courts sort it out. (2) Voting to delegate massive legislative power to the executive branch, so they can claim credit for the feel-good nature of vague but popular legislation, while blaming the executive for its actual implementation.

(3) Voting for legislation that neither they nor any of their staff have read in its entirety, if at all.

(4) Providing costly earmarks in legislation to campaign contributors and local interests (in violation of Congress’s constitutional duty to tax and spend only for the "general welfare").

(5) Accepting various forms of low-level graft that fly under the ethics radar, such as use of campaign donors’ vacation homes and airplanes, family vacations disguised as fact-finding trips, spouses employed at inflated salaries by friendly interest groups, etc.

(6) General demagoguery, e.g., Democratic members anytime Medicare or Social Security reform comes up, and Republican members on federalizing criminal law, the War on Terror, flagburning, etc.

I hear rumors of more outings to come. There really is a strange convergence here of the gay far-left and the anti-gay far-right. When left-wing activists are egging on cops engaged in anti-gay stings, you can see the ironies. But the Republicans deserve little pity, I’m afraid. The only answer is for the GOP to get real about the question of homosexual orientation, and get past it. If Republicans simply agreed to civil unions, and let gays serve in the military, this whole nightmare would pass. Why can’t they grow up like the British Tories on this question? You can win elections on more than bigotry, you know.

And to think some have given up habits.

A fascinating piece about how our eyes and our brains actually see things – and changes in things – but then "forget" them. No members of the Gonzales Justice Department were injured in the experiments.

His cover is blown in a journalistic war in Philly.

It will soon have a museum: le musee du fumeur. It feels like something died, doesn’t it?

What would he have thought?