Jim Baen 1943-2006

Per David Drakes newsletter...(quoted)

'My friend Jim Baen passed away peacefully and with dignity at 5 pm yesterday, June 28, 2006.
Dave Drake'

Well, it was always on the cards, but you know, I was hoping for a miracle. Not expecting, but hoping. Drat. How come I got one and he didn't? If there is an Almighty, I'm going to have some serious words to Him about His allocation of miracles, I don't think He does a very fair job of it at all.

Bye Jim. Thanks for the books.

Too Old To Play

2old2play A website for gamers over 25. Which I admit to being.

Human and Robotic Space Exploration

That appears to be the ideal. A combination of both.

From the Royal Astronomical Society :

After 9 months of expert consultation and gathering of evidence from many sources, the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) Commission assigned to investigate “The Scientific Case for Human Space Flight” has presented its final report to the Society’s Council.

The three independent Commissioners conclude by recommending that the British Government re-evaluates its long-standing opposition to involvement in human space exploration.

In summarising their findings, the Commissioners state: “We find that profound scientific questions relating to the history of the solar system and the existence of life beyond Earth can best – perhaps only - be achieved by human exploration on the Moon or Mars, supported by appropriate automated systems.
...
Professor Frank Close, Chair of the Commission, said, “We commenced this study without preconceived views and with no formal connection to planetary exploration. Our personal backgrounds made us lean towards an initial scepticism on the scientific value of human involvement in such research.

“However, while fully recognising the technical challenge and the need for substantial investment, we have, nevertheless, been persuaded by the evidence presented to us that the direct involvement of humans in situ is essential if we are to pursue science of profound interest to humankind that can only be undertaken on the Moon and Mars. Autonomous robots alone will be unable to realise those scientific goals in the foreseeable future.”

Read on, and you'll see they come to the conclusion that once you have a permanent base going, then you can do a lot more.

But quick there'n'back'again trips won't hack it. We need a Moonbase, and a colony at least as permanent as the scientific research bases in Antarctica.

Hat Tip : Cumudgeon's Corner

A Recommendation

I've been keeping an eye on "consumer reports" from graduates of my selected surgeon, Dr Suporn. Here's a recent one:

I don't often post here but thought I would, especially for the
benefit of those still trying to decide on SRS surgeons. I had my
SRS with Dr Suporn on July 1 last year and will be celebrating my
anniversary with a bottle of beautiful Australian Shiraz.

More to the point. I had my first ever intimate encounter with a
man yesterday, in a very prolonged, steamy session in bed. He told
me I had a beautiful pussy after the longest, most fantastic 69er
imaginable. He drove me absolutely crazy with his tongue and I have
to say that sex is far, far better as a girl.

This man has no idea I am anything other than a natal female.

So there you go girls. Dr S is the man as far as I'm concerned.

Goodness.

I am definitely too young and innocent for this kind of thing!

Trouble is... I'm not joking. Oh well, we'll have to see what transpires.

Superman

The Abridged version. With Bunnies.

Hat Tip: Reader Scotty McGibbon

Another Part of the Puzzle

I have to think of it that way. Objectively. With detachment.

I can't blog about all of the things I've seen and heard since starting transition. Some are far too private, some are far too heartbreaking, and some are too fantastic to be believed, even though there's enough evidence to prove them beyond any reasonable doubt.

In my day-to-day existence, I've received nothing but support. But in my battles with bureaucracy and the law, the situation has been decidedly mixed. Too many people don't know we exist, too many people know that people like me can't exist, for if we did, their cosy little worldview would be shattered.

Another fragment, from deep down the rabbit-hole :

There are studies that show that long term abuse causes changes in the 2nd primitive brain, which includes the hippocampus and the hypothalamus. These studies includes MRI data on the brains of sexually abused women, and studies on brains of those who have PTSD, and show amongst other things that the hippocampus atrophies due to the chemical changes in the brain caused by ongoing stress. There are also studies (Chung) that show that the hypothalamus, which is the region which is believed reponsible for sexual orientation and gender identity, isnt fully formed until we are in our twenties. All which points to the fact that those who state that there is no evidence for abuse causing GID, are in fact incorrect.

The extent of the damage from abuse depends on a number of factors, including the number of childhood developmental stages through which the abuse continues on, and the closeness of the family relationships between the perpetrator and the victim. In this repect the paper by Perry about "states becoming traits" is important to show that abuse causes behavioural changes in a person that become hardwired in the brain over time. Milton Diamond and Ken Zucker and Green have all published papers that describe cases where abuse preceeded GID, or describe the lack of formation of a male gender identity as a consequence of abuse. The US Army has also published information that indicates that abuse affects gender identity.

So its entirely possible that abuse can cause brain changes which mimic the same brain differences found in those transsexuals who "were born like that".
Although the brain is somewhat malleable, there is little to no evidence that the brain will change its structure back to its original state after abuse. That is, there are long term behavoural consequences arising from abuse which seem to become hardwired in. I think I probably fall into that category, and I'm obviously feminine enough in my psychological makeup to succeed at a gender change.

[A national health body] has, until recently, accepted that the abuse caused my GID, on the basis of reports from 5 different psychiatrists and two clinical psychologists, that that was so (on the basis of being regularly raped for five years) - but a third certain [nation] psychiatrist said that she didnt believe in "radical mutiliating surgery" and therefore couldn't support my request for surgery and to procrastinate some more. [The National Health Authority] then sought more advice from a certain foreign transsexual psychiatrist who wrote to them and said that she didnt believe that there was any evidence for abuse being a cause of GID - and on that basis they are now sticking their heels in (despite the 900 page file of information that includes that above case studies and research information) and saying that they don't have enough information on which to make a decision, and are therefore turning me down - we are about to argue that through a legal review, but I'm getting tired of fighting for this one ... its gone on for too many years now.

I've already largely been through [an SRS surgeon's] process, and [the surgeon] has already agreed quite a long time ago that I am a candidate for SRS, and [another medical professional] (who is the psych who vets people for him) was one of those who wrote my referral letters.

I may now try a different pool of money, because I already have my two letters of referral, and I have become aware that there is yet a third possible funding route.
BUT I would have liked to have won this one, because there are a whole group of girls out there who have had a history similar to mine, and I am the one who has the capacity for arguing the case! ([The National Health Authority] apparently has five of us on their list, which is why they are resisting the precedent so strongly~!)

Well, that might explain why GID tends to get worse over time. An initial GID condition, left untreated, leads to horrible stress (trust me on that). This might well exacerbate the initial condition, via this mechanism.

And I won't think of the women who suffered repeated rape when young, and I won't think of the courageous and years-long struggle with an inhuman bureaucracy that this woman has waged. I will remain as coldly clinical as she herself is.

I will not get upset or angry at Health Authorities whose resistance to funding treatment is directly proportional to the number of people requiring it. Especially conditions where the patient often dies without treatment, and so isn't a problem any more. Problems that are, in the end, just too embarressing for victims of them to be allowed to exist.

OK, I will get angry, and upset, but in addition to getting mad, I'll do what I can to change things for the better. And try to agitate for more study of the syndrome too, so we know more about it, this is not just important from a humanitarian and medical viewpoint, it's important to the whole scientific understanding of how our minds work, and the nature of consciousness, self-awareness, and identity.

