Pain Linked to Permanent Brain Loss

Chronic pain may permanently shrink the brain, US researchers believe. The Northwestern University team had previously shown patients with back pain had decreased activity in the same brain region called the thalamus.

A Light Switch for Faraway Light Switches
You don't want to fall asleep at the switch, but if you start to fall asleep away from the switch, now you don't have to haul yourself out of your bed or couch to turn off the light. Just set this invention close at hand and you can lay back and relax: The wireless switch can control any light fixture you choose, and you can set it anywhere in your house. Simply attach the remote component to your light fixture, open the On/Off box and flip the switch – that light on the other end of the room instantly turns on or off! The switch works up to 100 feet away and comes encased in an elegant lucite box with a magnetic lid. Designed by Tobias Wong. Featured at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair.

Unsurprisingly, people were quick to dismiss Shosei Koda as a flaky, clueless tourist who got himself killed. Early descriptions in the international press of him as a "drifter" and "high school dropout" certainly suggest that the media fell back on stereotypes from the start.

I never figured him for a dimwit or a daredevil, because he was clearly doing his best to be calm under an extraordinarily frightening circumstance in the first video. I thought perhaps that he was a 24-year-old who had been caught up in the excitement and freedom of being on the road for the first time in his life, a moth to a flame. But what I found from Japanese-language news sources was a more intriguing portrait than I could have guessed.

Shosei Koda was the second son of a construction worker and a nurse. The family is Christian. His father was injured on the job some years ago, and the family subsisted on the mother's income and disability pension. He was forced to drop out of high school due to financial reasons, but went on to complete his high school equivalency at night school while working day jobs (mostly physical labor) to supplement the family's income.

Koda's dream was to become a prosthetics engineer and design artificial limbs for civilians who had been injured in war zones. He managed to save Y2.5 million over 7 years or so and was planning to move to the U.S. in Fall 2004 to pursue this very specialized course of study. While he spoke passable English, he needed immersion learning; this is why he went to New Zealand for the summer.

What happened next is uncertain, but Koda decided on an impulse to visit Israel. It was not an unusual destination for a Christian who literally wore his devotion on his sleeve—he had a cross tatooed on his arm. From Israel he moved on to Jordan. By all accounts, he was not a risk-taker, which makes his insistence on entering Iraq something of a mystery.

The only clue seems to be his choice of future profession. Those who knew him paint a picture of a serious young man who wanted to heal people, and had a need to keep it a personal mission. Perhaps he felt that whatever the danger, he needed to witness war for himself so that he would remember in his engineering classes why he was there. Perhaps he felt an ambivalence towards moving to a country that was conducting a war he opposed, and wanted to see Iraq before he set foot in the United States. The only person who knew for sure is now dead.

The Israeli stamps in Koda's passport and the cross tatooed on his arm doomed what little chance he had of release. P.M. Koizumi couldn't disavow the young hostage fast enough, and the government's almost relieved reaction to an inexplicably misidentified body earlier in the day probably rid his captors of any idea that their prisoner may be more valuable alive.

The Japanese pathologist who conducted the autopsy noted that the expression on Koda's face was peaceful.

Am I the only one that doesn't get the frenzy over the Peterson case? Of course I understand why the media and the American public chomped on it like it was made of chocolate; what I don't get is how everyone seems to think this is a perfectly acceptable hobby. There are some murder cases that do concern society as a whole because the murder itself is a nexus of social pathologies, or the verdict is a test of the area's social mores.

But the murder of Laci Peterson is a strictly private affair. It's horrific for her family, and no less terrible for the parents and siblings of her husband, who is now her convicted murderer. Yet people are cheering in the streets, serving drinks on the house, and generally acting like morbid, nosy, bloodthirsty freaks. Considering how many people are murdered in this country without so much as a regretful murmur to follow them, it's a fucking disgrace

The author of "Rape of Nanking" is dead of apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Ms. Chang,

I'd been meaning to write to you for several years now, but always put it off because I didn't think it would mean much to you.

But I just found out that you were dead, by your own hands.

This mail will probably not be read by anyone, but I am going to believe what tradition has taught me -- that you will be around for a few more days.

I wanted to say, thank you. But more than that, I wanted to say I was, am, and always will be, sorry. I am Japanese, and I am sorry for what we did in China.

My mother was the one who told us about the Rape of Nanking, and all the other war crimes committed by the Japanese Imperial Army. She is probably not unlike you -- understanding history is a passion and a profound responsibility for her. She taught me well, and through it came another lesson: that truth is not always welcome. Other Japanese people in ignorance and denial of the past, Europeans and Americans bent on seeing Japan as a victim -- over the 30 years of my life so far, I've been in a fight with a lot of people, including a scuffle with right-wing thugs blaring propaganda in central Tokyo.