Welcome to the world down the Rabbit-Hole.

It Starts with a Kiss

Or rather, Kissopressin.

From the Chicago Tribune's Pulitzer-Prize winning Science writer, Ronald Kotulak:

Scientists are still a long way from figuring out what women and men really want, but they are getting a lot closer to understanding what makes their brains so different.

That women and men think differently has little to do with whether they are handed dolls or trucks to play with as infants. After all, when infant monkeys are given a choice of human toys, females prefer dolls and males go after cars and trucks.

The differences, researchers are beginning to discover, appear to have a lot more to do with how powerful hormones wire the female and male brain during early development and later in life.

Among the newest findings: A previously unknown hormone appears to launch puberty's sexual and mental transformation; growth hormone is made in the brain's memory center at rates up to twice as high in females as in males; and the brain's hot button for emotions, the amygdala, is wired to different parts of the brain in women and men.

Now they tell me...

Scientists hope the findings may help explain such mysteries as why females are often more verbal, more socially empathetic, more nurturing and more susceptible to depression, while males tend to be more aggressive, more outdoorsy, more focused on things than people and more vulnerable to alcohol and drug addiction.

And possibly why Transsexual women have a higher profile than Transsexual men. They make more of a fuss about it, they are more subject to the depressive effects of corticoneural and hormonal gender mismatch, their brains are wired up that way. *Sigh*

"Males and females look different, we act different, so of course our brains are different," said Rutgers University psychologist Tracey Shors, who is studying the effects of growth hormone on the brain. "Sex hormones along with stress and growth hormones change the brain's anatomy, and in that way you change behavior, your ability to think and learn."

Yet still we have reputable medical professionals insisting that gender is completely mutable and fluid, depending on upbringing and genital configuration. Often a belief bolstered by junk science, long since discredited, if they bothered to keep abreast of the literature.
It is still the usual practice to surgically assign the most surgically convenient genital configuration to the intersexed newborn. Usually they get it right. Usually. Being Transsexual sucks (trust me on this one), but knowing you've been surgically made that way must suck far worse.

Sex differences begin with the X and Y sex chromosomes a person is born with. But scientists now believe that whether the brain and nervous system are wired as female or male depends a lot on the early influence of estrogen, the so-called female hormone, or testosterone, the male hormone.

The brain's sexual identity is first established when those hormones are briefly released before and shortly after birth, which may influence a child's preference for dolls or trucks.

"There's a peak of testosterone in males at birth that's very important for future sexual behavior," said Dr. Sophie Messager of Paradigm Therapeutics in Cambridge, England. "If you block that, the male rats behave like females for the rest of their life."

The sex hormones then lie dormant until they get turned on again in puberty to make the body ready for reproduction.

That is where a recently discovered hormone called kisspeptin comes in. Created in the brain, it unleashes a cascade of hormones that race down to the gonads--ovaries in females and testes in males.

There they stimulate the production of estrogen or testosterone, starting the physical transformations of puberty. Messager proved in animals that blocking kisspeptin prevented those changes from happening.

But there is another target for this activity: the brain. The hormonal downrush kicked off by kisspeptin comes full circle when estrogen and testosterone travel back to the brain, imprinting neural circuits with female and male characteristics, Messager said.

Animal studies show that genetic females will behave like males if their estrogen is blocked and replaced by testosterone. Genetic males, in turn, act like females if their testosterone is knocked out.

Another piece of the puzzle. Wonder how many others there are still to find?

Until kisspeptin was discovered, scientists had generally accepted the idea that sex differences were centered in the hypothalamus, a small organ on the underside of the brain. It was thought that the hypothalamus originated the flow of hormones that start puberty, determine male and female physical characteristics and orchestrate mating behavior.

"The bias of mainstream neuroscience for the last 25 years has been, `OK, sure there's some sex differences way down deep in the brain in this little structure called the hypothalamus, but otherwise the brains of men and women were pretty much the same,'" said Larry Cahill, a neurobiologist at the University of California, Irvine.

"That was wrong, as wrong as could be," said Cahill, who is using imaging technology to show how male and female brains are wired for emotions. "Sex matters a lot in how the brain works and we neuroscientists have to change our tune."

Good Scientists do that. They look at facts, come up with the best hypotheses they can, test them, refine them, and are quite prepared to junk them if better data comes along. Now if only the Law and Religion was the same... and there are an awful lot of not very good "Scientists" who don't let the facts get in the way of their theories.
We know that the differences in the BSTc layers of the Hypothalamus - that Transsexual women have female patterns there - weren't causative, merely symptomatic. This is because transsexualism manifests long before puberty, and it's only at puberty that the differences start. But now we have hard data confirming what some of us suspected all along : it's not just in the hypothalamus, it's in other structures too, and that hormones other than testosterone and estrogen, and their various metabolites, had to play a part.

One example lies in the amygdala, the organ that interprets the emotional content of an experience, affecting what people remember.

Located deep in the brain on both sides, the amygdala amplifies memories that are pleasant or frightening. It tells the hippocampus, where memories are put together to be stored, which memories need to be most tightly locked in place. It will never let you forget what you were doing when you won the lottery or where you were on Sept. 11.

Cahill and his colleagues found that the amygdala works differently in men and women, which may help explain why women are more likely to develop mood disorders such as depression and men are more prone to alcoholism and drug abuse.

n one experiment, Cahill showed that when men and women watched the same emotional movie, the right side of the amygdala was more active in men, and the left amygdala was more active in women. "They're using very different brain processes to create enhanced memories," he said.

The right amygdala is more in tune to the outside environment, communicating with the visual cortex, which controls vision, and the striatum, which coordinates motor actions. These processes are thought to be key to spatial orientation--knowing how to negotiate your surroundings, as in hunting.

The left amygdala is concentrated more on the inner environment of the body, connecting with the insular cortex, which produces emotionally relevant content from sensory experiences, and the hypothalamus' regulation of the body's metabolic and autonomic activities. Scientists speculate that this is important for the female capacity for nurturing.

It's starting to fit - this is in accordance with the various pieces of data we're getting from dynamic MRI scans now. We still have more gap than picture, but we're getting there, slowly.

A second study by Cahill involved the beta blocker propranolol, a drug used to treat high blood pressure that also has been found to greatly reduce the activity of the amygdala. Because it subdues emotional arousal propranolol is being studied as a way to reduce the impact of post-traumatic stress disorder.

In Cahill's experiment, normal subjects were given propranolol before seeing an emotionally disturbing movie about a boy run over by a car. Cahill found that women on the drug were able to remember the central idea of the story, such as that the boy was with his mother, but fewer of the details. Men, on the other hand, remembered more details, like the soccer ball the boy was holding, but less of the essence of the story.

"The drug impaired memory for the details of the emotional story in women but not men, and it impaired memory for the gist of the story in men but not women," Cahill said.

One possible explanation for why women tend to be less aggressive than men is that they may be better able to filter out overly arousing feelings. The front part of the brain, which controls emotions, is bigger in women than in men when compared with the size of the amygdala, where experiences get their emotional charge.

Again, that fits with the latest data about female response to erotic imagery, which I blogged about recently.

That difference may be why women are less prone than men to fly off the handle, Cahill said.

Scientists also have made new discoveries about growth hormone, whose chief job was thought to be to build the body. But researchers have found the hormone is produced not only in the pituitary gland but also in the brain, in the hippocampus.

That suggests the hormone plays a previously unsuspected role in learning and emotions.

Oh wonderful. Yet more variables, more to consider.
Still, as someone who's "endocrinally odd", it's nice to know that we're starting to get theory which would explain people like me. Those whose somatic sex partially changes for no apparent reason, and who are always (as far as we know) Transsexual.

Said Shors: "Sex hormones, like estrogen, have a tremendous effect on the growth and architecture of the brain."

No Sh1t Sherlock.

Sorry, it's sometimes frustrating, explaining the same thing over and over again to people who don't believe that you exist. Trying to get laws changed to inject some sanity into the situation. Trying to remove the stigma, and the danger.

Dealing with situations like this (from the trans-surgery support group):

The only way to obtain funding for GRS here in NZ is to apply for that funding from the Special High Cost Treatment Pool, which, as I already mentioned, is at best a lottery and at worst a farce. There is only one surgeon here who performs GRS, (EPW Walker) and he only does the colon transplant method. There is, therefore, no choice of surgeon or method and it is at Walker's whim that one gets GRS at all. He plays God, in selecting the three subjects for the current 2 year GRS list. (ie. 3 ops. in 2 years ie.1.5 surgeries per year ...M 2 F).

They don't even realise that FtoM's exist. Or if they do, they don't care.

Never mind, that's why I blog about it. To make sure they can't say they didn't know.

Canons to the Right of Them

Pachelbel's Canon, one of my favourite pieces of music.

Here's Two similar versions, both orchestrated for guitar.

Both of them recorded by a young guy in a brimmed cap, in a bedroom, rather than a recording studio, and made available for anyone in the world with Internet access to view, and listen to.

The Internet may or may not be responsible for an explosive outburst of human creativity, but it's certainly given both the Talented and the Talentless a wordlwide audience.

Both of these versions qualify as the former.

Hat Tip : Random Acts of Reality

June Photo

An updated photo of my favourite subject, taken two days ago with my new laptop's built-in webcam.

Note the stylish FedSat Mission Team T-shirt, the fashionably tousseled hair, the whiteboard with state-machine diagrams in the left background, and the great big cheesy grin. For the first time in my life, I actually enjoy looking in mirrors, I no longer avoid them. Even though the transitional process is nowhere near complete, or even halfway.

I think the chin needs work though. If I ever have the money - and no, pole-dancing, like failure, is NOT an option.

An Education

Being in the situation I'm in has been most mind-expanding.

Even the research I've done regarding which surgeon to go to has had some unusual and unexpected results. I really do feel that I'm Alice, fallen down the Rabbit Hole into another world, one that I never knew existed.

Facial Feminisation Surgery (FFS), Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS), Augmentation Mammoplasty (AM), Facial hair removal that alone can cost upwards of $40,000... all at a time when ones life is usually falling apart at the seams, financially and otherwise, that can cause people to do some very unconventional things to raise money.

The horrendous medical expenses, the usual divorce and loss of assets, and the fact that medical insurance almost always excludes anything to do with sex reassignment all have some interesting consequences. As does the fact that TS people tend to see some things in a different light and often have little respect left for the conventional concept of personal dignity.

Here's a sample of what I mean,

Three years ago I used to be a serious, rather introverted, 48 year old regional manager in an oh-so-very-conservative Swiss market research company, wearing a nice charcoal grey suit and subdued tie, visiting clients around Europe and the Middle East.

Now, I'm a somewhat less serious and totally extrovert, business woman working in exactly the same job in exactly the same company.
The only problem: a rather heavy debt after two ffs in 2003 and srs, am and a second divorce in 2004.

I therefore took up an additional, part time, job as a stripper in the town near where I live in France. I have to dance 20 minute sessions in a peep show, several times an evening, in a brightly lit small room surrounded by two way mirrors behind which are the clients. A striptease can only last so long therefore I have to use sex toys and it all gets fairly explicit and pornographic.

I diligently and professionally spread what Dr. Suporn so kindly gave me and grind my Chonburi organ against the mirror and writhe to the music in different poses. I am not advertised as a transsexual stripper in any way and the clients come to see a normal woman. My boss, who knows the score, tells me that not one single person has
complained or noticed anything untoward. Some even pay for two consecutive sessions.

This is living proof that what Dr. Suporn achieves will satisfy anyone, including spectators who spend 20 minutes getting an eyefull at close quarters...... Vive la France !

Ooh La La! Me, I think I'll just stick to my day job. Seriously.

As I've said though in the past, this has been most Educational. I fear though that I've still got a lot to learn.

Two Good Interviews

Transgender 101 and Is Transsexuality a Mental Disorder?. Both available through NECN Boston

A Hawking Double

From MSNBC :

The survival of the human race depends on its ability to find new homes elsewhere in the universe because there's an increasing risk that a disaster will destroy the Earth, world-renowned scientist Stephen Hawking said Tuesday.

The British astrophysicist told a news conference in Hong Kong that humans could have a permanent base on the moon in 20 years and a colony on Mars in the next 40 years.
...
He added that if humans can avoid killing themselves in the next 100 years, they should have space settlements that can continue without support from Earth.

"It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species," Hawking said. "Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of."

That seems pretty self-evident.
Consider the recent discovery of the crater in Antarctica :

Ralph von Frese and his colleagues at Ohio State University stated that the Wilkes Land crater is more than twice the size of the Chicxulub crater in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, which marks the impact that is thought to have killed off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

The meteorite that produced the Chicxulub crater is believed to have been six miles (9.6 km) wide whereas the Antarctic meteorite may have been up to 30 miles wide (48.3 km).

It is difficult for researchers to put rough bounds on the date of when the crater was formed however; the crater is cut by the rift which opened to form the Indian Ocean, which implies that it must be over 100 million years old.

A chunk of rock or ice that big would ruin your whole day. Not to mention drastically remodel the Biosphere.

And yet some people just don't get it :

In the face of myriad threats, Hawking's solution to the problem of human survival is fanciful but not particularly practical and not particularly human. The notion that we humans ought pack it up and head out for another planet is a solution that deserves little additional attention because it is not only a silly solution but it is a denigration of human life on earth.

While there may well be hospitable planetary systems around and about our own Milky Way galaxy, traveling to them at known speeds in space could easily require several human generations of travel time. We will only be able to hope that our great great grandchildren actually get to where they think they are going. Any round trip taking a decade or two quickly defeats the purpose unless our brave sojourners plan on never returning to those they leave behind, in this case the overwhelming majority of people, presumably left to die on an overheated earth.

That brings up the related problem of determining just who would have the dubious honor of departing earth in order to ensure the "survival of the species." Presumably, under capitalism's dominion, only the rich and powerful would have adequate resources and political clout to take flight. In spite of the unfairness of it all, Hawking's approach would eliminate a few of the rich and powerful who are, after all, most responsible for earth's sorry condition in the first place.

At the same time, limiting the human gene pool and the human idea pool to those few people on board a few space ships hardly seems like an approach to "survival of the species" unless we are not really too concerned about the quality of the species and the quality of human thought. By now, of course, some of the best ideas on earth have come from every nation on earth. It's a fact.