But you went into the heart of the darkness, and did what so badly needed to be done. Now, there is a definitive record, not just stories handed down from mothers to daughters both Chinese and Japanese.

To sift through all those horrors must have cost you. To avenge the ghosts of tens of millions, and be faced with the same bored obfuscations, the same shameless waiting game. "The Japanese government is waiting for everyone who remembers to die," my mother explained to me when I asked why there was no apology, no compensation, no remorse. I am heartsick at the thought that this may in part be what drove you to despair.

As long as Japan as a country refuses to acknowledge the truth, the war will go on. Hiding the truth has taken a heavy toll on Japan, and I wish I had told you this before today. Thank you, and rest in peace. I hope that for one of us at least, the war is finally over.

Blinded By Science: How 'Balanced' Coverage Lets the Scientific Fringe Hijack Reality

While the case cited in this article deals with abortion, I would argue that the worship of the 'equal-say' rule has had been the most devastating on environmental issues in general and global warming in particular. In fact, most Americans are still under the impression that the jury is still out on global warming and its detrimental impact. Perhaps the jury got fried to death in the lethal heat wave that hit Europe last year (35,000 dead), or drowning in the melting Arctic icecaps.

Farhad Manjoo says Bush won because "Kerry was a poor candidate". So I wrote an angry letter.

I knew there were going to be "Blame Kerry" articles ready for rollout if he lost, but I didn't expect Salon to join in.

John F. Kerry was not a poor candidate. He was an awesome candidate, and had he the chance, he would have been one of the great Presidents.

I started to watch Kerry during the primaries because he stood out for that quality which Mr. Manjoo accuses him of lacking: consistency. You see, in addition to being obsessed with geopolitics in general, I'm an environmentalist. While I don't work in that field and have never been what you can call an activist, this is something I care about and am well up on. There are very few American politicians of any consequence that can be called a friend of the environment, and Senator Kerry has been one for a long time.

That primary had 3 candidates with a very strong following. Newly political Gen-Xers loved Dean because his righteous anger connected with what they felt in their gut. Longtime, active progressives loved Kucinich because he was one of their own. Midwestern and Southern liberals loved John Edwards because his humble origin, eloquence and sincerity typifies everything they hold dear about America. Me, I didn't think any of them were quite ready to be President, especially in these messed-up times.

So with John Kerry's impressive LCV lifetime score in mind, I made a point of finding out about him. It's easy, Mr. Manjoo: you just avoid News Corp. and the clueless echo chamber that is the rest of mainstream press, and stick with the facts. When I did, I found someone who was born into privilege and was taught that it came with responsibilitites. I found someone who was skilled in diplomacy and fierce in his commitment to those under his care, extremely intelligent and exceptionally well-informed about American foreign policy. A son, husband (twice) and father to strong women that did interesting things with their lives. More importantly, I found someone whose political decisions over the decades were unusually consistent once the context of the decision was examined. I found the first candidate that legitimately inspired me.

There were mistakes made in the campaign. Kerry's thoughtfulness too often manifested itself as verbosity. He was reined in when he shouldn't have been (Swift Boatgate comes to mind). His pragmatic approach to gay marriage and his reasons for initially supporting the war in Iraq weren't articulated well.

And, oh, the mainstream media was actively collaborating with the White House, or asleep.

Despite that, Kerry managed to break through. It was sad how surprised everyone was by his debate performance. People suddenly noticed that Kerry seemed more like the President than the sorta-actual President. When he took the stage in front of huge crowds in the last days of the campaign, he never disappointed.

And then it was over.

John Kerry did not fail the progressives and the centrists, the Democratic party, John Edwards, or America. It is clear that the American electorate did not give John Kerry the decisive margin of victory that would have defeated the White House' campaign of smear, fearmongering and vote tampering. Roughly half of this country's voters decided to be ass-backwards and programmed. A shameful percentage didn't care enough to vote. The system of democracy that John Kerry has always believe and invested in despite its flaws failed *him*.

At least 59 million Americans chose to keep Bush and his reign of terror. They rejected the chance to put an extraordinary President in the White House. Even worse, they embraced the lie that an honorable man was a loser and a waffler. Then again, it looks like Bush supporters aren't the only ones that believe the smear.

The fitness of John F. Kerry the candidate was never in question. The fitness of the American people to govern itself was, and the answer seems more and more doubtful.

John Malone's bid to take over News Corp. He and RM are birds of a feather when it comes to political view and nothing will therefore change even if he does succeed. However, it's nice to see Murdoch getting a little knife in the back.

I guess it was probably in the early hours of November 3. I was out on the balcony having a rare cigarette, horrified by the incoming results. I thought about what I hadn't allowed myself to for the past 4 years: what the Bush administration would unleash in its second term, unfettered by any concerns about re-election.