True, but he doesn't exactly offer an alternative.

The simple human truth is that we are, by and large, integral to the well-being of the earth and we ought be rejoicing in that fact. There is no where else to go worth going and no reason to go there ... if it were not for our collective behavior toward ourselves and the earth. So, instead, let's not think about capitalism's ding dong world that Hawking thinks we must leave rather than change.

I doubt that a thousand cubic kilmetres of nickel-iron coming in at 20km/sec would be affected by that though.

But this guy wasn't the only critic :

Unfortunately, the criticism of Hawking’s speech all seems to have come from the wrong direction, chastising him not for being pessimistic, but for not being pessimistic enough.

So the cosmologist Alan Guth upbraided Hawking for his lack of realism. Since we don’t have the means to evacuate the earth, said Guth, a giant underground bunker in the Antarctic would be a better bet for escaping disaster on Earth. I guess it all depends on what you mean by ‘realistic’.

Another line of criticism came from ‘GrrlScientist’, a blogger on the widely-read website, scienceblogs.com. She attacked Hawking for trying to avoid the consequences of human beings wrecking the Earth, and said we should put forward solutions for repairing our mess:

‘According to Hawking’s scenario, I envision humans as the rats of the universe; filthy, violent, rapacious, travelling from one planet to another just as rats hitchhiked on ships from one oceanic island to another, destroying everything until the last habitable island (planet) within reach has been ruined. Is that the sort of legacy that we, as a species, want to be known for? At least rats did not actively plan out their next conquest, as humans seem to be doing.’

The fact that by learning how to Terraform other planets, we may learn how to remediate past mistakes here (and vice-versa) seems not to have occured to her.

And here's the second Hawking encyclical, without comment :

World-renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking said Thursday that the late Pope John Paul II once told scientists they should not study the beginning of the universe because it was the work of God.

Hawking, author of the best-seller "A Brief History of Time," said John Paul made the comments at a cosmology conference at the Vatican. He did not say when the meeting was held.

Hawking quoted the pope as saying, "It's OK to study the universe and where it began. But we should not inquire into the beginning itself because that was the moment of creation and the work of God."

The scientist then joked that he was glad John Paul did not realize that he had presented a paper at the conference suggesting how the universe began.

Jim Baen

Jim Baen, the founder of Baen Books and its excellent Free Library had a stroke recently.

I was hoping for some good news, but alas, the it's anything but good.

The doctors describe it as a massive bilateral stroke in the thalamus. Jim has not regained consciousness and his condition has become severe. He is resting comfortably now, and appears to be in no pain; however the doctors' prognosis is grave.

If anyone sees a passing miracle, please snag it and send it to Jim and his Family.

The Button

Courtesy of Steve Jackson's Illuminated site of the week,



Or just go to this Shockwave Flash page

A Point of Etiquette

From the "Dear Abby" column of the Arizona Republic :

Jun. 16, 2006 12:00 AM

Dear Abby: I recently met a gorgeous woman I'll call "Giselle." After we had dated for a couple of months and became physically involved, she told me she had had gender reassignment surgery and used to be a man. I was, to say the least, shocked and deeply disturbed.

I did not punch out Giselle as I would have liked to, which brings me to my question. What is the etiquette regarding physically confronting someone like that? Is it the same as hitting a girl? We're roughly the same size.

- Distressed in Virginia

Dear Distressed: Because Giselle is now a female, it would, indeed, have been the same as hitting a girl, and I'm glad you restrained yourself. I have a feeling that she was probably more hurt that you stopped seeing her than any physical blow you might have inflicted. As to the "etiquette" regarding hitting her: If you hit someone of either gender, it's assault and battery or worse, and it's a crime that can land you in jail.

I'm thankful at that reply. I wish I could say that the letter was that unusual though. Here's a comparison from recent history:

Jun. 16, 1966 12:00 AM

Dear Abby: I recently met a gorgeous woman I'll call "Giselle." After we had dated for a couple of months and became physically involved, she told me she was passing for White. I was, to say the least, shocked and deeply disturbed.

I did not punch out Giselle as I would have liked to, which brings me to my question. What is the etiquette regarding physically confronting half-breeds like that? Is it the same as hitting a white girl? We're roughly the same size.

- Distressed in Virginia

No, 1966 is too late. 1956 or 1946, more like it.

Transsexual - the New Black.

Brains, Hormones, and Erotica

Some of the latest news in the "Undiscovered Country", our own neurology.

From EMaxHealth :

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis measured brainwave activity of 264 women as they viewed a series of 55 color slides that contained various scenes from water skiers to snarling dogs to partially-clad couples in sensual poses.
...
As subjects looked at the slides, electrodes on their scalps measured changes in the brain's electrical activity called event-related potentials (ERPs). The researchers learned that regardless of a picture's content, the brain acts very quickly to classify the visual image. The ERPs begin firing in the brain's cortex long before a person is conscious of whether they are seeing a picture that is pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.

But when the picture is erotic, ERPs begin firing within 160 milliseconds, about 20 percent faster than occurred with any of the other pictures. Soon after, the ERPs begin to diverge, with processing taking place in different brain structures for erotic pictures than those that process the other images.
...
A great deal of past research has suggested that men are more visual creatures than women and get more aroused by erotic images than women. Anokhin says the fact that the women's brains in this study exhibited such a quick response to erotic pictures suggests that, perhaps for evolutionary reasons, our brains are programmed to preferentially respond to erotic material.

"Usually men subjectively rate erotic material much higher than women," he says. "So based on those data we would expect lower responses in women, but that was not the case. Women have responses as strong as those seen in men."

Because the electroencephalogram (EEG) technology cannot pinpoint specific brain structures involved in this visual processing, Anokhin says it's not clear exactly which circuits are reacting to these visual scenes. Recent studies in primates recorded the electrical activity of single neural cells within the brain and have shown that the frontal cortex contains neurons that can discriminate between different categories of visual objects such as dogs versus cats. Whether or not the human prefrontal cortex contains special neurons that are "tuned" for sex remains a subject for future studies.

So the well-established difference in the way men and women perceive erotica appears to be in the "back-end" processing. The initial perception mechanisms appear to be the same.

From ScienceCentral :

Becoming a father tends to change a man's outlook, but now scientists are showing it might also change his brain. This ScienCentral News video explains that new research in father mice reveals how time spent with their young benefits the brain.
...
Lambert's research on mother rats has provided mounting evidence that motherhood benefits the brain. She found that mom rats do better on learning and memory tests than non-moms, and are also bolder, suggesting that they are protected against the damaging effects of stress.

Lambert linked these changes to the flood of hormones that accompany pregnancy and lactation, but as she wrote in Scientific American magazine, even non-mom rats given "foster" pups showed changes in these areas. Lambert got interested in the possibility that the same could be true for rodent dads. Her most recent experiments show that dads actually do outperform bachelors of the same species at locating food and show less stress in new situations, such as when encountering unfamiliar objects.
...
They looked for changes in two hormones known to be involved in nurturing and social behaviors: oxytocin, often nicknamed the "cuddle hormone," which is important in maternal bonding, and vasopressin, which is thought to be important in social behaviors in males.

Vasopressin is also hypothesised as being implicated in the 50% of male-to-female transsexuals whose sexual orientation changes 6 months after testicular removal or dysfunction.

From HighBeam.com :

Field biologists have noted that the male prairie vole pairs off with a single female, probably for life. Neuroscientists have long wondered what keeps these males content with one mate while their close cousins, the montane voles, exhibit a more, shall we say, promiscuous dating style. While the stay-at-home prairie voles cuddle in their burrows, montane males mate indistriminately with one female after another.

This vast difference in lifestyle may come down to a single brain hormone, vasopressin, which in the human body is more commonly associated with regulation of water content. Research indicates that vasopressin induces the male prairie vole to stay with and protect his mate.

At the same time, vasopressin may trigger another characteristic behavior--that of the father prairie vole caring for his pups, another group of investigators finds.
...
Both vasopressin and oxytocin consist of short chains of amino acids. In their role as traditional mammalian hormones, they are secreted by the peasized pituitary gland and can take miniutes to exert their effects. Vasopressin stimulates absorption of water by the kidneys and thus decreases urine flow. Oxytocin plays a role in many reproductive functions, such as the contractioN of the uterus during labor.

However, these chemicals are also synthesized by specialized nerve cells in the hypothalamus and other parts of the brain. In their role as brain hormones, they transmit messages between nerve cells in the brain, a process that takes only a fraction of a second. As fast-acting chemical messengers, oxytocin and vasopressin must each approach and dock with its own proteiN receptor on a target nerve cell. Once the docking is complete, each chemical triggers a cellular response.
...
There's a lot of uncertainty about the implications of these findings. De Vries speculates that vasopressin may act as a master switch in the brain. Researchers know that vasopressin released by the pituitary finetunes the body's water content and blood pressure. And recent work by Insel, De Vries, and others suggests that prairie voles, and perhaps other mammals, have co-opted this brain hormone to govern a host of complex behaviors.
...
"Making the jump from vole to human is dangerous at best," Winslow says, noting that voles are virtually slaves to their brain chemistry. Humans, on the other hand, experience environmental and cultural influences that appear to play a large role in their sexual and parenting behaviors.

And finally, from Oxytocin.org :

Women whose oxytocin levels rose in response to massage and remembering a positive relationship reported having little difficulty setting appropriate boundaries, being alone, and trying too hard to please others. Women whose oxytocin levels fell in response to remembering a negative emotional relationship reported greater problems with experiencing anxiety in close relationships.

"It seems that having this hormone "available" during positive experiences, and not being depleted of it during negative experiences, is associated with well-being in relationships," said Turner.

In addition, women who were currently involved in a committed relationship experienced greater oxytocin increases in response to positive emotions than single women. The researchers speculate that a close, regular relationship may influence the responsiveness of the hormone, said Turner.

These preliminary findings bring up some intriguing questions, said Teresa McGuinness, MD, PhD, UCSF clinical psychiatry faculty member and co-author of the paper. Because oxytocin is released in men and women during sexual orgasm, it may be involved in adult bonding, said Turner. There is also speculation that in addition to facilitating lactation and the birthing process, the hormone facilitates the emotional bond between mother and child.

"Evolutionarily speaking, it makes sense that during pregnancy and the postpartum, both a woman's body and her mind would be stimulated to nurture her child," said Turner.

Oxytocin may also play a role in the higher levels of depression and interpersonal stress seen in women, said Turner. According to most psychiatrists, women experience depression twice as often as men and tend to be more affected by relationship difficulties. Turner and her colleagues hope that their work on oxytocin will guide future research on the psychiatric conditions of men and women.

"Our results provide the groundwork for further studies looking at the way hormones may be affecting human attachment," said Turner. "We know that oxytocin is one of the hormones that can facilitate bonding in other animals, but this is the first step in exploring whether it plays a role in the emotional behavior of humans."

If you think there's an awful lot about the way that the brain works, and the effect of these lesser-known hormones, that we haven't got a clue about... then you're right.

That's not especially comforting for someone who is aware that those levels are changing even as they write a blog entry, and that their mind is being affected by that.

Oh well, it's not as if I can actually do anything about it. Accept, roll with the punches, and try to record subjective and difficult to measure data as best I can. And try not to worry about it too much. Changes can just as easily be for the better as the worse, and often they're neither, they're just changes. We, unlike voles, are not slaves to our hormones, merely strongly influenced by them.

Though try telling that to someone whose partner has PMT.... it's always easier to observe from the outside, rather than live through the experience. Well, easier from a Scientific viewpoint, anyway.

Now where's that chocolate?

A Heart of Stone

One must have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell by Dickens without laughing.
- Oscar Wilde

Courtesy of Transetterestrial Musings, this tearjerking tale from the Daily Kos :

I don't think I've ever seen such a look of misery and dejection on the face of my daughter as I just did a moment ago.

I sat down with her on the sofa and (as calmly as I could) tried to explain to her why the Senate Republicans want to drain the treasury in order to give every American a $100 check.

I tried to keep my voice steady, but it became increasingly difficult - the rage and feelings of helplessnes were just too much. I think my daughter could tell something was wrong. I found myself at such a loss for words - nothing made any sense; nothing makes sense anymore. I finally had to admit, "Honey, I just don't know - I don't know what's going on in this country anymore..."

When I finished her lower lip started to tremble and her eyes began to fill with tears, "Daddy" she said, "why are the Republicans doing this to the country?" Well, that was it for me: I finally fell apart. She just fell into my arms and we both began sobbing for several minutes.

For once she had to comfort me and get me back on my feet. Sometimes I just think it's too much, but seeing the strength in my young daughter's voice helped me to get through.

So good he had to do it again :

I don't think I've ever seen such a look of misery and dejection on the face of my daughter as I just did a moment ago. She just couldn't understand why the President would be spying on everyone. "Even my Grandma?" she asked pitifully.

I sat down with her on the sofa and (as calmly as I could) tried to explain to her why the President has ordered a group of spies to collect information on every American. "And yes honey, even Grandma", I was forced to say.

I tried to keep my voice steady, but it became increasingly difficult - the rage and feelings of helplessnes were just too much. I think my daughter could tell something was wrong. I found myself at such a loss for words - nothing made any sense; nothing makes sense anymore. I finally had to admit, "Honey, I just don't know - I don't know what's going on in this country anymore..."

When I finished her lower lip started to tremble and her eyes began to fill with tears, "Daddy" she said, "why are the Republicans doing this to the country?" Well, that was it for me: I finally fell apart. She just fell into my arms and we both began sobbing for several minutes.

For once she had to comfort me and get me back on my feet. Sometimes I just think it's too much, but seeing the strength in my young daughter's voice helped me to get through.

And again

I don't think I've ever seen such a look of misery and dejection on the face of my daughter as I just did a moment ago. She just couldn't understand why the President would be going to Iraq when so many things are wrong in this country. "Doesn’t Mr. Bush care about us anymore?" she asked pitifully.

I sat down with her on the sofa and (as calmly as I could) tried to explain to her why the President seems to be abandoning his country. "Honey, I think his boss, Mr. Rove, sent Mr. Bush out of the country in order to keep himself out of the newspapers. You see, he wasn’t sure if he was going to be arrested today or not, and so he planned Mr. Bush’s trip ahead of time just in case...”