About the Christian fundamentalists that would be appointed to the Supreme Court. About the new wars that will be loosed on the world, answered by a volley of terrorism. About the further banishment of reality an individual conscience from the minds of the electorate. About the renewed fury with which the assault on the environment will be continued, a destruction that we will be forced to watch.

The fires of Isengard will spread, and the woods of Tuckborough and Buckland will burn. And... and all that was once green and good in this world will be gone.

I said to myself that I would be willing to trade 10 years of life for a Kerry victory. I wished it. A decade less to spend with Peter, to be in the world, to do my work. I felt the weight of what I was considering, and still I wished it and offered it in case there was something out there taking deals.

There wasn't, not last night. But I know now the depth of my own commitment. Wherever I am for the next 4 years, I won't forget it. Every attack we manage to beat back, every line we can hold will be its own reward. And when we finally win back the White House, it will be as sweet as the day was dark this Tuesday.

Couldn't sleep for hours, then finally did. Woke up at 9PST to see that Kerry had conceded. Went back to bed and slept fitfully for another couple of hours.

Instead of looking at the news, went straight to TPM and TDK. Meteor Blades is right. Josh Marshall is right.

(Meteor Blades, on Kos) Why were we in this fight in the first place? Because terrible leaders are doing terrible things to our country and calling this wonderful. Because radical reactionaries are trying to impose their imperialist schemes on whoever they wish and calling this just. Because amoral oligarchs are determined to enhance their slice of the economic pie and calling this the natural order. Because flag-wrapped ideologues want to chop up civil liberties and call this security. Because myopians are in charge of America’s future. ... After a decent interval of licking our wounds and pondering what might have been and where we went wrong, we need to spit out our despair and return – united - to battling those who have for the moment outmaneuvered us. Otherwise, we might just as well lie down in the street and let them flatten us with their schemes.

(Josh Marshall) Take time to feel the desolation and disappointment. But I remain confident that time is not on the side of the kind of values and politics that President Bush represents. It took conservatives two decades to build up the institutional muscle they have today. Though I was always nervous about the result, I thought we could win this election. But it was always naive to believe that that sort of institutional heft could be put together in 24 or 36 months.

Even with the horrific irregularities I noted early this morning, it looks like the numbers just don't bode well for a Kerry court challenge. We're talking about 3.8 million more popular votes for Bush, and while it's not big, it's not going to budge from just counting provisional ballots in Ohio. Even with the fraud, a little more than half of the American public chose Bush and Cheney. They chose lies and fear and poisoned whispers in the dark. And they robbed themselves of the kind of President that comes along once in a lifetime.

I was always going to keep fighting, because the world moves too slowly when it comes to moving forward. What I primarily mourn for is the presidency of John F. Kerry. There will be another Democratic candidate in 4 years, but I'm not sure if it will be Kerry.

Signing off with Kos' column for the Guardian: Divide and rule ... for now

Exit poll in battleground states indicated Kerry victory

Several waves of exit poll data about the national, popular vote showed Kerry beating Bush by two to three percentage points. Early polling data showed Kerry beating Bush in Pennsylvania and Ohio. And two of three surveys of people leaving polls in Florida showed him winning there, too. (The third had the candidates tied.)

That bears out Zogby's prediction as well. May I add that after the 2000 fiasco, the exit poll was rebuilt. And it's this rebuilt exit polling was showing a Kerry win. Wake up, people! It's not the poll that's messed up, it's the count!

Electronic Voting Machines Woes Reported

But there were also several dozen voters in six states—particularly Democrats in Florida—who said the wrong candidates appeared on their touch-screen machine's checkout screen, the coalition said.

In many cases, voters said they intended to select John Kerry (news - web sites) but when the computer asked them to verify the choice it showed them instead opting for President Bush (news - web sites), the group said.

An Election Spoiled Rotten

It's not even Election Day yet, and the Kerry-Edwards campaign is already down by a almost a million votes. That's because, in important states like Ohio, Florida and New Mexico, voter names have been systematically removed from the rolls and absentee ballots have been overlooked—overwhelmingly in minority areas, likeRio Arriba County, New Mexico, where Hispanic voters have a 500 percent greater chance of their vote being "spoiled." Investigative journalist Greg Palast reports on the trashing of the election.

This photo was taken at 11am, right after I cast my vote here in the Democratic stronghold of San Mateo County, Northern California. As I sit here staring at the electoral vote map, it seems longer than 12 hours since that moment.

It's not over yet. I wish it didn't have to be this way, but we will probably have to contest Ohio, and god knows where else, in the courts. That won't bring back the voter registrations thrown away by scads all over the country, voters turned away at the polls, votes evaporated by Diebold machines.

Win or lose, the Bush administration is going to keep doing away with democracy.