I tried to keep my voice steady, but it became increasingly difficult - the rage and feelings of helplessness were just too much. I think my daughter could tell something was wrong. I found myself at such a loss for words - nothing made any sense; nothing makes sense anymore. I finally had to admit, "Honey, I just don't know - I don't know what's going on in this country anymore..."

When I finished her lower lip started to tremble and her eyes began to fill with tears, "Daddy" she said, "why are the Republicans doing this to the country?" Well, that was it for me: I finally fell apart. She just fell into my arms and we both began sobbing for several minutes.

For once she had to comfort me and get me back on my feet. Sometimes I just think it's too much, but seeing the strength in my young daughter's voice helped me to get through.

Here's a template, so you too can write your own Little Nell polemic:

I don't think I've ever seen such a look of misery and dejection on the face of my daughter as I just did a moment ago.

<Optional : insert the words "She just couldn't understand why" followed by a tragic tale of Republican Thuggery Ineptitude and Cupidity, then a childishly innocent question about this terrible act, and finish off with the words "she asked pitifully.". Lay the bathos on with a Trowel.>

I sat down with her on the sofa and (as calmly as I could) tried to explain to her

<Insert tale of Republican Tyranny here, including devastating effects on Grandma, Kittens and little Puppies>

I tried to keep my voice steady, but it became increasingly difficult - the rage and feelings of helplessness were just too much. I think my daughter could tell something was wrong. I found myself at such a loss for words - nothing made any sense; nothing makes sense anymore. I finally had to admit, "Honey, I just don't know - I don't know what's going on in this country anymore..."

When I finished her lower lip started to tremble and her eyes began to fill with tears, "Daddy" she said, "why are the Republicans doing this to the country?" Well, that was it for me: I finally fell apart. She just fell into my arms and we both began sobbing for several minutes.

For once she had to comfort me and get me back on my feet. Sometimes I just think it's too much, but seeing the strength in my young daughter's voice helped me to get through.

Go For It. E-mail me suggestions, and the best ones will get posted.

The Unspeakable Vault of Doom

Cthulhu Through The Ages

A Legal Farce in Three Acts

Or rather, two letters, an act, and a disallowance.

Act One, Scene 1 :

A letter from the attorney-general, Phillip Ruddock, which read in part as follows :

As you have stated in your letter, the legislation in the States and Territories which provides for a change in the birth registration for appropriate individuals who have changed their gender can only be used by people who are unmarried. Registration of births is a matter for the States and Territories and it is not appropriate for me to comment on their legislation. You may wish to raise your concerns with the ACT Attorney-General, Mr Jon Stanhope MLA.

Act One, Scene 2:

A letter to Andrew Barr, Chief of Staff, John Hargreaves MLA which read, in part:

To remind you of the relevant section of the ACT Births, Deaths and
Marriages Registration Act 1997 : A1997-112

24 Application to alter register to record change of sex
(1) A person may apply to the registrar-general for
alteration of the record of the person's sex in the registration of the
person's birth if-
(a) the person is at least 18 years old; and
(b) the person's birth is registered in the ACT; and
(c) the person has undergone sexual reassignment surgery; and
(d) the person is not married.
...
In view of this clarifying letter, and the inconsistency, I urge that as a matter of urgency, ACT Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1997 Part 4, Section 24, 1 (d) be repealed in its entirety.

Act Two :

Schedule 1 of the ACT Civil Unions Act 2006 which reads in part as follows:

Part 1.4 Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1997
...
[1.16] Section 24 (1) (d)
omit

Act Three :

This latest news :

The Governor-General, Major General Michael Jeffery, has agreed to disallow the ACT's civil union laws.
...
Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says in a meeting of the executive council this morning, the Governor-General agreed to overturn the law.
...
The Governor-General had heard a request from the ACT Legislative Assembly Speaker, Wayne Berry, that the laws be upheld.

In an address at Government House, Mr Berry told General Jeffery that the Civil Unions Act was within the ACT Government's law-making powers.

"The Federal Government has decided for partisan political reasons to intervene on a law which removes discrimination," he said.

But Mr Ruddock says the Federal Government respects the rights of the ACT to make laws, as long as they do not exceed the Territory's powers.

"We have no quarrel with the Territory's legislating in those areas in which it has responsibility, and we accept the decisions that they make supported by their electorate," he said.

"Except when they provocatively and deliberately seek to intrude into areas in which they have no responsibility."

The disallowance of the whole, rather than part, of the Act speaks for itself. "Colateral Damage" is not a term that should be applicable in lawmaking, and especially not in disallowance.

Well, that was quick

Updating a previous post, from the ABC :

The Governor-General, Major General Michael Jeffery, has agreed to disallow the ACT's civil union laws.

The Federal Government objected to the law, which recognises gay and lesbian relationships, saying it was at odds with the Marriage Act.

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says in a meeting of the executive council this morning, the Governor-General agreed to overturn the law.

The move is effective from today, and Mr Ruddock says it will prevent the ACT Government's attempt to speed up the approval of civil unions.

"In effect the ploy of bringing forward the date of operation and endeavouring to provide for registration of civil celebrants has failed," he said.

The Governor-General had heard a request from the ACT Legislative Assembly Speaker, Wayne Berry, that the laws be upheld.

In an address at Government House, Mr Berry told General Jeffery that the Civil Unions Act was within the ACT Government's law-making powers.

"The Federal Government has decided for partisan political reasons to intervene on a law which removes discrimination," he said.

But Mr Ruddock says the Federal Government respects the rights of the ACT to make laws, as long as they do not exceed the Territory's powers.

"We have no quarrel with the Territory's legislating in those areas in which it has responsibility, and we accept the decisions that they make supported by their electorate," he said.

"Except when they provocatively and deliberately seek to intrude into areas in which they have no responsibility."

Normal Service Will Be Resumed As Soon As Possible

Probably Tuesday. I'm attending an SF Con since Friday you see, and when I get home, I've been too wrecked to blog.

The Dead Dog Party on Monday will probably wipe me out too.

Re Kevin In Perspective

From what I think is the definitive article about Transsexualism and the Law, in Australia and to a lesser extent the rest of the world : RE KEVIN IN PERSPECTIVE :

As people with transsexualism have been increasingly ‘reading themselves aloud’ over the past decade, and as transsexualism has increasingly been recognised in Australia and elsewhere as a biologically derived intersexual condition with an established diagnosis and treatment regime, the demands have intensified for the full recognition of the fundamental human rights of people who experience transsexualism such as the right:

• to be diagnosed as experiencing transsexualism and treated without being medically classified as suffering a mental illness or disorder such as Gender Dysphoria and Gender Identity Disorder;

• to be accorded equality of legal rights with others who experience intersexual conditions in respect of access to medical treatment and the re-assignment or correction of an individual’s legal sex;

• of children and adolescents with transsexualism (and their parents) to receive personal, medical and legal support for the affirmation of their innate sex so as to be able upon diagnosis to promptly (without court approval) undergo various non-surgical aspects of sex affirmation treatment so as to forestall the development of inappropriate and harmful secondary sexual characteristics and to enable such children to experience their adolescence with physical characteristics appropriate to their affirmed sex;

• to receive medical treatment for the condition funded by the state as for any other critical medical condition;

• of a person of transsexual background (one who has undergone irreversible sex affirmation treatment so as to physically affirm her or his sex) to have that person’s legal sex altered so as to accurately reflect that person's physically affirmed sex and sexual identity without the precondition of having to end an existing marriage and so as to provide for full and unconditionally equal rights in the individual’s affirmed sex;

• of a person with transsexualism who, as a result of age or health, is unable to undergo complete irreversible sex affirmation treatment, to be assessed by an expert panel and, in appropriate circumstances, to be permitted the reassignment of legal sex on a compassionate and/or provisional basis;

• of a person of transsexual background to participate in competitive sport in the person’s affirmed sex; and

• of a person of transsexual background to otherwise have the right to live a full and fulfilling life in the person’s physically affirmed sex on the same terms as others of that sex in respect of such issues as superannuation and other forms of insurance without discrimination.

We're getting there. Sometimes it's one step forward and two back though. Right now, we're going backwards, but this too shall pass, and in the long run, we'll get there.

Legal Impedimenta

Two bits of news today.

In the first, the Australian Passport Office is sending me a formal letter requesting further information before processing my passport application.

I've already given them all the information (and a bit more besides) that their website says is needed. My passport interview went smoothly, with all my claims accepted.

Anyway, I've asked that they draft and send a formal letter, stating exactly the information they request, and quoting the legislative basis for the request.

The relevant legislation is the Australian Passport Act 2005

AUSTRALIAN PASSPORTS ACT 2005 - SECT 8
Minister to be satisfied of person’s citizenship and identity

Before issuing an Australian passport to a person, the Minister must be satisfied:
(a) that the person is an Australian citizen; and
(b) of the identity of the person.

Note: See sections 42 and 43 for details about how the Minister satisfies himself or herself of an Australian passport applicant’s citizenship and identity.
...
AUSTRALIAN PASSPORTS ACT 2005 - SECT 42
Disclosure of personal information for the purposes of this Act

Information that may be disclosed to the Minister
1) For the purposes of performing functions under this Act, the Minister may request:
(a) an applicant for an Australian travel document;
...
to disclose to the Minister, or a delegate of the Minister, personal information about:
(f) an applicant for an Australian travel document, or a person who is connected with an applicant or an application;
...
AUSTRALIAN PASSPORTS ACT 2005 - SECT 43
Minister may determine information required for the purpose of satisfying Minister of person’s citizenship and identity etc.

(1) A Minister’s determination may specify kinds of personal information that may be requested by the Minister for the purposes of Part 2.

(2) This section does not prevent the Minister from requesting under subsection 42(1) information that is not specified in a determination made for the purposes of subsection (1) of this section.

It is clear that the Personal Information may be anything the Minister chooses - but only if it is germane to establishing the applicant's Identity or Citizenship.

And he may request, but the request doesn't have to be complied with. If the minister then decides the information is inadequate, the application will fail. Then it's off to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal where the Australian Passport Office must try to prove that the information they request is necessary to prove identity and/or citizenship.

If they ask for any of my medical records, they can go whistle I will decline their request. I will send additional information to establish my identity if asked, photo ID of my student card, credit cards, bank records, even give them permission to access my Tax file and electoral roll entry.

They already have all my data from my UK passport anyway. I included that with my application.

Now for the second piece of legal news.

The Australian Capital Territory Civil Unions Act 2006 is to be vetoed by Government Fiat.

The Commonwealth is to intervene and directly veto ACT law for the first time since self-government, scrapping the Civil Unions Act which recognises same-sex relationships.

Prime Minister John Howard and Attorney-General Philip Ruddock announced yesterday that they would advise the Governor-General to disallow the territory law, provoking outrage on both sides of ACT politics.
...
The Government would advise Governor-General Michael Jeffrey to use Section 35 of the ACT Self-Government Act to disallow the Civil Unions Act.

Mr Corbell said Section 35 was itself a disallowable instrument, which meant the Howard-Ruddock move could be thwarted, but only by the improbable route of votes of both houses of Federal Parliament.

"The Commonwealth has not given any reasons for this decision," Mr Corbell said. "We are not in any way trespassing on their powers in relation to marriage. This is simply about the conservative social and moral agenda of the Howard Government and it means that thousands of Canberrans will be denied the opportunity to have their same-sex relationship recognised under law."

He rejected any suggestion the ACT had been provocative.

"Mr Ruddock is on the record as saying that it is the states' and territories' role to make laws in relation to same-sex relationships - and that is what the ACT has done ..." he said. "The Government has gone out of its way to respond ... I've written to MrRuddock on a number of occasions yet we still have this heavy-handed conservatism."

Same-sex relationships occurred in hundreds of thousands of Australian households "and should be recognised as a legitimate and reasonable relationship in the same way that hetero relationships are. To that degree, this is homophobic."

I'm married. And in a same-sex relationship. So how does this affect me? Well, first, as I blogged before "in a previous incarnation" I am in favour of same-sex civil unions on strictly humanitarian grounds. Well, a lot has changed since then. I'm rather more tolerant than I was. But I still believe in the main thrust of the original article.

Enough. More than Enough. Let's show some common decency and humanity and make the law non-discriminatory when it comes to marriage. There's plenty more discrimination in other areas, far too much of it in fact. As for Churches - let them follow their own dogma, or conscience, or both. This isn't a religious question, it's a matter of law, justice, and common humanity.

Now the second, and strictly personal reason. I quote from Schedule 1 of the Civil Unions Act, in the list of Acts amended :

Part 1.4 Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1997
...
[1.16] Section 24 (1) (d)
omit

And section 24 of the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1997 reads :

BIRTHS, DEATHS AND MARRIAGES REGISTRATION ACT 1997 - SECT 24
Application to alter register to record change of sex
(1)A person may apply to the registrar-general for alteration of the record of the person's sex in the registration of the person's birth if—
(a) the person is at least 18 years old; and
(b) the person's birth is registered in the ACT; and
(c) the person has undergone sexual reassignment surgery; and
(d) the person is not married.

It's the bit that says that a transsexual woman is still legally male if she's married. To be recognised as of her correct gender, any marriage she's in must be terminated. This was an anomaly in the law, as I pointed out when the Civil Union Act was being drafted.

In another blog entry, I stated :

The only grounds for dissolution of a marriage is "irretrievable breakdown". One partner or the other must formally swear to the Court that the marriage had broken down beyond hope of repair, and evidence must be presented that they had formally separated at least 12 months previously. To then immediately request that they be re-married in a "civil partnership" would be a legal, as well as actual, nonsense. So instead, legally, black is white, 2+2=5, and someone obviously and medically of one gender is legally of the other. This has very real and terrible implications should they be arrested in a case of mistaken identity, or attempt to travel overseas with a passport with obviously false information on, or a host of other matters.
...
Transition is hard enough, spiritually, psychologically, socially and medically, without this legal insanity. My partner and I are by no stretch of the imagination still Husband and Wife, yet we remain together, still just as much in love as we were the day we married, and co-parents of a little son who means more to us than life itself. She's not Lesbian, and neither, to my discomfort, am I now. I really was a "Lesbian trapped in a Man's body", but neither is true any longer.

The solemn vows we took "in sickness and in health" could not reasonably be expected to include fantastically rare and ill-understood medical conditions that cause one partner's body to partly change gender without external intervention. Yet we're staying together anyway, at least, as long as we can. The Law in its Majesty, and its Insanity, is not helping one little bit.

With the Law as it stand now, should we divorce, I could get re-married. But only to another woman, as I'm legally male. The pressure groups attempting to preserve the sanctity of marriage, and prevent same-sex marriage, have by their efforts and legal convolutions achieved exactly the reverse.

Actually, as things stand now, from the case in re Kevin it's a good question as to whether the Family Court would determine whether I could marry a woman, or a man. Nonetheless, Cabinet's High-handed Action (and for once this is not rhetoric, but exactly true) will ensure that an injustice is continued, and pressure on marriages at risk increased. The marriage has to be destroyed to save it, you see. Too bad about the children.

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia

666.0000
Number of the High Precision Beast

0.666
Number of the Millibeast

(-666) ^ (1/2)
Imaginary number of the Beast

6.66 e3
Floating point Beast

$665.95
Retail price of the Beast

$699.25
Price of the Beast plus 5% state sales tax

$769.95
Price of the Beast with all accessories and replacement soul

$656.66
Walmart price of the Beast

$646.66
Next week’s Walmart price of the Beast

666i
BMW of the Beast

668
The neighbour of the Beast

Political Reliability and Medicine

One of the many things that really sickened me about the late and unlamented DDR - East Germany - was the allocation of academic places. Talent, ability, and the propensity to work hard had little to do with it. It was how politically reliable you were, and in particular, who your parents were.

If the bourgoisie - forget it. The child of an academic had no chance of entry, as Intellectuals were by definition suspect. Only those of good proletarian stock, or better yet, children of Party Members, were considered.

I never thought I'd see the same sort of thing happen here.

From The Australian :

Medical schools are giving students coveted university training places based on "personality assessments" that include asking for their views on the Iraq war and gay marriage.

Less academically gifted students are leapfrogging those with better marks by signing up for coaching programs that school them in handling the interview questions -- fuelling critics' claims that the personality tests are skewing the selection process for the nation's future doctors away from the best and brightest.

Some interviewees have been asked to debate the rights and wrongs of providing in-vitro fertilisation services to gay people. Other questions include what applicants' parents do for a living and whether they went to a private school.

Some senior doctors are now accusing universities of attempting to "socially engineer" medical school intakes by giving preference to candidates who reflect the interviewers' views, allegedly often left-wing.
...
"Questions that are being asked, and that should never be asked, are questions such as 'What does your father do?', 'What does your mother do?', 'Where do you live?' and 'What school did you go to?'," Dr Deacon said.

"If you went to a private school, or your father is a doctor, you are simply not going to be selected. The justification is the personal biases of those doing the interviews -- they are trying to engineer the selection of medical undergraduates to further their own desires."

He said he knew of one student whose HSC results put her in the state's top 40. "She was asked these questions," he said. "Because her father was a specialist doctor and went to private school, she didn't get in. It's hard to comprehend."

Dr Deacon said students' views on Iraq or gay marriage had "nothing to do with ability to be a doctor", and the risk was that interviewers would frown on candidates whose views clashed with their own.
...
The medical schools say interviewers are trained to judge an applicant's ability to reason and argue intelligently, not the position they take. But at least one university is scrapping the interview process after finding no evidence that the students selected by panels performed any better during the course.

And experts who assess personalities have cast doubts on the validity of the interviews.

A NSW forensic psychiatrist, Julian Parmegiani, does personality assessments in situations such as parole applications and court-ordered psychiatric evaluations. He writes in the latest issue of NSW Doctor, the magazine of the NSW Australian Medical Association, that the interviews "will not identify altruistic, kind and empathetic doctors" but merely the students best able to divine what interviewers wanted to hear.

"Successful students might be just a tad more psychopathic, manipulative and intent on recouping their investments," Dr Parmegiani writes.

Exactly. I've seen exactly that kind of behaviour amongst a certain class of student here at the ANU. We tend to discourage it.

Meanwhile those with high academic marks who have been denied places on such social-engineering grounds might do well to take up law. Or at least, hire a lawyer, and institute a massive lawsuit.

Caution : Reactionless Drive Ahead

From arXiv.org :

It is well known that a rotating superconductor produces a magnetic field proportional to its angular velocity. The authors conjectured earlier, that in addition to this so-called London moment, also a large gravitomagnetic field should appear to explain an apparent mass increase of Niobium Cooper-pairs. This phenomenon was indeed observed and induced acceleration fields outside the superconductor in the order of about 10^-4 g were found. The field appears to be directly proportional to the applied angular acceleration of the superconductor following our theoretical motivations. If confirmed, a gravitomagnetic field of measurable magnitude was produced for the first time in a laboratory environment. These results may open up a new experimental window on testing general relativity and its consequences using coherent matter.

In other words... spinning superconductors distort space. Fast spinning superconducting toroids (doughnut shapes) produce gravitational fields so things fall through the hole faster.
The faster the spin, the more the force. Spins of toroids going only 6000 RPM, the same speed as a fast-reving car motor, produce forces 1/10 of a milligee. And the effect is highly reproducible, any moderately equipped crogenics lab could do it.

It's possible that small superconducting toroids going very fast might produce enough to be useful in an engineering sense: put energy in, get a gravitational field out (plus waste heat etc).

We live in intresting times.

A Little Known Fact...

As seen at Samizdata , this from the Glasgow Daily record:

Two American robots exploring the surface of Mars are carrying pieces of wreckage from the ruins of the World Trade Centre.

The company who built the drills on the robots' hydraulic arms are based just a few blocks from Ground Zero.

Staff at Honeybee Robotics fled clouds of dust and smoke when the Twin Towers collapsed.

And they decided to pay a "quiet tribute" to the 3000 victims of September 11 by putting debris from the attacks into their design.

Engineers at Honeybee turned two pieces of aluminium from the site into shields to protect the wiring on the drills. Each curved piece is the size of a credit card, and marked with the American flag.

The mayor of New York at the time of the attacks, Rudolph Giuliani, helped Honeybee get hold of the metal they needed for the tribute.

The two Mars rovers, Opportunity and Spirit, landed on the red planet in January 2004. But details of the 9/11 tribute have only just emerged.

The chairman and founder of Honeybee, Stephen Gorevan, said: "It was intended to be a quiet tribute but enough time has passed. We want the families to know."

Greenpeace : The Mask Slips

From the Philadelphia Inquirer comes a report about an anti-Nuclear pamplet that slipped through the Greenpeace editorial process.

"This volatile and dangerous source of energy" is no answer to the country's energy needs, shouted a Greenpeace fact sheet decrying the "threat" posed by the Limerick reactors Bush visited.

But a factoid or two later, the Greenpeace authors were stumped while searching for the ideal menacing metaphor.

We present it here exactly as it was written, capital letters and all: "In the twenty years since the Chernobyl tragedy, the world's worst nuclear accident, there have been nearly [FILL IN ALARMIST AND ARMAGEDDONIST FACTOID HERE]."